Feb 17th-24th

I've been very busy lately, having been out of town for three days while working badminton provincial championships, then the day I returned I worked a Rugby Ontario training camp for the U18 and U17 teams. Both were fun and good experience, I hope to work more and more rugby and build a good reputation for it. Went to see my family and catch up with some friends the day after that, then had an away basketball game to work on the wednesday. Although I wasn't posting, I kept up with my workouts, even adding a couple interval treadmill running days (I have to start improving my cardio for the upcoming season). Ate pretty well the whole time (not going to post because I just don't have the time). Had a cheat meal with a friend at Boston Pizza and had a small pizza and a very large beer; but I also had a couple drinks and a piece of cake over the weekend with family and meeting my girlfriend's brother who lives out of province. But after a good workout I went and played squash without my brace on. This was a great test for whether or not my knee can handle intense agility work; and it went extremely well. No problems at all, even when my foot slipped while making a cut. Very happy about this and shows that I am progressing; still need to keep up the hard work though.

I'm writing this in the clinic of the college I work for while waiting to leave with the indoor soccer teams for a weekend trip to montreal. I will have my computer with me for this trip so I will do my best to keep up with the posts. The hotel has a large salt water pool so I'm hoping to get some laps in one morning before going to work. I don't swim as often as I would like to; it is a great cardio workout and easy on the knees. Made a bunch of food to lessen the amount of food I have to buy this weekend and to ensure the health and nutritional content of it. I'm also hoping to get at least one assignment done this weekend, as well as make a training program for my brother who had the same surgery as me but a year earlier and finally wants to get back to playing rugby. Wish he had told me more then two months before the start of the season but I'll do what I can, he's more of a beginner lifter so I'll have to keep it simple, and deal with some mobility issues he has. But since he is a beginner I'm expecting he has some quick strength gains as long as he sorts his diet out (it isn't the greatest... he hates vegetables and fruits; typical meat and potatoes guy). That's all for now; I'll do my best to post over the weekend.

Wed Feb 16

I was pretty damn stiff and sore today after yesterday's workout, Upper and lower back as well as my forearms were quite sore. Did some stretching and foam rolling to help which I believe it did. Spent the day finishing an assignment, in class, doing laundry, and preparing a bunch of food for this weekend. I'm travelling to London (Ontario) with the school I work for's badminton team for the provincial championships. The hotels usually have continental breakfast with lots of fruit, but I'm going to bring muesli as cereal choices tend to be high in sugar. I'm also bringing some healthy bean and pasta salads as I'm not sure whether I will have access to a microwave; also some chorizo sausage, homemade trail mix, protein powder, and a sandwich for the road. If their is one thing I've learned from travelling with sports teams is that preparation is everything if you want to continue eating healthy. Speaking of healthy eating:

7:30am Muesli with soy milk
10:45am Smoothie - Mixed berries, 2 bananas, soy milk, soy protein, flax meal, spinach; vitamins (multi,b,c,fish oil)
1:30pm Tofu with steamed carrots, broccoli, and red cabbage, and rice
4:30pm Spicy tuna salad, tomato, spinach on whole wheat
6pm Chorizo sausage, asparagus, sweet potato
9:30pm Spicy genoa ham, mozzarella, basil, tomato, olive oil on whole wheat
11pm Protein shake, apple, fish oil capsule

Ate well today, spent about 3 hours in the kitchen between preparing today's meals and ones for the weekend. My modified caprese salad sandwich that I came up with for my 9:30pm meal was really good. I'm going to have to make that again. That's all I have for today, off to bed so I can wake up early to hit the gym before early class.

