Testing....

I re-read the posts from Nationals last year and got all wistful. And then I thought "wow I bet there's an app that will let me blog from my phone!" And then I thought "that could be dangerous....". So here's a test post from the Blogger app. Have to get everything all set. A week from tomorrow I will be in full on hockey vacation mode. Muahahaha this is going to be fun!

Run, Goalie, Run

When I was in high school I thought it would be a great idea to play field hockey. Ok, no I didn't. I was a quiet, loner type of kid and my Mom resorted to bribery to get me to participate in an afterschool activity. The carrot on the stick was a phone in my room. Since I loved hockey so much, I figured hey, why not play field hockey. (At the time there was no ice hockey team at my school, and certainly nothing available for girls). I soon discovered I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I remember two things the most from that experience: running, and what a horribly cliquey group the team was. Ok, three things: I was also terrible. I wasn't a goalie though, so clearly that was the problem. I ran all summer, because we were told we had to be able to run a 7 minute mile (I got up to 7:26). I ran for a week straight during "camp" before school started. Early in the morning, through the wet grass, through the muddy woods, in the rain, we ran. And ran. And ran some more. And then we did drills, which was more running. And played games, which was running, running, running. Maybe I hate running so much because I associate it with my field hockey experience. As an example of how crappy it made me feel, consider the end-of-season team dinner (held in the school cafeteria, of course). They gave out awards, and when it came time for "Most Improved" they went on at length about how terrible this person was when they started, and how much progress they'd made. And then they called my name. Gee. Thanks. At least it was better than having a nick-name bestowed upon me by the "cool girls" on the team. No, I won't tell you what it was.

And now it's many years later (let's not start counting how many) and I'm rarin' to go on my new goalie training program. I have some kind of idea of what it might contain, having done Maria's programs before. The closest they came to running was doing footwork on an agility ladder. (Actually one segment had an optional run-up-a-hill part, but that was optional, so I opted out.) Imagine my dismay when I discovered a huge component of the first phase of the program is - you guessed it - running. At least it's not "run a 7 minute mile". Or "run for 45 minutes". No, it's shuttle runs. And sprinting. And lateral movement. All very goalie-y. So, I sucked it up and went to a nearby park with a paved running/biking track, measured out my 30 meters (with a 5 foot measuring tape), and marked the distance with cones. There were a few other people out and about, some jogging, some walking. One old guy asked me if I was taking a picture, because I was standing with my phone resetting the stopwatch feature. I think my times on the shuttle runs are probably horrendous. And they were pretty rough, but I compared them to doing Herbies in practice. On my last lap of my last set, when I felt like dying, I heard GoalieHusband's voice in my head, yelling "Come on, Goalie, let's go!!!" and pushed to the finish. I consider it a huge accomplishment that I didn't flop on the ground in the nice cool grass.

So, I guess I can handle it. Even though the running workout is twice per week. *grumble* I think I will continue to go to the park, because I like quiet early mornings, and even though I technically could run in the street by my house, I feel way too uncomfortable doing that. I'm actually pretty proud of myself. I've been dreading doing this, but it wasn't really as bad as I thought it would be. (It still sucked though). I like the feeling of accomplishment I have today. Hopefully I will be able to remember it on Thursday when I'm out there again, sucking wind on the track.

Greetings, old friend(s)

Making this blog as public as I have has been a bit of a double edged sword. It's neat that my friends and teammates can read it and comment on it, and it's fun knowing other goalies and goalie fans across cyber space have stumbled onto it, either through twitter or other means. Unfortunately it also means that I censored myself quite a bit this season, and haven't felt comfortable voicing all of my thoughts here, knowing that a lot of people I know could possibly read them. I know... that's the whole point of a blog, right? But I really miss it, and so I'm going to try to find that balance between musing/sharing my thoughts and remembering that other people besides me are reading this.

Since my last post was about the all star weekend, I might as well do a quick season wrap-up. As you may recall, I split my time between two teams, the Red team (club team, not in the league) and the White team (in the White D1 division). I'm terrible and don't know the records offhand, but I believe the Red team finished something like 10-10-5. It was a very interesting season, because we had several new players. Two completely brand new to playing hockey, and one who had played elsewhere but had been off for a few years. The difference between that first practice and our last one was simply amazing. Tons of credit to GoalieHusband (head coach of the team) and Hkygrl12 (assistant coach) for teaching them so well. It was a little strange at first, having a very different group of people after the new (White) team was formed, but we really came together. We went to a tournament in February and all the rookies were with us, and what a blast we had. I think the tournament is what sealed the closeness within the team.

