Obsessive

Three days??  lol, I usually take a week.

And I love the dedication.

This is me.

Go the the Games on Saturday. Cheer on my friends. Buy a new kilt pin. Drink beer. Flirt with anything female wearing plaid.

Sunday: Be a MAN and throw.

Monday: Whine about how sore I am.  Check NASGA to see if Sundays results are up, yet.   Workout this day is to climb the stairs to the fourth floor twice.

tuesday:  Throws workout...man, I'm still sore from Sunday! Are those results up, yet?

Wednesday:  workout is that stairs climb to the fourth floor, twice again.  Starting to feel better.  Work late. Get pissed off about it. Stop on the field and chuck stones for 40 minutes. Realize that I'm going to be sore tomorrow.

Thursday:  Whine about how sore I am all day.  Throws workout.

Friday:  eat a lot of protein at lunch. Oh, and those stairs.

Saturday:  help the Mrs. Clean the house. Balance checkbook. Surf Web. Mow lawn.  Whine because there aren't any Games this weekend. Debate about going to the gym. Tell myself that if I do, I'm going to be SORRY next week and the week after that when I've got no knees.

Sunday:  Church.  Think about going to the HS field and throwing discus or doing Nickersons. Decide that I shouldn't because I need to be really fresh for Tuesday,a nd I can't overtrain or else, like last season, I won't got no knees at the end of the season..

Monday 
Repeat above for three more weeks until the next Games.  Emphasis is on whining.

Alan,

Recovery isn't what happens when you do nothing, recovery
requires WORK!

Two parts.

First part, you have to build up and maintain a solid base of GPP
(general physical preparedness). You need WORK CAPACITY to be
able to deal with the demands of training and competing. Hit the
web, there's a ton of stuff on building your base GPP. And
remember - ONCE YOU GET IT UP, KEEP IT UP!!!!

Second part, a day off can be a day off, but all training days (and a
lot of off days) should include active recovery. I like hitting the hot
tub and stretching, foam roller, flexibility/mobility work, or even
just a nice walk after dinner (with a cigar and a flask of bourbon,
of course). Move or die.

I totally agree with Carlos. To expand on it. The bigger the base of the
mountain, the higher the peak can be. That's why Dan can be strong all
year. If I get two full days of rest, I can have a productive workout.
On wednesday this week I tested my vertical on the vertec and hit a
peg higher than I ever have. I threw at games on Sunday. I would
assume that I recovered. I threw a little and lifted a little on the same
day so that I would have two full days to recover before this weekend.
I also don't see how much I can deadlift or squat during the season.
Hang cleans and snatches really don't tax my system that much.
Especially if I drop the bar after the catch. I want to throw far every
games but when you have 20+ games to do, they turn into a training
session. I also don't drink alcohol very often and take pre-and-post
exercise nutrition, seriously. Sometimes I think athletes are so afraid
to overtrain that if they can't hit a pr in the gym, then they are
overtrained. This is one of the major reasons Bert Sorin used the
tendo unit. To test where his capability was that day, without going
90+% on a lift. I am starting to use the vertical jump test. I figure that
if I am incapable of jumping I have no business throwing or lifting
explosively. Sometimes you will be suprised when your most ready to
do your best.

Is a good ramble!  OK Carlos, I'll do some reading.

Dan, I was only so-so at Woodland. You didn't actually see me throw on Sunday, it was nothing to get up in the night and write home about. It wasn't *awful*, I had some good results in Braemar (fouled 'em) and two very good HWFD throws, but everything else was "nyah"....as in significantly off what I'm doing in practice.   I'm not comlaining, you can't expect to set PR's every time you step on the field.  Besides, I was on the "action" side of the fence and any time you're smiling and on that side of the fence, it's a good day...and that's the truth.

Regarding those jumps.  Right now, I mean if I went out TODAY and tested it,  I would guess that my vertical jump is  probably 6 inches off from my best at this age. Why is that?  Because I'm throwing so much and fatiguing my muscles so much that there  needs to be 3-5 recovery days before I'm back to max.  I suspect that the long recovery is partially due to  the fact that I'm 54 years old and it just takes longer.  If I tested my vertical jump next Tuesday, after not throwing  Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon it would probably be fine.

