Road To 90: Rolling With The Punches
It’s Tuesday at about 10 am in the morning. I’m sitting in a chair next to the hospital bed while my wife snuggles our 20-month-old child. This isn’t the first time we’ve had to take him to the ER, but this time RSV was kicking the little guy’s butt. It’s easy to say though, this trip was not planned. Don’t worry, this isn’t a pity party (update: he is doing much better, just a matter of time before he is out), this is just more about the mindset/approach to handling diversity.
This leads me to the main point of this blog: things rarely go as planned. Whether it’s training-related, work/school related, hanging out with your friends, etc., life likes to throw you a curveball when you’re sitting dead red on a fastball. There are different approaches to hitting strategy (pitching guy here so I’m not sure I know what I’m talking about) such as “guessing” or “anticipating” a pitch. The problem that can arise with this is of course when you “guess” wrong. If it’s the first pitch, now you’re behind. If you already have 2 strikes, you could be walking back to the dugout. Now that you’ve guessed wrong, whatever initial plan you had is null and void. There are two options from here:
Get pissed, frustrated, and go further in a hole; or
MAGGIE
Just so we are clear, I’m not really talking only about hitting. Not even sure why I went with a hitting analogy over a pitching one anyways. It’s more of a life analogy that can be applied to hitting, training, pitching, and whatever you do in life.
Anyways, when life throws that unexpected curveball, you can only control one thing: you’re reaction. You can get bitter, pissed, play the victim, and give in. You can let the situation control you and your emotions. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not perfect. Heck, I’ve probably given in more than my fair share. Usually, I get mad and frustrated. I get that “here we go again” attitude and give in to the feeling of not being in control.
Here’s the thing, going this way with option #1, we lose more control and dig ourselves into a deeper hole. That’s the last thing you want to happen. It takes you out of the moment and puts you into fight or flight mode where emotional, survival-based reactions run rampant. What needs to happen is simple, you need to take control back and put the ball back in your hands. How? Simple. Take a deep breath and reset, then remember MAGGIE is your best friend.
Make
Adjustments
Go
Get
It
Energized
This comes from a show I used to watch called How I Met Your Mother. The term “MAGGIE” is something that is made up on the fly from someone’s name. I don’t remember the whole skit but I remember MAGGIE. I know it’s silly and stupid, but it makes me chuckle when I think about it which helps with the reset process and making adjustments.
When plans fall through or just don’t go as you wanted, don’t give in. Instead, make an adjustment and then go after it with the same energy as the original plan. Going to the gym to lift but it’s super busy so you can’t use the necessary equipment? Don’t skip the workout and go home. Use it as an opportunity to try a new workout and attack gains differently. Not seeing the throwing gains you want? Don’t fold, ask yourself if you’re doing everything correctly, find out what you’re missing, make slight alterations then attack them. Got a mid-term and can’t work out? Maybe wake up early then you can get it in or adjust your workout to a shorter, quicker deload week so you can spend more effort on studying. Is one of your pitches not working? Change your approach to what is working that day rather than beat your head into a wall.
Basically, MAGGIE comes down to how badly you really want it. Are you going to lie down when you get challenged? Or are you going to Make Adjustments and Go Get It Energized?
So I’ve been provided with a couple of obstacles lately. The first one was that I overdid my throwing leading up to velo so my arm has some decent general soreness/tightness which is a bummer. Second is all this time I’m spending in the hospital. I knew getting on a mobility/recovery day is what my body needed but guess what, that’s not happening. I spent just enough time away from the hospital to get athletes to work. My sleep has also been trash since the boy has been sick so besides my shoulder, the rest of my body doesn’t feel recovered. As far as training goes, I’ve dug myself into a little hole.
Time to Make Adjustments:
Originally tried normal weight during strength training but back it down
Kept throwing light
Added a couple of arm care exercise series to be started next week
Did not attempt to do recovery or mobility today
Moving mobility to tomorrow
Keep throwing and weight lifting low on Thursday until sleep caught up
Making adjustments is the easy part. It’s easy to plan out. The key is attacking it just like it’s the original plan. Getting energized again. Especially when the new plan involves toning it down and doing the “boring” stuff like mobility and low-intent throwing/lifting.
Tomorrow I’m gonna hammer out some mobility and possibly put STIM on my arm. We are getting moved to a bigger room and I happen to have my STIM in my backpack so this is the best I can do. This will go a long way towards getting moving better. Next, I’m gonna nap and sleep as much as the sick baby these next couple of days. Being in a sleep debt is not great for the body’s recovery process so I need to catch back up.
Here’s what we have on deck for the next couple of weeks:
Thursday 1/19: More than likely a lighter day; showcasing the jump and shoulder strength testing that is being experimented with for assessments
Saturday 1/21: Baseline Plyo Velo (Live?)
Sunday 1/22: Blog post (maybe 2 depending on what I get done at the hospital); Weight Training
Monday 1/23: Blog post on pre-Baseline Mound Velo Journal Entries
Tuesday 1/24: Content around New Shoulder Band Workout for In-Lab athletes who are on-ramping
Friday 1/27: Content around the bicep tendonitis workout we are beta testing
Sunday 1/29: Blog post on assessment results along with training plan
So this is somewhat the schedule for content going forward. By now though, you should know that could change. Between the hospital and it is busy in The Lab, my bandwidth is stretched. There are more important things than training for myself and as I like to remind myself, this is a year-long project so there is time. But I’m not going to let myself complain and give in. I’m gonna fight, compete, and make adjustments to get everything done. Like, take advantage of the writing and computer time I have when I can’t sleep this week. Find the positive and go with it.
Remember, you control your reaction. So don’t let the bumps in the road wreck your car. Instead, just MAGGIE.
