It just seems like yesterday when the season started and I was about 6 months away from the Tough Mudder.  Now I am 4 months away and while I feel I am in good cardio shape, the rest of my body is not ready.  I need to start working my upper body more than I am today.  The good news is with my class ending on Thursday, I will have the time to dedicate to working out more than I am today.  This is great news as I am really looking forward to going the next step in my training.

Over the course of the last month, my days have blended together.  Wake up, go to work, play hockey, workout, study, play a few games, sleep.  The weekends were wake up, go ref, workout, study, ref, play a few games, sleep.  Weeks just go by like that and now I can only look forward to a slight change.  Not studying for the next two plus months is going to feel terrific.  Gives me time to get ready.

The charity game went over very well again this year.  With the help of my employer, we raised a lot of money to the Griffins Youth foundation.  Our photos of the event were incredible as well.  I was a little sad that the opposing team was missing a few of their big guns and we beat them 7-2 as a result.  It was good to win though, and I hope we can do it again next year.

Hockey continues to treat me well.  My ice teams are playing well and both my roller teams are contending for a championship again this season.  I am sad to report that I really don’t have any expectations from my teams this season.  Since the games are blended together, I really can’t go into specifics.  I really like what I see so far and I hope that we can churn out a championship out of one of these teams.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Yesterday I started my first acceleration training at Acceleration of Grand Rapids.  I was anticipating a much more productive day there, and it turned out to be more frustrating.  The skating treadmill there is not the easiest to skate on for me, and I spent the whole first day just getting used to it.  I have many years of bad habits to kick when it comes to my skating, and the only way to fix those bad habits is to kick them to the curb with hard work.

By the time I did the workout, which also included work on the exercise bike and a core workout with crunches and such, I was pretty wiped out.  I played hockey that night too which just was a little too much for me to handle in a day.  If anything, this workout regimen just woke me up to the fact that I am not in the best of shape.  It really is time to turn things around and start working out more.

Still, it was a great workout and I am looking forward to my next appointment.  I signed up for 17 more sessions on this, so it is my hope that it will improve my skating by the time I am done in the next 3 months.

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After dropping both of my games last week, I took the holiday and the off week to concentrate on other things.  My next MBA class started up.  I also had my level 3 USA Hockey closed book test and class to work on as well.  Playing hockey has really been the furthest thing from my mind.  This weekend, I have already started thinking about the second half of the season and the two teams I am playing on.  Even while I sit here in the hotel room in Traverse City getting ready to go wine tasting on Saturday and Sunday, my mind is on hockey.

I think the break is what I needed to get re-energized.  Next week, the real work begins.  My MBA class will be in full swing, my two hockey teams will be looking to rebound after tough games, and I will be continuing to get ready for USA Hockey reffing to kick back in.

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When it comes to hockey, very couple seasons I hit a downhill slide that it seems impossible to come out of.  This season its different from the past.  I am making the routine saves I need to make, but a bad bounce or two in conjunction with the other team capitalizing on every mistake is sealing the deal. 

A couple weeks ago in ice hockey, we carried a 2-0 lead into the last two minutes of the game.  I was feeling at the top of my game and my defense was playing great.  We get penalized and have to play the last minute and a half with a 5-3 disadvantage.  One shot from the point gets deflected by me.  Then with 30 seconds left, another shot hits a player in front, goes off the far post, and in.  Then we lose in the shootout.

A few days later in another game, we lost in OT off of a failed poke check attempt by me.  I lept out to poke the puck off the stick of a forward who was coming in on a breakaway, and the puck was neatly tucked underneath me.  I had this same thing happen in the shootout in ice hockey the same week.

Last week the tying goal to send it into overtime in another game was a shot that pinballed off 3 players and past me.  Did I mention that it happened with about 5 seconds left in the game?  End result was a OT loss.

Last night the winning goal was thankfully not one that happened in the last few minutes, but one that stings still.  I was hugging the post and someone took a shot from behind the net in the corner and it found a way through.  It was a bummer of a goal, but one that I feel I should have had.

