"How are elite athletes made?"

Although Amory often provides great prompts for our blogs, I often take a pass in favor of blabbing about running and jumping and stuff. Although we're just now trying to get the season revved up, this is a tough month for competitions as a post-collegiate athlete because most meets are reserved for various collegiate championships. As a result, we are discriminated against for being too old cool for school. On top of which, I'm curiously battling a mysterious flare up of my glute injury that I picked up in April. As a result, not much to speak about on the track so I think this is a pretty good opportunity to try my shot at one of Amory's prompts that I've actually been thinking about for a while.

As posed by Amory herself:

tell the story of when you first self-identified as an athlete. Was it in grade school? Middle school? High school or later? When did you first realize you were possessed of an abundance of talent and passion for sport? I think it’s fun to plumb the depths of the question “How are elite athletes made?”

For most I guess this is one of those basic questions of nature versus nurture, but I think I might be able to answer this prompt with a single picture:

What? You didn't have a hammer to play with in your front yard? Yes, that's me. While you were smashing toy cars into the wall and trying not to drool on your over-alls, I was training. Well, ok, to this day I have no idea how to actually throw the hammer, but needless to say, I come from a bit of a track family. My parents both separately competed for then eventually met while coaching at UCLA. My mom was a hurdler, javelin thrower, and discus thrower turned throws coach. Yes, she was the first to teach me the proper way to squat and clean, but she also taught me how to work hard and to get things done the right way. Dad was a crazy mid-distance runner but also my first jumps coach. On top of which, they may have one a couple national titles along the way. Thus, there was some pretty decent nature there (thanks for the shoulders mom...but dad, when the hell are those 1500m genes going to kick in?), but for me I think it's really the nurture that counts. I was a little misguiding here or there (baseball), but on the whole, when you spend your sick days bicycling around Stanford's track and football stadium and throw javelins at the park with mom and little brother during Christmas Breaks, you're given pretty good opportunities to do and generally enjoy track and field. Even to this day, when Brenner wasn't able to make it down to Baton Rouge for the LSU dec, dad was able to make it down to help me out as a coach.

In fact, I really don't think there was a time that I self-identified myself as an athlete; It's just all I've ever known. I'd never be one to say I've really got any pure talents, I mean, Josh Kreuzer and I had some epic races for fastest kid in school in third grade and I was always one of the few boys that could outrun the girls at recess (looking back on it, probably not the best skill I could have picked up), but since then I haven't really been that fast. I was always the shy, tall geeky kid whose skinny ribs you could see sticking out of my chest until maybe my sophomore year of high school. Other than that, I was just really good at eating.

As far as passion goes, however, I just always loved sport. My big sport growing up was always soccer and I played baseball through my freshman year in high school, but on top of the club teams I played every sport my middle school had to offer (except for cross country of course, I may never understand distance running...). I wrestled (thereby adding some gray hairs for mom), played basketball (at least after getting cut once or twice), ran track, and even played volleyball for 3 weeks until we failed to find a six man to make our squad whole. There were seasons that mom and dad got to cart me around to basketball, baseball, and soccer practices all at the same time (on top of my younger brother having a similar schedule). Of course, however, it was all only if my homework was done the night before...thanks mom.

Ironically enough, I actually managed to excel in the positions that required the least to do with my eventual path towards the jumping, throwing, and the endless running of track and field. In baseball I was a catcher (to the detriment of my knees) and was one of the few kids in the history of little league to almost never pitch and I was never able to hit a ball out of the park. My arm sucked - to the extent that my high school baseball coach once asked me after try-outs: "so, have you ever had any injuries to your arm" - and my power hitting was worse. In soccer I was a goalkeeper, probably mostly due to my height and asthma, but even worse was that our team was good, thus I hardly ever saw action. So much so that I once had to be carried off the field because the lack of movement in the second half of one cold game stole my ability to do anything but stand in place and chatter my teeth while mumbling: "I-I-I-Immm c-c-c-c-ooooooolllld-d-d..." while the rest of the team shook hands with the traditional "good game" exchange. The first day of freshman football in high school (again, more gray hairs for mom) I signed up for strong safety (so I could hit people without them seeing it coming) and wide receiver (so I could run away from getting hit - plus I figured I was way too skinny for anything else). Within two days I was a defensive end and tight end. A couple weeks later and I was a defensive tackle and a center. I got moved up to varsity my sophomore year to back up an all-league center that was maybe 5-10 and about 250 ilbs. I was 6-3, had ballooned up 185 thanks to that off-season strength work, and my shoulder pads made my arms look like long icicles dripping off a roof-top.

Thus, my point being, how does a skinny slow kid with asthma turn into an "elite athlete"? Easy, the people around him: amazing parents, and great coaches and teachers. Yes, the genes you get from your family play a role, but more importantly, having parents that tirelessly drive you from soccer practice to baseball practice, come to all the games (even when your 25 years old and they're still making your car payments), and never push, but always encourage and support. Furthermore, it's from them I learned the value of hard work, and about how determination and attention to detail pay huge in the long run. The reason I'm still where I am is because I learned how to always strive to be better - plus I'm just too stubborn to quit.

