Still Playing Ultimate

Repeat visitors to this blog may be wondering: what happened to my frequent ultimate frisbee status updates? Well, the status updates may have petered out, but that doesn't mean I'm not still playing. I'm still very much attending the regular Monday, Wednesday, and Friday lunchtime pickup games in Burlington. It's business as usual in that department. In fact, I'm kind of regretting not signing up for the BUDA winter indoor hat league that's currently underway in Milford. It's probably for the best that I missed the boat on that though as while I really loved playing in that league the previous times that I've done it, that indoor turf can be pretty brutal on the knees and feet.

Anyhow, one other bit of ultimate news is that Walter Fredrick Morrison has died at the age of 90. Morrison is regarded as the "father of the frisbee". And to reinforce the notion that the sport is dominated by geeks, the story was picked up by Slashdot and hit the front page a couple days ago.

I always thought that Marty McFly invented the frisbee in 1885 though...

Ultimate Ongoing

A quick update on the ultimate front. I've been playing regularly the past few weeks, but not without some discomfort. My ankle is still not 100% but it's faded into a nagging annoyance. It appears that it always feels worse in the morning and then loosens up and doesn't bother me too much throughout the day. I've just played the past three days in a row, though, so I feel it a bit more today. In any case, hopefully this injury will be just a bitter memory soon.

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 252
Total Hours Played: 296

Ultimate Update

It's been over five weeks since I sprained my ankle during an ultimate game. Unfortunately, it still hasn't completely healed. It's likely that I didn't give it enough time as only a week after the incident, I was back on the field. After a couple weeks of abusing it during hat league and pickup games, I shut it back down again over two weeks ago and haven't done anything on it since (umm, except hike 9 miles with 4000 feet of elevation gain, oops!) It's not really unstable or loose, and I don't have any trouble walking on it, but there is still some residual swelling and a bit of a dull soreness to it.

The good news is that I feel like it's (very slowly) healing. I've been doing some no impact strengthening exercises over the past few days and the swelling seems to be ever so slowly going down. I've picked Wednesday in my mind as my return date to the field, but may push it back if it doesn't feel ready. It's very frustrating to have an injury like this. No matter how many times I deal with them, it always takes a physical and mental toll to not have the ability to be active and out on the field. Regardless, what I always tell others and myself; injuries are a part of every competitive sport. Having the ability to respond and deal with them in a positive way is just as important as your skills in the activity itself. Hoping to be back out there soon...

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 240
Total Hours Played: 284

Ultimate Injury

I haven't written an ultimate post in a while, but needless to say, it's not because I haven't been playing! However, due to recent events, I may not be playing for at least a week or so. During Friday's lunchtime pickup game, I came down hard on an uneven section of ground and rolled my ankle inwards. I thought I could walk it off and actually kept playing the remainder of the game. That was probably not wise, though, as it didn't take long after the game for my ankle to start swelling up. Diagnosis? Classic sprained ankle (although it's the more rare form, a sprain of the ligaments on the inside of the ankle rather than the outside). I've been icing and ibuprofening all weekend, and the swelling is starting to go down, but I have a feeling it's the 15 day DL for me.

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 235
Total Hours Played: 277

Ultimate Summer

It's taken until August, but we seem to be in a mostly consistent summer weather pattern now. It's been busy over the past several weeks but not too busy for ultimate. BUDA club tournament coming up this weekend.

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 218
Total Hours Played: 254

Ultimate Catchup

In my last ultimate post, I mentioned something about shutting things down to give my body a rest. Well, that didn't happen. In the last 11 days, I've played ultimate in 8 of them. I'm pretty sore but it's been a lot of fun. Finally getting a long stretch of nice weather has been a big help. And speaking of the weather, all of this rain that we've had over the last several months has accelerated the process of destroying my cleats. Not only was it almost impossible to dry them out with less than 24 hours between games at times, but my aggressive style has caused me to bust several holes in them. This pair barely lasted 6 months...

