Category: Sports

The Desperado tryouts are only 26 days away now and for those of you who were confused, I am trying out to play Football for them, not to dance for them.

The Dallas Desperados are an Arena football team and they play at the American Airlines Center – so it won’t be my first time to perform there, it will just be a totally different kind of performance.

Lately I’ve been doing a great deal of praying because I keep breaking my body down and then rebuilding it and the pain, the good kind as well as the bad, need something stronger than Advil – they need a miracle.

I’m bench pressing 315 now the way I used to bench press 275. I can do shoulder presses with 90 pound dumbells 8 times despite the fact that my shoulders have always been weak due to a dislocation in high school.

My endurance is decent and I still need to lose about 20 pounds, but I’m not stressing too much about it. Stress is really counterproductive to all things physical and so I’m really taking it easy, getting lots of rest, saying no to hanging out with friends and taking care of my school work and stuff early instead of waiting until the last minute.

This week I’ll be focusing on my speed. Lots of running. Better eating. Cooking at home. Going to bed early. 26 days and my life could change forever or it could stay the same, either way it will be fun trying!

I searched around for more information on the Dallas Desperado Tryouts yesterday. I found some FAQ’s that had some information in them that was surprisingL Practices are every day from 8a.m. – 2p.m, the minimum salary is 28,000 which comes out to about 1700 per game, very few people are actually chosen from the try-outs, but some have been and have even been drafted into the NFL.

This week I started getting up at 6 a.m and going to the gym. I’m always too tired in the evenings to really be productive, plus, working out in the even just takes up too much time. I’ve started to realized that home ownership, plus Grad School, plus general life busy-ness is not something that can be accomplished successfully without taking an aggressive approach. So I’m kicking up the aggression and learning to use it to my advantage.

Along with 6 a.m. workouts I’ve started watching my caloric intake once more. I decided not to be too rigid, but to be mindful of what I am eating, this approach allows for flexibility with liimitations – which is basically a Weight Watchers approach. I’ve been eating lots of lean proteins and veggies and taking fruit to work with me. There is this guy that is always eating fruit during meetings. Chomp, chomp, chomp. He bites away in to crisp Granny Smith apples, plums, grapes, yogurt. He’s very thin and he’s always eating. He’s actually inspired me to take fruit with me to meetings because often times in meetings you are just listening and piece of fruit will keep you alert and it’s good for you.

So my plan is to really take an aggressive approach to my life in all areas, school, work, diet, budget, relationships – it’s very taxing, but I think in the end the results should pay-off. Along the way I am going to get ready to be one of the few people who actually get picked to be a Dallas Desperado. I’ve got 90 days that will be filled with excerise and protein powder. Should be interesting.

Last night was the first night of the Ultimate Frisbee league. My team, Low Mileage, has age ranges of 15 to probably 55. Some people are very familiar with league rules and some of us just showed up to play. I was lost a couple of times when everyone got in this big line in the middle of the field. The level of intensity is about 4 times higher than what I am used to and I sort of got bogged down a little bit by the rules at first. I like my Ultimate Free flowing and simple, but I signed up for the league to get better.

Our team leader is really good. He’s probably late 30’s or early 40’s. His daughter and son are on the team and they are 18 and 15. They were also very good.

One of my new team members pulled me aside and started teaching me how to throw. At first I was a little annoyed that he wanted to teach me, I only made one bad pass during the game and that was my only opportunity to pass and so I didn’t really think I had an opportunity to show what my skill level was. Plus, I have been on Frisbee hiatus because of my broke foot. But, I’m not too arrogant to think that I can’t use some extra teaching and if someone is willing to take the time to teach me, I’ll humble myself. We started with basic throw, which I think I’m pretty good at, but then we worked on forehand throws which I suck at and before long I was started to get it. I don’t like to work on things that I’m not immediately good at, but this is something I need to improve upon and so I was actually very grateful and appreciative that he took the time to show me how to throw better.

This morning my foot hurts, but no more than it did before Ultimate. What really hurts is my right glute and right hamstring. They are mondo sore today. My heels spurs are actually hurting too, so much so that I can barely walk this morning. Before this foot injury they were like 75% better, now I feel like I have regressed so much in just six weeks.

Now I’ve got my Ultimate on Saturdays and my Wednesday night ultimate and hopefully we can get a practice game or a pickup game on Sunday afternoons or Monday nights. I am going to see what I can do to make that happen.

I’m very excited about this new level of play. About being further challenged to make myself better. My new team has a lot of cool people on it and I think it is going to be a great experience.