Better

No matter what the outcome, its always amazing how different I feel after my first decathlon of the year. Yes there are multis indoors, but at 7 events even those meets seem like practice. The fall and winter, now even most of spring as my schedule shifts (and I get better), feel like endless training. Just when it starts getting a little tedious and I start to wonder a bit about what I'm doing it all for, I hit that first meet and it all becomes clear. You're body remembers, "oh yeah, this is what its all about." Yes there's definitely a recovery period in which you basically feel like trash for a couple days, but recently I've been noticing a huge jump in confidence and even sense of strength coming out of these opening competitions. Even outcomes under expectations, as this past meet, finally knowing what pieces are there and what others need more work gives a huge boost to my
training both physically and mentally.
I tested my legs out with what was suppposed to be some easy 200s last week but after the first I was able to put together one of my best workouts of the year. In Friday's long jump session I finished an hour of jumping with a jump 40cm (and 100pts) longer than anything I jumped in Italy - off an approach 4 strides shorter than my full approach! The day before I took some of the best feeling high jump training jumps I've had all year.
I still have a lot of work to do before USA's at the end of June, which is coming fast, but it feels good to know I'm still on track.

This actually leads me to a pretty good point. Obviously in Italy I did not handle all the travel well. Despite feeling fine on thursday and friday leading into saturday's competition, my jumps showed that I must have left my legs somewhere in the states. I think for one thing I need to manage my sleep around my flights better as well as do much more moving around in flight to prevent the blood pooling in my legs (I had legitimate "cankles" post-flight), but would anyone like to share any advice for handling extensive travel for competitions?

Thanks all for your support,
Matt