So, in the decathlon there are 2 days....
Normally a fact that works huge in my favor and is something that I thrive on. I remember NCAA's (Div. II) in 2003: I came in thinking that if I was within the top 8 after the first day, I had a shot at really shocking some people. After day one, I was seventh. Unfortunately I didn't have enough to catch the winner, but it only took me the first 3 of the 5 events on day two to solidify myself in second place. The second day is my day.
But this one hurt. The legs felt pretty good when I woke up. I worked all night at trying to loosen up the glute and hamstring so I didn't feel too bad after waking and getting my morning shake out in. Again, when we got to the track we had beautiful conditions. It was only a couple degrees hotter at ~88 degrees, but it def felt a little sweatier than the first day. Not quite as strong as the day before, but we again had that beautiful tail wind.
110m High Hurdles
Lesson learned: I made sure I had someone to hold my blocks for me this time. I had a great heat myself in the middle surrounded by 3 low 14 second hurdlers: the two other unnattached guys as well as Leander McKenzie out of Troy who had already run a regional qualifier in the 110s this year. We had a lane in between each of us as per NCAA rules (this is to save us from ourselves - decathletes tend to be very large, very ugly hurdlers and we're not afraid to hit each other. See my 60mH at the Dartmouth Relays earlier this year. If the guy next to you smacks you enough to ruin your race and thus meet after putting a long days work in the day before, you would not unhappy to very unhappy.) With the wind the way it was, I knew I really needed to keep quick otherwise i'd be hitting some hurdles.
I felt good through the first half of the race and felt like I could really start coming up on Claston in the lane next to me, but unfortunately I hit a couple hurdles late in the race which through me a bit off balance. I could def. still tell I need some work outdoors with the hurdles as it's still feeling like a long race. As I crossed the line and saw the guys just ahead of me were in the low 14s, I knew I had a solid time.
14.69 - a hundredth faster than my decathlon PR set this time a year ago. That made it 4 decathlon PRs for the meet and a solid start to the second day.
Discus
Much like the shot the day before, warm-ups for disc were a bit of an adventure. I felt pretty good in the ring, but my release was all over the place. We were facing away from the track (and parallel to the Mike, the Tiger's Cage), so the wind was in our face this time, but this can be a great thing in the disc as long as you keep the disc low. Something I did not do.
I first throw was a weak 38m throw that went higher than it did far, but it was conservative and I had a mark so I knew I could really get after the next couple throws.
Again on the second throw I got way to much height on the disc and wasn't able to get a ton of power out of the back of the ring. It was a minor improvement to just over 40 meters.
I think you can hear in the video my yell on my third had a big more flavor of desperation than anything else. Claston, a couple of throws before me, had hit his final throw really well at just under 50m - right where I was hoping to be. I was much better out of the back of the ring and got a bit more pop on my final throw, but again had some trouble with the height and had to settle for a mark at 42.37m (139'). Not a bad mark, especially compared to my first two, but over ten feet shy of my PR and well off what I'd been training at.
However, the vault and the jav coming up were the two events I was really waiting for on this day, so I was ready to put some real points on the board.
Pole Vault
As they set up the pit for the vault, the sun was still shining bright and we had a great little tail wind. Warm-ups were feeling great and I had some good confidence about getting onto my larger poles. I had a great jump at a 16'-8" bungie to finish off warm-ups, then packed up my poles and gear to head inside to the A/C of the indoor track. We were starting at 10 feet and there were a number of beginner type jumpers so I knew I had some time.
I returned an hour later to find the field narrowed down a bit, but with some ugly clouds on the horizon. They seemed to be in a direction to pass by us, but as I was finishing my re-warm-up things took a turn for the worse, literally. The height before I entered the competition, our beautiful tail wind instantaneously switched 180 degrees to become a gusting head-wind. On top of which, this also changed the direction of our storm so that it was now heading right for us.
