Month: October 2011

It has been about two weeks since I signed up for the Tough Mudder in April and I have been doing a lot of training.

• 1-2 days on the skating treadmill.  These are really tough exercises, but I have noticed my skating stride and strength have increased.
• My cardio has also improved due to the skating on the treadmill and running as well.  I did my first run a few days ago and got a couple miles in and it felt great.
• Lastly, and something I need to pick up on, is my strength training.  I have been working my legs too much and my upper body hasn’t been worked very much.  I will be phasing in some upper body exercises.

Due to the fact that I have been working my lower body too much, with all the skating I have been doing and cardio work, I started having a pain in my right foot yesterday.  I was fine the day before when I ran two miles.  It was something that happened before my acceleration training but it doesn’t affect me while skating.  It is a pain in the bottom of my right foot as I walk around.  I can stretch out the leg just fine.

I took a break from the cardio and skating today in hopes that things will be better tomorrow.  Being as that it doesn’t hurt to skate, I am looking forward to reffing tomorrow and Saturday.  Sunday I will do some upper body workouts before I get back into goaltending and skating on Monday and Tuesday.

As many people have told me, you can’t exercise the same muscles over and over again.  I have to diversify.  Everything was so much easier when I was young and I was just working on cardio.  Now, I have this cardio and strength training in my legs that is not working out well.  I may have to wait to increase my cardio workouts until I am done with Acceleration training.  Don’t really want to do that though, but it’s a possibility.  Either that or go back to non-impact cardio like on my exercise bike.

In the meantime, I have a couple ice hockey teams I am going to be skating on over the fall/winter/spring.  This along with my roller teams, taking MBA classes, working out, and setting the stage for the charity game at Van Andel in December, I have a full plate.  Lets hope I don’t stretch myself too thin.

Well, I really can’t say I didn’t have my chances.

I played three games on playoff Saturday, started out strong with a win and then lost both of my finals games.  The bummer is that my teams had a chance to win each one but we fell a goal short in each game.  Even today, I am still a little bummed out about not winning in one of those championship games.  Sure, the fault is not entirely on my shoulders, but I keep thinking “what if”.

What if I would have challenged a bit more in the 6-5 OT loss to the defending champions?  Yes, we didn’t have our big guns on our team, but I should have stepped up and challenged their top players more than sitting back in my net.  Especially when we had a 4-1 lead in the 3rd period and then a 5-4 lead with a minute left.  I suppose the loss would have stung them even worse considering they had two players that were the best at the rink.  They can score at will in any division and it showed against my team especially as they played in the last 5 minutes of the game and scored or assisted on every goal in the game.

What if I would have challenged a bit more in the 4-3 loss in the other championship game?  We took 2nd to the same team in the regular season, and we had no answers for them in the final game.  We were down 3-0 at the end of the 2nd period and 4-1 half way through the 3rd.  I was too deep in my net on the fourth goal, and I thought I should have challenged a bit more than I did.

Still, when its all said and done, I am disappointed in my performance.  I didn’t let in soft goals, but I did not come up big like I used to.  Yes, I stopped a couple breakaways and made some good saves, but the elite goaltenders make big saves at key times.  When it was 5-4 with a minute left, I should have made the key save and I didn’t.  When it was 3-1, I should have made the key save and I didn’t.

This last playoff run really left a sour taste in my mouth.  If anything, I am going to work on challenging the shooter a bit more and rebuilding my confidence from the letdown that I just experienced.  I just hope it is a fast rebuild.

I didn’t reach my goal, and maybe that is a good thing in the end.  I was semi-promising myself when I reached my goal of 30 championships, I was going to duck out of the spotlight and stop playing goal for a while.  As time has went on, I have realized that I am not quite ready to duck out yet.  I have made many friends, and playing hockey with all of them has been my greatest pleasure.

For the next couple weeks, I am going to finish my MBA class, start running in order to pick up my cardio, ref as many games as I can, and keep working on my acceleration training.  By the time the break is over, I will be ready to put on the skates again and embark upon another chance to achieve my goal.

Another hockey season has come and gone.  Playoffs are about 11 hours away for me and I am still awake at 12:30am.  All does not bode well for me waking up tomorrow morning.  After a successful regular season where both of my teams made the playoffs, I am thinking about how things will go tomorrow.  In my most positive thoughts, I will step out there and dominate in all my games and take home two championships.  In my most negative thoughts, I will step out there and falter when my teams need it most and leave with nothing.

I guess the thing that I think about every now and again is just how I was come playoff time about 5-6 years ago.  Those times are few and far between now.  I just knew I was going to dominate and I typically did.  Today, my mindset has changed with my age, and maybe that’s what the problem is.

I am going to approach playoffs with a positive and confident attitude.  The odds are against me, but I am ok with fighting against the odds.  My age will be a factor, but my mental confidence will not waiver.  I just hope the hockey gods are looking down upon me when I start my quest for this milestone championship number 30.  One gets me there and achieves my goal.  Two exceeds it.

Hoping for the best.  Now I hope I can sleep.