LSU Tiger Combined Events: Day 1: PR's around

Good Day.
The weather turned out to be pretty much ideal. It was def. warm at 85+ but the cloud cover kept it from getting too bad. It was def. windy, but it was nice and consistent which provided for a great first two events (100m & LJ) but it actually calmed down a bit by the time we got to the 400m.

100m
Warming up I felt much better than I had the couple days before so I knew I was finally ready to go. I took my time and had a nice surprise when checking the heat sheets: we would have a field of 12 to start, mostly of the collegians I figured would be there, but in addition was Claston Benard, ex-LSU decathlete and 8,200+ point scorer out of Jamaica. This was his first decathlon in three years, but as he put it, this was his chance to ease back into things and score his Olympic A qualifier (8,000 pts). Always good to have someone around to compete with, especially when their local.
Coming out of the block in warm-ups I had noticed the start area was a little chewed up from years of starts, but I didn't have any problems with my blocks slipping, so paid it no mind...way to go Matt.
I was in the outside of the first heat in Lane 8 with Claston on the far side in 2. On the command I came to set, and BOOM, gun goes off but as I push my front foot against the blocks I get only slippage in return. The starter doesn't notice so from there on it's all catch up time. We had a good but legal wind at our backs so I still came away with a good time at 11.32 which equals my 100m from PR meet at Dallas last year and is only .02 off my lifetime PR set at NCAAs in 2003. Both of those marks were months later in the season than it is now.
Claston cruised to a 10.70 to win it. After giving everyone a nice head start (even more than usual) I powered back pretty well on the field in the second part of the race. It would have been great to see what that race would have been with a real start. Good mark to start the day with and it shows the training is right where I want it to be.

Long Jump
On what seems like an unnecessary side note: I usually long jump with my older long jump specific shoes, but have recently toyed with the idea of jumping in my newer and better fitting vaulting shoes. Although I figured I'd stick with what I use in practice (the LJ spikes), at the very last minute before leaving the hotel this morning I threw my vault spikes in my bag and figured I'd make it a game time decision...
I knew my speed was good and things have really been clicking well in practice lately so I was stoked to see how the long jump was going to go for me. The wind had picked up even greater so I was a bit worried about how that would affect my run, but excited more than anything. Good day to jump well. After shaking out from the 100m, checking in, putting my mark out, and gathering my stuff, I sat down to put my spikes on. Boom, the shoe string on my left spike snaps as I yank on it to pull it tight. "Great," I think, first my blocks slip, then my shoe string snaps. The laces are long so I try to just take in some slack and balance the string from the other side, but it turns out Nike decided you don't need a real shoe string in your long jump shoes, instead, they were kind enough to permanently attach each side of the lace. As a result, I was screwed and I was scrambling trying to figure out how to try my shoe before it hit me: good job me, go grab the vault spikes. This was going to be a good day, but the decathlon gods sure weren't going to make it easy on me...
My first warm-up run-through was a good couple feet over the board on top of the foot I already moved my mark back, but after again moving the mark back another couple feet, my second approach was right on the board, thus I knew I was ready to roll. I finished off warm-ups with a couple pop-ups, moved the approach back a couple of inches to account for first jump jitters, and tried to find some shade to hang out in.

On first jump I felt great on the runway, just as we'd been practicing, I was nice and patient. I felt good off the board, but think I left my take-off foot out in front thus I didn't feel a ton of pop, but the speed was good and jump felt like a good start. I had left about 2 inches to spare on the take-off board. I saw them lining up the tape measure at something + about 80cm. It was either going to be a good day or a really ugly one. Boom, 6.83m (22-5). New PR. Good day.

I wanted to really start hitting it, plus the wind was starting to pick up some, so I moved the approach back another couple of inches, and it's a good thing I did. Second jump felt great. I actually thought I fouled it, but I got my take-off foot underneath me which gave me some pop, and I think the landing was even pretty solid. Expecting to see a big red flag when I got up, I was even more stoked to see him throw the white flag up in the air so signify a legal jump. The judge also laid down the little marker to show where your foot was and I had absolutely no board to spare. Boom. 6.87m (22-6). New PR, but I knew I had a lot more in me. Time to go for 7 meters.

The third jump always carries more steam. I moved the mark back 6 inches figuring I'd leave a little room to spare and really tried to get after it on the take-off. Again, the jump felt great, white flag...Boom: 6.94m (22' - 9"). Not quite 7 meters, but now I know I have it in me. Plus, it's tough to argue with 3 back-to-back-to-back PRs in a decathlon. I was particularly happy with my board management with strong winds. I probably left a combined 3 inches of board to spare all day. I was third in the event to Bernard and Fagen, the only other post-collegiates in the field.