Tues Feb 15

Deadlift day. It's been a while since I've deadlifted heavy, but I think it went well. I was more so concentrating on form but still put up some good weight for me so I'm very happy. Definitely going to be sore tomorrow; as my upper and lower back both felt fairly fatigued all day. Guess that is why most good trainers recommend only deadlifting heavy once in a while. Jason Ferruggia actually did a post on deadlifting on monday which was great timing for me. It has some great advice in there. It was a rather exhausting workout but I love a workout like that every once in a while. Just means I'll have to focus on recovery over the next few days. I decided to use the straight up pronated grip instead of the alternate grip that many people use; I just did that to try and increase grip strength. I think I'll keep doing that except on instances of doing things like 3-5 rep maxes. Did I mention I love deadlifting; along with squats, pull ups and glute ham raises they are my favorite exercises.

Food went like this:

7:30am Muesli with soy milk
11am Protein shake, apple, banana, vitamins (multi,b,c,fish oil)
12:30pm Leftover chickpea and spinach curry from last night
3pm Turkey, cheddar, spinach, tomato, dijon mustard on whole wheat
5:30pm Turkey, bacon, hummus, tabouleh, lettuce, tomato, cucumber on whole wheat wrap
9:30pm Smoothie - Mixed berries, 2 bananas, soy milk, soy protein, spinach, flax meal; fish oil capsule
11:30pm almonds, cashews, raisins, dried cranberries

Ate a lot today once again. Been getting hungry quite often which hopefully means I'm growing. I've seen small gains in muscle but very large gains in strength so far. It's only been about five weeks so I'm not expecting to see any size changes yet. Overall I'm very happy; it's more important for me to be strong than to be big as my goal is to be able to play rugby. Any size gains are just an added bonus of having some extra weight to throw around.

Mon Feb 14

Happy Valentines Day; a great day of turning down free candy. Which I did on several occasions, and people thought I was weird for doing so. Oh well, it doesn't really matter what they think, its much more important to me that I know I won't compromise for my goals. Spent the day in class, doing an assignment, working, and spending time with my girlfriend. Even made her dinner, a nice healthy dinner... I'm oh so romantic. Today was a rest day, so just some stretching and foam rolling and treating other people's injuries. Here is what I ate today:

7:30am Muesli with skim milk
10am Turkey, cheddar, lettuce on whole wheat
1pm Smoothie - Mixed berries, banana, dates, soy milk, soy protein, flax meal, Olive oil
4:30pm Almond butter and organic honey on whole wheat
7:30pm Greek pasta salad, quinoa salad
10:30pm Stuffed mushroom caps

I had stayed over at my parents house over night which is why the muesli was with skim and not soy milk, and why the sandwich lacked spinach and tomato. I made the mushroom caps; some as stuffed with a chickpea, spinach curry, others had a tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil and chorizo sausage. The latter was the better of the two but I made a lot of the curry stuffing which will make a nice lunch for tuesday. Speaking of tuesday, it will be a deadlift day. I haven't done a heavy deadlift in a while so I'm excited about that. Talk to you after that.

Sat/Sun Feb 12/13

I've been pretty busy so combined the two posts. Had a game to cover on saturday which I was really busy at because the other team didn't have a therapist and a couple of my players have some nagging injuries that need a fair amount of attention in order for them to play. It's actually really fun to be that busy and kind of running around at times and having to think quickly. I was sore from the day before and the leg workout so I did a bunch of foam rolling, stretching and had an ice bath. This is what I ate:

Sat:
9am 2eggs, 2pcs bacon, 2 slices whole wheat toast
12:30pm Protein shake, banana, vitamins (muli,b,c,fish oil)
4pm Craft Spicy Organic Burger, fries (Cheat Meal)
7pm Smoothie - mixed berries, 2 bananas, soy milk, soy protein, flax meal, spinach
10pm Pecans, peanuts, dates, raisins

Sun:
8:30am Muesli with soy milk
12:30pm Smoothie - mixed berries, banana, dates, soy milk, soy protein, flax meal, spinach
3pm Whole wheat penne, onion, tomato, walnuts, basil pesto
6pm Chicken breast, roasted potatoes, broccoli
8:30pm Homemade Chilli
11pm Protein shake with OJ, apple, banana, fish oil capsule

