because i’ve “tiny” calves and fairly big quads. I look so unbalanced…
possibly may help with initial take off a fraction too…
went training with club side on tuesday close to work. again didnt do much, just loads of running and no much good stuff to report. i showed them how to hurl though. Its amazing that the skills id take for granted like rising, hookin etc are difficult for guys up here. id no idea. also it turns out they’re not as fit as i thought. they’d definitely be fitter than my home club but not by too much. i reckon im as well prepared as whats there.
tonight will be a good sign. they’re doing a fitness test and im allowed tag along. i dont exactly know whats involved but it should be interesting.
btw - moved house again. bit of a nightmare at this stage. bills and lost deposits building up. throwing money away recently…
moved into a lovely new house and its much cheaper too…
Thurs 11 May 2006
Did fitness test last night with local side
started off with 2k run or probably a bit more.
I did fairly bad on this. 8mins something. dont care though. it has no relation to sport whatsoever. plus i hadnt even warmed up
then did pushups. 75 beat their alltime record of 71!
then 6x50m sprints on grass with a starter calling it. i ran against a slow guy. all done in pairs.
all mine were under 7s which they’d never seen before plus i hit a record low of 6.42. Yer man was saying the best he’d seen before was 6.7X. so i was very happy with that. thats a much closer reflection of what actually happens in a match
then thay did hurdle jumps but i had to sit it out as there was an odd number.
then 150’s shuttle runs. i got 135,130,130,125,125,125 i think - which is a very good score. Lactic build up was crazy!! some of the guys scored 135x6!! very fit guys. if they could only run fast… ha ha
well surprise surprise - no training this weekend. our manager is SO SO stupid. trains 6 nights in a row, gets loads injured then nothing for 7 days!! defies belief.
It turns out the flu i’ve been waitin to disappear is actually a chest infection. have to go to the doc later for something.
our so called betters in the county team made a show of themselves yesterday. fat, weak, slow, unskilled lazy b@stards got a nice beating off a poor team. im depressed that im not considered good enough to make this panel. Some of the players yesterday were so clearly unfit it was comical. Im just not getting a chance and its killing me…
anyway, took saturday off.
sunday 14th May
PC - 5 @ 60, 70, 80, 90. then a load of girls came into the gym and it was all over. just when i needed 100% concentration for 5 @ 100kg i had none. couldnt do it. prob too heavy anyway.
bulgarians - 3x6 @ 35kg
hypers - 2x8, 2x6@20kg, 3x5 @ 30kg
contrast shower then home to watch that disgrace of a game
Is it worth worrying about?
I know Charlie suggests not doing specific calf work and there was some discussion a while ago about large calves acting the same as a weight around the ankle. You can have 1/2 my calf size if you want :o
You are right, your coach is a dork, is there anyway you can change to a better team?
well the truth is i like my coach a lot. he’s very honest and tries his best. he’s from a different era and has different beliefs but he loves hard work and is still very fit. id nearly say that he’s one of the fittest people on the pitch sometimes such is our level of letargy.
in terms of transferring. i could but not to a better team. it would mean id have to leave my native county and move to where i work which isnt so good at my sport. but the players are very honest there. they’d be 100x better physically than my local team but they’d still get slaughtered in a game. its a fact that good hurlers are born. you cant make one. its in my opinion the hardest sport in the whole world to play.