What got me here are the coaches. I have been incredibly fortunate in that my coaches from Tommy Anderson (developer of the amazing Daisy Cutta'), my U-10 soccer coach to my Little League coaches, to Coach Filios every summer at basketball camp, to my amazing high school coaches - Tom Tuite and Jason Hinkin who taught me to vault, Dan Quinn and Carl Florant who taught me to hurdle, Coach Frank, Coach Adams, Coach Ivers, and even teachers like Mike Kemp, Gary Dinneen, and Don Carroll (who I hope is not proof-reading this right now), and so many others that I may not have ever seen on a track yet I still carry with me every day the lessons I learned in their classrooms. You pick up a lot of great stuff when you surround yourself with good people. Things like carrying horsepower on the runway, keeping your dive through a hurdle, or the proper way to warm up are huge, but it's really the little lessons I learn from these people that I carry with me every day. It's about how to treat people, how to be unsatisfied with nothing but the best, how to love what you do. Those are the real lessons I learned from my coaches and teachers that get me through every day of training. Though, when you start traveling for competitions in college and realize that your high school coaches were better than 80% of the college coaches you see around, that doesn't hurt.

Of course, my college coaches weren't too shabby either. Coach Dee taught us all to work our butt's off, V always kept us on track and going with a smile on our faces (when he wasn't stealing my Wheat Thins...). When you have a chance to go to a D-II school, get a great degree, and be coached day in and day out by people that are not only some of the best coaches in the world, but also world-class people, how can you go wrong? Again, it's almost like the toughest part is just not screwing up all they have to give you. Then of course you've got your scattering of Olympic finalist throwers (Andy Bloom) to teach you a thing or two about hucking things and lifting weights, a Japanese Olympic coach to teach you some things about high jumping (H) - plus fix you here or there when you're nice and broken, Coach Rob (he tried his best to make me fast), and Ken Norlan who all contributed in so many ways. Not to mention someone like Julie Baclene and her endless hours in the training room with me when things were not quite right (if you plan on being a decathlete, make good friends with a great trainer).

Thus, I guess what I'm trying to say is, the answer is in the question. From my experience, elite athletes are just that: made. Find yourself some great parents and surround yourself with the most amazing people around. Next, just keep you ears open and do what they say (even if you're countless 400's deep, in the rain, an hour after the rest of the team has gone home, barely able to stand, and all you can here is V yelling: "shuffle!").

Congrats to Zoila: 4th at Trials and Beijing alternate

The Women's Marathon Olympic Trials were in Boston so I got up early to go cheer on fellow In-TheArena'er Zoila Gomez. Plus I figured it'd be a great way to try out my new toy: the Flip video cameras that Amory got for all of us.

Zoila came in with the 6th best time in the field but with a truly inspiring last couple of miles, she came hard charging to win by a mere second. I couldn't imagine what's it like to be that poor girl Zoila hawked down (running over 26 miles and lose the alternate spot by a mere stride length), but congrats to Zoila for showing so much heart.

I was on the Mass Ave. bridge (and got to the race late, but in time for the good start), so when I showed up Zoila came by me in 6th place at mile 21:

Here she was pretty well alone in 5th, but with some strong final miles, she was quickly coming up on 4th place. Here she is at mile 25 (she's the second one) with less than a minute between her and the 4th place spot:

Despite my bike, I wasn't able to get in an out of people fast enough to make it to the finish, but from what I here it was about as close as you can get.

I'm glad I was able to make it out. Definitely an inspiring experience and great to see. However, I am going to feel like a real wuss on my monster 20 minute run today...

LSU Tiger Combined Events: Day 2

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.

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.

LSU Tiger Combined Events Decathlon: Day 0

I'm in and ready.

I got into Baton Rogue yesterday (luckily not flying American). I flew out mid-day, thus was able to get in a staff meeting and a quick workout at home before leaving. Brenner, my coach wasn't able to make it down, but I get one of my original coaches on this trip: dad was able to fly out and is here with me now. I got in a shake-out jog and stretch around the lake last night, then Pops and I got some good Cajun food for dinner.

Today we made it down to the track to get some pre-meet in... and we're not in the Ivy Leagues no more. This is my first time to LSU, and although I was impressed with the facilities at Univ. of Tennessee last year, this place is amazing. It'd take quite a few hands to count the number of huge frat/sorority houses around us on the lake (we're staying right on campus), but the athletic facilities are ridiculous. I'll post pictures soon (I forgot the usb cord for my camera), but imagine a track with a 9 lane oval, sprint straight away down the center of the track, 6 long jump pits, 4 throws cages, and count em: 9 possible vault boxes. Sadly, the tiger wasn't home, but of course, there is a live tiger habitat right behind one of the throws cages.

