Got my yoga session in just under the wire. I think I finished it at 11:30 last night. Thought about skipping it because we spent so much of the day getting ready for the stuff from Mr's NY apartment to be moved back home. Which is supposed to happen today, but hell if I know where the movers are... Howzabout a call, boys?
Supposed to do upper body and pilates today. That may come in the form of hauling boxes and whatnot. I doubt I'll have time to skate tomorrow, so that may wait.
2.5 miles walk/run intervals: Check
Tired dog: Check
Man, this is working well to have a schedule and just stick with it. Of course, it hasn't even been a week, but hey, little victories. Glad tomorrow is a yoga day. My knees will appreciate that.
I'm hungry.
I had a really nice birthday, chock full of love and hockey.
Started the day with a nice long nap after waking up at 5:30 with Mr. Conduct, who woke me up in time to go skating at the blissfully deserted midday public skate. I skated for an hour and a half and worked on crossovers a lot.
Then we went to dinner at Texadelphia before the game, which was tasty. And then to the game where the Aeros lost, as expected. It was good to have closure by losing at home though. Got to give them a few rounds of applause for their effort this season. They've run hot and cold but they've worked hard and I think we all know and appreciate that. I don't feel badly about the season at all and I'm really looking forward to next year.
Coach Stalin and Dan, our account rep, conspired to get "Happy Birthday Ms. Conduct" on the birthday announcements, which was embarrassing but very cool and appreciated.
And then we got to skate on the ice one last time before it's melted off for the year. I've never done that before, so it was pretty awesome to see the rink from the players perspective. Man, I wish we could fill the place up for the guys more regularly. It must really pump them up to skate out into the space and see lots of people cheering them on. And equally bummerific to skate out and see friends and family.
Anyway, it was a fun evening and I felt the birthday love and I wore myself out on my skates and it was all good.
My birthday present came TODAY... damn the luck. If only I'd ordered it back when Mr. C said I could, I'd have had it for at least the Thursday and Friday games. Oh well.
Time for Detroit to take it to the Avs again. Go Wings!
Lower body strength training: Check
No hockey on TV: Check, which was weird and awful, at first. But then I found my groove with some Mythbusters, Top Chef, and a really fascinating show about the difficulties around building a bridge across the Bering Strait.
Today is my off day, since I'm skating twice tomorrow and we have game 4 of the Aeros/IceHogs series tonight. Still a ton to do, though I've gotten through most of it, including work, this morning.
Tomorrow I'm taking off work and going skating in the middle of the day, and then they're doing a skate after the game. Though I think it's pretty damn cheesy to charge $7 a person for it.
Upper body strengthening: Check
Pilates: Check (though I bailed early as I was feeling sick)
Aeros fail to show up: Check
Brusty was amazing. Clutterbuck was fantastic. The rest of them looked like they'd never met each other before. Gotta do better or we're out of this thing.
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.
Sometimes the skating gods hold you aloft, steady you, allow you to suddenly do the thing you've been tearing your hair out over for weeks, and give you beautiful ice....
And then some days, they dump 50 teenagers on your tiny Galleria rink, screeching and falling everywhere. They give you The Worst Ice EVER. Melting and scraped to pieces, even after the "Zamboni" has gone over it. And then, after you've spent an unproductive hour and a half skating in these miserable conditions, they knock you on your ass while practicing stops.
I'm pretty sure my blood pressure was off the charts by the time I got home from this skate last night. I basically told Coach Stalin as soon as we hit the ice that this wasn't a lesson skate. It was a "survival" skate. Don't bother bossing me around tonight.
I will say, it's a lot easier to stop on that soft ice, which is why I fell... I'd been practicing on the soft (melting, slushy) ice at the end of the rink and then went to the center because all the figure skaters had left, but the ice was harder there and I just bit it. Not nearly as hard as last time, thankfully. Coach skated over and said, "You worked hard enough today." :)
But as I said, I worked on stopping a bit, skated most of the time working on keeping my knees bent and using good stride form. The rest of my energy was spent dodging falling teenagers and giving them all as much stinkeye as I could muster.
Though at one point, a group of guys was skating past me toward Coach and they were crowding her in a way that sent up a red flag in my head, and I instantly knew what it felt like when teammates stand up for each other. My only thought was, "If you f'ing touch her, you're all going down." Hah! Like I would have really done anything but that was the very visceral reaction I had to seeing that. Of course, I was seriously worked up at these youngsters anyway, so it wasn't a far reach to want to beat the snot out of them.
I'm resting up today, because tomorrow I'm waterproofing the deck and that's going to be backbreaking. Though if I feel so inclined, I might do a little yoga so I can make it through the Aeros first playoff game tonight. Pondering whether to just listen on the radio or invest the $6 in watching it on B2. Hopefully I can get a quality report from other subscribers before I go in for it. It's bad about 80% of the time, it seems.