I knew after warm-ups that I would need to open on my 16' - 205# pole, and although it took me one jump to get everything going, I had a clearance at 4.65m (15' - 3"). 800pts in the bag, and a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. It was actually a year ago at the Sea Ray relays that some ugly cross winds had helped me no-height in the vault thereby scrubbing a decent meet and producing my first ever decathlon no mark.
I had plenty of height on clearance, and there was just one other jumper in the competition at this point so in order to conserve jumps for later, I passed 4.75m and moved right to 4.85. The other jumper (Dmitri Kabakov) did the same, but unfortunately the weather was moving as quick as the bar was. At this point is was raining as well and the wind was not getting any better. We were both spending considerable time at the back of the runway before jumps trying to wait for calms in the wind, but they rarely came. I almost never jump with the standards closer than 70cm (and it's rare I even put them there), but despite moving them to 70m I was still having some trouble getting into the pit. Although my dad was doing a great job and helping a ton, this is where it gets tough not having your coach there with you. Should I move down a pole? Should I move my step up? Am I slowing down into the box? The height was there, I just couldn't get it over the bar.
I had to settle for opening height: 4.65m (15' - 3"). Disappointing, yes, but I actually came away feeling a bit relieved I got any bar in with the way the weather turned. In fact, right after we finished, it really started coming down and we had to clear the track for about a half an hour or so due to lightening.
Javelin
We came back to a soggy track and the sun had long since left us, but the jav was really the even that I had been looking forward to all meet. My meets in Houston went real well and thanks to my board of coaches (Brenner, mom, Chris - my brother), I had some easy ways to throw much farther... I just couldn't find them.
I warmed up well with some easy tosses over 180 feet. I had put together a bit more of a full run that I was planning on using so I would be added quite a bit more speed to the 55m tosses I had in Houston. Unfortunately it seems like someone was using a giant magnet for my javelin at 50m. I felt like I was putting out huge tosses and was developing much more whip, especially on my first attempt, then I had felt in a long time, and yet every throw seemed to fall out of the sky right at 50m. I kept composure well because I knew that just like the shot and the discus, I was only one throw away from the big one. Then I ran out of throws.
I've learned to stop counting points during a decathlon, to put The Book (table of scores) away and just compete event by event, but at this point I had to know. Counting chickens before the eggs, possibly, but after day one, I had some great looking eggs. With a good second day, let alone a vault, disc, and jav like I had been practicing, I was ready for a huge score. Not to mention, in the back of my head I was definitely going for the cool factor of scoring over 7,000 pts after just 9 events.
After nine events: 6,903 pts. My heart sunk. This meet was about much more than PRing, but I looked it up to see what I'd have to run in the 1500m to better 7,600: 4:34.
1,500m: final event
My legs had been real tight since pole vault warm-ups (and a big thanks to dad for making the supermarket run to stock up on Pedialyte and sports drinks to combat my dehydration) and I had not done a single traditional 1,500m type workout this year, so I was curious how I was going to run. I knew I was strong and in my 1,000m at Dartmouth earlier in the year, felt good despite how I ran.
Again, there was a lot of inexperience in the field, so no one really knew how they were going to run (this one kid seemed to surge about 4 times per lap and would sprint ahead every time I caught him), but Claston was going for 8,000m points and the Olympic A standard and needed a 4:34 to do it. Funny how that works. My plan was to stick behind him, let him pull me through and see how I felt.
I started conservative (not the usual for me) and had some fun as we fought for position a bit the first 200m. 2 of the Portland guys took it out and were well ahead (typical Oregon guys in the 1,500m), but I was right in the pack around Claston. Unfortunately I felt early that this wasn't quite 4:34 pace (either than or I was in ridiculous shape). We came through the first lap in about 73, which is right about 4:40+ place.
I felt good and comfortable through the second lap and all the changes in pace in the guys around me were great for giving me something to think about other than my own legs. I came through the 800 in 2:36 and I still felt real good so knew I had to do some work the next lap.