This whole series of events really doesn’t take away from the wins I have gotten.  At the same time though, in the wins I really haven’t been tested.  Seems that when I have been tested, I have been shown to be just a little too slow or a little too old.  Maybe a little too indecisive as well.

I really hope to shake the funk I am in tonight before the holiday weekend.  It really has been a uphill battle for me and my confidence the last couple weeks when it comes to hockey.  I am glad that only my confidence in goal is shaken a little and not my confidence in my job or other aspects of my life.  That’s all I need is a mental complex on things that really matter.

Hoping for the best in my game tonight.

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After a tough game on Sunday, I am ready to get back on the horse today.  I have two big games the next two days, and I really don’t have the time to sit around and feel bad.  My focus is winning tonight and tomorrow night, and then going into the weekend on a winning note ready to play on Sunday.

A goalie has to have a short memory.  There are some negative things I think about from time to time, but for the most part I learn from my mistakes and move on.  Considering the low I was on Sunday night, this is a step in the right direction.

I hope this quick recovery time keeps going on as I get older.  Yesterday, my neck and back were very sore from the game on Sunday night.  Today, I am almost 100%.  No excuses for tonight that’s for sure.

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After two solid performances in net last week, I played ice hockey on Sunday night with my team needing a win in order to keep playing in the upper tier of playoff games.  Well, this week’s ice hockey game worked about as well as last weeks game.  At least last week we were tied 2-2 entering the 3rd period.  This week, we weren’t even in the game as we lost 5-1.  Let in a couple sharp angle shots I probably should have had, then there were a couple deflections and a screen I didn’t have much of a chance on.  Still, in the end, it’s a tough way to lose a hockey game.  Even though my team didn’t get a lot of shots or passes going, I can only improve my game.

My performance in net for this team has really not been good the last few weeks.  I have done my part to help this team drop their last 4 games in a row which is very depressing.  I am not letting horribly bad goals, but I just haven’t been as good as I expect to be.  About 5-6 years ago, I played a lot more solid than I do now.  I used to steal games like this all the time.  Now, I am lucky to steal one every year.  Welcome to getting older I suppose. 

So now, I am in the middle of another dream that is yet unfulfilled.  That loss puts my team out of the playoffs probably, and we will enter the consolation bracket where we will probably win our next two games.  Yet, the wins will be mostly empty ones because they will only be for pride.  Then I will begin another long season in the fall, in which hopefully I can compete for that championship in ice hockey.  That single championship in ice hockey that has eluded me so far in my over 12 years of playing hockey.  I have gotten close a few times, but have only found myself on the outside looking in so far.

There is even part of me wondering if this whole goal I have set for myself is unobtainable.  I am not willing to sell out my team and go somewhere else for the purpose of winning a championship.  Not that I am getting a ton of phone calls asking me to play, but the point is that I have standards and won’t cut ties will my teams.

Now I am thinking that this whole goal of mine may in fact be unobtainable.  Unless I start looking for a team that can compete out of the gate or I fall into the right situation at the right time.  I guess its more than a little depressing the more I think of it.

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I played solid again yesterday in a 6-4 victory.  After turning in a solid performance the night before, I knew it was going to be critical to keep the momentum going in the positive direction.  It was an ominous beginning as they took a 2-0 lead early in the first period.  My team stepped it up though and really served notice that we were the top team in the division.  When the game was over, I was pleased overall with our performance.  At the same time though, I knew that we could play better.

I just hope I can take this roll I am on into playoffs on Sunday with my ice team.  I really haven’t played my best for them the last few weeks.  My turnaround this week may be a big key to a strong game on Sunday.  Lets hope for the best.

Now my attention diverts from playing goal to reffing.  Tomorrow I will be getting my skates sharpened at lunch and doing the lunchtime skate at Walker.  I will be reffing games in under 2 months, so it becomes important for me to be ready when that time comes.  I figure with me skating about 3 times per week, I should be prepared in time.

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