Raptron on Ice but the Floor is Lava?

[raptron]

Gymnastics season continues! This time... WITH A VENGEANCE... and ice capades?!?! I'll continue to strive for 2-3x per week of lifting, 2-3x per week gymnastics, and yoga 1x per week. More weeks will probably shake out to be 3 gymnastics/2 lifting than the other way around, which is good for the season. BUT, that isn't the goals. That's just like... what I do because I like to do it. 

 

What are my GOALS?

 

Okay, well this is what is going on -- 

 

Upcoming Events:

2/16 - Local gymnastics meet

2/22 - 2/24 - Vermont gymnastics weekend w/a meet on Feb. 23

3/9 - 3/12 - LA trip w/meet on Mar. 11 

 

3 meets! With that in mind, most of my focus will be on improving my gymnastics routines and skills over the next 4-5 weeks.

 

Beyond gymnastics, I'm going to tackle a bit of financial reprioritization. I've spent a lot of money in the last couple of months with the holidays, moving-related expenses, and front loading some of my travel purchases into the start of the year. But, my  #1 extraneous cost category is food and drink (you don't even want to know how much I spent last month). Meals out and/or 4+ hours of $12 cocktails... add up to a lot. And while I generally love and cherish these experiences, they can take a bit of a break this month. Because there are two trip this challenge, I'm going to focus on reducing that spend during everyday normal time.

 

Finally, I uncovered my journal from when I was 13-14 and I talk a lot about how much time I spend writing for recreation/personal entertainment. I do only a little right now in the form of poetry mostly, but I'd like to get back into it! I have a lot of "what's the point if it's not going to be good/no one is going to read it" feelings about it now that I apparently didn't have back then. I'd like to tap into that self-assurance that any use of my time that pleases me is a good use.  

 

1. Upgrade season

• Must practice 2 of the 3 at each gymnastics practice
  • on beam - front walkover + round-off
  • on floor - fhs front pike front tuck
  • on bars - free hip into flyaway on high bar
• Vault once per week
• Spend time on active splits drills once per week 

2. 5s isn't conditioning like 10s is

• Conditioning focused THING 1x per week

3. Food and beverage maximum

• Do not exceed 6 dinners/lunches/2+ drink "meals" out between Feb 11 - Mar 8
• Cap of 1 breakfast pastry per week 

4. Write

• Set a timer and write 2x per week -- can be characters/story for D&D, poetry, or a new project!

 

[Mad Hatter]

7 minutes ago, raptron said:

I'm going to tackle a bit of financial reprioritization

Much adult!

 

6 minutes ago, raptron said:

I'd like to tap into that self-assurance that any use of my time that pleases me is a good use.  

Exactly, you're an adult you can do whatever you want.  

[RogueLibrarian]

[sylph]

<3

[KB Girl]

Three meets in one month? phew! 

How far do you have to travel for those? Do they include an overnight stay? 

 

I like the writing goal but I hope it doesn't end up being something you have to do instead of something enjoyable as you intend it to be.. though maybe you have to go through the first 'have to' phase before it becomes purely enjoyable again? 

[bigm141414]

33 minutes ago, raptron said:

 

3. Food and beverage maximum

• Cap of 1 breakfast pastry per week 

 

 

 

Here for the week long deliberations on pastry selections. "Will the dependable donut get the rose this week? Or will she choose the exotic pain au chocolat? Tune in to The Pastry-ette and find out!"

[Mike Wazowski]

Yay adulting! (well, kinda yay - if we all have to do it eventually, we may as well celebrate doing it?)

 

I guess I'll +1 being intensely curious which pastry gets chosen each week?

 

And yay for writing for writing's sake!

[raptron]

49 minutes ago, KB Girl said:

Three meets in one month? phew! 

How far do you have to travel for those? Do they include an overnight stay? 

Welllll, normally we mostly participate in meets that are within 2 hours of home and do not need an overnight stay. We're getting a bit antsy/ambitious this year because there aren't as many local meets being offered. We traditionally do a winter retreat up in Vermont or New Hampshire (north of Boston) with winter sports and the like. This year, there is a meet offered by a school in Vermont (4 hour drive), and one of our teammate's family's has a ski house nearby they are offering up for us to use for the weekend -- so we're combining traveling for a competition with a winter team bonding weekend. 

The March meet is in Los Angeles... so not exactly close either (5+ hour flight) . BUT the UCLA team (of viral gymnastics video fame) has a home meet in March where they leave up the equipment, which the club team then uses to host a club level meet! We're going to watch the main meet as spectators and then suit up and compete on the equipment with the club teams afterwards. It's a really cool opportunity and just SOUNDS FUN AS HELL. Plus our flights out there were super cheap. And we've rented a house in the Hills with a pool and hot tub. And a few of us are staying a couple of extra days to just vacation in Los Angeles. 