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 209
Total Hours Played: 243

Ultimate Status

My left hamstring is becoming a pain in the ass (quite literally). My body is not holding up well to the five consecutive days per week schedule. In the past two weeks I've missed two BUDA games due to my ailing hamstring, as well as a couple Burlington pickup games. I still managed to average one game every two days though (go figure).

At some point I may need to shut things down for a few weeks. We'll see...

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 201
Total Hours Played: 232

Ultimate Derailed

I had grand aspirations to play ultimate five consecutive days last week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday were to be regularly scheduled Burlington lunchtime pickup, and Tuesday, Thursday evenings were to be BUDA summer league games. That plan was derailed when I suffered a quadriceps contusion during Tuesday night's game from an in-game collision. I played the remainder of the game with some discomfort, but once I stopped, things tightened up very quickly. I could barely walk on Wednesday morning and was sidelined for two days.

Wouldn't you know it, though, I was back on the field for Friday's lunchtime game and have already played Monday and Wednesday this week. There are still some lingering effects, and my nagging hamstring problem (on the other leg) is still in the background, but for the most part I'm back in business. I've got five consecutive days of ultimate scheduled again for next week so we'll see how it goes.

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 193
Total Hours Played: 225

Ultimate Blessing

The events of this weekend and upcoming week are likely a blessing in disguise. You see, I'm on a BUDA spring hat league team and the end of season tournament is today. However, I missed it, because I'm currently in San Francisco preparing for JavaOne (more on that in a later post). Disappointing yes, but there could have been an easy and obvious solution to this problem: participating in yesterday's tournament instead! BUDA's hat leagues are actually split into two leagues, and they each have their own tournament. I could have jumped in with a team and played as a pickup player in yesterday's tournament. I even went so far as to submit my name as a potential pickup player to BUDA so they could contact me if they needed players.

The problem is that I submitted my name kind of late (Friday) so they never got back to me. However, I easily could've still just shown up and jumped in with a team (I did this for last year's summer BUDA hat tournament and it was a blast). Why didn't I though? My hamstring. It's still bothering me, and I'm sure if I had played in either yesterday's or today's tournament then I would have seriously damaged my chances at getting through this summer's super busy ultimate schedule (read: 5 days a week) without an injury incident. So I sat it out yesterday on an absolutely perfect day, and spent today traveling on a plane.

Sigh. Like I said, it's a blessing in disguise. This week I'm at JavaOne all week so I'll be giving my hammy a much needed continuous period of rest. Then next week summer club games startup along with regularly scheduled Burlington lunchtime pickup. Hopefully by then I'll be back to 100%!

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 188
Total Hours Played: 219

Ultimate Week

In case you were wondering, I'm still playing ultimate. I've decided to compress my ultimate posts into periodic summaries. This way, they won't seem so monotonous.

We've had some warm weather over the last couple of weeks, pushing back into the 90's for a couple of games. I made it to the Burlington pickup games but this past weekend's BUDA spring hat league game was rained out.

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 187
Total Hours Played: 218

Ultimate Recap

Over the past month or so I've been battling a nagging tight hamstring and sat out the last few Burlington pickup games as well as yesterday's BUDA Hat league game (in which we apparently squashed the other team for the fourth game out of four). Today was too nice for me to resist, though, and I went out to play pickup at lunch. The tweaked hamstring is still a bit of a problem, though. I hope it heals up soon, but it seems like playing and healing may be mutually exclusive in this case...

In other news, I'm officially part of the "Spawning Alewives" BUDA summer club league team for this summer. I'm looking forward to it but I need to somehow get my hammy back to 100% while simultaneously finishing up the spring hat season as well as continue Burlington pickup!

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 183
Total Hours Played: 214

Ultimate BUDA

Sunday April 26, 2009
10AM BUDA Spring Hat League Game
Fernald School, Waltham, MA
Weather: 80 F, Sunny
Field: grass
Perfect conditions for Ultimate.