Wild are down 2-3 in their playoff series. It sucks but Theodore is just f'ing lights out right now. We just couldn't get the puck past him. Backstrom is average as usual, particularly considering our depleted defensive corps. However, Reitz did a good solid job for his first game in over a month AND his first NHL game this season. Pouliot needs to gain 10-15 lbs so he isn't shoved off the puck so easily. Strong on the puck, Pouly! Strong on the puck!
Should probably try and get a little more creative with those titles.
Should probably also try and be a bit more timely. I started this post at 10 this morning but didn't have time to finish. It's now 12:30 a.m. and I'm having to start over.
Aeros won in the SO this evening. Terrific game and I feel good going into the playoffs against Rockford. Ice Hogs. What a terrible name for a team.
Anyway, Saturday's skate was good. Had a lesson in Trusting Your Edges aka crossovers. :) Also worked on all the other stuff we've been doing. Had to go back to basics a bit, which sucked but was good. I was pooped by the end.
Pooped now, too. Should go to bed. But until I'm thisclose to passing out, I'll just lay around and think about hockey.
One last thing. Coach Stalin's hockey team played at the Toyota Center before the game today and I found myself really envious of the experience. Not just playing on the TC ice but the whole thing. The team thing, the goalie thing, all of it. I need stuff like that to remind me what I'm aiming for. Which reminds me, I need to post the pictures I took so the teams can see them. The goalies in particular should be pleased since, obviously, I was more interested in photographing goalies than skaters. :)
ETA: The reason I watch Rangers games.
Rough night in the Conduct household... Aeros lost to Chucko and the Flamers AGAIN (what the hell is it with that team???), Wild lost to those Colorado hosers in an OT heartbreaker (and yet ANOTHER player is injured... at least it wasn't a defenseman), and Brodeur made several brilliant saves and let in one softy that was so f'ing soft, it negated all the brilliant saves.
I was okay with the Rangers winning though, especially since Avery got me some quality fantasy league points. Here's my stats for my team last night:
Sean Avery | 1 G, 1 A, 3 Shots | 5.5
Brian Rolston | 1 A, 5 Shots | 3.5
Jarome Iginla | 2 A, 4 Shots | 4
Marian Gaborik | 1 Shot | 0.5
Brent Burns | 2 Shots | 1
Total: 14.5
The rest of my players play tonight:
Brendan Morrow, Teemu Selanne, Nicklas Lidstrom, Zdeno Chara, and Christobal Huet.
I was shocked, when I looked at my stats, to see how few shots Gabby got. WTF? The Avs totally neutralized him. Very frustrating. Someone needs a beating. :)
Anyway, before all that drama, I did do something good for myself and popped in my yoga DVD. I really didn't know if I was making any progress in my flexibility but on one move, I was able to straighten my leg out where I never had been able to before. But there was some SERIOUS crunching in my lower back, so either my pelvis is out again or it's more in. I'll have no idea until I hit the ice on Saturday. Shoulders are definitely a bit sore today though. And my groin is so tight. Need to work on that.
Habs play tonight, which is Mr. Conduct's team of choice. It will be nice to watch some games where I have a favorite but not much emotional investment. I was flopping around on the floor like a fish last night watching the Wild. Tres stressful!
Avs fans should be breathing a little easier and maybe feeling not quite so much the underdog after hearing the news that one of our veteran defensemen is down for a the series after having his appendix sliced out Monday evening. This on top of K. Foster going down with a broken femur. *sigh* Tough times on the Wild blueline.
Anyway, game one is tomorrow night in Minny. I'm a bit on edge about it.
Aeros play tomorrow, too. Chucko's team. Hosers. Would be nice to get those two points before we head into the final 3 games with Milwaukee.
Bigger than all that, though, is the decision I have to make:
Rangers or Devils.
Of course, Coach Stalin is a huge Rangers fan, so I've watched them more than any other eastern team. My dirty little secret is that I really kinda like Sean Avery. (See. Told you it was dirty.) I just kinda love to hate him and hate to love him. I love when he riles people up and I love when they get their revenge.
Also, Coach is trying to persuade me to her side by alerting me to the pretty boys on the team who might inspire some puck bunny-esque loyalty.
Dan Girardi? Not bad. Not bad at all.
Even better is that Avery and Brodeur have a hot little rivalry. Wouldn't a goalie fight be grand?Got her done. Worked on stopping quite a bit more than anything else. Backwards just wasn't happening for me today. Had stuff on my mind a bit and just wasn't all there. Did a good bit of power striding.
What was fun to watch was another girl learning the same stuff Coach Stalin has been teaching me. Obviously a student of Andrea's who was teaching her. She was learning swizzles and I wanted to stop and say, "I know it really sucks right now, but eventually swizzles will be the thing you LIKE to do because it's easier than everything else!"