But getting on with it, the weather has been great so far around 80 with some cloud cover (not too much sun) and a bit of wind (good when the facility can run/jump/throw any direction). We have 20% chance of thunderstorms for Day 1 tomorrow (100m, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400m) but we hope it stays dry on friday (hurdles, discus, vault, jav, 1,500m) where we have 60% chance of t-storms. The meet doesn't start until after 3:30pm each day so it shouldn't be too warm. Pre-meet felt decent today and the glute feels fine as long unless I'm not sitting (the flight here was not that fun), so I'm looking forward to enjoying a solid meet. The field will be 15 guys and as far as I know all collegiate other than I. I saw the Texas Tech kids warming up as I was finishing up, but other than that I don't know who else will be here. If they keep the results updating live you will be able to find them here.

Wish me luck (and do a rain dance for me on Friday).

Houston

Unfortunately coaching on the side of training can mean a lot of extra travel (it's 7am and I am on a 2.5 hour bus ride south to UConn right now), but fortunately it also means that I've just returned from a ten day training and competing trip in Houston. It's amazing how much ten days in the sun can do for your training. Just as the outdoor transition starts to really get frustrating (average sub-40 with ugly winds), that ten days in the sun saves me. Not to mention we get to be a part of one of what I think is one of the best track and field meets in the country: the T.S.U Relays at Texas Southern. Us pasty New England kids definitely stick out like sore thumbs at that meet, but it's an incredible experience full of music, energy, and some culture shock for both sides like I've seen nowhere else.

I think a poor travel schedule and some subsequent lack of planning on my part led to a bit of a glute strain on my end (note to self: hard quarter workouts the day before a 4am wake-up call and 6 hour plane flight may not be the best idea in the world). As a result I wasn't able to do nearly the amount of competing that I wanted to, but I was able to get a couple events in, a couple of solid workouts, but more importantly, a ton of rest as a break from my usual schedule.

I did get a chance to finally get some outdoor Javelin in. I threw a super easy 55.95m (~180 ft) the last weekend there which was a great start of the year for me. With just a couple technical things and adding some speed with an approach, that can go up real quick. I was able to get another hurdle race in, a 100m, a long jump, and a shot put as well, so although it all wasn't as much as I had planned, it worked out decently well. Getting back this week the glute still kills when I have to sit in one place for more than 15 minutes (ie, right now...), but it's been great in workouts. Both my vault and long jump sessions this week were among my best I've had and I actually enjoyed the dreaded 250-100 workout I did last night in the rain (run 250m, take :30 seconds rest, run 100m. Repeat as necessary). All is pointed well towards the decathlon in Baton Rouge next week.

For this weekend I'm laying low and trying to stay dry as I will just be coaching and resting up. I shipped my poles out yesterday (pray for me that they get there without any problems), and I will leave on my flight for Baton Rouge Tuesday evening. I hope everyone has a good weekend, and if you're in the south or in the west, enjoy some of that sun for me.

UNC-Wilmington Outdoor Debut

(I just realized this post has been sitting in my box as a draft and I forgot to publish it, sorry for the delay:)
This weekend ended up pretty well. We couldn't have asked for any better weather: low 70's with tail winds miraculously for both the hurdles and vault - although they faced opposite directions. It was my first 110m hurdle race and although it felt like someone put 15 hurdles in my lane rather than just 10, it was a decent start to the year. I was under 15 seconds which is always a good precursor.
The vault, although some good came out of it, I was pretty unhappy with. I was a little flustered with warm-ups as although the hurdles were supposed to start 10 minutes before the vault, the vault judge - who was also jumping as a masters athlete - decided that because he was ready, the competition could start 15 minutes early. As a result I didn't get a chance to take any actual jumps during warm-up. I blew through my first pole at my first attempt on opening height - 15' 3". I cleared with my second attempt on my next pole, but then blew through that pole on my first jump at 15' 9" ("blew through" = pole is too soft so I hit the bar on the way up). My next pole up is the biggest one I have, my 16' 210 ilb rated pole. It's a testimate to how much faster, stronger, and more proficient that I am this year that I am able to get on this pole so early in the season, but also means that I am going to have to be scrambling the country in search for some huge poles soon (anyone have any 16-215+ poles lying around???). Something that may get real expensive - as well as something that is going to require me to learn to be real ballsy as well.

I was real happy with how the disc went. I started off decent, then each throw was a bit better than the last. With only two days of actually touching a discus coming into this meet, that's not a bad thing at all. I know there's still a ton of technical things that can be improved very quickly, but I still managed a mark just 2 meters shy of the PR I set last year.

One of the best parts of this year is that I seem to have really picked up right where I left off last year. With track and field being the endless 'build-up' - always trying to get faster and stronger at the right times, that's a good thing to feel coming into the season.