http://www.lancertiming.com/results/winter08/dr-hept.htm
DAY ONE: 60m, LJ, Shot, HJ
The first day of the meet, Friday, started pretty well and ended great, but the middle left some to be desired.
I made the 2 hour trek up to Hanover late on Thursday night, got some decent sleep in the hotel, and felt pretty good warming up.
They set the meet up pretty well and put Chris Boyles on the inside in lane 1 Moose in lane just to my inside and Chris Helwick just to my outside in lane 5. I had a decent reaction to the gun, but stood up much too quickly so didn't get much of a drive phase. Moose got out great to what was the start of a huge Heptathlon. My 7.48 was a PR, but with a start like I had in December at the Harvard Open I would have easily been sub 7.4. Still a PR is a PR and it was a decent start.
In the long jump we found out that the Chris's (Boyles and Helwick) were not planning on competing full in any of the jumping events so planning on completing the meet would just be the half dozen or so collegiate guys and Moose and I. As I mentioned before the meet, I've recently moved back to a new ten stride approach that is real long but feeling great. Here too, I felt great on the approach, but for some reason or another, I just couldn't get much pop off the board. After reviewing the video with my coaches, we know exactly why now, but much like the shot, hurdles, and vault to follow, the LJ was a good example on why early meets are tough: the body may be ready for big things, but the awareness might still have some catching up to do. If finished at just over 21 feet, which technically isn't horrible for me, but I'm hoping to put such marks far in the distance behind me sometime soon. Moose, again, had a great event with a huge 7.20m jump after fouling his first.
The shot was one of the events I was most looking forward too. I had started off the year with a great PR in December and was eager to apply such a throw to the points table and get a big boost from it. I was warming up great and took a good throw over 45 feet, sat down, and waited for my time to come so I could make it count. Again, like LJ, I was trying some new things that we had been working on in practice; things that I wasn't quite comfortable yet nor really understood, but the ball was going far anyways. The problem here was that it was going far, but in the wrong direction... In my first throw I was a big off balance coming out of the back of the ring and wasn't too shocked to see the sector foul out of the right side that it produced. My second attempt felt good and much more aligned...only to see the ball drop even further outside the right sector line. This is something that I hadn't had any trouble with since I picked up the spin a year ago, plus I couldn't really feel where the disconnect was so I was a bit confused. Now, as a multi-eventer, you only get 3 attempts and if you don't get it done in those confines, you get a nice fat zero for the event. Had this been a big meet or one I was really trying to get a score in, or any DECathon for that matter, at this point I would have had to play it safe with a standing throw just too get some points safely rather than risk the zero. Being that I saw this meet as experience for later meets and more of a test of my progress thus far, I decided to go with a full throw. Besides, Brenner noticed that I just wasn't finishing the throw all the way through, thus I figured I'd just get the shot around a little better and I was money...
See the guy with the tape measure in the background stand up to measure it? Yeah, it was that close. The sector line itself was a crooked dotted "line" of tape upon which my shot landed directly on. Something I might have been able to argue, something they maybe should have marked, but no excuses: Foul #3. Zero Points. On the whole my meet score was done, but the shot was traveling well so I know I'm doing a lot of things right, I just have to figure out the one or two things I'm doing wrong.
As I mentioned anyways, this meet was early, and it was more to see where I was at then anything thus the meet must go on.
I did end up coming back from the shot mishap very well in the High Jump though. I felt good in warmups so decided to come in fairly high for me at 1.87m (6'-1.5"). After a bar or two it was just me and Chris Boyles left. Chris is a great high jumper (PR over 7 feet) but hadn't been jumping much this year so he and Helwick were only taking a couple short approach jumps at lower heights. I was jumping real well, however, and didn't want to be the only one in the competition so I tried to get C-Bo riled up a bit to see if he'd help push me. That's the great thing about competing with such good guys is that it's far from a dog-eat-dog competition. The better the guy next to you does, the better he can push you. I caught Chris up in a little friendly trash talking and it worked. He got into it a bit with me and I could tell he wasn't going to let me get the better of him - all the better for me. I was jumping great and had only one miss when I cleared 1.99m to tie my PR. The bar went up to 2.02, we got the crowd into it a bit and boom, I cleared my first attempt at 2.02m (6'-7.5"). A took some great attempts at 2.05 (just under 6-9) and had a very near make on my last. With that competition and the way practices have been going I feel like my HJ is finally getting to where it has been going for some time now. I've got to thank Chris Boyles as well for jumping in with me and playing along. He ended up jumping real well taking some great attempts at 2.11 - a height I am sure that is much higher than he expected to be attempting that day.
