Category: Practice

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2 Runs In a Row

Big moves in the running world for me. I felt strong enough to run two days in a row.

On the first day, I extended my new quartine route with a couple more turns and a more scenic route while avoiding the lakefront path. As you can see in from the Wahoo screenshot, I ran on the west side of the Lake Shore Drive to appease the closings Mayor Lightfoot, unfortunately, had to put in place.

The first run was just under 3.5 miles, and the second run was the same route and in the same clockwise fashion. If this route sticks, I will alternate it both clockwise and counter-clockwise when needed.

Two runs in a row is monumental for me. I cannot remember a time outside, maybe college than I ran two days in a row. So I’m pumped and going to try and mix this into the training schedule and get some more miles in peer week.

1st Run 3/31/2020: 3.47 Miles 9:49 Average Mile Pace 163 bpm

March 31st 2020 Run: 3.47 Miles 9:49 Pace
March 31st, 2020 Run: 3.47 Miles 9:49 Pace

2nd Run 4/1/2020: 3.63 Miles 10:05 Average Mile Pace 163 bpm

April 1st 2020 Run: 3.63 Miles 10:05 Pace
April 1st, 2020 Run: 3.63 Miles 10:05 Pace

Both of the runs felt very similar, and no noticeable difference between the two. Looking forward to furthering progress

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2nd Run Back 3/21/2020

3.45 Mile Run @ 11:32 Mile pace

I took a few days off to help let my body have a fighting chance to recover from the first run in forever. The working strategy is to give myself ample rest in between runs in the first couple weeks to stave off any shin splits and overtraining. Overworking is a common issue in beginners that are too excited and try to train at full speed without building up the necessary fitness level to match their workout regime.
Knowing not to hit the ground running (excuse my pun), I will be diligent and not overdo it and push my pace. Persistence will be the key to success here.

Onto the run, 3.45 Miles with an 11:32 average.

The first third and last third was heavy on the walk-run ratios, but the middle third was a steady run with no stoppage or noticeable slowdowns.
Overall this was an excellent follow-up run with an increase in pace with more distance ran vs. walked.

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1st Run In Forever 03/17/2020

Distance 3.68 Miles AV Pace 12:34/Mi

With not having to commute to work, it seemed like a good time to start running again/exercising, reading back through my work out logs it has been just over a year since I last attempted to raise my heart rate in the name of health.

There have been many times I have had to restart a workout regime. The usual fears were there, shin splints, being way to sore the next few days, don’t have the right shoes, it’s too cold outside. After two days of being stuck inside and the cabin fever driving me crazy, going out for a run with all those “scary” excuses was an easy decision to get my butt off the couch and hit the lakefront for an easy peasy jog.

I got super lucky as the day I decided to go jogging was one of the best weather days of the year so far, the sun was out, and the temperature almost hit 52 degrees—shorts and Quarter-zip with a beanie and light gloves at the start of the run.

Run Breakdown: Distance 3.68 Miles – Avg Pace 12:34/mi

  • The first half mile was pretty easy as I was not trying to break any speed records my spirt.
  • Second half mile, I started to feel my abs working.
  • 2nd mile I began to switch between jogging and walking
  • 3rd mile had more prolonged bouts of walking – I was feeling out of breath, and my running form was to deteriorating fast  
  • Last half mile 50/50 run-walk with faster pace on the running trying to get home and get some dinner

This 1st run was lackluster performance-wise, but I was proud that I got out there and got the first one out of the wat. On to the next run!

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Weekly Post 8/12/2019

High Lights:

  • Decent Range Session

Low Lights:

  • 7 day of work in a row
  • Car Trouble

The car trouble has reached a new level as the winding and grinding sound has increased in volume and also my anxiety that this is something way more than a loose pulley or belt issue so I had to pull a hot route and drop it off at the dealer on Sunday after work. It wasn’t too bad of job dropping the car off. it was close to the red line and was also able to score a mocha right before I jumped on the train to head home.

I also put in some serious hours of work this week. Working 7 days in a row only means that ultimately I will end up working at least 13 days in a row maybe even 14! I will do my best to keep these days to the smallest amount possible because I do not like working this much even if it means earning that massive overtime pay.

I was made it out the Jackson Park Driving range for an hour and a half range session which I was able to bring the GoPro and get a down the line recording of.

I will be cutting a video of this practice session but I am going to switch editing software but haven’t decided which one I would like to move forward with. There will be a learning curve with any choice I make so I will need to do some due diligence to make the right choice. I would like to start making more higher-level production videos with titles and such. This should also enhance the content of this blog as well.

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Season 1 Week 2 Golf League Night 7/2/2019

Total score 107 with 35 putts

I was able to show up a little early and hit a bucket of balls before the league tee time. It was hot out in the mid-90s and not a cloud in the sky. The goal was to get most of the kinks out of my swing before the round and start hitting all the fairways. What I didn’t account for was how frustrating it could get with hitting 65 balls and not hitting one of them well. I finished the bucket of balls 15 minutes before it was my turn to tee off.

