A Dunk Weighs on My Shoulders

Whew, it's been too long since I put something here. The past week has been busy. Work has been a marathon these past 5 weeks, and at this point I'm stumbling through, staring at the ground, waiting for the weekend or, in five days, spring break. I've still been going to the gym however! I often find myself finishing workouts at 5pm or later now. I started alternating running with weight days, and earlier this week rolled off 3.5 miles on the treadmill... in 30 minutes, but still, that's the longest I've run since Thanksgiving. Once damnable February gets past I'll make a try for outdoor running.

Doing squats more frequently has definitely put a strain on my hip. The muscles in my legs get sore, but it is par for the course. My hip joint is a different kind of sore, like my right femur is in a less stable position than my left one. I suppose that's technically true, as my labrum was cut and resurfaced. The doctors estimated it would be anywhere from 6 months to a year before I would be 100%, but cautioned that I would always feel something different there. And that I would have arthritis later.

The surgery completely cured what it was supposed to. I've been pain-free for months now and it is incredible. No more problems sleeping, uncomfortable sitting, or endless shifting to try and alleviate a hidden pain.

I just hope I'm not rushing the recovery with these squats. My physical therapy and strength recovery has been very gradual, as recommended, and has been an enormous success. In the past I would frequently try and rush through injury recovery and end up making things worse. My impatience would damn me. But this time around I never tried and push through. But as I realize the amount of muscle build-up ahead of me, I know the only way to get there is stepping up the intensity of my exercises. Is it too soon? If it is, what can I do in the meantime to reach my dunk?

I've been dragging ass this morning since I went to drinkin' island last night. Normally I'd be out of the gym by now. I'm headed there after I finish writing, and I'm not sure what I'll do. Hold off on the squats? Less weight? This'll be my fifth trip this week: Monday and Thursday were weights, Tuesday and Friday were runs. Maybe I'll just shoot around.

The Running Dunk

Monday I was still wrecked from the Saturday night concert, so moving weight was not an option. I found myself instead on a treadmill. This would be my first extended running since the surgery. The Death Machine is an elliptical, and when we play 5-on-5 I typically sprint for a few seconds then maneuver in a small space on each end of the court. So this would be a continual pounding on my joints. And I made it! 30 minutes of jogging (6.1 gradually increased to 7.1 mph - I hate doing "standard" speeds) with no pain, twitching, or aggravation in my joint! I felt pretty cocky after that so I did 3x10 squats of 100# and 3x20 calf raises, which turned out to be brutal after my first run, but I grunted through like a true meathead.

Get it?

Tuesday I took off because I had no time during the day and an after school appointment. Today I went in with the sole intention of moving weight. I warmed up with 15 minutes on the cycle, then 3x10 squats of 110# and 3x20 calf raises, 3x10 bi/tris, 3x20 forearms, and then 3x10 of quads/back of quads (35# each leg). The last set was rough - I had to take a big breath before each movement.

Driving home, I realized completing this resolution requires better gains than 1 inch increase in vertical per month. So I think I'm gonna have to start - and I really don't like this, as I've always been an endurance/slow-twitch kinda guy - making conscious choices to increase my protein intake and therefore speed up muscle recovery and gain. Meathead is not my style by a long shot, and making this decision after just learning I can run makes it that much harder. Not to say I can't keep running, and I plan on it to keep me as light as possible, but I've got to essentially double my vertical and that's not going to happen by running five miles a day. With that, I picked up some Cliff Bars (not super protein-oriented, I know, but gotta start somewhere) and think I'll add a glass of milk with dinner each night. I'd like to avoid supplements like protein powder and the like if I can. I'm not sure when the next time we'll play is either, hm...

Georgia plays at Tennessee tonight! It's free to watch on espn360.com - enjoy the Travis Leslie Traveling Levitating Tremendous Dunk Show!

WARNING: A non-dunk related post

Got my ass beat hard last night at the Flogging Molly concert. I am a bruise. Even my tongue is purple. So instead of working out today I wrote this essay about how awesome it is to be insane at my old bloggy blog: http://youareanerd.blogspot.com/2010/02/insane-appeal.html. Absolutely feel free to ignore this, but thought it was cool enough to share. I am shamed by my pride.

