Intro
I'm in Dallas right now recovering from the first day of the Texas Greatest Athlete Decathlon (and heptathlon). It's a great meet put on at St. Marks School of Texas, a high school with incredible facilities whose program is run by John Turek, the head of USATF Heptathlon as well as a great coach and even better guy. As of last July, I hold the facility record here (this will be my fourth meet here in three years - I spend more time in Texas than I do home now...) and my overall PR is from here, my 1500m PR is from here, my 400m PR is from here, until indoors, my High Jump PR is from here, and although we throw off of a grass runway, both times I've been over 60 meters in the jav were here. Thus, I'm excited to be here, but I walk in to this meet with a very weighty purpose. This will be the final chance to boost my provisional "B" standard for the Olympic Trials. In fact, it's a pretty huge meet for just that reason: there are about 12 guys here trying boost their marks into the top 18 needed to make The Trials. Which, although nerve-racking, also makes this a great meet for the people as well. It's really the huge part about the decathlon that a lot of other sports miss out on:
A handful of us have been doing this meet for a few years now
That being said: we're here for business:
Day One:
I'm coming into the meet feeling great. I haven't been able to really compete in anything since LSU (April!!) due to my glute issue and just lack of meets + travel with the Harvard team so I'm not totally sure where my fitness is at, but my jumps have been awesome in practice, my throws are feeling pretty good, and my workouts have been feeling good.
Day one was about 100 degrees with plenty of humidity but some good winds as well. I've competed here many times before under the heat but for some reason, today was the first time I think it really affected me.
100m
I started off great in the 100m. We had a great heat, I got out to a great start and was able to battle with all the guys the entire way down. I think 80 percent or better in the race PR'd - including myself: 11.16. Huge PR not only by time, but especially mentally. It's a mark I've been trying to bring down for way too long and is finally something that pretty respectable. It also get me well into 800 pts.
Long Jump
practice in the long had been going great recently and although it's an event i've struggled with for a while, I feel like I'm finally starting to get it. With the confidence of the 100m I was ready to go big.
I warmed up great and was ready to roll. Unfortunately, due to the size of the meet (maybe we shouldn't have told everybody about this meet) I was 18th in the order and had to wait a bit to jump. Not that that's an excuse, but I ended up jumping much more poor than I had expected. I just couldn't seem to get things to work together and ended up with a 6.67m best. A year about it would have been decent, but after LSU and the way things had been going - a large dissappointment. Not to mention, this was only the second event and I was already feeling the affects of the heat with some twinging going on in the left hamstring.
Shot Put
Shot turned out decently well. I wussed a bit on the first throw to hit a super slow but safe 13 meters. I came back on the second with my best mark of 14.21m. A solid throw and decent score. Mine was the furthest throw on the day.
High Jump
High Jump was ugly. Every jump felt a bit different than the last. Trouble with running the curve and I just couldn't get things to work together. I felt ok, but just couldn't get it done. I ended up at 1.94m, around 6-4, and a solid 2 bars lower than LSU, 3 less than the Dartmouth Relays. Ouch.
400m
Going into the quarter I knew I had dug myself into a hole. I took it out strong with a 23-mid first 200m but couldn't quite hold on. It was a LONG final 70m. I finished with a 51.7. Not great but only a couple tenths slower than LSU although nothing gained, not a ton lost.
Day one started off great with a big breakthrough in the hundred, but with real weak jumps, I had some serious ground to make up. I was just over 100 pts down from the day one score at LSU.
