some days. Yesterday was horrible. I felt like a typical 40 year old, kinda slow to get moving, and never had fourth gear, let alone fifth. Sprints at the end were brutal, almost like it was my first time out for the year.
But today was good. My defense was nothing to speak of, but I cut well on offense, which as we all know is all that matters.
That's one of the things that has hit me as I've aged. There are a lot more days when I feel a lot less than 100%. I was trying today to figure out how much better today was than yesterday. Mooney would say "infinitely", others would say "100%", I'm inclined to say "10 times better" (although I probably would have meant "10 times as good"), but it's something significant. I'm sure I could reduce the number of days like Saturday with a more rigid workout schedule (but the rest of life interferes with that sometimes), or something steroid-like for recovery, or trying to adapt my game a little bit more to reflect the reality of being 40 and trying to kick some punk's ass.
A side note: I don't think the presence of a 40 year old at the elite level means that ultimate isn't ready for big time. It's not as if there are a bunch of 40 year olds who are doing the same thing at 40 that they were doing at 27. Look at baseball's elderly: Barry Bonds, Randy Johnson, even the 38 year olds like Schilling or Larry Walker. They aren't journeymen.
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Ah, finally a post for my demographic.
Jim, I have been struggling with these same issues this year (I turned 41 in March). My focus has been conditioning for 1 point at a time, 4-5 points a game. Needless to say, I am very happy with our large roster this year.
We went out to Chicago this weekend, and I was quite worried as I had been feeling slow and tight for my workouts for the past few weeks.
Well, I felt very good for most of the weekend. I feel that my very focused preparation as stated above was adequate, and, as we were reasonably efficient with the disc, I could go very hard for the full duration of the point. I felt my top end was good at points.
When I trained with Bryan Doo a few years back, he really stressed the value of the rest days as one gets older. I have found this to be case, and I know take up to three days off before a tournament. I do find that this creates the need to lay down a proper conditioning foundation in the off-season, though. If I am going to be taking extra rest days during the season, I need to be pretty far along at the end of the off-season.
-George
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