My Road Thus Far IV - Month 5

Month 5: Dec 27 - Jan 23, '09
- As soon as I hit the fifth month mark I sprinted. I just couldn't wait to do it. December 27th fortuitously was a beautiful, 45 degree, sunny day in an otherwise frigid, snowy Michigan, and I jogged over to a high school parking lot to do some plyometrics and sprinting. Man, did I get tired quick, but man, did it feel good to be sprinting again. Sometimes you just don't think a day or event will ever come, you wait for so long, but then it gets there, and that joy is something you only know if you've had it. There was some discomfort, some soreness, but it felt good, the good kind of sore that I'd come to know and differentiate after all the December running.
- That month, also fortuitously, a group of buddies of mine were gearing up to play in an alumni tourney, and made a website to track their fitness level and workouts. They had made it a challenge, who could work out the most, along with a place for goals and a place for direct challenges/shit-talking/etc. This was a god-send for me, as it provided a community of like-minded, hard-working *friends* that I could talk to about workouts, ask questions, and generally feel not alone as I did box jumps in the empty dark room in the gym.
- My gym also switched ownership, and began offering early-morning boot-camp-style classes that focused on plyometrics, and I worked these hard. They were perfect. Core work, quad work, calf work, stability work. It was fantastic. Plus I learned some new stuff, and the addition of a structure (someone else timing, providing the exercises, leading warm-up) as well as other around me pushed me to go that much harder. I am thinking of posting some of the workouts here for reference.
- I also began cutting work, meaning, donning my cleats and going to a park to throw with someone (often my girlfriend) and doing a V- shaped cutting drill, cutting out, then in to her forehand side, then out, then in to her backhand side, essentailly a 150 degree cut rather than a full 180, and cutting off of one leg, then the other. This was good to do slowly and build speed until discomfort told me to stop.
- I played my first "game" the last week of this month, a game called "sto(m?)p the chump." The goal is to tip a throw into a soccer goal, thrower can't be in 6-yard box, take back line is 18 yard box, and an upside down throw hitting the cross-bar means a free penalty shot, with a goalie, from the 18 yard line, just try to score. Games to 3, or 5, or whatever. It was perfect because it was short cuts, I could be as involved as I felt comfortable, and it was finally something i could enjoy with others.