Four days... for life

The perspective I have to have for the next four days is that this is for life.... we had a practice today, we have Finland tomorrow night at 6 Sweden time, practice Friday and then medal games on Saturday.

From practice today I am sore .... my lower back is spasming, my arms/hands are a battlefield and my neck/traps are going NUTS. My feet hurt a little but it's definitely on the backburner which is sort of nice.

I think most of us are getting by using the cathartic Swedish ice cream ... The one above is a Magnum (with almonds). The regular is chocolate with caramel /vanilla ice cream and the best is the strawberry ice cream with white chocolate on the outside. The dinner food we're eating is not really what we need to sustain energy and strength over this stretch, so I'm spending some money at the hotel restaurant, but Swedish people eat lots of veggies and not a ton of meat so it's different. Yesterday I had a salad that was yummy with balsamic/lemon dressing, two small pieces of bread and this grilled cheese - they literally grill the cheese and that was good.

The practice is intense to me because Knegi and OG aren't doing me any favors on the defensive line. Any block I get is their stunt to the backside or a good block on my part. They bring it every play, which is great but very hard on my body. I honestly BELIEVE that there's no opponent that can be worse than they are... which is good.

I think I've finally gotten my snap together except when I get all twisted up thinking about cutting.... I did it once today in practice and got back on track. Finland is expected to be a team that will keep coming - more speed than anything else as they are a smaller front than we've seen. I'll have the 0-technique all game probably, except on some passes... so it's good that we have a solid game plan. The rest of tonight will mostly be film and meetings... so I thought I'd try to get some words in first.

A few photos : Germany v. Sweden .... you can't see the HUGE girls on the line here... Me and Pickett the center from NY... Austria v. Finland and the Magnum with almonds. Mmmmhmm.