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.

Indoor Wrap-Up

I'm going to make this quick because I leave in a couple hours for my Wilmington, North Carolina and my first outdoor meet of the season. I've am fortunate enough to have the chance to travel with the Northeastern team and Brenner to UNC-Wilmington for their meet this weekend. I'll be vaulting, and attempting a few of my first outdoor events: 110m Hurdles and the Disc.

I'm leaving a hell of an indoor season behind me though. With the new vault PR from the USATF New England Championships a couple weeks ago (4.95m - 16' 3") I've PR'd in nearly every indoor event possible. Although I didn't get it in fair, I'm positive even my long jump from the same meet would have been a new best.

Some have been bigger than others (the picture at the right is my clearance over my previous PR of 16'), but all are signs that things are definitely working. That paired with how good I feel dispite the level of training being so high has me with a lot of confidence looking forward to my opening decathlon in April.

In total:

2008 Indoor Season PRs:
60m: 7.48 (Dartmouth Relays, Jan)
HJ: 2.02m (Dartmouth Relays, Jan)
60mH: 8.27 (Harvard Open, Dec)
Shot Put: 14.60m (St. Valentine's Meet, Feb)
PV: 4.95m (USATFNE, Feb)


Not a bad start. I feel like all of these can drop (or raise) as well. I'm psyched to get outdoors now - especially with the forecast in the mid-70s for this weekend (we're excited if it gets into the upper 40s around Boston right now).

Big Weekend for the Jets!

Some of you may have heard of or even experienced the famous Cambridge Jets 4 x 200m relay team. They're back in action this weekend at the USA Track & Field Championships being hosting at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston this weekend. This time there will be separate boys and girls relays, but, back by popular demand, Devonte, our 3 foot tall wonder (take a look at the size relationship between his thigh and the baton), will again be anchoring the boys team. The picture at right is him anchoring the winning (by a ton) team at the Boston Indoor Games a month ago. Like the Indoor Games, this event is hosted as an exhibition event between various local clubs. I just got done working with both teams on their hand-offs (a hilarious experience) and although I missed the Indoor Games, I will definitely be in attendance this weekend. If we can keep the girls running in their lanes and prevent Devonte from getting run over by Jordan (our 3rd leg - who is at least a foot and a half taller) we should be set because those kid can flat out run!

The meet itself will be a great time and is THE US Indoor National Championships. This is a World Championships year, so everyone is gunning for their spots on the team. Also, fellow In-The-Arena athlete Sara Hall will be there competing in the 1500m, so if you're fortunate enough to be going to the meet, cheer loud! I'm excited as well because a fellow multi-eventer and friend of mine, Lela Nelson, will be competing in (and hopefully winning!) the women's long jump. Also in attendance, for you decathlon fans, it looks like World Decathlon Champion Bryan Clay will be competing in the men's long jump. It'll be great to see those two represent the multi-eventers by mixing it up (and whupping on...) the "specialists."

As for me, I will be competing on the home track at Harvard in the USATF New England Championships on Sunday. It's going to be yet another crazy New England track meet so I'm not quite sure how the scheduling is going to work out, but I'm planning on running the 60m Hurdles, Long Jumping, Vaulting, and throwing the shot. My body has been super beat up the last couple of days after a long cycle of training, but I am taking some down time this week and thus should be ready to roll by Sunday. I'm sure I'll be nice and inspired by watching the meet on Saturday too. Until then...

Go Jets!

Feb Update + St. Valentine's Meet

It's been about a month since my last competition, but it has been a very good month nonetheless. I remember in college how strange it was for me to think about professional track athletes only competing every couple of weeks or so. It was always made me real antsy on the few occasions that we had bye weeks without competition during the season. Now, however, I love it. I'm sure my attitude will change a bit as we get deeper into the season (it's still very early) and more towards the Trials, but I think because i've put out such defined goals this year, the training aspect has become a lot more important and even more enjoyable to me. It's showing well too.

I've been really enjoying the level of consistency I've been able to achieve in my workouts lately. My schedule has been amazingly busy, but it's been steady and much much more consistent than ever before. I ran into Stephen Harris this weekend who was all the way up from Georgia to compete because it was the closest meet he could find allowing open athletes to compete. Kind of funny actually, in such a huge meet with some really great competitors on the track - Kim Smith running the fastest mile of the year with a New Zealand national record, Jen Toomey (american record holder in the 1,000m), as well as a host of other guys they were constantly talking about over the PA - you've got an 8,000+ pt decathlete, 2003 NCAA champion competing in total obscurity in various events throughout the meet. People started to notice as he got to crowd clapping for him while battling for the win in the long jump and high jump, but I'm sure they still have no idea who "that guy" was. It was actually pretty disappointing to hear how much trouble he is having getting training in. Stephen is a full time history teacher at his former high school (Norcross) in Georgia so trains both before and after school every day. If you're familiar with high school schedules, yes, that means he starts training at 3am (!) 4 days a week. Not to mention the fact that he's a great guy in general, much like Mustafa I talked about in my previous post, it is just so funny to me the inconsistencies of the sport we chose to love. Makes me thankful again to have found my way here and into the graces of people like those at In The Arena.

