Last night, I played the hardest game of Ultimate I've ever been a part of. I know, it's Summer League, it should be taken nice and easy, but it wasn't. We played a team with a completely different style than ours, but it was the closest game yet this year. They had a few amazing players who played 85-90% of the time and had a bunch of beginners who got really shitty playing time (PT). It's quite unfortunate, but we've been seeing this a lot, as our team did so well last year (we lost a close one in the finals). And we've always put PT as a top priority, except sometimes in close games for the last point or two. As much as everyone wants to play, they also would like to win.
So losing last night after putting everything out there was especially difficult. I ran in the cup (zone defense) for the entire second half that I was playing (at least a half-hour). Running in the cup is kind of like doing lots of short sprints. Except you don't know how long the sprints are going to be, and you get to stop for a few seconds at a time, but you're doing jumping jacks while stopped. You run in the cup as long as you're on defense -- and then, when you're on offense, you run more. It was really hard to motivate myself to run that hard on offense when I knew a simple turnover would result in getting back in the cup. But I did. And by the time the last point came around (9:15ish), my legs were simply done. I would try to run to the disc, and my legs would just jog over. It didn't help that I got mauled when receiving a pass, also receiving a knee to the outer thigh.
We got lectured every time we were on the sideline about running harder, and I couldn't help but think that maybe I wasn't running hard enough. But I knew that it wasn't me, yet it seemed like we were being pushed a little bit too hard -- too much emphasis on winning. Again, though, conditioning paid off and I was able to handle running as much as I did, even though my legs didn't feel too great afterwards. Plus, where I got injured stiffened right up and hurts through today. I think I might have gotten sick as well, as I have a stuffed nose and can't seem to smell or taste very much today. Needless to say, the ride in this morning was harder than usual, and I ended up gearing down on hills and just sitting down. I ended up a couple minutes slower than I usually am on a Thursday, but that's OK! If I can bike 30 miles on crappy legs, a bum thigh, and a head cold, then I think my body can handle most of the rigors I'll endure.
