Hitting the Sand & Back to HIIT

This week kicks off my busy period…wait, when do I not have a busy period? Anyway, I digress…

Sand volleyball season is now in full swing here in Lexington. This is my third year reffing for a bar league on the southside at a German restaurant/bar called Marikka’s. We have two sand courts out back with leagues playing Monday through Friday. In previous years I’ve reffed 3-4 nights a week, but this year I’m cutting back to only one night, plus filling in wherever needed. It also means I’m basically working from 8 am until about 12:30-1 am, which makes for some long days.

Last night was the first night back in the referee’s chair.

This will be my view every Monday night until mid-October.

When I ref, I have only an hour between my full-time job getting out at 5 and when I have to be at the bar with my court open (6). Some people might think that’s not enough time to do much of anything, but, thanks to having my gym just 5 minutes from work, I’m able to squeeze in a high intensity workout in about 20-30 minutes.

Yesterday, because of an appointment and traffic, I only had 20 minutes to get in a good sweat. So here was my workout:

1 minute jump rope
30 seconds push-ups
10 wall balls (14-lb medicine ball)
Repeat for a total of 10 minutes

20 seconds rope waves
50 crunches
Repeat twice

Then I did some of my physical therapy workouts, which included lunges, side-ways leg lifts, back kicks, and then about 5 minutes of stretching.

I was out of the gym by 5:45 and on the road towards Marikka’s.

How do you fit in sweat-worthy, short-on-time workouts?

My “Evening Job”

Last year I started another second job (since I already freelance write on the side and work as a horse show secretary a couple weekends a year). This is more of a seasonal outdoor job that lasts from late April until early October, rain or (sun/moon) shine. The pay is decent, the co-workers are fun, and some times the “customer” can get a little too rowdy…

I ref sand volleyball games at a local German bar. It’s a lot of fun, but the hours can be long. Last year I worked almost every evening, which was hard on my physically and hard on M and the pups because I was never home. This year, however, I’m only working three nights a week, which is much better. However, the hours are still long. On Tuesday nights, for example, my first game starts at 6:10 pm and my last game starts at 12:30 am. Yep…I basically work my 8 am until 1:30 am. (My “career job” is from 8-5.)

It’s a fun gig to have because of the eclectic groups that sign up to play volleyball. You’ve got the players that played in college and even travel to some of the bigger beach volleyball tournaments in Florida, and then you have the group of girls who just thought it’d be fun to get a team together and drink…and every once in a while hope they score a point. There are times when the players get on your nerves–quite a few will argue calls, and some will make their own calls that you perhaps didn’t see, but you just say “OK” and go on. But, for the most part, it’s fun.

The big negative is just the toll it takes on my sleep. Monday nights I don’t get home until about 12:30, close to 1 am. Tuesday nights, it’s closer to 1:45 am. So of course, I’m dragging all Wednesday. Some times I can go to bed early that night, after my agility class, but because my body gets used to staying up so late, it’s hard to relax and go to sleep earlier.

Because of this, my whole schedule is out of whack, but more on that in an upcoming post.

Anyway, I just wanted to explain why I’ve been quiet a little lately–any extra free time at night is no longer, so I have to squeeze in time to do just about anything extra (wedding planning, workouts, etc.) when I can.

The courts at the German bar I ref sand volleyball at.

We have two courts going at once–so lots of action!

Related articles

• Will Opposition to Sand Volleyball in College Force NCAA To Reconsider? (volleyballvoices.com)
• UAB, FSU meet in NCAA sand volleyball debut (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)