It seems crazy that there are just a few short weeks before I complete my first year as a Nittany lion. Looking back at my first couple of passion blog posts back from September, I can’t believe how long and how short one season can feel at the same time! As you know, the PSU Women’s ice hockey season ended over a month ago, but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t been training!
The second we returned from Spring Break, our team was thrust right into post-season training. We have off-ice workouts five days a week, for six weeks before school ends. This is our strength trainer’s favorite time of year because she gets to push us harder than she usually would during the season (on our first day back she said it was like Christmas morning for her). It’s hard to immediately go back into training mode since our season ended just a couple weeks ago, but we know that the goal of post-season is to get an edge on other programs so that we can beat them on the ice next year.
While it sounds great in theory, I’m not going to sugarcoat it…post-season absolutely sucks. Three lifts, two conditioning workouts (including our trainer’s new invention: a conditioning circuit), and two on-ice skills and conditioning sessions every week is a lot to put the body through. I honestly thought that I wasn’t going to make it through the first week, especially after a particularly heavy back-squat lift. However, the pain and suffering brought our team closer together and definitely pushed us to get stronger and faster.
After six weeks of HARD training, we had our much-anticipated MAX WEEK (it’s a team rulethat you have to say it in all caps like your a muscle-head). MAX WEEK is the final week where we test in multiple different exercises to(hopefully) set a new bar of what our best scores would be. The last time we tested maximum repititions was about 8 months ago, at the end of pre-season, and we were looking to improve upon the scores that we had then. We tested in back squat, front squat, bench press, chin-ups, max push-ups in a minute, broad jump, vertical jump, and also how long we could hold a plank with a 10lb plate on our back. In addition to our weight-room tests, we also had two conditioning tests: an off-ice pacer test and an on-ice beep test.
On our last day of post-season, it was a relief to know that we were finally done being tortured in the weight room, but it was also a sad realization to know that it would be four months until our team was all together again. Above all, it is exciting to know that next season is just around the corner. We have a countdown clock in our locker room that is already counting down the days until our next game, and guess what? It’s only 148 days until we show up at Colgate University and show them what we’re made of!!!
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