Alan's 2013 Season Log

**o1d_dude** · 7th August 13, 03:30 PM

We throw sticks and stones. It's an AMATEUR/CULTURAL sport where the so-called "Pros" have daytime jobs. People need to get over themselves.

I rarely visit the NASGA forum because of all the attitude fests. Me First and The Gimme-Gimmes.

PS: Roger, do you want to hold a Rattlesnake Glen World Championship Sheaf Toss? Only Rattlesnake friends and relations are eligible to play.

PS: Alan, you should claim the Duke Kahanamoku Redwoods World Championships for your folks.

**Martin Roy** · 7th August 13, 09:24 PM

The Duke World Championship would be appropriate because it is the world's only H'island Game.

**Alan H** · 9th August 13, 01:06 PM

Weird practice last night. We had a MESS of new people show up out of the blue. Jessica brought Aaron for the first time. I don't think he had a very good time, but said he'll be back. I have my doubts, once the baby gets here, Highland Games is going to go by the wayside, and SHOULD go by the wayside.

Mike, from the Duke K. came out...glad to see him. And finally, a whole family of Ryans friends showed up to try the events. Nice people, all of them.

But WHY do they show up NOW? .... three weeks before Pleasanton. There were weeks upon weeks upon weeks of just me and Ryan throwing, we had tons of time in July. NOW? ...I may have to put my foot down if they all come back, which admittedly, is not very likely..

Anyway, I spent a bunch of time with new folks, but got in my 8 hammer throws, which is all I wanted. My hips were too burned up to try caber, but I did 4-5 LWFD tosses and that was enough. Hips feel better this morning. They're still very sore, but they're better.

My plan is not quite working out, though, as next week I'm having a "procedure" on Tuesday and won't be at practice. So I now have 7 days of rest. My hips and core should be 100% after that.

**LitTrog** · 10th August 13, 08:00 AM

To backtrack just a couple days, I went and checked out the offending videos on the NASGA forum. I'm not a member, but I do check things out from time to time.

I am a lifelong nose-tweaker, pot-stirrer and occasional rascal--I got the impression that he was wearing the gorilla suit, big time. I think he was full of mischief. Or maybe he is just full of a cleansing mixture of water and vinegar. Either way, I wouldn't take his crap too seriously. Your personal knowledge of the guy might point more toward the latter.

I did love Detroit Pete's comments on the thread, though.

**Alan H** · 12th August 13, 11:10 AM

LitTrog, my understanding is that the guy is in fact just as obnoxious in person as he is online, though apparently he's good with the crowd. On the other hand, he DID pose with my friend Kathy, at Enumclaw, the year before she passed away from colon cancer.

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yesterday, moved seveal of the busted caber shards to the house and chainsawed them up into disposable bits. Took five HWFD tosses, which is plenty. Everything 29-32 feet, which is sort of OK. I really want 33+, but hips are still recovering. Balance was good, though.

**Alan H** · 16th August 13, 11:10 AM

After a week off and cortisone/lidocaine injection into my increasingly troublesome right wrist, as well as a **cough** "procedure" on Tuesday, I finally got back to practice last night. My hips appreciated the week off, they are MUCH better. Steve Elliott made it to his fourth practice this season and now becomes and "official" CHAC member.

We threw caber, everybody got in 6-8 throws with two sticks. Bethany worked on her nastystick.
Then some weight over bar. My WOB is absolutely stinking it up right now...timing is just horrible. I might get a few throws in on the Tuesday before Pleasanton, but that's it. I'm not expecting anything outstanding at Pleasanton.

The HWFD. Having my hips recovered helped a lot. My weight is anything but a "flyer" but most throws were 29-30. I lost my grip on one that probably would have been 33. This is OK, it indicates that I'll probably get 33 at Pleasanton.

Then Lance and I did a few LWFD, though we were pretty tired. I hashed up two throws, dropped the other two in over 50, so that's good.

Then when everybody went home, I took the 16 hammer out into the field in the dark by myself and threw 5-6. I have no idea of the distance, I couldn't really see where they landed, but a couple were sort of wretched, two were OK and two were very nice. I have the potential to throw 85+ at Pleasanton if I stick one.

