General Thoughts on The Week

It was good week for me. PB&J tested well; increased his VJ by 2.5" and SLJ by 7.5". When his VJ is normalized for his bodyweight and expressed as Watts, his average (2000+) and peak power output is good (8800+).

The Thin Man (16. y.o., 6' 7" and 175 lbs, volleyball player) started training with me. He has a long way to go, but is a great kid and will do well if he is consistent and focused. Our initial work will focus on hip strength and mobility, along with general body awareness and ground-based footwork. And of course, we hope build some infrastructure, i.e. lean body mass, on that frame. It will be even more fun if his 6' 3" twin sister joins us.

Had a great ride on Wednesday with a group of very strong women. I have a ways to go to get back into decent riding shape. Out of that group, I have at least two kick-ass women who want to do some off-season work with me. They will learn how to train effectively for their sport and not waste any time on the traditional off-season weight training for cyclists crap.

Overtime had a good session in the gym and found the visual feedback from Dartfish very useful. He was able to make some key adjustments in technique and was psyched to see that he was making progress. Video feedback is not just about pointing out mistakes; it also allows the athlete to see what they are doing well and right.

The AD is psyched about the progress of the Big Dig at school. If the weather cooperates over the next 8 weeks, we could have only the third Mondo FTX running surface in the US down by the end of Fall. Football won 28-0. Connor Callahan won the RimRock Invitational CC meet in Kansas. The DeSmet Invitational swim meet went well and teams from around the state had the chance to swim in the venue that will host the state swim meet in November.

After all the good stuff, the rest of the news is a little underwhelming. I am mad. You greedy 'effing, short-selling, speculating Wall Street investment bank bastards. Balance sheets full of fraudulent accounting and lies. It is sickening. How do you people look at yourself in the mirror? What is your reality?

Jackson Browne says it for me in his song, The Pretender:
I'm going to be a happy idiot
And struggle for the legal tender
Where the ads take aim and lay their claim
To the heart and the soul of the spender
And believe in whatever may lie
In those things that money can buy
Though true love could have been a contender
Are you there?
Say a prayer for the Pretender
Who started out so young and strong
Only to surrender

Comments

Anonymous said…
Tracy, It has been neat to watch you athletes (including the ole man overtime) improve. Orie's lifting looks totally different now. I would love to jump in on these sessions more often. As far as your feelings on these bankers, amen to that. Greed, power, and corporate mentality is killing this country. We want to be the richest and the greatest? I don't think those two things mix well. I grow more confused about this world and the people in it.
5:42 PM
Joe Przytula said…
It's not only Wall Street types. How many morons out there do we know who all though they would become millionaires by "flipping" houses..."no money down" high risk balloon mortgages with the premise of making your money back by expectations the real estate market would keep going up. How many cable shows, not to mention infomercials are dedicated to this. How many people do you know of that left their careers to become real estate agents? I can name a handful myself. Wall street is just a dirty reflection of us- umm, well not me- I am in the audience on the Jackson Browne album "Running on empty" on "just another town along the road". A good JB song for me, you, and Vern- "Next Voice you Hear".
6:23 PM
Tracy Fober said…
Yes, Joe P., there are many stupid, greedy people, at all levels. There are some mortgage people out there who are lower than a snake's belly in a wagon track. And then there are the people who actually got the mortgages w/o the understanding of the loan and their responsibilities to it.

What a tangled web we weave as a society.
9:03 PM
Orie said…
You are so right about the positive feedback (in addition to the negative) that comes with observing playback of one's lifts. I was so happy to see my elbows high at the bottom of the clean on Saturday. It's taken a year, but finally seeing them out in front on the playback really buoyed my confidence in my squat clean, which I needed badly.

The ability to watch one's technique right after the lift, see the adjustments that need to be made, and go directly back to the platform makes a day in the gym extremely productive.

Thanks, Tracy!
8:25 AM
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