The White team finished first in the D1 division. Finishing first is accomplishment enough, but doing so your first season in the league, and your first season as a team, no less, is pretty exciting. There was the same get-to-know-you period going on with the White team, as we had some people formerly on the Red team, some formerly on the Blue team, and a few new members as well. I'm proud to say that team became just as tight as the Red team, and even better, both teams intermingle socially to the point where it just feels like one giant team. Actually it feels like a family. If someone had told me that I'd be feeling like this at the end of this season I wouldn't have believed them, given how unsure everyone was of how the 3-team system was going to work. Watching one teammate go through a difficult time off the ice and seeing how she was taken under the wing of one of the veterans, and generally supported by the whole team, was really moving. Hockey really is an incredible community.

Erm.... where was I? Oh right, the end of the White season. I probably veered off because I don't really want to think about how it ended (ice-wise).  We went to the semi-final as the first seeded team, playing the fourth. In truth, I think we took the other team a little lightly. I think our success went to our heads a little and we were looking past that game to the championship game. I think given our circumstances it was kind of understandable that we were all a little giddy. Unfortunately we didn't expect the other team to be as physical and tenacious as they were (they hadn't played that way during the season) and it kind of set us back on our heels a little. The final score was 4-2. I couldn't get off that ice fast enough. I felt like the entire weight of the result was on my shoulders. When we got into the locker room it was very quiet, and I felt tears coming on (wtf??!?) and buried my head. Someone said "no one in this room should hang their heads, we had an incredible season" and I just lost it.  I was off in my own little world of self-recrimination, sobbing quietly in the corner, head down so others wouldn't see me, and the next thing I knew a teammate was draped over me, enclosing me in a giant hug, and telling me I had NOTHING to be upset about, that we win and lose as a team. I actually don't even really remember exactly what she said, I just remember the feeling of her arms around me and the support coming off of her. I'm getting teary just thinking about it now. I eventually calmed down enough to be joking ruefully with everyone else. I'll tell you something though, mine were not the only eyes rimmed in red when we left that locker room. No crying in hockey, my ass. Losing like that really, really stung.

That loss, that feeling, and the very serendipitous timing of @revcon's special offer for the Ultimate Goalie Training VIP program prompted me to get my ass back into training. No more slacking. For whatever reason, ever since I came back from the knee injury, I just could not get back into a consistent rhythm working out. I'd get all gung-ho and get myself to the gym a few days one week, and then it was back to hitting the snooze button and feeling like a slacker and a slug all day.

So what's different about UGT VIP? Don't I already have a full UGT program sitting downstairs gathering dust? The thing that I think is the key with this one is the interactive coaching aspect of it. This program is a monthly one, paid for in installments. It's a six-phase program, one phase per month. You get access to the training logs, videos, etc for the phase of training you're doing, plus an online forum for members and a monthly webinar with Maria. It's fantastic. I know I should be my own motivator, but having the accountability component to this is what I think is making the difference for me. And I was lucky enough to jump on board when she was offering the program at an extremely discounted rate. It certainly wouldn't be feasible for me otherwise.

It's been a week and I'm loving it. I'm doing the in-season schedule instead of the off-season schedule because of all the tournaments. I also wanted to make it more realistic- if I went full bore on the off-season schedule I think I'd have a much higher chance of slacking off and having it fall by the wayside. And in response to a forum post about my motivation concerns, Maria said to set a goal for the next 30 days, and hold myself accountable. If I don't achieve that goal what will I give up? You have to set that ahead of time, to make it concrete. So I've made my goal to stick to the schedule for 30 days. If I fail at that, I will not be allowed to buy Dunkin Donuts coffee on my way to work for a whole month. (Believe me, that's a sacrifice. I think they put crack in it).

So you read it here. Now I'm accountable to myself, the UGT team, and all my blog readers. If that doesn't motivate me, I don't know what will. Oh yeah.... that awful feeling in the locker room after that loss. Nothing inspires victory like the bitter feeling of defeat. Look out, bitches. I know it's a team sport but I'm working my ass off right now to be the best goalie I can possibly be. No excuses.

PS - Back in Florida for Nationals in 10 days. We got bumped up a level after winning it all last year, so we have our work cut out for us. Stay tuned.