I'm happy with how I've been eating. I've always found it fairly easy to stay disciplined in regards to nutrition but having a goal in mind of returning to play rugby certainly helps keep me doing everything I can to stay healthy and help see my goals fulfilled. I also had a workout on Sunday in a nice and quiet gym. Session went really well, did more agility work and increased the difficulty a little bit. Just like how in order to get stronger you have to increase weight (progressive overload), in order for my knee to be able to handle the stresses of contact and high speed changes of direction in rugby I need to progress and constantly challenge myself. Going to workout tuesday and thursday as well because I'll be away working badminton provincials and don't know the kind of time or access I'll have to workout. Anyways, that's all.

Fri Feb 11

Had a very good workout today. It included some squats which I started off pretty light for today but I will move the weight up a fair bit next time. Just had to get used to squatting again and make sure my form was good. I'm definitely a lot weaker at the squat then I was before the surgery but I know that even after a few weeks I'll be putting up fairly good numbers for me. Also did some Glute ham raises. My gym doesn't have a glute ham bench so I had to macgyver one up by hooking my feet under the foot pads of a bench and put my knees on a dome side up bosu. It worked fairly well, I just used pushing myself up off the floor for assistance when needed to get to different rep ranges. As for food:

7:30am Muesli with soy milk, coconut water
10:30pm Protein shake, apple, vitamins (multi,b,c, fish oil)
12:30pm Spicy Genoa Ham, egg, red pepper, onion, spinach, tomato on whole wheat
2:15pm Pecans, cashews, peanuts, raisins, dates
4:30pm Steak, baked potato, asparagus, mushrooms, broccoli
7:15pm Brown rice, spinach, sundried tomato, chickpeas, mushrooms, red pepper, walnuts, balsamic vinegar on whole wheat wrap
11pm Smoothie - Mixed berries, 2 bananas, soy milk, soy protein, flax meal, spinach; fish oil capsule

Ate a fair bit again today; made myself a nice steak dinner. Unfortunately I don't have a bbq here at school so I had to pan fry it but it was still pretty good. Also tried coconut water for the first time today; I've heard/read some good things about it's hydration abilities; to be honest I didn't really notice anything but I may try it again during rugby season after a game to see if it helps then. I like experimenting with things like this, only way to find out what works right. That's all for today, just looking forward to tomorrow and the muscle soreness that it brings.

Thurs Feb 10

Had to post this on Friday because of some internet issues thursday night. It was a bit of a crazy day. Got up early to work on an assignment, went to class, finished assignment but had the power go out for about 30 minutes while I was trying to finish (thank god for laptop batteries); it was kinda dark so hard to read but got it done. Went to print it in my program's study office but no ink, so I went to the school's computer commons where I had to borrow a friend's login info because setting mine up would have taken half an hour; only to find out just before I print it that all the printers are down for at least another 20 minutes or so because of the power outage. Still got it handed in but it almost made me late for work. Then when I got home, the internet wasn't working as I said earlier. Oh well, no use in getting stressed over it, shit happens. Still had a good day of eating despite it being a hectic day:

7am Muesli with soy milk

8:30am Protein shake, apple, vitamins (multi,b,c,fish oil)

12pm Tofu, steamed carrots, broccoli, purple cabbage, zucchini, rice

3pm Apple, banana

5:30pm Brown rice, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, edemame, chicken, tomato, bean sprouts, red onion, red pepper, spicy peanut sauce

10pm Smoothie - Mixed berries, 2 bananas, soy milk, spinach, flax meal, soy protein; fish oil capsule

Excited about Fridays working, I have a feeling it will leave my legs sore for a couple days after but I am a bit of a masochist so muscle soreness here we come.  

