I went to the YMCA and managed to keep up a 20 min mile pace for an hour and a half (that's when they closed the joint down). There are some parts of me that are sore today but nothing a little painkiller wouldn't handle.
I need to make a detailed training plan. It should include at least one dry run -- in weather, in uniform, marching stride. Oh, and playing.
You see, I'm a terrible marcher. There seems to be some disconnect between the top and bottom portions of my body. I've always blamed this on the fact that I'm so busy playing (the drumline is always playing; we don't get a minute's break during a parade) that I can't concentrate on marching. But since I'm playing cymbals I really need to focus on the marching. Did I mention that cymbals sometimes have to march backwards, holding the cymbals for the snare drums? So this is going to take some work on my part. I can do it, I just need to practice.
I need to learn the music. Of course, I would have to have the music first. We were in such a hurry to get the instrumentation that I don't know how they're going to get us music. I bet they'll email it to us, but yikes! Thank god(desse)(s) that I'm playing cymbals. There is no way under the sky that I could memorize all the music if I were playing quads.
So, let's see -- there are 63,360 inches in a mile and 28 inches to a stride. I'm going to assume that the parade will be 2 miles. That's 126,720 inches -- or 4526 strides. Now, let's assume that we'll be playing march music, which averages 80 beats per minute (each beat will be a stride) and that we will be keeping that tempo for cadences. That comes to marching the parade route in 56.5 minutes. Rounding up, that puts me at a pace of one mile per half hour, or a thirty minute mile. (Suddenly all that GRE studying is paying off)
That seems very doable, since I did lots more than that last night. Of course, I didn't enjoy the experience it at the time, and lord knows I didn't do it at marching stride. Knowing the pace makes it a little easier for me to make a training plan. But this is a problem I can train for.
The other thing I need to focus on is upper body strength. Marching quads would have been totally impossible but most people don't know that cymbals are actually quite heavy. Think about it -- you're carrying around giant discs of metal. And they generally have to be "up" the whole time so you're putting great amounts of pressure on your biceps, shoulders, and upper back. I have an old rotator cuff injury in my left arm that I'll have to work around.
I refuse to embarass myself or my community by looking like a slug out there. I'm going to do it well and with a smile. Once again, I'm glad that I've been working out for about a month now to get more upper body strength, but I need to kick it into high gear. There's no sense in losing feeling in my arm for a week afterward; though that's a sacrifice I would gladly make.
So, in summary, my critical deficiencies are:
- marching incompetence
- lack of upper body strength
- overall poor conditioning
Thankfully, these can all be countered by thorough training.
Unfortunately I can't "get myself in shape" in forty days. That would be medically unwise. But I can start myself down the path and make the experience a memorable one.
Oh yeah, I've still got to get a place to stay. I lived in DC for a few years about 10 years ago and have some friends still living there. I'm going to give them a call tonight.
And I still have to finish the basement playroom for the boys, make shelving for toys and such, parent the children (4yo boy twins and 17mo girl), make a firewood holder, and move the firewood out of the driveway. Only that last task can I even imagine as cross training.
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