My final 600m was probably the strongest I've felt at that point in the race and I was surprised to find a pretty decent kick in me for the last 400. As I came to the final turn I came up on Dmitry and Cory Roberts out of SE Louisiana fighting each other to the finish so I dug down and fought to come up on them.
With my first 800m in about 2:30 I closed real well to a 2:20 final 800m and a 71 final lap for a 4:49.97. Especially considering the way my legs felt half way through the day, this was a great finish and only a couple seconds off my PR set last summer.
Final score: 7,522 points.
It's taken me a couple days to write this, and probably with good reason because a couple days ago it would have a much different tone, but all-in-all, this is a meet that shows a ton of promise. I finally hit a first day like I have been waiting for for a long time now. Minus some technical difficulties I would have had 4 out of 5 decathlon and outdoor PRs which is a hell of a start to the season. Especially considering it's still April. I've never broken 7,000pts in April before (sadly), which actually makes this about a 500 point PR for the time of year. Now I'm definitely not saying this is going to lead to a 500 point PR come June (although I'll take it), but what it does show is that my training is going great and is right about where I want it. The speed is so much better than it ever has been at this point, I'm FINALLY starting to figure out the long jump, the high jump bar is looking lower and lower every day, the strength is great, and my technique is approaching a whole new level. I as def. able to tell which events are going to require a lot more outdoor training of which I haven't been able to get much in at this point (hurdles #6-#10, disc, jav), but as of right now is a beautiful 60 degrees out (that great for Boston) so things are looking up. The second day will come, I'm not worried. Now it's time to hunker down and keep doing what I'm doing. Stick to the game plan, work hard, and hit it again come June when I'll do one more meet in Dallas a few weeks before the Trials. The good thing is, if I had popped that big score last week, it would have ruined the surprise. At least this way I can save the good stuff for June.
Oh, and I'm working on getting some of the video and pictures myself, but thanks to my Director of Arts and Driving, you can watch some video of each day here.
Normally a fact that works huge in my favor and is something that I thrive on. I remember NCAA's (Div. II) in 2003: I came in thinking that if I was within the top 8 after the first day, I had a shot at really shocking some people. After day one, I was seventh. Unfortunately I didn't have enough to catch the winner, but it only took me the first 3 of the 5 events on day two to solidify myself in second place. The second day is my day.
But this one hurt. The legs felt pretty good when I woke up. I worked all night at trying to loosen up the glute and hamstring so I didn't feel too bad after waking and getting my morning shake out in. Again, when we got to the track we had beautiful conditions. It was only a couple degrees hotter at ~88 degrees, but it def felt a little sweatier than the first day. Not quite as strong as the day before, but we again had that beautiful tail wind.
110m High Hurdles
Lesson learned: I made sure I had someone to hold my blocks for me this time. I had a great heat myself in the middle surrounded by 3 low 14 second hurdlers: the two other unnattached guys as well as Leander McKenzie out of Troy who had already run a regional qualifier in the 110s this year. We had a lane in between each of us as per NCAA rules (this is to save us from ourselves - decathletes tend to be very large, very ugly hurdlers and we're not afraid to hit each other. See my 60mH at the Dartmouth Relays earlier this year. If the guy next to you smacks you enough to ruin your race and thus meet after putting a long days work in the day before, you would not unhappy to very unhappy.) With the wind the way it was, I knew I really needed to keep quick otherwise i'd be hitting some hurdles.
I felt good through the first half of the race and felt like I could really start coming up on Claston in the lane next to me, but unfortunately I hit a couple hurdles late in the race which through me a bit off balance. I could def. still tell I need some work outdoors with the hurdles as it's still feeling like a long race. As I crossed the line and saw the guys just ahead of me were in the low 14s, I knew I had a solid time.
14.69 - a hundredth faster than my decathlon PR set this time a year ago. That made it 4 decathlon PRs for the meet and a solid start to the second day.