Shot Put
Although I felt great, with good speed and great pop, not much was going right in warm-ups once I moved on to the full spin. I just couldn't get myself onto the ball with any control. Normally I'm king of warm-ups to my own demise, this time I was just going to have to trust it and get it going once the comp started.
Once we got rolling I knew that trying to be too safe is almost more dangerous than anything else, thus I still attacked the throw knowing that by just letting myself do what I do, the ball will go. Foul. I had no control coming to the center and front of the ring, for no real reason I could figure out on my own and wasn't able to hang onto the throw. It went well, but I flew out of the front right side of the ring.
The day was going too well, I couldn't have another Dartmouth Relays with a No Mark in the shot. Practice lately had been going amazingly well, so I knew there was a big throw waiting to come out, I just had to find it somewhere. In the decathlon you have to have a short memory. From event to event, even throw to throw or jump to jump, you have to take it all one at a time or your head can eat itself alive - but you also can't let one event ruin erase a two day meet. I hate the idea of going into a throw wondering if I'll make it or not, so admitting a lack of confidence was tough, but I knew I had to take a safe standing throw on my second attempt to allow me to really attack the third. I stood just over 40 feet (we won't talk about how far my stand in warm-ups was).
On the third I knew I had a job to do. It was super windy at this point and I was getting some good gusts to the face in the back of the ring. It sounds strange to even consider, but I didn't know if the wind was actually affecting my rotation. I was feeling super fast, so that on top of the wind may have just been enough to have been throwing me off. The little I could figure out about my throw was that I was real soft up front and was blowing threw the toe board, .launching myself into the sector. I had to get my left foot down strong and quick in order to keep myself in the ring. Stay on balance and I should be able to salvage something in the mid 40s. Every point counts. I got into the ring and actually waited for a good few seconds for the wind to calm down, stepped the the back of the ring, focused on staying tall, got my right foot out of the back, drove the the middle (kind of), and slammed the left foot down at the front of the ring as quick as I could. In the video, I've noticed my yell seemed to have an added bit of desperation more so than anything else. I wavered a bit at the front of the ring, but was able to walk out of the back under control as the shot landed somewhere over 40 feet...anywhere over 40 feet.
Somehow I actually managed to pull out a near 14.31m (46' - 11.5") throw for a big decathlon PR and not far off my marks this year. I would have been great to see what types of throws I had in me had I been able to get to any level of consistency.
Anyways, disaster averted, decathlon PRs or lifetime PRs in 2 out of 3 events. Good day. Maybe not easy, but good.

High Jump
We had to wait a few minutes for the ladies in the heptathlon to finish high jumping so we could use the same pit, but the time gave me a much needed chance to grab a couple minutes in the air conditioned indoor track next door and dunk my head in a cold shower. The wind was still pretty steady but it'd been mid-80s or better all day.
Here, again, I felt great in warm-ups. The wind was a cross and at my back into my curve but really didn't affect me at all and for the first time all day I was able to put it out of mind. The approach took only a small bit of adjustment that I was glad to have my dad there for, but my pop was great. I hit a nice 5-8+ scissor in warm-ups and a full flop with room over 6-4. I knew I was ready to roll. We started low, so again I was able to get a couple minutes of break time indoors while I waited to come in. The plan was to open at 1.85m (6' - 0.75") to get a safe bar in, pass 1.88 to conserver the jumps, and move on from there.
Once I came out and entered there were only 3 people left in the competition so I moved quickly. I still had great pop and the approach felt real good. I cleared opening height with ease and did the same at 1.91m. I had a small lapse at my first jump at 1.94 in which I lost my curve a bit and jumped into the bar, but cleared well on my second attempt.
As the bar continued to raise I continued to feel good and the bar seemed low, a good sign, but I think the number of jumps and toll of the day finally started to catch up to me as my legs eventually stated feeling some fatigue. Still, I managed to clear 2.00m (6' - 6.75"), a new outdoor and decathlon PR, and I manged some good attempts at 2.03m.
3 out of 3 field event decathlon PRs for the first day, not a bad start.

400m
This was probably the most I had been looking forward to a 400 in a while. My workouts had been going well and I'm much stronger then I've been before. The legs were def. feeling it by the high jump, but the temp had cooled down considerably and the wind wasn't quite as bad as it had been earlier in the day.
I drew lane 8 on the far outside with Claston to my inside in 7. I felt pretty good and relaxed coming through the 200, and pretty strong through 300, but hit a bit of wind and locked up a bit coming home. I was hoping to be in at 50 point, but just couldn't hang on in the end. 51.47, not the way I was hoping to end such a good day, but still less than a tenth off decathlon PR.


3,888 points was a great way to start the meet and a 180 point first day PR. I came into this year wanting to emphasize that first day and it looks like the plan has been working. The speed is much better then it ever has been this time of year, and obviously the field events are coming up as well. 3 tenths of a second shorter and I would have been 5 for 5 on decathlon PRs.