The first tournament of the year was this past weekend. Much fun was had by all. It’s always nice to play with good players who can coach/instruct as was the case. Now the challenge is to make it last longer than one weekend.
A couple things I’m hoping to take away:
- Continue to learn and understand the rules and when to call what – I think I only misquoted 2 rules this weekend.
- Proper foot and hand position when marking – This was something I feel much improved in. I had good players to watch mark properly, and was able to mark good players.
Can’t wait for Tuesday/Wednesday league!
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We won our first game last night. It felt good to play up to our potential. Before the game I spent some time thinking about positions each player will be playing – who are the handles, who will be playing which position in a zone defence. It’s strange that when I’m not captain I have no problem bossing people around and calling the play before the pull but when everyone is staring at me I suddenly am not so sure. It’s great having some experience on the team to help out.
When I started playing seriously a couple years ago I remember calling fouls VERY rarely and when I did I seemed to always be talked out of it by a more experienced player. Since then, I’ve made an effort over the last 6 months to read through and understand the rules and have subscribed to the UPA rules discussion newsgroup as part of doing this. It seems like in a non-competitive league calling fouls is sometimes considered bad spirit, but I’d much rather use this time to learn how and when to call fouls. When it’s relevant, I tell my players to call fouls if they’re ever in doubt and I prefer when they hold their ground. If it’s really not a foul then the other team can just contest and discuss. I took my own advice yesterday, and after my teammate was fouled (uncontested) while attempting a catch I declared it a goal. Another (more experienced) teammate questioned my rules knowledge but left it alone when I told him I was 100% sure that I’m right.
I was not right. In fact, I’d even asked the newsgroup about this exact question back in August.
Sigh. Forgiveness has been requested by my team and the other team’s captain, and we won the game 15-10 so I don’t think it was a make-or-break decision… but I still feel bad about it. Hopefully next time around I’ll make the right call. In the meantime I’ll still be calling fouls as I experience them and sticking to my arguments unless they show me in the rules that I’m wrong.
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A new experience for me lately has been captaining the league’s extras team. It’s been a pleasant experience which has been made so largely due to the other experienced players on the team, as well as all the relatively new players giving such a great effort (it’s always nice to be asked to practice!).
This week, our team was playing one which had plenty of subs (maybe two full lines) whereas we are all doubling frequently. As second half came around we were not as fresh as the other team, and the question arose:
“Should we just stay behind the person we’re marking to keep them from going long?”
This is not a new question. I’ve asked it myself. While some may disagree, my answer is:
“No. Play harder.”
Am I a big meanie? Maybe. Unrealistic? Perhaps. I see the pro-surrender-the-short-cut argument; “hopefully they’ll drop it”, “it’s better then them scoring on a single throw”, “the cutter is a better player than me”. Here’s the big meanie in me: all those are excuses. Granted, sometimes the cutter really is a lot better, but I’d much rather hear from my teammates: “put me on that person again, I’m going to beat them this time”, or “how can I cover them better so they don’t get away from me as easily”. The big argument I have against surrendering the short pass especially holds true for new players: it’s not teaching them properly.
Time to head to the gym. I’d better keep up with whoever I’m marking after going on like that.
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exercise
Happy to report that I played ultimate last night and went for a 6.5km run this afternoon and had no pain. My time for the run was 33minutes. Pretty good. Much closer to my goal of having a sub 5min/km pace the next time I run a half marathon.
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With the race over, it’s now time to turn to ultimate, and turn I have – as in turned my ankle. Last night’s game was fun and my team is full of great people and I think we’ll do really well. Unfortunately I’m now out for at least this week with a sprain.
I’m very blessed to be able to say that next to a sore back for a couple days (from a squash game with Michael in 2000) it’s the most serious sports injury I’ve ever had, and it’s already feeling a lot better. Last night my ankle was a big puffy tennis ball, and my new teammate (long-time rugby player) mentioned casually that I should be “RICE”ing my ankle. My puzzled look prompted an explanation:
- R: Rest
- I: Ice
- C: Compress
- E: Elevate
I’m sure this is old-hat to most but to the new-to-injury-me it was good advice. Today, my ankle is only a puffy golf ball, and I’m now able to walk on it. I’m mostly confident I’ll be back on the field next week.
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Distance: 21.1km
Time: 1:49:43
Huzzah. 95rd overall, 11th in my age category. I’m very happy about this. It’s been a great experience and I’m glad it’s over.
Michael said a lot of what I was feeling in his post. I especially agree about #17 starting to feel terrible and very especially agree that the wind/hills were bad through 18-20 and super very especially agree that the jog in the last 2 km was almost a deal breaker.
Thanks for reading. Like Michael says, there will be more to follow on this blog (it just may not be 100% running based).
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The big day is finally (almost) here. Michael and I are sitting around listening to the Jays and waiting for bed. We’ve eating our spaghetti, and drank lots of water… visions of sugar-plums dance in our heads.
I’m confident I’ll finish, but I have no idea how long it will take. I’ve noticed that if I run at a pace for a while it’s hard to speed up. I’d like to finish in under 2 hours.
Michael says it’s time for me to stop blogging because he has important things to share with the blogosphere.
Good night.
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exercise
Distance: 5km
Breakfast’s call was mighty, so I took it easy this morning and only did a 5k. Breakfast ended up being as mighty as its call.
One more long run this weeekend and then I cruise to race-day.
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exercise
Distance: 10.3922 km
Not much to say, except that I’ve now run over 400 km since November. Wahoo.
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exercise
Distance: 10.7933 km
Time: 56 minutes
I really didn’t want to finish this morning. This was run #3 in 6 days which is a bit much compared to the couple of weeks prior. That combined with a bit of dehydration from not drinking as much water in proportion to the amount of turkey I’ve been eating made for a bit of stiffness.
I’ll put in a couple more this week and then an 18-20km run this weekend. Next week I’ll be taking it easy with a couple of 6km’s leading up to the big day on Sunday.
I stopped by the shoe store and picked up a couple gels and gabbed with the clerk about when to replace shoes. I thought my shoes would be ok for like 200000k (my car is doing fine at that milage). Apparently more like 400-800 is normal depending on “whether or not I run like an elephant”. Yikes. I just added up the total of all my runs and I’ve gone 390.217 km. Hopefully they last a bit longer!
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