Discus
Much like the shot the day before, warm-ups for disc were a bit of an adventure. I felt pretty good in the ring, but my release was all over the place. We were facing away from the track (and parallel to the Mike, the Tiger's Cage), so the wind was in our face this time, but this can be a great thing in the disc as long as you keep the disc low. Something I did not do.
I first throw was a weak 38m throw that went higher than it did far, but it was conservative and I had a mark so I knew I could really get after the next couple throws.
Again on the second throw I got way to much height on the disc and wasn't able to get a ton of power out of the back of the ring. It was a minor improvement to just over 40 meters.
I think you can hear in the video my yell on my third had a big more flavor of desperation than anything else. Claston, a couple of throws before me, had hit his final throw really well at just under 50m - right where I was hoping to be. I was much better out of the back of the ring and got a bit more pop on my final throw, but again had some trouble with the height and had to settle for a mark at 42.37m (139'). Not a bad mark, especially compared to my first two, but over ten feet shy of my PR and well off what I'd been training at.
However, the vault and the jav coming up were the two events I was really waiting for on this day, so I was ready to put some real points on the board.
Pole Vault
As they set up the pit for the vault, the sun was still shining bright and we had a great little tail wind. Warm-ups were feeling great and I had some good confidence about getting onto my larger poles. I had a great jump at a 16'-8" bungie to finish off warm-ups, then packed up my poles and gear to head inside to the A/C of the indoor track. We were starting at 10 feet and there were a number of beginner type jumpers so I knew I had some time.
I returned an hour later to find the field narrowed down a bit, but with some ugly clouds on the horizon. They seemed to be in a direction to pass by us, but as I was finishing my re-warm-up things took a turn for the worse, literally. The height before I entered the competition, our beautiful tail wind instantaneously switched 180 degrees to become a gusting head-wind. On top of which, this also changed the direction of our storm so that it was now heading right for us.
I knew after warm-ups that I would need to open on my 16' - 205# pole, and although it took me one jump to get everything going, I had a clearance at 4.65m (15' - 3"). 800pts in the bag, and a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. It was actually a year ago at the Sea Ray relays that some ugly cross winds had helped me no-height in the vault thereby scrubbing a decent meet and producing my first ever decathlon no mark.
I had plenty of height on clearance, and there was just one other jumper in the competition at this point so in order to conserve jumps for later, I passed 4.75m and moved right to 4.85. The other jumper (Dmitri Kabakov) did the same, but unfortunately the weather was moving as quick as the bar was. At this point is was raining as well and the wind was not getting any better. We were both spending considerable time at the back of the runway before jumps trying to wait for calms in the wind, but they rarely came. I almost never jump with the standards closer than 70cm (and it's rare I even put them there), but despite moving them to 70m I was still having some trouble getting into the pit. Although my dad was doing a great job and helping a ton, this is where it gets tough not having your coach there with you. Should I move down a pole? Should I move my step up? Am I slowing down into the box? The height was there, I just couldn't get it over the bar.
I had to settle for opening height: 4.65m (15' - 3"). Disappointing, yes, but I actually came away feeling a bit relieved I got any bar in with the way the weather turned. In fact, right after we finished, it really started coming down and we had to clear the track for about a half an hour or so due to lightening.
Javelin
We came back to a soggy track and the sun had long since left us, but the jav was really the even that I had been looking forward to all meet. My meets in Houston went real well and thanks to my board of coaches (Brenner, mom, Chris - my brother), I had some easy ways to throw much farther... I just couldn't find them.
I warmed up well with some easy tosses over 180 feet. I had put together a bit more of a full run that I was planning on using so I would be added quite a bit more speed to the 55m tosses I had in Houston. Unfortunately it seems like someone was using a giant magnet for my javelin at 50m. I felt like I was putting out huge tosses and was developing much more whip, especially on my first attempt, then I had felt in a long time, and yet every throw seemed to fall out of the sky right at 50m. I kept composure well because I knew that just like the shot and the discus, I was only one throw away from the big one. Then I ran out of throws.