Dunk Competition

Josh Smith wins

Starting at 1:30 pm Friday, Atlanta started dealing with some big, fat snowfall. This entails a lot of people driving very slowly for no reason, food riots at Publix, and school being let out at 1pm in anticipation of the aforementioned craziness. That also means the senior/faculty basketball was called off. I sent out an email encouraging some teachers to stick around to play 5-on-5 anyway, and about a dozen showed. Most of these guys were the morning crew, plus a couple of trainers.

Well soon enough there some was complaining, some groaning, and then some a few people sitting out and choosing not to play. Turns out a friendly game of basketball means different things to different people. A couple of the guys are hypercompetitive, calling for screens and help defense and other "serious" basketball things. Beyond that, they run on every play, set some brutal picks, and have no problem hacking you if you're going for a lay-up. And to be fair, there's nothing wrong with that. If you're gonna play, then play. I personally don't mind, as I'm just glad to get out there and get some touches (I hit about half my shots, including a sweet midrange jumper where I out-lasted my defender in the air! I also missed some real easy put-backs and aired a 3-ball though...). I don't even mind too much when the super competitors start giving "suggestions", because to this point it hasn't been mean-spirited. But I can easily see how someone expecting a more casual atmosphere would be turned off by that behavior. One guy left the game while spewing a tirade of "BULLSHIT!" and "FUCKING RIDICULOUS" as he left, referring to the over-the-top intensity of some of the other players.

This is the 3rd time this group has played together, and it's becoming clear that some people take it much more seriously than others. One guy doesn't seem to think any shot he takes is a bad shot and has no problem jacking up 3's as soon as he gets it. Another will bowl you over if you get in his way. This is the type of behavior that should appear in competition, in "game" situations, but can be unfavorable in a casual game. If you're not laughing during the game, like some of the players do, then why would you keep playing? Of course the competitive response is, if you're not playing to win, then why would you keep playing? It's an interesting divide I've noticed, to see some guys go cutthroat while others play it loose. Regardless, I got four games in and was so bushwhacked that as soon as I got home I slept for two hours.

Got back in the gym today, did 15 minutes of cycle to warm up and then 3x10 sets of curls, reverse push-ups, quads, and other side of quads. I alternated 25 sit-ups with 20 lunges using a 15# weight to rotate on each lunge, and then finally did real squats with weight! Not a lot, mind you, just 100# total, but was able to do 2x10 at the end of my workout. Progress! I could definitely feel the huge difference in muscle strain that squats require. Now that I'm confident in my hip's strength on squats, I'll be doing them almost every workout.

Also, the dunk contest is tonight. I won't see it live since I'll be at a concert, but here's an ESPN Top 10 of recent dunk contest highlights (No Josh Smith though!): http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4911247

Butterflies in my Dunk

My hip continues to feel decent as my workouts have progressively become longer and even more leg-intensive. I've begun alternating weight-lifting days with basketball days. For example, last week I worked out on five consecutive days: Wednesday I did a half-hour of Death Machine followed by sit-ups, Thursday I did an hour of weights, Friday I played 5-on-5 for an hour in the morning, Saturday I did thirty-five minutes of Death Machine and a bicep/tricep set, and Sunday I played an hour-and-a-half of 1-on-1. Finally I took Monday off, but started again Tuesday with an hour of weights, an hour of 5-on-5 Wednesday morning, and today I did more Death Machine and sit-ups. Tomorrow, Friday, is the senior/faculty basketball game, which I'll call my workout for the day... but I'll be back in Saturday!

I'm excited and nervous about the game tomorrow, but I get nervous every morning walking up to school and even as I'm walking into the classroom. I learned a while ago that I can't do anything about my anxiety but dive right into the situation, trusting I know what I'm doing. Hours of preparation make this possible of course, and it's the same situation for a game like tomorrow. I've only played 5-on-5 twice though, and I'm not a big guy so I can't just overpower or run over other players a la Shaq. But I've been getting better at creating shots for myself - I knocked down a three and a jumper yesterday morning, six steals, and a couple of assists. Still, I can't help but be nervous, as we're playing in front of the whole upper school. Ah well, at least I picked out a badass nickname for myself: "Mitosis" Morris, cause I split the lane like cell division. Damn straight I said that.