I'm in Dallas right now recovering from the first day of the Texas Greatest Athlete Decathlon (and heptathlon). It's a great meet put on at St. Marks School of Texas, a high school with incredible facilities whose program is run by John Turek, the head of USATF Heptathlon as well as a great coach and even better guy. As of last July, I hold the facility record here (this will be my fourth meet here in three years - I spend more time in Texas than I do home now...) and my overall PR is from here, my 1500m PR is from here, my 400m PR is from here, until indoors, my High Jump PR is from here, and although we throw off of a grass runway, both times I've been over 60 meters in the jav were here. Thus, I'm excited to be here, but I walk in to this meet with a very weighty purpose. This will be the final chance to boost my provisional "B" standard for the Olympic Trials. In fact, it's a pretty huge meet for just that reason: there are about 12 guys here trying boost their marks into the top 18 needed to make The Trials. Which, although nerve-racking, also makes this a great meet for the people as well. It's really the huge part about the decathlon that a lot of other sports miss out on:
A handful of us have been doing this meet for a few years now
- Chris Staton whom I have been decathloning against since high school, and Mike Marsh both come from Southern California. I've competed against both those guys about a dozen times...man, I'm getting old),
- Mark Jellison was one of my training partners in Berkeley, and still trains there
- Goose, I think you've heard me talk about before and is actually my roommate on the trip. He's out of Penn State and is actually only doing select events this time around as he dropped a big 7800+ pt score a few weeks back to secure his trip to Trials.
- Moose, from Dartmouth who now trains in Colorado is here with his coach and some friends he brought along. He as well has had a HUGE year, dropping a 8100+ pt score, and BIG PR to not only secure the A Mark for both Trials and The Games, but also thrusts him in to contention for a spot on the team to Beijing. You've heard me talk plenty about Moose if you read my post on the Dartmouth Relays.
That being said: we're here for business:
Day One:
I'm coming into the meet feeling great. I haven't been able to really compete in anything since LSU (April!!) due to my glute issue and just lack of meets + travel with the Harvard team so I'm not totally sure where my fitness is at, but my jumps have been awesome in practice, my throws are feeling pretty good, and my workouts have been feeling good.
Day one was about 100 degrees with plenty of humidity but some good winds as well. I've competed here many times before under the heat but for some reason, today was the first time I think it really affected me.
100m
I started off great in the 100m. We had a great heat, I got out to a great start and was able to battle with all the guys the entire way down. I think 80 percent or better in the race PR'd - including myself: 11.16. Huge PR not only by time, but especially mentally. It's a mark I've been trying to bring down for way too long and is finally something that pretty respectable. It also get me well into 800 pts.
Long Jump
practice in the long had been going great recently and although it's an event i've struggled with for a while, I feel like I'm finally starting to get it. With the confidence of the 100m I was ready to go big.
I warmed up great and was ready to roll. Unfortunately, due to the size of the meet (maybe we shouldn't have told everybody about this meet) I was 18th in the order and had to wait a bit to jump. Not that that's an excuse, but I ended up jumping much more poor than I had expected. I just couldn't seem to get things to work together and ended up with a 6.67m best. A year about it would have been decent, but after LSU and the way things had been going - a large dissappointment. Not to mention, this was only the second event and I was already feeling the affects of the heat with some twinging going on in the left hamstring.
Shot Put
Shot turned out decently well. I wussed a bit on the first throw to hit a super slow but safe 13 meters. I came back on the second with my best mark of 14.21m. A solid throw and decent score. Mine was the furthest throw on the day.
High Jump
High Jump was ugly. Every jump felt a bit different than the last. Trouble with running the curve and I just couldn't get things to work together. I felt ok, but just couldn't get it done. I ended up at 1.94m, around 6-4, and a solid 2 bars lower than LSU, 3 less than the Dartmouth Relays. Ouch.
400m
Going into the quarter I knew I had dug myself into a hole. I took it out strong with a 23-mid first 200m but couldn't quite hold on. It was a LONG final 70m. I finished with a 51.7. Not great but only a couple tenths slower than LSU although nothing gained, not a ton lost.
Day one started off great with a big breakthrough in the hundred, but with real weak jumps, I had some serious ground to make up. I was just over 100 pts down from the day one score at LSU.
1 comment:
Great post! Can't wait to read the next one ;)
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