I've learned to stop counting points during a decathlon, to put The Book (table of scores) away and just compete event by event, but at this point I had to know. Counting chickens before the eggs, possibly, but after day one, I had some great looking eggs. With a good second day, let alone a vault, disc, and jav like I had been practicing, I was ready for a huge score. Not to mention, in the back of my head I was definitely going for the cool factor of scoring over 7,000 pts after just 9 events.
After nine events: 6,903 pts. My heart sunk. This meet was about much more than PRing, but I looked it up to see what I'd have to run in the 1500m to better 7,600: 4:34.
1,500m: final event
My legs had been real tight since pole vault warm-ups (and a big thanks to dad for making the supermarket run to stock up on Pedialyte and sports drinks to combat my dehydration) and I had not done a single traditional 1,500m type workout this year, so I was curious how I was going to run. I knew I was strong and in my 1,000m at Dartmouth earlier in the year, felt good despite how I ran.
Again, there was a lot of inexperience in the field, so no one really knew how they were going to run (this one kid seemed to surge about 4 times per lap and would sprint ahead every time I caught him), but Claston was going for 8,000m points and the Olympic A standard and needed a 4:34 to do it. Funny how that works. My plan was to stick behind him, let him pull me through and see how I felt.
I started conservative (not the usual for me) and had some fun as we fought for position a bit the first 200m. 2 of the Portland guys took it out and were well ahead (typical Oregon guys in the 1,500m), but I was right in the pack around Claston. Unfortunately I felt early that this wasn't quite 4:34 pace (either than or I was in ridiculous shape). We came through the first lap in about 73, which is right about 4:40+ place.
I felt good and comfortable through the second lap and all the changes in pace in the guys around me were great for giving me something to think about other than my own legs. I came through the 800 in 2:36 and I still felt real good so knew I had to do some work the next lap.
My final 600m was probably the strongest I've felt at that point in the race and I was surprised to find a pretty decent kick in me for the last 400. As I came to the final turn I came up on Dmitry and Cory Roberts out of SE Louisiana fighting each other to the finish so I dug down and fought to come up on them.
With my first 800m in about 2:30 I closed real well to a 2:20 final 800m and a 71 final lap for a 4:49.97. Especially considering the way my legs felt half way through the day, this was a great finish and only a couple seconds off my PR set last summer.
Final score: 7,522 points.
It's taken me a couple days to write this, and probably with good reason because a couple days ago it would have a much different tone, but all-in-all, this is a meet that shows a ton of promise. I finally hit a first day like I have been waiting for for a long time now. Minus some technical difficulties I would have had 4 out of 5 decathlon and outdoor PRs which is a hell of a start to the season. Especially considering it's still April. I've never broken 7,000pts in April before (sadly), which actually makes this about a 500 point PR for the time of year. Now I'm definitely not saying this is going to lead to a 500 point PR come June (although I'll take it), but what it does show is that my training is going great and is right about where I want it. The speed is so much better than it ever has been at this point, I'm FINALLY starting to figure out the long jump, the high jump bar is looking lower and lower every day, the strength is great, and my technique is approaching a whole new level. I as def. able to tell which events are going to require a lot more outdoor training of which I haven't been able to get much in at this point (hurdles #6-#10, disc, jav), but as of right now is a beautiful 60 degrees out (that great for Boston) so things are looking up. The second day will come, I'm not worried. Now it's time to hunker down and keep doing what I'm doing. Stick to the game plan, work hard, and hit it again come June when I'll do one more meet in Dallas a few weeks before the Trials. The good thing is, if I had popped that big score last week, it would have ruined the surprise. At least this way I can save the good stuff for June.
Oh, and I'm working on getting some of the video and pictures myself, but thanks to my Director of Arts and Driving, you can watch some video of each day here.
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