Now, off on vacation. I have two days off, then five days in a row of consistent caber/stones practice. Then three days off, a super-light Tuesday practice, and then three days rest before the Big Show. My caber is 15' 8" and 80-something pounds. I might scour the island for a recently-downed doug fir trunk that's more like 17 feet and 90-95 pounds. If I find something, I'll drag it back to the house, bark it, finish it up and throw that, as well.

**Hawk** · 17th August 13, 12:39 AM

Alan, good couple of days rest. Looking forward to your update after the weekend....

Hawk

**Alan H** · 28th August 13, 10:54 AM

OK, I've been gone on vacation up to the In-laws house on Herron Island in south Puget Sound. We kayaked a lot and my nose ran, 9 days straight from the mold in the house. bleeecccch. However, I got to the park 6 days and threw caber. I also made myself a new caber from a downed tree on the island, so now I have two, up there. A.) 15' 8" not much taper, and 80 pounds, B.) 16' 11" quite a bit of taper, and 73-75 pounds.

I threw a lot of Open Stone drills and have come to the conclusion, again, that all the fuss and bother with gliding and shuffling doesn't get me anything, so I might as well just hunker down and stand the O stone out there from the power position. I did 4 days of toeboard drills and standing throws with both a 14 pound and a 16 pound stone and that's the most concentrated O stone work, all season. I also did FIFTY caber throws over the 6 days up there, and got about 42 turns.

That's good work, all of it. I'm as ready as I can ever be for the Pleasanton cabers. Tonight we have an easy workout, we'll do some WOB since I haven't touched it in weeks, and maybe some hammers.

**Alan H** · 28th August 13, 12:27 PM

Originally Posted by Alan H

OK, I've been gone on vacation up to the In-laws house on Herron Island in south Puget Sound. We kayaked a lot and my nose ran, 9 days straight from the mold in the house. bleeecccch. However, I got to the park 6 days and threw caber. I also made myself a new caber from a downed tree on the island, so now I have two, up there. A.) 15' 8" not much taper, and 80 pounds, B.) 16' 11" quite a bit of taper, and 73-75 pounds.

I threw a lot of Open Stone drills and have come to the conclusion, again, that all the fuss and bother with gliding and shuffling doesn't get me anything, so I might as well just hunker down and stand the O stone out there from the power position. I did 4 days of toeboard drills and standing throws with both a 14 pound and a 16 pound stone and that's the most concentrated O stone work, all season. I also did FIFTY caber throws over the 6 days up there, and got about 42 turns.

That's good work, all of it. I'm as ready as I can ever be for the Pleasanton cabers. Tonight we have an easy workout, 3 tosses in each event and move on. Should be fun. I'll take a few throws at 12 ft in wob, take a shot or two at 13 and call it good.

Pity that it didn't work out to throw tonight with Craig Sinclair and Scott Rider!

**Alan H** · 29th August 13, 01:59 PM

Last nights practice was really upsetting, and three days before Pleasanton. We did three throws in each event, pulled tape and moved on to the next event. I generally threw the worst I've thrown in nearly every event, across the board, in well over a year.

I got one good Braemar stone toss at 26' 10". The others were garbage. All O stone throws were barely "OK", all hit the cone at 30 feet, exactly. Every single HWFD and LWFD toss was **awful**, just completely and absolutely off balance and awful. One heavy hammer throw was barely "OK", the other two were at least 2-3 feet off my normal numbers, ditto for light hammer. I got one over 80, the other two were 77's and 78's.

WOB, I cleared 11, cleared 12 twice, couldn't even touch the bar at 13...and we skipped caber. It's all because my hips are burned up and exhausted AGAIN. I think I'll just quit practicing for the last month of the season. I'll probably do better, and seeing as it's the Old Boy Network that gets you into Games, rather than rewarding plain hard work, clearly I'm "in" for the next few years whether I practice or not.

So I'm foam rolling my hips and stretching A LOT between now and Saturday and we'll just see. Hopefully I won't completely choke, but to be throwing THIS badly, after THIS much work, this close to the single most important event of the year is extremely disheartening.

And any of you lads on X marks who don't know a damn thing about throwing and who have never met me, who come in here to blow happy smoke up my @22 about how it'll all be OK, etc. etc...just shut up and move on.