Playing with the Grizzlies at the Denver Sevens Rugby Tournament

A while back I wrote a post about my experience trying out with the Pacific Coast Grizzlies Rugby Sevens team. This previous post details my experiences at the tryout.

http://nuffsaid6.blogspot.com/2010/06/rugby-sevens.html

Again, I went to the tryout simply to learn as much as possible about the sport. Since I had only been playing rugby for 3 months at the time, the chance of making the team seemed pretty remote. I continued experimenting with my minimalist training routine of CC and Viking Warrior. About a month later on July 8, the coach sent out an email with the team roster. My name was listed as a reserve. I had to reread the email about 4 times to double check, but there it was. For me, this was a huge honor in and of itself. Still, I didn't think there was any real chance I'd be asked to Denver. Well, July 14th I got another email saying that they did in fact need me to attend the tournament July 23-25th. After I ran around my house and jumped up and down a few times, it finally sunk in the Denver is in Denver. They don't call it the mile high city for nothing. Last time I was at Altitude for any real length of time was 11 years ago working on the helicopter rappel crew. The station was at 7500' elevation, which made those first few workouts absolutely kill. Sustained cardio has never been my strong suit. I had begun to work in and experiment with my active recovery routine, but this was a program designed to be carried out over months, not a week. Most articles I've read on the subject state that it generally takes a good two weeks for the body to benefit from the effects of cardio workouts. This was well past my 9 day time frame.

I stayed with the same workout routine but began focussing on nutrition, adding in a chlorophyll supplement to increase the number of red blood cells in my system, and also iron, to increase the oxygen carrying capacity of those red blood cells. Three days later I participated in the Transamerica Building Stair Climb

http://nuffsaid6.blogspot.com/2010/07/july-17-2010-transamerica-stair-climb.html

While my stamina and recovery had improved since the last climb, I still didn't climb it as hard as I would've liked, which might've been slightly influenced by the wildland fire the shift before. Hydration and nutrition remained my main focus.

My flight to Denver arrived a good 8 hours before the rest of the team. I used the time to rest and hydrate, drinking a good gallon and a half of water. This apparently was not quite enough as my eyes and throat both felt pretty dry upon waking the next morning, and at the tournament site before playing I felt a little lightheaded upon standing, from the altitude. Yeah, not a great sign.

We had 14 people, just enough to make two teams of seven. This meant that I played on team two, the whole time for all three games that day. Yup, another surprise. The first game absolutely kicked my butt. Due in large part to being new to rugby sevens defense, I often found myself out of position and ended up doing a whole lot of sprinting to make up for it. The second and third games I was able to learn bit by bit, my positioning improved some and I didn't get nearly as winded.

The next day I continued to learn as we had a combined 5 hour practice with another team that was at the tournament. I made a ton of mistakes, got yelled at a lot, but this was another incredible opportunity to learn from players and coaches alike. Besides, I don't mind getting yelled at if it makes me better. There was so much new info to process that I wished I had brought along a notepad to write it all down. Feeling a little bit more pressure to perform, I found it a bit tougher to relax and just have fun like the tryout. Once I reminded myself that ultimately my main goal was simply to learn and improve, which I did steadily throughout the weekend, I was able to relax and enjoy this incredible opportunity.

Still though, the major lesson here is even if I think there's a barely a chance of making the team, I need to be fully prepared for that possibility. Rugby knowledge will come over time with practice and experience. Physical conditioning on the other hand, just takes knowledge that I already have and hard work.