I will do some reading, Carlos!

Well, Sean, that's something else I've been thinking of.  Many, if not most of the guys on this forum have been lifting for years, if not decades. I've been throwing for four years, but only trained hard for two winters and two seasons.  Before this stuff, my most vigorous exercise for 15 years was a all-day sail around the Farallone Islands, singlehanded ina small keelboat (which is pretty exhausting, BTW)  There's a time factor in all of this.  That's a way of saying that I'm not "used to it".  That may change in the next couple of years. 

For me, I'm at a point where my performance improvement can be graphed by a line or curve that trends upwards.  I'm getting stronger and my technique is getting better.   Counter to that is a line defined by age-related function that trends downwards.  My net result is still going up. It will probably continue to go up for another year or two.... maybe three?  But there will come a point where it levels off, and then starts to descend.  It's inevitable.  It's not just me, it's all of us.   That doesn't mean that I stop working out...on the contrary, it's important to KEEP exercising at that point to preserve as much as possible for as long as possible.  I want to go backpacking when I'm 70, you know?

Upshot is that (except for the (*&#%(*&#%A!@*&  STONES) I'm getting better at this. I can see some sort of progress weekly, in at least one event.  Like last year for example....the ONLY Games that I didn't set at least one PR in, was Pleasanton.  Seriously, I did eight Games last year and in every single one of them I had at least one PR - except for Pleasanton.    Now...come on.  How long can that keep happening?  That's outrageous improvement.  This season I'm seeing improvement in weights, already, and WOB.  Last year was the year for 13 feet in WOB.  Now I've cleared 14 several times in practice.  This is the year for 14.  Last year most of my LWFD throws were 44-48 feet. I had one Games when I went over 50. Now I throw over 50 in almost every practice and at both of the Games so far this season I'm over 49 feet, and those were not my best.  51-53 will come this year.   That's progress.

 IN FACT I'm sort of stunned by how much I'm improving. My only wish is that I could actually work harder and improve FASTER, but I really don't have anything to complain about!

Alan,

  Here's a few good articles on GPP -

http://www.elitefts.com/documents/general_physical_preparedn ess.htm

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/henkin17.htm

I think you have to be individual here in regard to resting for a game.  Sean has a different set of cards to play than you or I.  I would not recover near full on two days.  One of those factors is that I happen to be 3 or 4 years older than him.  I also tend to train to the limit of recovery a lot, not that Sean does not.  We are also talking about a gifted athlete in the prime(Sean), not everyone(few) is going to be able to do what he does in anything, throwing, lifting or recovery.  So learning from him is not really copying him.  

Its all I can do to lift once/week and throw 2 days/week (In season).  Do I want to do more- heck yeah, but my body says NO!!  It takes more discipline for me to say no then to train!!!
This is after yrs. of training!! 
Allan, i think your still finding out what works and what doesnt, keep at it and you will figure it out!!  Good work!!

Serious Allan.  I wish i could train more, I would throw more.  I know im younger than you but its all my body can handle.  Most i gauge on how I feel, but mostly on injuries.  i have managed to stay injury free for some time and I can attribute that to NOT over training.  This yr. I am feeling more dings than usual, so that may even be too much for me!!  Having said that, I am throwing 2 FULL games this wknd..  We call it the Ironman!!  Sat. pro and Sun masters..
Funny thing is when I did it last yr. I was no more sore on monday then I was on Sunday!!  However Sunday was rough!!!
Good Luck at Worlds if your going!!
 

[I didn't do a search for this] Is there a tried and true way to tell if you are overtraining?

Mountain - mine is thighs burning when I walk upstairs 10-12 steps...time to back off.

I have used myself as a labrat and I feel 100% better when I drag my tired ass out and just do SOMETHING the next day - just get blood going - good day for 10 x 20 yards easy agilities for ex.