 

Quote

I like the writing goal but I hope it doesn't end up being something you have to do instead of something enjoyable as you intend it to be.. though maybe you have to go through the first 'have to' phase before it becomes purely enjoyable again? 

I think so! Plus, I think it's a matter of making the time for it. If I a set a timer and it's a total bust then, whatever. No harm done.  

 

39 minutes ago, bigm141414 said:

Here for the week long deliberations on pastry selections. "Will the dependable donut get the rose this week? Or will she choose the exotic pain au chocolat? Tune in to The Pastry-ette and find out!"

24 minutes ago, Mike Wazowski said:

I guess I'll +1 being intensely curious which pastry gets chosen each week?

I'll include in-depth analysis for those of you tuning in from home. 

 

 

[Mad Hatter]

Both the LA and Vermont meets sound fantastic!!!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following.

[WhiteGhost]

Coming here for all of the gymnastics, staying for all of the adulting and pastry drama

 

 

[KB Girl]

Oh those do sound very awesome, well worth the trip/expenses  

How big is your team anyway? 

[raptron]

17 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Both the LA and Vermont meets sound fantastic!!!

51 minutes ago, KB Girl said:

Oh those do sound very awesome, well worth the trip/expenses  

I feel a little silly because I'm doing these two trips, then Nationals in April to Florida. And of course, I can't miss gymnastics camp in Tennessee in August. That's 4 trips just for gymnastics this year.  

BUT I LOVE THEM ALL.

 

Quote

How big is your team anyway? 

It's gotten BIG. I think the total team count is close to 40. We're fielding 12-15 women and 2-5 men per competition. And have a slew of folks who don't compete or haven't competed with us in a while. We're very serious.

 

We have 12 women planning on competing the same women's level at Nationals this year and it will definitely be tricky to make the teams without hurting ALL OF THE FEELINGS. Only 3 scores count per team per event this year (it used to be 4) but you can have 8 gymnasts compete on each. There is a good argument to split the group into two groups and go for two team scores. Howeverrrr, the second group would probably not be good enough to make it to finals, but the first group might be. And then it turns into a question of, well, if the first group might, do we want to really stack it with the best routines even if that means that not everyone can compete all of the events that they want to? I'm on the Board so this is part of the dramaaaa we're dealing with this season.  

 

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

5 minutes ago, raptron said:

We have 12 women planning on competing the same women's level at Nationals this year and it will definitely be tricky to make the teams without hurting ALL OF THE FEELINGS. Only 3 scores count per team per event this year (it used to be 4) but you can have 8 gymnasts compete on each. There is a good argument to split the group into two groups and go for two team scores. Howeverrrr, the second group would probably not be good enough to make it to finals, but the first group might be. And then it turns into a question of, well, if the first group might, do we want to really stack it with the best routines even if that means that not everyone can compete all of the events that they want to? I'm on the Board so this is part of the dramaaaa we're dealing with this season.  

 

The best thing to do is let everyone in the club know that the board is struggling with this. 

[raptron]

Day 0.1

My legs were definitely sore from squatting on Sunday, but that didn't keep me out of the gym. It seems like I might be doing all of my sets beltless while my tattoo heals because my ribs definitely scrape against the belt when I do certain things and I don't really want to ruin my FRESH INK. That's all good though. Beltless training is kind of like a variation? Haha.

 

Beltless deads:

5 x 135

5 x 185

5 x 225

5 x 245

5 x 255 <-- me seeing if I should do this weight or go heavier

3 x 5 x 265 <-- deciding to go heavier

3 x 275 for shits and giggles 

 

Kneeling one-arm db presses: 4 x 12 x 25#

Toes-to-bar medley (center, left, right, center): 3 x 4

Bulgarian split squats: 4 x 10 x 35#

 

I did some stretching after as well because I hadn't stretched since the meet on Sunday the previous week and my hip flexors were like "lol wtf is going on." And with my stretching I threw in some of the terrible child's pose glute max and glute med leg lifts. Let's go, butt! 

 

Gymnastics: 0/3 new skill practices, 0/1 vaulting, 0/1 active split drills

Conditioning: 0/1 THING

Food and bev: 0/6 max over challenge, 0/1 breakfast pastry thunderdome

Writing: 0/2 writing seshes

[KB Girl]

Ok I'm very sorry but it's good to know that I'm not the only one dealing with sports drama.. we're trying to book a place to stay for worlds right now and the group has gotten too big to rent one apartment/house so it's like, how do we split the group? all the feelings. Hope you'll figure it out without too much stress

 

And 4 gymnastic trips.. well.. isn't a huge part of doing a sport the excuse to travel and hang out with people? Planning around spectating/wintersports etc, it sounds like you know what you're doing!

 

[raptron]

38 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

The best thing to do is let everyone in the club know that the board is struggling with this. 