DAY TWO: 60mHH, Vault, 1000m
Coming back for day two I felt pretty decent. I had a little tightness in my right glute that I noticed warming up the day before, but it didn't seem to affect me much. Day two corresponded with a huge high school meet so unlike the day before when we had most of the arena to ourselves, Saturday was a packed house with thousands of high school kids and families all over the place. Remeber that nice serene picture of the track I posted before the meet? This one was taken later Saturday night when things had died down a bit.
The Chrises, Moose, and I had to work together to get our warmup in. It was quite a site to see the four of us sprinting full out in single file line making our way through a mob of high school kids wandering the track in order to get our accelerations in before the race.
Getting over the hurdles just before race time I didn't feel super smooth but, again (theres a theme here) I didn't really know why. Once we got past the first hurdle I found out exactly why: my arms were all over the place.
Chris Helwick was again in the lane next to me and I smacked the poor guy in the chest at least a couple of times. It seemed to affect me more than him as my rhythm was severely thrown off and hit the hell out of some hurdles. With Moose again starting the day off with a bang and a PR, the rest of us trailed behind. My 8.81 was more than a half second slower than my opening race a month before. Ugly, but easily fixed.
In the vault, by the time I opened up at 15'-1" I was actually the only vaulter left in the competition, and as I found out later, was the the new owner of the meet record for that event. I cleared with great height, but in moving up to 15-5 I was unable to clear. Being that my first day upside down and near my meet poles was 4 days before, its not a bad start. In keeping with the theme, I felt good, I just lack awareness of what my bodies doing in the air at this early stage in the game.
The 1,000m must have been a very interesting event to watch, and to tell you the truth, I probably looked like a pretty dumb runner. With my foul out of the shot put I was no longer going for a big mark, but I knew that Moose was. I wasn't sure where his score was at, but I knew he had some huge events. On top of which, Moose is a very strong 1,500m/1,000m runner and after asking around I found out that no one in the field was going to be anywhere near his pace. You hardly ever get a chance to do it, but have you ever wondered what it would be like to take out a race WAY too hard and just see what happens? This was my chance. I told Mustafa that I would help him pace the first couple laps (or as long as I could hold on). He and his coach had decided he would shoot for 30-31 second laps (of the 200m track).
It doesn't sound like much, but that is about 4 seconds faster than I would have paced my own race. After pacing a lap during warm-ups I found out that it was going to be real fast for me...thus making the last couple laps a whole lot of fun. I sprinted of the line at the gun and "settled" into my pace. It actually felt real good - real fast, but real good. I didn't hear much behind me so was a little worried about taking it out to hard but sure enough I came through the first lap at exactly 31. Apparently Moose was a bit behind me, but as he mentioned before hand, it always helps just having someone ahead of you just to look at. I came through the second lap at another 31 and with a look behind me I still had some space but soon after, I heard Moose charging up behind me. He passed me look real strong after about 550m and was able to hold through for an awesome 2:36, capturing not only the meet record in the 1,000m, but also breaking his own meet record and PR in the Hept for a huge 5,883 point score. Thus, I had done my job...sort of. Once Moose flew by me I still had 2 laps to go, and I was hurting. My legs felt like they weighed 100ilbs a piece and each of those laps were looking real long. It must have been a sight to see me charge to the lead and fly through the first three laps only to see me dye a horrible death the last two as almost everyone in the field cruised by me. I felt like an RV that had someone gotten on the track of the Indy 500 as these guys flew by me and I was just struggling to keep my legs going in front of the hundreds of high schoolers lining the track. Good times. I was pleasantly...well maybe not pleasantly, as it hurt like hell, but I was surprised to see that I still had come in at 2:54, only three seconds over my PR - with about the worst race strategy possible. Makes me think that my fitness is there for a good mark.
All in all, there is definitely a lot to fix, but there is a lot of good coming from the meet as well. The speed is there, the strength is there, and I'm jumping well. If I keep having two PR's a meet, it's something you can't argue with. Now I just have to hit the practices, fix some things, and I'm set. (oh, and In The Arena placed 19th overall in the whole meet - not bad for having just one athlete)
As I mentioned anyways, this meet was early, and it was more to see where I was at then anything thus the meet must go on.
I did end up coming back from the shot mishap very well in the High Jump though. I felt good in warmups so decided to come in fairly high for me at 1.87m (6'-1.5"). After a bar or two it was just me and Chris Boyles left. Chris is a great high jumper (PR over 7 feet) but hadn't been jumping much this year so he and Helwick were only taking a couple short approach jumps at lower heights. I was jumping real well, however, and didn't want to be the only one in the competition so I tried to get C-Bo riled up a bit to see if he'd help push me. That's the great thing about competing with such good guys is that it's far from a dog-eat-dog competition. The better the guy next to you does, the better he can push you. I caught Chris up in a little friendly trash talking and it worked. He got into it a bit with me and I could tell he wasn't going to let me get the better of him - all the better for me. I was jumping great and had only one miss when I cleared 1.99m to tie my PR. The bar went up to 2.02, we got the crowd into it a bit and boom, I cleared my first attempt at 2.02m (6'-7.5"). A took some great attempts at 2.05 (just under 6-9) and had a very near make on my last. With that competition and the way practices have been going I feel like my HJ is finally getting to where it has been going for some time now. I've got to thank Chris Boyles as well for jumping in with me and playing along. He ended up jumping real well taking some great attempts at 2.11 - a height I am sure that is much higher than he expected to be attempting that day.