but if i do move it opens new doors to play county level with the new team. its not at all what i want to do but i dont want to have retired as an “almost”. i know 100% that im good enough, every day i get more sure. all i want is a chance and i know id get it if i moved. but im not gonna make that decision lightly. i cant
met with a mate tongight for some ball work, initially i was coughing but it went AND i was flying around doing ball work and running. so much for chest infection…
tuesday - went training with crokes. some ball work and then a match. touch was off, fumbled 3 or 4 balls and was caught in the air by a big fat guy. need to up it
still trying to shift this chest infection. its nearly gone though…
well yet again another weekend goes by with no team training. What is our coach at? It was absolutely lashing rain tho and pitches were waterlogged so maybe he’s right this time. Also munster won the heineken cup and limerick was MENTAL all weekend. must have been 70,000 on the streets yesterday. Plus another 70k went to cardiff. Only 45k live in limerick so something was up! All in all a great weekend for limerick even if it wasnt my sport. Oh sometimes i wish when i was 13 i chose the egg chasing(rugby) instead of bogball (hurling). Only ocasionally though…
Anyway our first c’ship match is on sunday 28th. We havent met in 2 weeks and have stacks of injuries. Last match was a month ago. So really we’re there for the taking. Gonna be lots of fun
Over the weekend i kept busy doing loads of Glute hams, pullups, bulgarians etc. nothing much though as it was one big party all weekend
our season is really march - october but it can be 12 months for some players as you can play with club, county, college, province and even country!! also there are age grades.
Its quite possible that a talented 18yr old can play with 20+ teams!! crazy scenario. such is the amateur world
It is a pity cullen has been injured, but it was great to win it for them ll. I knowa few of them and they’re very honest lads.
So training this week hasnt been too tough. First cship match this sunday. doing loads of short isorobic sprints, very thorough warmups, ball work and flexibility work. Hope everything goes well.
Pity i still have that chest infection nagging at me. Leaves me very short of breath sometimes…
well the match went great. we won pulling up. I played well but everyone did really. flu is almost gone and everything is looking rosy. big cup final coming up on friday night so thats gonna be a big test. cant wait…
Lookin good J! How’s the wrist? Mine is pretty much back to normal now, cleaned 205 lbs. for 5 reps the other day… Wrist was aching a bit but nothing like it was 9 weeks ago!
Cheers man, wrist is 100%. REcently power cleaned 95kg for 5 but i usually stop all weights about 2 weeks prior to a big game so i’ve prob slipped a bit.
After this cup final we’ve about 6-7 weeks off so i reckon im gonna torch myslef with weights/sprints for 2-3weeks then taper off and start back into ballwork and agility soon after.
Good to hear you’re doing well. a sprained wrist is a nasty one to get over…
well our big game was called off due to a death. took a day off work for nothing.
messed around in the gym all weekend. highlifts were prolly 3x5@140kf deadlift. fist time deadlifting in years. could’ve done much more even though my lower back is fellin it now. doing loads of biceps work an all now since the summer is officially here…
Back to serious training last night
800m warmup + static + dynamic + core
2x4x36m isorobic sprints
medball accels throws ala gpp dvd
2x4x5m isorobic starts with dial up a notch
static stretch
weights. db press, curl etc
gonna re-join my old gym tonight i think a nd start doing some martial arts training toorrow. cant wait…
7th june 2006
historic nite last night. i started training with a guy from work in a kind of “fight club” for lack of a better word. All bouncers with balck belts in ninjitsu do all kinds of combat stuff in a night club in town 2x an evenin during the week.
And man was it tough. Loads of circuits stuff like pushups, squats, running up stairs etc. then the good stuff. pad work, kicks. then the bad stuff. locks and grappling. for one lock i was paired off with the scariest most serious dude ive ever seen and i tensed up. he nearly ripped my elbow out of its socket. its sore now but not too bad. probably no cleans for a week but im defo gonna go back again. It was brilliant aerobic work and could be useful on the field or in real life sometime
Im in bits now though. Always good to change the stimulus…
hooked up with the other team again tonight.
did lots of work and felt good, fit, skillwise i was doing well too but touch was a bit off.
i think ive a good system going now, speed and strength work on my own 2x a week then aerobic and skill work with the other team & my own team 2x a week and some work with the martial arts dudes 1x a week
improving all the time and watching my diet/vits/supps so its all good!!
training again martial arts style last night.
Its excellent aerobic activity if nothing else and helps a lot with “tussling” and quick feet. I love it and i can see myself doing it regularly.
Makes a great change and i can feel my fitness improving all the time
beat their alltime record of 71!