With a lot of doubt in my mind, I teed off with my driver and hit a straight left shoot the made it to the middle of of the fairway…on the adjacent fairway. What a way to start the day.

I ended up playing a smidge better compared to the first week. I didn’t make a large improvement on one single one hole but I did hit a shot better on more than a few bettering my score by three strokes for a total 107.

Goals for next week would be to hit more fairways and STOP losing balls!

Shot of the day was my hitting my driver on the 15th. I smoked at a shot that went close to 285 yards right down the right side of the fairway.

285-yard driver shot on the 15th hole at Jackson Park
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Weekly Post 6/24/2019

High Lights:

  • Good range session

Low Lights:

  • Back to Work

It was a tough week having to go back to work.  Sleep is at a premium now and having to be away from home for 9 hours and taking over 17,000 steps really took its toll with me. I’m finding that I’m catnapping any chance I can when I’m home on the couch.  The lack of sleep and 40 hour work week at this rate will be hard to sustain. I’m hoping to catch up on sleep this weekend.

I am not planning to play a round of golf this weekend, but I was itching to get out there and at least swing a club again.

This could be a wild experience since I haven’t been thinking about golf at all this whole month.  I wanted to get to a range and see where my swing was after this forced break.  I knew that the swing was going to need some work and I had envisioned that there will be a good chance in the future to get a few 90 minutes sessions to hit a bucket of balls and work on my swing.  If I can commit that time to work on my swing I should get my game to the best it ever been.

It was a hot day it was in the low 90s with direct sun on me the whole time with the humidity in the air just made it that extra special kinda spicy hot.

The  new wrist hinge movement is gonna need to be re-drilled into my muscle memory, the rest of my swing is at decently playable but if I miss that hinge movement its becomes not a fun game to play,  As soon as I get tired that is the first thing to go on the course which leads to balls going push left,  and the bummer part is they fly so far that they always travel out of bounds causing a lot of lost ball penalties.

This is exactly what happened in the heat the first 30 balls were actually struck pretty well and very balanced.  after the 30 balls, my tempo started to shorten and the balls started hooking and slicing no matter what the club.  I’ll save you some reading about the last 60 balls I hit. They were that bad, but this was the first time back and know I know I need to get back home and get back to my drills to help my body swing the club naturally.  Lots of work and learning to do. I’m motivated to get after it.

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Range Session 6/22/2019

Found myself with a spare 90 minutes and with the sun in the sky figured it would be nice to be hit some balls for the first time in a couple of weeks.

Due to the time crunch, I headed to the Jackson Park Driving Range.  This is a CPD driving range with about 45 very distress mats and a range that goes to I believe 250 yards.  It cost 13 dollars for a large bucket which is about the same as other large buckets I’ve purchased at the other ranges in the area.

It’s been a while since I picked up and swung a club for almost three weeks!  So I was nervous what my swing was going to look like and what my ball flight path was going to look like.  I was ultra nervous about hitting my driver, you never know where that ball is heading lol.

I started out with my usual starter club the 6 Iron.

My usual order of clubs is:

6i,4i,9i, PW, Driver, 52 degree Wedge

With the 52 degrees wedge, I will start with full swings than some 75% and lower to 50%.

I hit my 6 Iron really well and felt my glutes activating which meant I was hitting some pretty good distance. The distance and nice strokes continued through the Pitching wedge.  I even worked in some nice little baby fades #beautiful

Onto to the Driver… I was a little hesitant to pull this club out of the bag but, with how well I was hitting the other clubs I felt ready to crush it #GripandRipIt

From my earlier rounds this year and the trial and tribulations I’ve had with my new driver with the flexible shaft it has.  I had become very unbalanced and my hands were chasing the head of the club to compensate for my what I thought was a bad swing was really just the shaft doing its job.  After a couple of rounds with some experienced eyes, I was able to swing the club and make clean contact and stay balanced throughout the full golf swing.

Remembering my cues  to stay balanced and to keep my hands high on the down stroke to  give the head a chance to hit the ball square, I hit the first couple of balls well but the distance was lacking so I decided to turn up the power and really drive from the legs and see what a 100% swing produced.  Immediate chunked shot, followed by a topped ball that looked like one of those cool trick shot stingers you see on Instagram all the time.  I took a quick break and drilled a couple of practice swings making sure to hit all my points to be ultra sure I wasn’t dropping my hands.

The 1st swing after the practice shot was just straight pipped down the middle of the driving range and so did the next 2 shots. Now feeling super confident I decided to get very aggressive and swing my hardest and see what would happen.  The full power shot got crushed and went a little right and a little bit more draw than I would have liked but the ball went straight down the line and on a decent size fairway the ball would have been down the right side edge of the fairway or just little off on the first rough.  I hit a few more drives and then the ball started to pull left or I was closing the club head. I’d had enough of the driver and was ready to start hitting my targeted checked down wedge shots.

Conveniently my to 50 and 75 Yard are damn near my  50% and 75% shots which come in handy when trying to find a target on the range to hit to.  This is going to be my main interest in the upcoming range session is trying to dial in my wedge shots to help give me a better shot at eliminating 3 puts.  If I can land the ball within 12 feet of the hole from 85-35 yard away from the pin.  Would be nice to score some 1 puts holes as well.

