oh the pain....

dj is back. i'm glad to say I finally made my painful yet anticipated debut (and take that Glenn, I beat you to posting here..... [insert evil sinister laugh]) tonight at Thursday upper-level gym floor practice, a good 2.5 months after i first pulled my hammy. and oh the pain came..... subtly, very subtly, but it came.

And so I devoured it last bit of it. At first I thought that i should take it easy and not participate, but seeing that everything we were doing was sprints-free, i decided my season had to finally begin. surprisingly, it was my upper body that was more limited in strength and whatnot than my lower body and legs, which seemed strange for me given how little, besides biking (a hamstring-free activity), i've been able to do with my legs. towards the end i started to black out momentarily and several times almost fainted from a combination of my PATHETIC shape and slight dehydration, but kept on chugging despite the pain. But these were all physical observations.....

What I most noticed tonight, which is the real reason i'm posting this, wasn't physical but rather psychological. I sit here a mere hour after practice ended and feel not one ounce of pain in my body. Soreness, yes, but pain, like the pain during the workout, no. for those that are skipping these indoor workouts because you're scared, it really makes me wonder, how can you dread something that is so TEMPORARY? I view it the same way as I do global warming; that you're refusal to make small sacrifices to your comfort in the now will only translate into huge and immeasurably, immeasurable harder challenges and more difficulties in the long term. that is, assuming you don't give up on those goals. because it's the memories that will live on once we've graduated and are long gone, like the time on universe point that you battled with every last ounce of your soul to stick to your man despite every last voice in your body telling you to give up until you finally got that D, then patiently worked it back up on O pass by tiring pass and cut by tiring cut until you stood there in the endzone with the disc in your hands and the next thing you know you're going to Regionals, you're going to nationals, you're going to worlds. Your dream wasn't impossible.

in 15 years from now are you gonna remember the latest episode of house or 24 that you missed practice for, or that drunk chick you made out with at that party you skipped thursday night practice for? No. But that universe point in which you sold every last ounce of your soul to the devil himself for that one extra inch in your layout so you could get that D against Princeton or Pitt on Universe point and send your team to Regionals or Nationals or wherever your dreams may take you, you will remember that forever and ever and ever. This I absolutely guarantee you. So do something, make your mark somehow, because in the long run you'll thank yourself for making these years count. Throw with someone on the team that you're absolute, complete strangers with. Convince one of your floormates to play for us next year. Because hopefully the relationships that we build here as a team will last much, much longer than those god damn shows like 24 and House......

Some say ultimate isn't a real sport. My god, how much I would love to fuck up their pretty little faces beyond beleif. Ultimate is a sport of flying discs, and of flying bodies in pursuit of flying discs. Sure it's fun, in fact by far THE most fun sport ever created, but you take any sport that's fun and it becomes 10 times more fun when you go all out and play against good competition, and 10 times more beautiful when you do it in unison with an entire team of players who share your passion, and 10 times more fulfilling when you prove yourself by winning. So lay out.

I'm glad to be back. Long live Machine FUCKING Ultimate. FMUMF.


-dan johnson



PS> I dedicate this post to my fallen comrade Riz, who will be back next fall, and to Kev Chang, who i will unfortunately never have the pleasure of seeing lay out ever again.

Post-Practice Lift

Frenchy had to miss practice for a family thing, so he and I lifted later on in the evening. Here's what I did:

6 overhead squats, 45lb
6 overhead squats, 6 shoulder press 55b
6 overhead squats, 6 shoulder press 65b
6 overhead squats, 5 shoulder press 75b
Back squats: 6 at 115, 6 at 125, 6 at 135lb
Incline bench press: 4 at 115, 8 at 95, 3 at 105lb

with a 5lb DB held between the feet:
3x10 seconds hanging knee tuck+hold
5 pullups, knees tucked