April 28, 2008

Ultimate BUDA

Sunday April 27, 2008
10AM BUDA Spring Hat League Game
Fernald School, Waltham, MA
Weather: 50 F, Cloudy, Few Sprinkles
Field: damp
Perfect conditions for Ultimate.

I returned to playing BUDA games yesterday and I feel about 95%. Unfortunately, we did lose but it feels good to finally be back out there without being significantly hindered by injury issues.

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 33
Total Hours Played: 37

April 25, 2008

Ultimate Improvement

Friday April 25, 2008
12PM Pick-up game
TRW Field, Burlington, MA
Weather: 70 F, Sunny
Field: dry grass
Perfect conditions for Ultimate.

Played again today and things are continuing to improve! Hoping to finally be back out there for our BUDA league game on Sunday.

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 32
Total Hours Played: 35

April 23, 2008

Marathon Champion!

I would like to take this post to congratulate Katy for an absolutely awesome accomplishment, finishing the Boston Marathon in 5:30:42! Raising money for cancer research and also battling (and defeating) multiple injuries along the way during her training, it was no small feat.

Ultimate Comeback

Wednesday April 23, 2008
12PM Pick-up game
Mitre Fields, Burlington, MA
Weather: 82 F, Sunny
Field: dry grass
Perfect conditions for Ultimate.

I'm back! Well hopefully. I've had serious cabin fever the past few weeks trying to recover from my groin pull. It has improved quite a bit but it's still not 100%. With the perfect, warm weather today I couldn't wait any longer and I went out for the noon pickup game. I could still feel it but I'm hoping that after giving my body some time (with several crosstraining light workouts during the recovery period), it will react positively and kickstart the final stage of the healing process.

My condition tomorrow morning will be the real test but I am hopeful!

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 31
Total Hours Played: 34

April 16, 2008

New Job!

I initiated the process weeks ago, but yesterday it finally became official: I'm starting a new job in two weeks! It's been quite the experience working for the X64 Systems group at Sun Microsystems for the past two and half years, but I feel like I've reached a plateau in my current position, and that it's time for a new challenge. Some details about the new job:
  • I'll still be working for Sun, but I'm transferring to the Project Darkstar group.
  • Darkstar is a software framework intended to sit at the foundation of "massively scalable online games, virtual worlds, and social networking applications" and it attacks really cool problems in that space.
  • It's a Sun-sponsored open source project with a fairly substantial community already forming around the effort.
  • Being an open source effort with an active community, it's a perfect opportunity for me to actively contribute not only through my development work on the job, but also through this blog!
  • And of course, since I'll still be working for Sun in Burlington, I can continue to feed my ultimate addiction! (once my groin injury finishes healing that is)
If you can't already tell, I'm really excited to get going on this, and I really think it's going to be a great experience.

April 7, 2008

Ultimate Ow

Sunday April 6, 2008
10AM BUDA Spring Hat League Game
Fernald School, Waltham, MA
Weather: 40 F, Cloudy, Windy
Field: damp
Perfect conditions for Ultimate.

Spring BUDA started up yesterday. It was a pretty good game. Somehow Brian and I ended up on different teams playing eachother and my team won. I actually felt ok during the game. I wore the knee brace and had some discomfort in my upper thigh/groin area. However, everything tightened up rather quickly after the game and I woke up this morning barely able to use that muscle at all making it difficult to walk. I must have strained it and from the looks of it I'll be sidelined for at least a week or two.

Argh!

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 30
Total Hours Played: 33

April 2, 2008

Ultimate Annoyance

Wednesday April 2, 2008
12PM Pick-up game
Mitre Fields, Burlington, MA
Weather: 40 F, Sunny, Very Windy
Field: dry grass
Perfect conditions for Ultimate.

Strange. I took a week off from ultimate and maintained a basically daily regimen of icing, stretching, and strengthening exercises for my knee. I think the specific strengthening exercises that I'm doing is having a temporarily negative effect because my knee bothered me quite a bit today. The symptoms are similar to ITBS which is odd because that is usually only common in distance runners (not sports that involve a lot of sprinting).

I will keep monitoring it and possibly go back to wearing the knee brace on Friday.

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 29
Total Hours Played: 31