Still Giddy

Two games and 69 shots later (9 shots in one game, 60 in the other), I'm still giddy about the "all-star" game on Saturday. I was grinning like an idiot today at work telling people about it. So I'm back to share some pictures. For the most part I keep this blog vaguely anonymous, but ever since I linked it to my twitter account and GoalieCrease.net account I've long since lost any illusions of privacy. Might as well post some pictures, right? Here are some of my favorites:

The corner of the locker room I dubbed "Goalie Land", since when I walked in it already had two bags, sets of pads, and sticks there, and a third empty chair just waiting for me and my load of crap:

My entrance onto the ice from the tunnel - I knew GoalieHusband was there somewhere, and I wanted to look around for him, but I was busy trying my hardest not to make an idiot of myself by falling the second I stepped onto the ice:

Here's a shot of me and the other goalie making our way to the sin bin while we waited our turns (I'm #39):

And here is a sequence captured by our team photographer- "the save" that had everyone on the bench asking "Whose goalie is that??!?" (according to Hkygrl12, who said she was proud to say "MINE!"). Before I put the pictures up I will add a caveat: this is a really really awful save, in terms of technique. It looks even more awful if you don't realize that in the first picture I'm squared up perfectly to the person with the puck - who is not the person with the puck a millisecond later in the next picture. I squared up to the shooter, but there was a wide open person on the top of the crease, and the (original) shooter passed to her the second I got set. I should have slid over instead of diving, but my instinct was to dive, and I got awfully lucky that I was able to knock it away (and that the rebound got scooped up by my D and not the other team). I'm almost cringing, putting it here where people who know what they're looking at will realize how sloppy it is, but, it kept the puck out of the net, and it made everyone cheer. You can't really argue with that. 

And last but not least, my very favorite picture. GoalieHusband usually has to work on Saturdays but he arranged his schedule so he could have the day off, and it meant a lot to me to have him there. I think he had almost as much fun as I did, being down there with "his girls". Here we are with shit-eating all-star grins after the game:



All-Star (sort of) weekend

It's not very often your run of the mill beer leaguer who started playing in their 30's gets a chance to skate on professional ice, in a "real" arena. But that's exactly what I was doing on Saturday afternoon, and it was just as awesome as I expected it to be.

The league one of my teams is in holds what they call a "Classic" every year. Apparently it used to be an all-star game, but they changed it somewhat. Everyone still calls it the all-star game, even though I feel a little strange calling it that because based on stats, there's no way I'd be in it. But I was, and I stole the goaltending show for my side, so maybe it wasn't completely unwarranted for me to be there. It was held in Hershey this year, though I understand in other years it's usually an NHL affair. There were two different games (different levels), and later that evening everyone came back to watch the Hershey Bears vs the (I can't even type this with a straight face) Connecticut Whale. The league did a fantastic job with it, and I soaked in every minute of it, from stepping out onto the ice from the tunnel (don't trip... don't trip... don't trip...) to the end when it was over and everyone was taking pictures.

The benches were packed; with four full forward lines and three lines of D, there wasn't any room for us three goalies, so the two who weren't playing got to have a seat in the penalty box. That was pretty amusing. Even more so was the quip by the ref as we went in. I made a comment about how we had already been bad, and she said "this is your penance for all the times your teammates have had to sit for your penalties." I suppose that's fair.

There were three goalies for each side, so I sat for the first two periods and played the last. Still, with only 12 minutes of playing time I managed to get into the flow quickly and ended up with three bench-banging, audience cheering (!!!) saves. We were down 4-3 when I went in, and fortunately our forwards scored to tie it up. I kept my end of the bargain and flat out robbed a girl on a 2 on 1 with one of those saves my glove makes all by itself, and another desperation save where I launched myself to my left to stop a shot that was coming from an open player on the weak side. One of the spectators told me I looked like I was completely horizontal and not touching the ice at all, flying through the air.

There were several other QCats on my side, and one on the other side. It was really an experience playing with them in a game like that. Several other teammates made the trip out as spectators as well, so we ended up with a pretty large group tailgating in the parking lot between our game and the Bears game. It was the most pathetic tailgate ever in the history of tailgates I think. But it was also a ton of fun- other than the part where we nearly blew ourselves up with a small portable propane stove that wouldn't light. Until it WHOOOSHED into life, flames engulfing the whole thing. Most of us ran away from it, but one quick thinking Cat doused it with water, and we were able to take the propane canister out and keep the two components safely apart. Frankly, I'm surprised she found water so quickly. Most of what we were drinking was flammable.

Being at the Bears game was fun too; there aren't any AHL teams near us, and it's not a big college hockey area, so options for watching a live game of pro or similar caliber are limited. This was the first game most of us had been to this season, and it re-ignited the thrill of watching the greatest game on earth, live. Being able to hear the puck hit a stick on a perfect tape-to-tape pass, the sound of the skates on the ice, just watching the whole thing unfold... we all really missed it.

Tonight I'm subbing in the AIL, where the last version of the Hawks most recently played. The team pretty much disbanded, but one guy is still playing, and asked if I could sub. Eco_panda is on the team as well, so it should be fun. And the team we're playing against has a QCat too. It'll be her last game in the league for the foreseeable future, so naturally she'll be gunning for a goal. And of course, I plan on stopping her.

