Getting back

I haven't posted much but I've been watching lots of hockey. I have been slacking big time on the workout front, but that's about to change.

Pro hockey

My Wild got knocked out of it by the Avs. We have one less loaf of bread in the house because I took it all out on Mrs. Baird. The boys played hard all playoffs, but we were just out played, out experienced. I respect what the Avs did, but I still hate Floppa and likely will not root for them in Round 2. Many questions on the Wild side of things, so it's going to be a very interesting off-season.

I'm particularly interested in the decisions they're going to make around goaltending. Backstrom is expensive and average. Harding seems to be the "future of the franchise" even though he's frighteningly inconsistent from my perspective. And then we have two stellar AHL goalies in Houston who both deserve an opportunity to move up in the world after their amazing play this year, yet I don't want to lose either of them from this organization. I would lose some serious sleep over this if I was GM.

The Aeros are playing game 3 of the first round of playoffs tonight. Right now the series is split and they're home for 3 games. I don't expect them to win it out here at home. We're too bi-polar to pull that off. One of these nights (probably tonight) will be bad. However, it's nice to have Reitzy back from Minny and we'll see how it goes with Pouliot. All these guys are playing team hockey and if he's not bringing that to the table, I'd rather he just go sit in the press box. But I'm excited about the game. Gotta savor these last few home hockey games... never know when it will all be over.

Amateur hockey

So, I've been basically doing nothing towards my goaltending ambitions other than that terrible skate on Thursday. And it's been eating away at me, so I sat down last night with a spreadsheet and put down all the workouts I'd like to be fitting into a week and made a schedule for myself. That worked well when I was marathon training because it wasn't this, "Oh, what do I want to do today?" thing I've been doing. Plus, it takes care of the overwhelming feeling that there's SO MUCH I could be doing to train and how the hell can I fit it all in? I still wish I could work out twice a day, but that's really not a realistic expectation of myself for the long haul.

So, here's the plan, though the days can shift around, since getting out to skate can sometimes vary:

SUNDAY
Interval training: Running and walking, followed up by a plyometrics session

MONDAY
Yoga

TUESDAY
Upper body strength training & Pilates

WEDNESDAY
Skating and Stretch-a-Flex*

THURSDAY
Lower body strength training

FRIDAY
Rest

SATURDAY
Skating or spinning and Stretch-a-Flex*

*Stretch-a-Flex is this device that helps you increase your flexibility using this long band and your body weight. Comes with a DVD, as well as some goalie-specific stretches.

So, that's the plan. Of course, I'm screwing it up immediately by skating on Friday this week. I'm taking the day off for my birthday and going to the mid-day public skate at Willowbrook. Yay! Very much looking forward to that. I need to see about getting my pelvis adjusted again though. I'm back to being shaky on the ice for the first half hour. I need my balance back. It makes such a HUGE difference, it's unbelieveable.