Anyways, I'll stop my rants there. Training has been going great and I was eager for this weekend to put it all on the track and see what happens. I was competing at Boston University's St. Valentine's Invitational - a meet of ridiculously epic proportions. There were 36 heats of the men's 400m, 143 people in the women's high jump, etc, etc. It was guys only on Saturday but it still went from 11am through well past 8pm. I started warming up at 9:30am and finished my final event at about 6:30pm. I very long day, but a good one.

ST. VALENTINE'S INVITE, BOSTON UNIVERSITY:
The Shot, High Jump, and Pole Vault were all slated to start at 11am, but I wasn't going to enter the high jump until the second height and although the vault started at 13 feet, I knew it wouldn't be another couple of hours until it reached my opening height of 15 feet. Because the line for warmup jumps alone meant 20 minutes or more in between jumps, I didn't even have a chance to get on the vault runway before it all started. Add the hurdles at 11:25 and I was running around pretty good for the first couple hours.
After warming up in the shot (a mere 2 throws, one standing, one full spin), I checked out and jogged over to the hurdle start, threw my spikes on and took a couple quick runs before it was time to go. It was a pretty smooth race, but a bit too smooth so not super fast, but I wasn't disappointed with it. There's still much to clean up, but should be easy fixes. What was disappointing was that I missed out on qualifying for final by one person and only .01 of a second. Flotrack was there for the meet so you can see video of my heat here. They cut me out of the start, but I'm in lane 1 on the far right side in the red of Greater Boston Track Club.
After the finish of the hurdles, I literally hopped right off the track (squeezing between the railing) into the shot cage, changed my shoes, and got right back into the line up as the competition had already moved on into the second round of throws. My first throw was a decent but rushed mid 13 meter toss. My second throw, however, I was able to clean up a lot better and produced yet another PR (personal record) at 14.60m (or 47'-10"). It was a great through, but even better was the fact of how easy it felt. I had put up some somewhat unbelievable throws in practice this past week so I was pumped to bring my PR up again, but it actually still seemed a bit unimpressive. Probably the biggest significance of the mark, however, is that I have FINALLY taken over the family lead in the shot put ;) My "little" brother graduated this past year and although he was mainly a javelin thrower he has had the family lead in the shot put and definitely lets me hear about it every chance he gets. Me finally upping him may bring him out of retirement as well as make me look for a meet I can get at home some time soon!
Anyways, high jump was after the shot and I jumped a decent 6-4. Just never felt super comfortable on the runway coming into my take-off, but I guess when 6-4 jumps are starting to be a disappointment, that's not a bad sign.
When the bar eventually got around to 15 feet (about 4 or so hours later) I ended up with a really good day in the vault. Ill try to post some of the pictures the Northeastern athletes got of me when I get my hands on them, but I jumped 4.80m (15-9), but even better was the hip height at which I was doing it. The vault is starting feel much better than it has in the past couple of years and although it hasn't translated into actual clearances yet, its making some pretty spectacular misses. Again, with the cleaning up of a couple things, the vault is going to start to get real interesting.
I was fortunate enough to get into another 4 x 400m relay with some of the guys with GBTC so that concluded my day. I was the second leg, and again, you can see the video from Flotrack by clicking here. Although I had been working hard, I wasn't totally sure how my 400m workouts had been going. I've been fortunate to find a couple of sprinters to workout with once a week for my sprint workouts which have been awesome. Both guys are a lot faster and stronger than I so I really have to push myself. The 400m intervals, however, have been lonely, painful sessions often late on friday nights. All for the best apparently though. I ran a low 50 second split at which is probably my fastest ever 400m. More importantly I think was the way I ran it. I was able to push myself to get out hard and kept some attackers off me in the final hundred meters - the area I usually have a lot of trouble with. Thus a great race capped off a great day.

Things are definitely coming along. The strength is great, technique is coming along well, and even the speed is looking real good right now. I will have a couple weeks of training before the USATF New England Championships at the end of the month on our own (Harvard's) indoor track, so time to hit it hard and see what happens in a couple weeks.

