get to work

i started this new routine since i moved back into DC. on thursdays, i wake up at 7 am, put on my running shoes and do my weekly bridge work out. i used to do it on my lunch break on thursdays but when i run from work, do the workout and then run back, it takes longer than the hour i am given for lunch...so i started this new routine and i like it...plus, when i would do it during lunch, i would have to run one fewer set of stairs so i could get back sooner...honestly, that's what i told myself and i got tired of selling myself short.

for those that don't know the workout, along memorial bridge there are a series of evenly spaced lightposts. these go the length of the bridge, which is about .3 miles long. so a typical workout is to jog from one post to the next (1 post length), sprint the next, then jog 2 posts, then sprint 2, jog 1, sprint 1, jog 2, sprint 2...repeat. you do this all the way down, walk it off for about a minute and then turn around and do it again. it's not the longest workout, but it is repetitive sprinting and i feel this is good training for ultimate.

if you do the above listed workout, it comes to 4 sets of 1 post sprints and 3 sets of 3 post sprints in each direction. from there, i always do 10 sets of stairs. there are about 45 steps along the potomac river right there. up counts as 1. i do 2 sets of 5. from there, i jog back home. in total, it takes about 50 minutes.

i do it on thursdays because i used to play basketball on wednesday nights. i like doing two sprint intensive workouts back to back because at tournaments you play 2 full days of ultimate and training one day and taking the next off doesn't seem beneficial to the sport....holy run on sentence QP Live. basketball has been moved to mondays because we are starting to have our first set of weeknight truck stop practices and that is more important (plus a better workout).

i love this bridge workout. i could feel it paying off last night at practice, but that's not the only reason i love it. i love that i am done with this workout and home at 8 to stretch, eat breakfast and shower before work. i love that it puts me in a great mood for the rest of the day, better than i feel any other time of the week.

but what i love the most and what keeps me running is the memories i have from doing this with my college teammates.

i remember faust one day making us start from the very first light post when i used to jog out the first two and then start my sprints. because of ben, i get an extra two lengths out of every workout.

i remember ben carlone, who used to do things on his own and miss a lot of workouts, showing up late 1 day and instead of sprinting variable lengths, jogging 1 and sprinting 1 the whole way down. that always seemed like torture to me.

my fondest memories of the bridge and stairs, however, are of doing them with my main english teach, andrew snausages. this is where i first learned that he was a lot faster than i had ever realized...and that he works just as hard if not harder than any other guy i ever worked out with.

when he was a freshman and on the B team, he was the only 1 to take up the offer to do these workouts with. when he was a sophomore, i would run with him expecting to beat him and he would burn me every length down and back.

i also remember him on the stairs still giving it his all. at the time, i always felt he was going to throw me into traffic or the potomac, because i would yell at him and tell him he wasn't working hard enough on the stairs, but it's the memory of running with him that keeps me going.

lots of things go through my head when i am running in general. it varies from how good i feel about what i'm doing, or how bad i'm feeling that day, what am i going to do with my life, how awesome i think it is that no matter what time i work out, i see 100 other people out there too, etc.

but whenever i hit that bridge, i remember the hungry hungry hippos and that's what is helping me so far this season. i can already feel the difference between this year and last year, in terms of energy on the frisbee field. i never thought i'd feel good on a field again after a few seasons of subpar condition, but since i feel i am on a good pace, i really feel it is important to thank the people that have motivated me.

so thanks mofukas.