Wed Feb 9

It was a long day. Big assignment due Thursday so spent a lot of time doing that but also had class and clinic hours to do. Ended up being a late night as it took much longer than anticipated to finish the assignment but it got done and done well. Pretty uneventful other than that. Here's what I ate for the day:

8:30am Muesli with soy milk
11am Smoothie - Mixed berries, 2 bananas, soymilk, spinach, flax meal, soy protein; vitamins (multi,b,c,fish oil)
1:30pm Turkey, spinach, tomato, mustard on whole wheat
4:30pm Amy's Organic Chili
7pm Apple, Banana
9:15pm Almonds, pecans, cashews, peanuts, raisins, dates
11:30pm Protein shake, apple, fish oil capsule

Ate a lot today. I've been pretty hungry lately so its not even like I'm forcing food down to try and grow muscle. Kind of curious if I'm doing anything negative to my insulin sensitivity and resistance. Soon enough I'll be switching back to a normal eating pattern and probably will go back to the Eat stop eat style of intermittent fasting which helps regulate insulin sensitivity amongst other things. Thought I would try a can of Amy's chili, many different vegetables in it and all organic. I heard about it on Craig Ballantyne's blog and thought I would give it a go. I had the medium chili with vegetables (its a vegan chili). It was very good, filling and much cheaper than many other quick on the go options (I have a microwave at the clinic I work at so I emptied the can into some tupperware at home and brought that for dinner). I'll probably get a few more cans and maybe try a few more of the companies products.

Tues Feb 8

Today has felt like a pretty long day mostly due to the fact that I spent most of it reading research studies for an assignment I'm working on. I did train this morning though and had a good workout. Felt good to be working full out again following a deload week. Also did some more agility work afterwards that felt good. I expect my agility to improve rather quickly as it has always been a strength of mine. Had a very short nap after class before going to work to try to keep my energy up, did the job until about ten then I started getting tired again. Here is what I ate today:

8am Muesli with soy milk
10:30am Protein shake, apple, vitamins (multi,b,c,fish oil)
11:30am Roast beef, spinach, tomato, dijon mustard on whole wheat
1pm Tofu, steamed carrots, broccoli, red pepper, zucchini, rice
5:30pm Turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, tabouleh, hummus, jalepano on whole wheat wrap
9pm Smoothie - Mixed berries, soy protein, soy milk, 2 bananas, spinach, flax meal; fish oil capsule

Good day of eating I would say. I was hungry after my workout, hence eating three times in three hours. The wrap I had was really good so I might get that again, its from Fit for Life which has a location in one of the campuses of the college I work for. Looking at how I ate today I had a pretty wide variety of foods especially veggies which I'm quite happy about so I'll have to keep that going. That's all for now, gonna be a long day tomorrow as I have a bunch of work and studying to do so my post might be delayed until tursday.

Sun/Mon Feb 6/7

On Superbowl sunday I spent most of the day doing homework. Ended up going to my rugby club for the game and that is where I had this weeks cheat meal. It is easy to tell which one it is:

8am 2 egg shrimp, asparagus and goat cheese open faced omelette with 2 slices whole wheat toast
11:30am Smoothie - mixed berries, 2 bananas, soy milk, spinach, flax meal, whey protein; vitamins (multi,b,c,fish oil)
3pm Salmon sushi, salmon and avacado rolls, and salmon rolls
During the superbowl: Pizza and a few beers

Monday food:
9am muesli with soy milk
11am Smoothie - mixed berries, 2 bananas, soy milk, spinach, flax meal, whey protein; vitamins (multi,b,c,fish oil)
1:45pm 3pcs bacon, egg, cheddar, on whole wheat toast
4:30pm apple, banana
7:30pm Curried chickpea, quinoa, and red lentil stew
9:30pm Almonds, pecans, cashews, peanuts, raisins, dates
11pm Protein shake, fish oil capsule

Going to work out tomorrow instead of today, didn't sleep the best as all the pizza I ate wasn't sitting very well. Not used to eating that much greasy food anymore, which is a good thing I would say. This doesn't throw off my schedule at all so its not an issue. Going to be busy over the next few days as I have an assignment due thursday and a fair bit of studying to do. Thats all for now, just off to bed to get up to train.

