Vacation Weight, Cold Sweats, Aches and Pains

Vacations are always the death of my fitness level. Earlier this month, it proved itself true yet again after some fun and sun on the North Carolina coast. A good amount of beach time mixed with some really amazing food and drinks and I've fallen off the wagon. I know this because before heading off for vacation I sat at a comfortable 184 and came back to a 'healthy' 190. It's not a terrible number to be sure, but definitely not the number I was hoping to see upon return!

I decided to kill off some of that heft and get back at it, I would dive head first into some pick up at Kettler last Thursday. 'Fortunately' only 3 other Skaters and a Goalie showed and I got all the ice time I could have ever hoped for, possible a few shifts too many (see: All of them!). Playing 2 on 2 with a group of guys that I've seen playing a lot and far better than myself really isn't good for gauging your experience level. I found myself chasing almost immediately. It wound up being an extremely hard skate with a pace I just couldn't keep up with, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything. By the midway point of our ice time, my body was giving me some wonderful cold sweats and having a hard time keeping my skates under me in a few situations with just the lightest contact. I attribute most all of this to the time off leading up to and including my vacation. It was a really great skate with a good group of guys willing to put up with a skater nowhere near par for the sign up sheet. I was rewarded at one point with a goal for playing the front of the net. Picking up a rebound and throwing it home, I quickly remarked an adage I've heard many times this past season 'Go to the net and good things happen'.

It's always a fun couple of days after a hard skate. My body finds things that have never ached before and cramps them up for a few minutes or an hour and then moves on to a completely unrelated area of my body to do more of the same. It's an interesting battle but one I hope will go away in time.

Here's to another good day on the ice tomorrow, hope to see you there!

Another Open Hockey

With another game of open hockey under my belt, I'm dead tired and rather sore. My right knee being the major sore point, will have to do some additional strengthening of my legs and joints as I go forward I think.

This was only my second Open Hockey, with only two Stick and Shoot sessions as well as a single day of Canal shinny, I'm looking forward to the day I can't count my hockey experiences in single digits! There is only so much time to get to the rink while classes are going unfortunately and some of that time I end up being stuck working on projects! In fact I've delayed tonight's session at least two weeks or so thanks to sleeping in or late nights working on a project or two. With Spring Break coming up after this week, I will likely spend most of that time on the ice and getting down to Kettler to watch the boys practice.

The game went well enough for how few participants there were. We started off red and white against green and black, with 8 and 9 players respectively. The game kicked off going 4 on 4, which made complete sense, since we just didn't have the player volume to withstand full speed 5 on 5. Another guy or two showed up late and someone though to make it a 5 on 5, which would have been fine, had no one left early. But not everyone can stay the entire night, and by the half way point, we were down to 6 or 7 a side and still playing an ugly 5 on 5 thanks to a lack of any real bench time. I found myself getting one good hard skate to either end before having to relegate myself to playing as a body in the way with a stick out to the passing lanes.

The night went well enough with the over abundance of ice time though. I find my passing is more on point than before, with only a few later passes being too hard or too far off the mark. Sticking to the right side D for most of the game, I occasionally jumped into a play when possible, only to have the other 'D man' to not fall back on the play when the puck got away! Zone play and passing to the open man isn't exactly a strong point when playing open hockey though, so it's always to be expected. It's not like we were keeping score or anything!

I really can't understand some players thinking when it comes to open hockey though. They take such offense to some peoples lack of ability and are so vocal on the bench that I just couldn't keep my mouth shut any longer. When someone can't play well, it's likely because they're new! When they can't keep their head up while playing the puck, it's because they're new! Stop complaining, you never know who else is new on the bench that you're starting to piss off with your constant complaining! Fortunately, after a quick, maybe slightly aggressive, talk with the worst of the complainers, the pissing and moaning about our teammates stopped and the on ice play by those players became more team oriented. I call that a win.

The night ended well with everyone being dead tired and smiles all around as the buzzer sounded for us to head off. A quick fist bump to my team and a few for the opposing players still around and off to the locker room I went.