The quest for verticality continues as always, and I've got some real improvement! I finally got around to marking out some measurements on my bedroom wall, and gave it a go just now: I can vertically jump, without shoes on, to 8'8", or 104 inches off the ground. Standing with my arm stretched up, I can touch 7'4", or 88 inches. So, my new vertical leap is... 16 inches!!! That's about an inch greater than in January. Not a big deal, I know. I haven't started any squats (with weight) or leg presses, which would probably offer me a greater increase in leg muscle than what I'm currently doing. I'm confident that my running jump is improving as well. The basketball net is 15-18 inches long, and I can hook the bottom of the big loop hanging down from the rim - call it half the net, or 8.5 inches below, which would make my running jump top out at 9'3" or 9'4", getting me two feet off the ground...

Progress, she is a slow to come, but it's a year-long resolution, and I'm ready to use all 365 days to get there.

Dunk-on-Five

Friday morning I stumbled out of bed at quarter to six, slogged through another cold downpour in Atlanta, and joined the first 5-on-5 pickup game of basketball I've played since probably high school. I got asked to be a body on the faculty team playing against the seniors next Friday, and so I suggested we get a group together for a shootaround or some such. Little did I know that a group of faculty used to play regularly, twice a week, in the mornings before school. The group got itself back together, with the addition of myself and another new teacher, and we rocked a good hour-plus of full court basketball. The head trainer is a 6'5" man-mountain that could just not be stopped, and our Reverend is a little athletic dynamo, leaping for every loose ball. There were all skill levels playing, and I was nervous joining in an established group of players but found I wasn't the worst player. I even managed to knock down a few shots and get some nifty fast breaks. And I won't lie, it was nice to have a couple of the guys tell me "nice play" or something similar. I haven't played a team sport in a long time, so I was glad that I could hang with them.

He died so that we may dunk

My hip did great! I figure this about settles the issue - if a full hour of actual basketball doesn't aggravate it I'm probably 90% healed. Thursday afternoon for my legs I did lunges, calf raises, squats, and step-ups on a two-foot bench with 20# weights in each hand. I could feel the joint get a little squirrely during that last exercise, but I concentrated on my form and was able to avoid too much wobbling. The outside of my ankles and my back are actually the sorest parts of my body today, and I'm still trying to decide if I want to go back in later today and shoot some, or just take it easy. I haven't yet set up a measuring post on my wall, but I hope to get that done this weekend and start getting some data on my jumping. Ever onward!

Dunk Wobbles

I've now gone two consecutive workouts (Saturday and Monday) using the "death machine", a.k.a. an arc trainer, a.k.a. an elliptical with variable incline and resistance. Twenty-five and thirty minutes, respectively, and Monday I followed the half-hour session with step-ups, or whatever it's called when you hoist a straight bar across your back and step up on a two-foot tall bench, raise your other leg to your waist, then step down again. Twenty of those (ten on each leg) and twenty calf raises. While my lunge-balance has improved to only being shaky on perhaps one of ten lunges, the goofy wiggling I did during these step-ups demonstrated my stabilizer muscles were still very weak.

My legs, especially my thighs, were sore and cramping a little after that last workout. I was mainly interested in how my hip would react though. I could feel the joint getting a little inflamed but it wasn't serious. I made myself take Tuesday off, which in retrospect was a mistake because now it is 4:30 am on a school night and I have slept maybe three hours. Yet all day I felt low on energy and almost passed out in the office after school. I suppose the 24 hot wings I threw down this evening could be a contributing factor to my insomnia. I'll certainly be paying that back today.

As far as the leaping goes, I have noticed a definite increase in density and mass of my legs. All the attention I've been heaping on them in the weight room is starting to show some physical results, but I have yet to get an accurate measure of my vertical. My bedroom has ten-foot ceilings and this week I plan on marking off an open spot by the wall for home measurements! I will post that information as soon as I record it.