Yep, transparency is part of the goal. It does make it a bit harder because people are quick to say that they don't care what the teams are, but then their behavior makes it clear that they DO really care. There have been past incidents where team compositions were decided behind the curtain and that made people even more upset. It's not my direct decision to make about how this is going to be split up, but I do have some say and most of my say so far is "talk to the people and see what they really want," haha.

 

22 minutes ago, KB Girl said:

Ok I'm very sorry but it's good to know that I'm not the only one dealing with sports drama.. we're trying to book a place to stay for worlds right now and the group has gotten too big to rent one apartment/house so it's like, how do we split the group? all the feelings. Hope you'll figure it out without too much stress

Thank you! Luckily travel tends to be the easier side of the equation for most of this.

 

22 minutes ago, KB Girl said:

And 4 gymnastic trips.. well.. isn't a huge part of doing a sport the excuse to travel and hang out with people? Planning around spectating/wintersports etc, it sounds like you know what you're doing!

Oh, totally. My two very best friends are from the team -- and I'm good friends with many others. It's definitely a good excuse to go on trips with my buddies.

[CourtnieMarie]

yay travel!! haaaa i'll be in VT the weekend after you.

 

[Mike Wazowski]

That drama yo - definitely remember those decisions not fondly from assigning partnerings for competitions in college for ballroom (because there were NEVER enough boys to go around and there were some clearly stronger and weaker guys).

[Grumble]

You've got your hands very very full. I don't envy your board drama.

 

Side note. UCLA is less than 15 miles from my house. Assuming you have the time, I need to punch card for my next nerd meetup. If I make 5 in a year I get a free bag of dice.

[Mad Hatter]

4 hours ago, raptron said:

I feel a little silly because I'm doing these two trips, then Nationals in April to Florida. And of course, I can't miss gymnastics camp in Tennessee in August. That's 4 trips just for gymnastics this year.  

I fail to see what the issue is here.

 

Also I like those leos. But the drama really does sound terrible, good luck with that!

 

 

[Suzaqu]

Here for the adulting and pastries! 

 

Sorry to hear about the team drama. I agree about the transparency, even if people don't love the results, hopefully they'll understand the process was fair! 

[raptron]

19 hours ago, Grumble said:

Side note. UCLA is less than 15 miles from my house. Assuming you have the time, I need to punch card for my next nerd meetup. If I make 5 in a year I get a free bag of dice.

Oh right!!! Yes! Let's hang! 

 

19 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Also I like those leos. But the drama really does sound terrible, good luck with that!

Omg, getting new leos was probably the hardest thing we've ever done collectively. And the woman who organized/planned the whole thing hates them after all............

 

But it's fine. I think we all look badass. 

 

Day 0.2

Gymnastics practice has shifted to be 30 minutes later on Tuesday and Thursdays -- a request from the facility. None of us are very happy about it. Practice is now done at 9:30 pm on weeknights. Oof. That being said, I did get to test out going home for an hour before going to practice...? It was okay. I just didn't know what to do with that time. Maybe I could turn it into some kind of productive time? Organizing or tidying or folding laundry when that's needed again? I'll mull it over.

 

Once I did get to practice, though, I was feeling pretty good. My legs were tired from the previous two lifting days, but it had been 8 days since I'd been at gymnastics! And I was ready to get things done. As usual, I started with tumbling. I got 3 front handspring + front pike + front tucks to my feet, including one that was actually pretty good. Sweet.

 

Then I went to balance beam and spent most of my time working on my front walkover into round-off series. I got 5 on the beam with possible real connections, including two that I did within a beam routine! I'm excited about that. I'm still having a lot of trouble keeping my second leg up as I come out of the front walkover -- which isn't a problem for me on floor, so I think it's probably a confidence/mental cueing issue. I'll work on some drills to help it out next practice. My 3 beam routines went moderately well. I only fell on my full turns, which I hadn't really warmed up on the floor at all either, so I'm not too upset.

 

I finished up with ankle prehab on balance boards and  active split drills (with stall bars instead of mats):

 

 

I realized I'll be taking another week or so off of uneven bars, probably, while my tattoo heals. I'm not too mad about it, but feel silly for not having considered it sooner.

 

Gymnastics: 1/3 new skill practices, 0/1 vaulting, 1/1 active split drills

Conditioning: 0/1 THING

Food and bev: 0/6 max over challenge, 0/1 breakfast pastry thunderdome

Writing: 0/2 writing seshes

 

I also slept SO SOUNDLY last night and actually got up with my first alarm instead of my second. Heck yes.

[WhiteGhost]

27 minutes ago, raptron said:

Practice is now done at 9:30 pm on weeknights

That does not sound like a winning time slot for people with full time jobs on the side

[Mike Wazowski]

HECK YES sound sleep!!!