There was a fella there in goalie skates so we chatted for a bit. He's probably in his 40s and is picking hockey back up, even though he started skating when he was 4. He was doing stuff in goalie skates that I didn't know could be done in goalie skates. You rarely see someone skating in them without the full set of pads on.
Anyway, looking forward to Coach coming home from vacation. As much as I enjoy the hell out of skating, it's tough to kill off the hour or hour and a half that seems to fly by when we're skating together. It helps to get direction and feedback as I'm going.
Mentally, I know how to stop, but somehow, my body just won't do it. I think I need to work on my dumb leg off-ice. I can barely make snow with it. It would be good to work on both sides. At the very least, it will make stopping on the smart leg seem easier.
Could totally go for a nap.
The dog barking on the balcony woke me up at 1:30 and I haven't been able to get back to sleep yet. *yawn* And of course, when I wake up in the night and hockey enters my thoughts, especially during a critical stretch such as the one the Aeros are on, there's no hope of sleeping for a while. Maybe I'll sleep better when the season is over. :) I can't imagine what it's like for the coaches and players who actually DO the work. All I do is sit around and daydream about it.
Doesn't help that I didn't get a workout in yesterday. My back was hurting so badly from the yoga on Thursday. Really just soreness but teetering on the brink between bad sore and good sore. Very uncomfortable. So I gave myself a break.
I was considering going to spinning this (Saturday) morning, but I've got things to do around the house that I'd rather focus on and since I only skated once this week, I'd like to hit a real rink. As usual, Sugarland still has the March calendar up, but I think I'll go to Willowbrook anyway. Haven't been there in a while. Maybe. I dunno. I definitely prefer the ice at SLICE. Might call and check on their hours. Probably should consider their frequent skater card since that seems to be our preferred weekend ice lately.
I've also declared that I'm taking my birthday off and I'm going skating. April 25th if anyone needs to buy a gift. I really want this. It looks cheesy but the goalie board folks swear by it, and apparently they even offer a booklet of goalie-specific stretches. Nice!
Feeling sleepy again. Gonna give it a shot.
Well, I finally worked up the nerve to take a run at my intermediate level yoga video. I actually didn't do as badly as I expected, but ultimately I was disappointed with the video itself. Even though this is labeled as having a focus on flexibility, I felt like there was considerably less focus on stretching out the backs of the legs (which is where I'm SO tight) than there is in my beginner video.
It's more well rounded, but I don't feel nicely stretched out like I do after my beginner video.
I am awfully relaxed and sleepy now, though.
*zzzzzzzzzzzzzz*
I think this calls for caffeine.
Sooo, my lunchtime skate was scheduled for Tuesday and I bailed due to obligations at work and home that would have kept me from enjoying and focusing on the session. BUT, I moved it forward to today and I went and I did it. Kinda proud of myself for getting out the door. That is ALWAYS the hardest part.
Anyway, it was a very good skate, in spite of the rink having about 30 teenagers clinging like grim death to the railing the whole time. Or if not doing that, they were skating in groups of two or three holding hands. Because nothing is funner than falling and bringing all your friends down with you. Wee!
But they were well behaved and/or terrified so it wasn't to bad. Nothing like having little kids out there or kids of any age who skate well, because then they're usually rude and zipping around unpredictably. If there anything I'd ask at a public skate, it's to be as predictable as possible if you're in a crowd. But I don't ask. I just skate.
I only skated for 30 minutes, but was working on something specific at all times. It was a hodge podge of swizzles (full, single, and dual), stopping (not as much as I would have liked), backwards swizzles (getting better but still threatening to make me fall on my ass if I don't watch my balance carefully), balance work (skating on a single blade for as long as I can), and a pretty good bit of just power striding, trying to really focus on keeping my knees bent and get a good push off both skates in the stride. I really worked up a sweat doing a few fast laps of those. Man, that's fun stuff.
Anyway, it's a session I feel pretty good about. Focused and energetic and a great workout and confidence-building.
Coach Stalin is on vacation through the end of the week, so I need to figure out my agenda in lieu of a lesson on Saturday. I might skate at lunch again on Friday and then go to spinning on Saturday morning. Need to fit some yoga into my Thursday. I'm overdue for stretching some kinks out, though I wonder how downward dog is gonna feel with my wrist still feeling ouchy from my fall two Saturdays ago. We'll see.
Aeros game in 1 hour. Still don't know if Brusty is still suspended. WTH is the league's problem taking 4 days to watch a simple video clip (that I've personally watched several times at this point) and decide 1 game was sufficient? Grr.
UPDATE: Damn. That must have been a really good workout. I am SORE!
Aeros win! Woohoo! Go boys! Shut out for Brusty!
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