My Story

This post is to expand upon the small "About Me" section:

Chris Kelly is a student at York University in Toronto, studying Athletic Therapy while obtaining a Ba in Kinesiology. He is a rugby player recovering from ACL reconstructive surgery and this blog is about the process of getting back to game shape and overall health and fitness.


I have been playing rugby since I was 13; so its been about 10 years now. I have been very successful, representing the province of ontario at multiple age groups and as a member of the senior mens team at the age of 19. I have also represented my region at the under 20 level for numerous years including winning a national championship, and at the under 18 level winning gold at the ontario summer games. I have also won two provincial championships as a junior with my club the Burlington centaurs.


I have always been a rather small player both in height and weight/muscle. Below is me at 16 playing in a senior mens game and as you can tell I had always been rather skinny.

Despite my lack of size I'm proud to say I've never been afraid to run into much larger players and adapted a style of play based around my agility and quickness. I started working out in the gym seriously around the age of 18 and quickly grew from around 130lbs to 150lbs. Still rather small but a dramatic increase. I followed a very basic workout then that generally used upper and lower body splits. It worked well for me as I stuck to the same program for several months with regularity.

In the off season leading up to the 2009 season I had been working very hard and got up to 165lbs and was fairly lean but more importantly I was the strongest I had ever been and I had developed a lot of power in my pass which is an asset for my position (scrum half). In my mind I was poised to have a very successful season. Unfortunately while playing indoor touch rugby my cleat got caught in the fake turf and another player collided knee on knee with me while my leg was extended and slightly twisted. This resulted in an ACL tear. I worked with an Athletic Therapist and managed to regain my strength in time for the season, but at a tryout for the regional team my knee once again buckled (either fully tearing the ligament or it had already been fully torn but my muscles had allowed me to continue without one). After this I went to my sports med doc, had an mri, and went to a surgeon. 

I had the surgery on April 29th 2010. I waited a year due to my school because I have to be able to run out onto sports fields, gyms, and ice to treat injuries and emergency situations. It was really successful, and my surgeon is one of the best in Ontario, probably Canada (he is one of the surgeons for the CFL's Toronto Argos). Right from the start I progressed quickly with the hard work I put into it. I was off crutches in 5 days and had my full range of motion back within about 3 weeks. This allowed me to focus on strengthening. At the month mark I was progressed to running in straight lines. Most of the recovery was based around increasing the size and strength of my severely atrophied left leg. At about 8 weeks I was allowed to do agility work and plyometrics with my brace on (some people think this is early but I felt great and had the blessing from my surgeon and therapist). By five months in my bad leg was actually slightly stronger than my right leg (kind of overshot that and created an imbalance but it's pretty much back to normal now). Soon after I was out of the therapy clinic and just focused on getting into game shape and increasing general strength, size, and fitness while ensuring that my leg is strong and able to handle the demands of contact rugby.

Due to my severe loss of strength and size throughout my body I decided to use a program from trainer Jason Ferruggia called Triple Threat Muscle. This program is designed to increase size and strength while keeping agility and athleticism in mind. This is the exact mix that I require in order to return to rugby which starts at the end of April usually. This gives me only about four months to get into game shape and that is why I chose this program. I have been reading and following Jason for over a year now and have complete faith that this program is the best option for me and better than one that I could formulate for myself at this time. I have and will continue to make minor modifications to it based on the needs of my knee (for example: doing more agility work to replace certain finishers he advises); but for the most part I'm sticking to every word and rep of his original plan. 