Hopefully, this session will Kick start my interest in practicing more as it really is the only way to get better at playing golf.  My goal is to hit 3 rounds in a row under 96 before the end of the summer.

Might have the chance to play up in the Lake Geneva area this weekend, I’ll be going for low 90s. Wish me luck!

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Weekly Summary 12/9/2018

TL:DR 2 Work outs and blew my back out.

It was a wild week for me.  Only 2 workouts due to my back issue, which seems to be healing just fine.  I’m hoping to be back in action by Wednesday. 

Had good golf strategy session to talk about this off season protocols and how to get better with out swinging a club.

Huge Bears win to cap off the week.

12/4/2018

A. 5 min clean position instructional work

B. Segmented clean deadlift x2 + Segmented clean pull x2
4x(2+2); Rest 60-90s

C. @ 0:00—
30 power cleans (95/65)
30 row calories
@ 5:00—
20-10:
Power cleans (95/65)
Row calories
@ 10:00—
15-10-5:
Power cleans (95/65)
Row calories

12/3/2018


A. Supinated flexed arm hang
Accumulate 6 sets of consistent duration; Rest 60sTraining notes:
B. 20 min AMRAP:
20 air squats
15 push-ups, hand-release
10 pistols, alternating
5/arm single-arm DB snatch (70/50)

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9-15-2018 Range Practice Session

Another hot practice session at the range this past Sunday. Mostly my fault as I arrived just after 12:00 pm.

I hit over 90 balls in just about 60 minutes. I feel like this pace was a little to fast for a good range session. After watching the tape I did not line up almost any of my shots which lead to me spraying the ball all of the targets.

Still having trouble hitting my driver and pushing the ball as I fall forward finishing my swing. I also pulled the ball when my swing would break down and I wouldn’t get my hips through the ball.

Irons shots felt ok with some slight fade to push shots happening. I need to keep working on hitting my backswing position and punching my wrist. This is just part of putting the full swing together. #ugh

I was really happy how I was hit my 52-degree wedge. I was able to hit 5 or 6 shots with the wedge that had the same trajectory and distance which is a new thing for me.

I switched the camera angle from down the line to front facing to help capture my weight transfer and hands width.

Full session video below:

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Better golf in 6 Weeks?

I have a tee time scheduled in the middle of June 2018. The course is a pretty prestigious club just outside of Chicago. I will be playing with some serious golfers that can legit hit it in the low single digits. I being in the very high handicap in the high 20s…ok low 30s am pretty nervous about making a fool of myself at my friend’s club. The goal here is to keep getting invited back! So here is my quest; how much better at golf can I get in a Six-week time frame. I plan on jumping into the deep-end of golf to get my game at its best for this round.

For the past 2 summers, I only was able to play 6-9 rounds in a Chicago season, travel for work severely limited my schedule. With a new job that doesn’t require me to travel almost at all, I have cleared my Saturdays and assembled a ragtag four-some to play.

To get my game mint here is my plan:

  1. Lessons with my golf pro- which his schedule there will only be 2 available sessions-I think this should be enough. It’s the executioner the swing, not the motion of the swing that is causing my misses.
  2. Hit the driving range at least once a week. I’m hoping for a few weeks of double practice. The new range is about 20 min from me, but it has full grass range with separate pitching and putting areas. I for-see this making the biggest impact on my game.
  3. I will play every weekend a full round of golf (weather permitting) I have a huge problem with transferring what I learned with the pro to the actual game. A recent practice session with my pro enlightened me that my game on course cannot be approached the same as practice session (with a pro or on the range).

The not approaching my golf swing on the course like an every a swing on a practice range is not something that factored into being a negative behavior. In my recent golf trip to Phoenix and a very cold round in Indiana, I did this very thing every single swing. I head of trying to be an athlete I was trying to be a robot. According to measly attempts at last call on the dance floor and recent rounds of golf, I am far from C3-PO. I will be now visualizing and siting my shot before my swing and be playing in the moment rather from swing to swing.

I will keep updating this blog post below with my practice and playing sessions during this 6-week sprint and a complete new post with my round with a reaction/summary of what worked and what (Touch-wood) didn’t.

Range Session- 90 Balls -7-2018

  • Way to bent over on the setup
  • Need to focus on standing taller
  • swing felt as good as it could with how I was standing

Range Session- 90 Balls 5-24-2018

  • Best series of swings so far this year
  • Still hitting it pretty fat on my misses, keeping shoulders flat helps
  • Was able to get my swing back after losing it.  This was gratifying

Range Session- 90 Balls 5-17-2018

  • Came Out Hot on the first 7-9 swing #ablosutedingers
  • Developed a bad habit that I could shake off of hitting way behind the ball #gravedigger
  • I need some work for sure

Range Session- 90 Balls 5-10-2018

  • Not 1 solid swing all day
  • I was not dressed for the cooler air temp
  • Ball flight was everywhere #Yardsprinkler