My Desk is Boring

As I suspected, last night's game evened things out in the shot department. There's no official count for these games, but I counted 42. We lost 4-1 and even though it's a loss, the overall consensus is that we played very well against a very strong team. The one thing that seemed to vex us for the whole game was having open players in front of the net. I never figured it out - I was too beat by the end - but there seemed to always be extra open people by the net, even with the D covering their man (woman....I guess... just sounds weird). I guess they were sending another player in low behind them. Not sure about that but I was a busy goalie and I felt I had a really good game. Two things I noticed about my play: I had a much more active stick than usual, and I pulled out the Hasek acrobatics more than once. (Seriously. I did one barrel roll so fast I almost made myself dizzy). I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. It either means I was out of position and scrambling, or it means I was throwing everything I had into it, to make the stop. Sometimes ya gotta make one that's not all that pretty, but if the puck stays out, that's what counts. But I was really in the zone, and I love, love, love that feeling.  Now I'm back at my desk, counting beans for Corporate America. I wish I could just be on the ice all the time. #GoalieAfterglow

Most Awkward Game Ever

Well, that was just about as weird as I thought it would be. It was strange enough being on the other end of the ice from my teammates, but when play started and I had to yell "man on", etc., to the team I was playing for, I felt like a traitor. This team, however, was made up of all 20-something girls fresh out of college, with absolutely boundless energy and amazing skill. As a result, I didn't have to do too much. I think I had 5 or 6 shots. Which was absolutely fine with me, except for the fact that it meant that Bacardi was getting absolutely hammered (haha no pun intended) at the other end. The final score was 11-0, and it could have been much, much worse if the Wunderkinds hadn't backed off and focused on passing instead of making it a shooting gallery.

The strangest thing for me was seeing our team from a perspective I never see them; that of the other goalie. I am very glad I don't have to face #66, our very strong power forward, with a foaming-at-the-mouth tenacity for puck possession and a wicked shot. Seeing her come flying in on the forecheck was pretty intimidating! And our diminutive but speedy center known as "Pirate" was just as annoying around the net as she is in practice. No one ever seems to notice her buzzing around on the back door. So, in that regard it was pretty cool, seeing our forwards in action from a perspective other than hustling down on a backcheck or executing a breakout. Still, that is something I will never do again. Ever. It was just too weird. I had to stop thinking of them as the individual people they are and think of them as just some team in white. I have to say I am glad I got the shutout, if only because a goal on 5 shots would have made for a terrible save percentage going on the books.

We have another game today. By "we" I mean QC Red. (This multi-team thing is so confusing). It's a home game, early on a Sunday evening, so we'll have a bench full beyond bursting. I think all 17 of our players will be there, and so we'll probably doing some kind of team picture- I just hope it's before the game and not after. I'm going to be a very busy goalie today, this team we're facing is quite good. Two players who usually play on our tournament team are on this team, and it's always a fun challenge to face them.

Speaking of challenges, I have my work cut out for me. I've long known that I'm horribly un-flexible, in goalie terms, and today I had it unilaterally confirmed. Super awesome goalie fitness and training guru Maria Mountain posted a 9-point goalie assessment on her site a few days ago. Today I finally got around to taking it. I wasn't surprised by the results. In the area of mobility, I flunked big time. The only test I passed in that area was the one that was part of the butterfly flare widening program of hers that I did a while back. Hmmm... coincidence? Doubtful. Lesson learned: stretching DOES make a difference. Fortunately in stability and strength I passed with flying colors. But as she points out, what good are those if you don't have a strong  foundation of mobility? Time to get to work on some serious stretching. I'd started planning out a fitness program that works with my schedule, and interestingly enough, I made stretching a big part of it, with injury prevention in mind. Hey, I'm 38, and I have had a few small reminders in the past week or so that my body is not as young as it used to be.  But now I know exactly which areas to focus on.  So I guess I'll spend a little less time on the stationary bike and a little more time stretching. My plan is to do the assessment again in 3 months and see if there is any improvement.

Oh yeah, and the lockout is over. Almost forgot about that. I'm of two minds about it. There's the "meh, whatever, I'm totally disgusted" part of me, but then there's the "ZOMG HOCKEY'S BACK!!!!!!!! THERE WILL BE STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS! YEEEAHHHHHH!!!!" part. The latter part is winning out, but you can be sure I won't be buying any tickets or merchandise for quite a while. Will it matter much in the long run? Probably not. And if we all did that, the owners would cry even more poverty and there we go again... but at least it makes me feel like I'm not TOTALLY drinking the Kool-Aid. I just want to watch some hockey, dammit. The WJC was awesome and now that it's over I want more. Oh I get to watch Tuukka again? Yeah, I'm not that mad/disgusted. Give me the remote.