The burn out of ice time removed, it was a good hard practice for me. A lot of hard skating, with a few good stick in the lane defensive plays, and just a hand full of good passes up the boards and middle. I think my zone play suffered as I tried to get forward a bit more often to try and join the rush, but many times I found myself having to move to forward as the D positions were filled when I got on ice. I don't think myself an effective forward because of a lack of skating ability and puck handling in zone with pressure.

Passing: + A few good passes and a bit more heads up play.
Shooting: = I don't think I took a single shot the entire time I was on the ice
Skating: + Catching up to more experienced players on the break away
Puck Handling: = A few too many turnovers from opposing player takeaways
Zone: = Next skate will focus more on this instead of getting into the play
Cardio: + Hour or more on the ice with a bit of speed left on a few plays at the end

First Pick Up Hockey

Saturday night, my friend PJ and I hit Rockville's pick up game. He'd driven down from Philly to come hang out and play hockey for the day, only to drive back the very next morning! The last time we'd played together was middle school out on the street in front of his house! With the last of my gear, I was finally able to take the ice fully prepared to play, and ready for any wipe outs or hard play along the boards. PJ's gear, piecemeal as it was, came from his high school days when he last played Ice Hockey, some of which his uncle gave him that was used in the 70's! But a little thing like old gear and a few missing pieces wasn't about to keep him off the ice.

I had just figured out taping my stick a few days prior after a couple of new ones I'd ordered showed up. My gear is all brand new and as I sat in the locker room getting ready, I felt a bit out of place as most of the others there had well worn and used gear from who knows how many games prior to that night. I couldn't help but feel a bit like a dork, though the feeling didn't stick around too long as I noticed another player with a pair of brand new hockey pants that made me feel a bit more at ease about the issue.

Getting ready I began to feel a bit more out of place as this was only the second time I'd ever put gear on, with no real method to the madness. Taking cues from those around me, I got myself together and was all but too eager to get out on the ice. I snagged my newest stick, a CCM wooden Ovechkin curve, and left the locker room.

The ice was nice and fresh from the resurfacer, and I couldn't help but feel all of my gear for the first time as I settled in. It's a different feeling entirely to skate in gear and without. I knew the difference would be manageable though, as none of my movement was very restricted too terribly. Just skating around though, I felt myself becoming more and more comfortable in my new skin. Right up to the point PJ passed me a puck to put on net and I nearly lost my footing that is.

People filed into the rink little by little and a few pucks were tossed around from net to net. Eventually a few goalies found their way onto the ice as well and took up position for some quick practice taking a few shots. All of my attempts were stopped easily as expected, much of that coming from my lack of puck handling ability. I find my biggest issue being that I skate in a bit too far and hard for my current shot capability. A bit of work on that in a few stick and shoots should help considerably though, so a few of those will likely be in my near future.

A few of the regulars made their way to center ice and talked out the organization for the game. The decision being made to split the teams by jersey color. White and Grey on one end, everything else on the other. PJ was in white and I was in red, so we made our way to the respective sides and settled in to face off against each other.

The game ended up being mostly one sided. With many of the more skilled players being in white and grey jerseys, with a scattered few guys on our end with some serious puck skill. I relegated myself to defense and did my best to keep up with the plays. Almost immediately I felt my skating was well outclassed from nearly every player pushing our net. Deciding to stay back further into the neutral zone than the blue line when we had possession, only coming forward when the pressure was held in zone. I kept my head more around positioning than actual puck play, and to the end of the game, I felt I had a bit more of an understanding of where I needed to be and when I needed to fall back. One blocked shot and a few broken up plays under my belt and I felt a bit more confident. On one of my last shifts I was even able to break up a breakaway attempt and clear the puck from one of the younger more skilled guys, who was obviously frustrated by my play on his way to the bench.

The buzzer sounded, the game ended, and I made my dehydrated way off the ice to get changed and head out. A great time under my belt, and a great experience to play a game with a close friend after so many years.

Talking with PJ, who is far more experienced in the game, I asked him how I did, about my positioning, talked about a few plays I thought I did well, and got a bit of encouragement going forward. He mentioned that other than one play I got caught deep at the end, my positioning for defense was near spot on, a plus that I was hoping I'd done well with. Passing is still an issue, but a quick tip from PJ on how to receive a pass should help in my next practice session. All in all with all of my shortcomings on the ice, it was a positive night for progress.

Oh and that left stop? It's still not working...need to work on that...