Having just finished the first month of the program I am very happy with the results so far. I started at 160lbs and am now 164lbs but I have also gotten visibly leaner. I didn't get fat percentage measurements done due to my hectic schedule but my educated estimate is I'm down to about 12% maybe a bit less but still not 10%. This happened while seriously overeating; eating healthy but much more. At the end of this program I will be switching back to a much more plant based diet and will drop fat quiet easily as I normally do (In September I lost 5lbs of fat in two weeks while doing a vegan experiment with no weight loss goal in mind).

Anyways that is about it. Sorry for the length but I thought I would put down pretty much everything in order to get it off my chest and so that I am held accountable in regards to doing everything I can on my return to playing. This is what the whole point of this blog is. To monitor my progress, and to write down and analyze my actions and learn from both my successes and failures. 

Sat Feb 5

Had a good day of training, did my weights as the last workout of my deload week then did some agility ladder work. This is a big deal as it is the first time I've done this kind of training without my brace since the surgery. It went really well; I started off by easing into it but by the end I was going full speed. Worked on things like one legged hops both forwards and sideways and different footwork patterns. The lateral movement stuff is what tends to be the issue with ACL injuries so I was glad to be where I am. This is just a starting point and I still have a long way to go. I will do this for a few weeks and build up the muscles used before advancing to more difficult moves that mimic sidestepping in game situations (much more weight on the single leg while cutting) and finally into touch rugby, then contact. My calves will be a little sore tomorrow so did some anticipatory foam rolling and had an interosseous release and some trigger point work done by my girlfriend who is also in athletic therapy. Here is what I ate today:

8am Muesli with soy milk
11am Protein shake, apple, vitamins (multi,b,c,fish oil)
1pm 2 eggs, 2 slices whole wheat toast, potato with bacon, onion, spinach, oregano, parsley
5pm Homemade protein bar
8:30pm Whole wheat spaghetti, sausage, green pepper, onion, broccoli, mushrooms, tomato sauce
11pm Smoothie - mixed berries, 2 bananas, soy milk, spinach, flax meal, whey protein; fish oil capsule

Ate well today, and tomorrow is a cheat day. Going to save my cheat meal for during the superbowl which I'll be watching at my club. I'm thinking Pittsburgh is going to take it but I'm happy as long as its a good game. Off to bed for me now though. Enjoy the game tomorrow.

Fri Feb 4

Exam went well today, I expect a pretty good result. There wasn't a whole lot else going on today just some work on an assignment, a nap, and a practice. Have the weekend off so I'm planning on getting a lot of school work done and not procrastinating (I don't feel like doing that yet). Here is what I ate today:

9:30am Egg, 3pcs bacon, cheddar on whole wheat toast
12pm Protein shake, apple, vitamins (multi,b,c, fish oil)
2:30pm Granola, homemade protein bar
6:30pm Brown rice, chicken, black beans, avacado, tomato, red onion, red pepper, corn, salsa
10:30pm Smoothie - Mixed berries, 2 bananas, soy milk, spinach, flax meal, whey protein; fish oil capsule

I was pretty focused on doing research for an assignment hence all the protein bars and shakes instead of making a meal. Got a bunch of work done though. More to do tomorrow as well as a workout in the morning. I'm pretty tired so tonight's post is going to be kept short. Have a good one

Thurs Feb 3

Got up extra early this morning to make up for the missed workout from yesterday when the gym was shut. Had a good workout, didn't push myself a whole lot because its a deload week but still got the muscles working and finished by jumping rope. I'll go to the gym saturday then I'll be back to my mon, wed, fri, routine next week and no workouts will have been missed. Spent the rest of my day in class, studying, working, and a short nap thrown in (I was close to falling asleep in my one boring class but made it through). Have a nutrition exam tomorrow morning and I feel pretty well prepared; just have a few things to go over before bed and when I wake up but I'm not too worried because I already knew a lot of the stuff in the course before the class started. Just concentrating on specific wording and things like that. For a practical use of my nutrition knowledge see my diet for today:

6:30am Muesli with soy milk
9am Protein shake, apple, vitamins (multi,b,c, fish oil)
11am Roast beef, cheddar, spinach, tomato, dijon mustard on whole wheat
1pm Curried red lentil, chickpea, and quinoa stew
5:30pm Whole wheat penne, tomato, spinach, walnuts, onion, basil pesto
10:00pm Smoothie - Mixed berries, banana, soy milk, whey protein, spinach, flax meal; fish oil capsule

I actually have an assignment due in a month where I'm meant to analyze a three day diet using software I got with my nutrition textbook. Should be interesting to see if I'm lacking anything or an overabundance of anything. I don't supplement with any of the fat soluble vitamins (A,D,E,K) so I can't forsee their being an issue. My protein intake may be a little higher than the suggested percent range of the Canadian food guide but that is for the average person and not an athlete training for muscle and strength gains. On that note, back to the books.

Wed Feb 2

Snow day today at my school which unfortunately meant the fitness center was closed. The college I work for was also closed so I couldn't go there to train either. This just means I'll have to wake up extra early tomorrow to get to the gym before my early class. Spent the day studying and preparing food. I have a nutrition exam on friday so I'm getting ready for that. I also have a class on plyometrics tomorrow and we have a test each class so had some reading up to do on that. Other than that, not a whole lot going on today in the white wonderland that is Toronto. Here's what I ate today:

10am Broccoli and cheddar 4 egg scramble, 2pcs bacon, 2 slices whole wheat toast
12:30pm Smoothie - Mixed berries, 2 bananas, soy milk, spinach, flax meal, whey protein; vitamins (multi,b,c,fish oil)
3:30pm Rigatoni, sausage, onion, spinach, walnuts, olive oil
8pm Curried red lentil, chickpea, and quinoa stew
10:30pm Protein shake, apple, fish oil capsule

Made another big batch of the Curried red lentil stew. Have two portions in the freezer and one in the fridge for when I'm busy. I've found cooking like this a great way to eat healthy when I'm running around and don't have time to cook. Also made the protein bars I've talked about for quick snacks that pack a lot of protein and calories. I'm definitely not one to buy protein bars as they are often expensive and filled with a bunch of sugar and other crap but this way I know what is in my food. Like I said I have to get up extra early so I'm off to get my school stuff and clothes ready so I can get moving quickly in the morning.

Tues Feb 1

Was a little tired for a bunch of today. Woke up at my normal time and got a few things done, went to class, had a short nap then off to work. Body feels pretty good right now. Played a little dodgeball and a basketball based game called bump at the basketball practice I was working. Knee felt great; not a whole lot of cutting but some strong weight transfer was involved. I'm going to be working on agility stuff without my brace in the next few weeks starting with planned agility like ladder work, then progress up to reactionary work and maybe try to play some squash for some competitive and intense agility work. I need this kind of ability for the rugby field to be safe and effective. Food:

9am 3 egg omelette with onion spinach, mushroom; 3 pcs bacon, 2 slices whole wheat toast
11am Smoothie - mixed berries, 2 bananas, soy milk, spinach, flax meal, whey protein; vitamins (multi,b,c, fish oil)
1pm Turkey, cheddar, spinach, tomato, dijon mustard on whole wheat
5pm Brown rice, chicken, avacado, black beans, corn, tomato, red pepper, red onion, salsa
9pm Rigatoni, sausage, onion, spinach, walnuts, olive oil
11pm Protein shake, fish oil capsule

Ate fairly well today, bit more meat than usual but only because I am trying to build a lot of muscle in a short period of time. When my season starts and I'm no longer in building mode I'll be switching back to a much more plant based diet. I purposely have some leftovers from my 9pm meal for tomorrow so that will save me some time. Their is meant to be a snowstorm over night so possibly a snow day tomorrow. I may have to call the gym to see if they are still open, as tomorrow is meant to be a training day. If it's closed I might bring my stuff down to the college I work for and try to work out there. I would feel crappy if I didn't do whatever I could to get my workout in. Hopefully it all works out.