Our second BUDA hat league game of the spring was a wild success as we sprinted to a 15-4 victory in under two hours. I'm a little bummed though because it looks like I may have to miss the end of season tournament because I'll be at JavaOne. Booo!

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 177
Total Hours Played: 207

Ultimate Rehash

Once again several games have gone by without my posting! I am happy to report, though, that the spring BUDA hat league season is finally underway after rainouts the first two weeks. Our team took the season opener 15-9. Also, I've joined up with the "Spawning Alewives" BUDA summer club league and am looking forward to some quality weeknight ultimate action during the summer months!

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 176
Total Hours Played: 205

Ultimate Update

Oops! Since getting back from GDC I fell way behind on my ultimate posts. So much so that it's unlikely I can accurately remember the details from each of the games over the past two weeks. All told I played six games since my last Ultimate update, a few of them in very rainy conditions. Also, the BUDA spring hat league season has officially started. Unfortunately, though, due to rainy, soggy conditions, both of our first two games have been cancelled in order to protect the fields.

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 173
Total Hours Played: 201

Ultimate Catchup

Friday March 20, 2009
12PM Pick-up game
TRW Field, Burlington, MA
Weather: 50 F, Partly Sunny, Breezy
Field: grass
Perfect conditions for Ultimate.

Just catching up.

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 167
Total Hours Played: 195

Ultimate Workout

Wednesday March 18, 2009
12PM Pick-up game
Mitre Fields, Burlington, MA
Weather: 60 F, Sunny, Breezy
Field: grass
Perfect conditions for Ultimate.

Felt really good during Wednesday's game. Not only was the weather warm and the field dry, but it was one of those days where that extra gear was available and I had no sluggishness at all. It kind of makes me want to test out the track spikes again to see if I've still got the speed from my college days (almost 4 years ago now?). Maybe I'll look into RPI's annual open invitational where alumni are welcomed back to compete.

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 168
Total Hours Played: 194

Ultimate Monday

Monday March 16, 2009
12PM Pick-up game
Mitre Fields, Burlington, MA
Weather: 45 F, Partly Sunny
Field: grass
Perfect conditions for Ultimate.

Typical Monday game.

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 167
Total Hours Played: 193

Ultimate Turf

Friday March 13, 2009
12PM Pick-up game
Mitre Fields, Burlington, MA
Weather: 43 F, Cloudy
Field: grass
Perfect conditions for Ultimate.

The snow is gone and it's back to making real cuts on real grass (until the spring rain turns it back into mud and slop).

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 166
Total Hours Played: 192

Ultimate Barely

Wednesday March 11, 2009
12PM Pick-up game
Mitre Fields, Burlington, MA
Weather: 40 F, Cloudy
Field: slushy snow
Perfect conditions for Ultimate.

We nearly didn't have enough players declare themselves "IN" via email for this game. According to my emails, that would have been the first "GAME OFF" called for the Burlington Mon/Wed/Fri pickup games in over a year. Not to worry though, a secondary call to arms email did the trick as we ended up with a 4v4 game.

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 165
Total Hours Played: 191

Ultimate Storm

Monday March 9, 2009
12PM Pick-up game
Mitre Fields, Burlington, MA
Weather: 32 F, Snow
Field: accumulating snow
Perfect conditions for Ultimate.

Yet. Another. Snowstorm. We put together a decent 3v3 in the middle of Monday's snowstorm. Yes this is New England but we've had a lot of snowstorms this year. Spring will be a welcome change. And speaking of spring, I went to sign up for the BUDA spring hat league on Monday evening only to find that the site was toast. Apparently they over-hyped the need to sign up early and the site was immediately overloaded at 5PM EDT on Monday when registration started. Registration has now been pushed back to Wednesday at 5PM EDT.

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 164
Total Hours Played: 190