DAY TWO: 60mHH, Vault, 1000m
Coming back for day two I felt pretty decent. I had a little tightness in my right glute that I noticed warming up the day before, but it didn't seem to affect me much. Day two corresponded with a huge high school meet so unlike the day before when we had most of the arena to ourselves, Saturday was a packed house with thousands of high school kids and families all over the place. Remeber that nice serene picture of the track I posted before the meet? This one was taken later Saturday night when things had died down a bit.
The Chrises, Moose, and I had to work together to get our warmup in. It was quite a site to see the four of us sprinting full out in single file line making our way through a mob of high school kids wandering the track in order to get our accelerations in before the race.Getting over the hurdles just before race time I didn't feel super smooth but, again (theres a theme here) I didn't really know why. Once we got past the first hurdle I found out exactly why: my arms were all over the place.
Chris Helwick was again in the lane next to me and I smacked the poor guy in the chest at least a couple of times. It seemed to affect me more than him as my rhythm was severely thrown off and hit the hell out of some hurdles. With Moose again starting the day off with a bang and a PR, the rest of us trailed behind. My 8.81 was more than a half second slower than my opening race a month before. Ugly, but easily fixed.In the vault, by the time I opened up at 15'-1" I was actually the only vaulter left in the competition, and as I found out later, was the the new owner of the meet record for that event. I cleared with great height, but in moving up to 15-5 I was unable to clear. Being that my first day upside down and near my meet poles was 4 days before, its not a bad start. In keeping with the theme, I felt good, I just lack awareness of what my bodies doing in the air at this early stage in the game.
The 1,000m must have been a very interesting event to watch, and to tell you the truth, I probably looked like a pretty dumb runner. With my foul out of the shot put I was no longer going for a big mark, but I knew that Moose was. I wasn't sure where his score was at, but I knew he had some huge events. On top of which, Moose is a very strong 1,500m/1,000m runner and after asking around I found out that no one in the field was going to be anywhere near his pace. You hardly ever get a chance to do it, but have you ever wondered what it would be like to take out a race WAY too hard and just see what happens? This was my chance. I told Mustafa that I would help him pace the first couple laps (or as long as I could hold on). He and his coach had decided he would shoot for 30-31 second laps (of the 200m track).
It doesn't sound like much, but that is about 4 seconds faster than I would have paced my own race. After pacing a lap during warm-ups I found out that it was going to be real fast for me...thus making the last couple laps a whole lot of fun. I sprinted of the line at the gun and "settled" into my pace. It actually felt real good - real fast, but real good. I didn't hear much behind me so was a little worried about taking it out to hard but sure enough I came through the first lap at exactly 31. Apparently Moose was a bit behind me, but as he mentioned before hand, it always helps just having someone ahead of you just to look at. I came through the second lap at another 31 and with a look behind me I still had some space but soon after, I heard Moose charging up behind me. He passed me look real strong after about 550m and was able to hold through for an awesome 2:36, capturing not only the meet record in the 1,000m, but also breaking his own meet record and PR in the Hept for a huge 5,883 point score. Thus, I had done my job...sort of. Once Moose flew by me I still had 2 laps to go, and I was hurting. My legs felt like they weighed 100ilbs a piece and each of those laps were looking real long. It must have been a sight to see me charge to the lead and fly through the first three laps only to see me dye a horrible death the last two as almost everyone in the field cruised by me. I felt like an RV that had someone gotten on the track of the Indy 500 as these guys flew by me and I was just struggling to keep my legs going in front of the hundreds of high schoolers lining the track. Good times. I was pleasantly...well maybe not pleasantly, as it hurt like hell, but I was surprised to see that I still had come in at 2:54, only three seconds over my PR - with about the worst race strategy possible. Makes me think that my fitness is there for a good mark.
All in all, there is definitely a lot to fix, but there is a lot of good coming from the meet as well. The speed is there, the strength is there, and I'm jumping well. If I keep having two PR's a meet, it's something you can't argue with. Now I just have to hit the practices, fix some things, and I'm set. (oh, and In The Arena placed 19th overall in the whole meet - not bad for having just one athlete)