Firefighters Eat Gooooooood.

That's me. This was last January, when we were still living in Texas. I was a good 2 years out of the Army at this point and working for the Killeen Fire Department. It was a great job, some really great people, and some really great food. The pace wasn't terrible, with only a few fires every month and while the EMS was a bit more busy, you didn't expect to do much in the way of heavy lifting during your shifts on the ambulance. Did I mention the food was amazing?

In the end it was the food that got me hovering over 200 pounds of not muscle. While on shift, if you could, you rested as often as possible and for as long as possible. You never knew when the next big call was coming in and didn't want to be burnt out by the time you got to the scene. The thinking obviously flawed, but man, it sure was nice to sleep while you're at work!

Quickly, I fell into a work out slump. With the longest I was able to keep my active streaks going being two weeks at a time, followed by another month or two activity drought. Soon enough I was feeling gross and fat and tired.

Throw a good helping of school in there, I found myself clamoring for some sort of workable routine. Unfortunately it never manifested.

The first time I hit 205 I could hardly believe it. I was always hovering at 175-180 when I was in the Army. Working out every single morning will help keep you in shape, even if the workouts aren't exactly amazing. But back then I had all the energy in the world, could go for as long as I needed to push myself and hardly felt any of it an hour later. That day I looked down to see the scale tipping into unexplored territory, I didn't have any of that.

So what changed my outlook? Hockey!

During the post season last year, my friend PJ, who I'd played so many games of street hockey with as a kid, told me about this team I should check out, the Capitals, particularly a player named Ovechkin. I had been out of the sport for a long time at this point, with no appreciable knowledge of the NHL. I decided to check out the playoff games and suckered my wife into watching with me. We were instantly hooked. The team was dynamic, fast, hard hitting, and the goals were oh so pretty. We even took time out of our vacation to South Padre to watch the last of the Caps playoff run. While Game 7 was a bust, it was the start of a reawakened love for a game that has always been in my heart.

When we moved to Maryland, Hockey was high on the priority list. October 11th the Caps played the Islanders and I got my first taste of a live NHL game. We went home and set about finding the next game we could make that night.

I soon decided to take up the sport again after those first few games. I felt like such a kid the first time I stepped out on the ice this winter. It's an amazing feeling to awaken that preteen joy in yourself after so many years. A good amount of public skates later I was fitted for skates and my wife was keen to pick them up as a Christmas gift.

I've watched what I eat a little, hit the gym a lot, and put the skates to good use when I could. More of the later two keeps me happier than the first of course! With all of that, after only about 3 months, and I'm walking around at 191. And it feels good.

Current Progress

So I can sort of hockey stop to my right side! It's mostly just with one foot though, as when I put my left foot down I tend to lose my footing for some reason. Need to work on that a bit. I've also learned to snow plow with my left foot, which before last skate session, I wasn't able to do anything but move with. I've taken my first few tentative steps to learning to hockey stop to my left side now too. Not made much progress, but I've started to feel it out.

I'd really like to get away from the public skates and start doing the Open Hockey ice/stick time at Rockville Ice Arena, but I need to pick up a helmet and a set of gloves. Another stick would be good too as the one I have is a tad short for skates. The ability to run skate drills without worrying about running into a little kid would be a nice perk. Plus it would seem the open hockey is actually pretty popular. There was a rather large group there the other day for a weekday. Passing and scrimmages would be a constant possibility should I make it out there for them. More gear would ensure less injuries though!

My cardio is up since I started running and skating. Where before I would run at 5.0 on the tread and be hurting, but able to finish the run, I now can run 6.5 without much effort. I'm also down about a pound, but will likely start replacing that fat with heavier muscle as I get more and more into the weight training side. For now though, it's lots of cardio, a bit of weights, and a good amount of core workout.

With my next ice time, I plan to work on more stops, backward skating, and the transitions between all of them. I tried a skating drill I watched Matt Bradley work on one day when he was on the injured list and it's going to be a while before I can pull that off with an serious maneuverablity. Some more padding would make me a lot more inclined to try these transitions a bit more ernestly though!

The road ahead is going to be tiring, especially with school started now. I do however get a lot of energy just from thinking about the sport and can't wait to get on the ice again.