Dartmouth Relays Heptathlon

Something you may notice, and I apologize for it, is that when things don't go super well for me at a meet, it takes me a little longer to post about it. Not to start off on the wrong foot, because a lot of good came out of the meet, but overall it was a bit unsatisfying. I guess the earliness of the meet in the overall season really showed through. The overall results can be seen here:
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)

Season's Opening Multi Tomorrow

It has been a big week. I've got what I consider to be my first meet of the year this weekend (actually, tomorrow) with the Heptathlon at the Dartmouth Relays (meet website here: http://lancertiming.com/drelays/relays2008.htm?SPSID=48808&SPID=4706&DB_OEM_ID=11600). The Dartmouth Relays, up in New Hampshire, is a big annual meet that i've always heard of but never actually seen so I am looking forward to being a part of it...as well as competing of course.
The meet actually looks like its going to be a hell of a competition as well. I knew Mustafa (Moose) was going to be there - he's actually a graduate of Dartmouth and a Boston native although he now trains in Colorado. Although I had heard much about him beforehand, I had the chance to finally meet and compete with Moose this last year down in Dallas. A really great guy. He took a year off after graduating to complete his masters in Mechanical Engineering (yeah, wicked smart), but came back last year in great shape. He's a speedy little guy that's a great hurdler who can really finish off the meet with a studly 1,000 or 1,500m.
I was surprised yesterday when the entries went up to see that "Team 2 Guys Named Chris" (a name I just learned about as well) will be in the house as well. Chris Boyles (aka. "C-Bo") and Chris Helwick train together out of Wake Forest in North Carolina. Helwick just graduated from University of Tennessee this last spring and C-Bo is a few years older than me but graduated from little Messiah College. Both are good guys as well as near 8,000 point decathletes so they'll bring a lot to the competition. Boyles is a great high jumper, but I look forward to seeing both on day two as each are good hurdlers, 16+ foot vaulters, and good distance guys. Funny, now that I think about it, it was actually the team of Moose and the Chris's (as well as Ryan Olkowski who I tried to get out for this meet to no avail) who brought me through to my PR decathlon in Dallas this summer by helping pace a 1,500m that I would have had to otherwise run alone.
As well as these guys there will be a bunch of local collegiate kids to round out the field to 15. To see the full start list, check out the link to the Dartmouth relays above.
It's going to be a great meet. These guys will make it a lot of fun and bring a hugely competitive atmosphere.

THE HEPTATHLON
Day One:
The heptathlon is the indoor version of the decathlon in which rather than 10 events (100m, Long jump, shot put, high jump, 400m, 110m HH, Disc, Vault, Jav, 1,500m), we do 7. Obviously (or maybe not obviously), we don't throw the discus or the javelin indoors. There's just not enough room. Thus the heptathlon is adapted to the constraints of the common indoor tracks. On the first day (starting at 11:15am EST tomorrow) we will compete in the 60m, the Long Jump, the Shot Put, and the High Jump. The first day, much like the rest of the Hept as well, is a huge speed day. A lot of times you will get really good athletes coming out of the woodwork during indoor season by posting really good hept scores. If you're just blatantly fast, you can usually do very well in at least the first day. It's a really strange day as well because you end on the high jump. In the decathlon you end the first day with the 400 meters...and it SUCKS. You're very much glad to be done because most of the time, you can barely walk straight afterwords. If you're anything like me, you probably have trouble keeping lunch down as well. With the Hept, you jump as well as you can, then you're just done. Technically, if you're not one of the better jumpers, you can actually leave the track for the day while other people are competing. You feel almost guilty for leaving the track still feeling so fresh. As a California kid, I haven't done that many heptathlons (or a indoor meets for that matter) so it's still really strange for me.

60m
For me, I'm going to see what I can do to scare some people in the 60m to start off. Those guys aren't going to expect to see me up there with them, but I have been feeling great lately and am looking forward to a good race. Moose is going to take it out on all of us, but if I shoot somewhere near 7.30 or better, I'll be off to a PR and a huge start.

long jump
This event is going to be interestng in a great way. My PR here is 6.78m or a little over 22 feet. I've had a much bigger jump in me for a while and with some changes to my approach and a lot of work with my coach (Jeremy Gee) I think it might finally be here. He's backed me up to a really long ten stride approach that's much further than anything i've jumped on before, but it feels great. I had a great practice yesterday and am eager to see what happens. 7 meters is 23 feet. I am going to try to get as near that as possible.

shot put
Again, I had a huge practice yesterday. Coach Erickson has me doing some new technical things that I'm still trying to figure out, but in the meantime, the ball is going a long way. I've started off the season great here and I'm looking to keep improving.
My PR as of a month ago is 14.27m or just under 47 feet.

high jump
And again, great practice yesterday, one of my best ever. Body feels great, time to jump.
C-Bo is usually near 6-10, Helwick usually good for a bar or two over 2 meters, and Moose's PR is either exactly or within a couple cm of mine: 1.99m

Day Two:
As my dad always puts it: "The first day is for athletes, the second day is for decathletes." The second day of the hept is short, with only three events, but is much more technical. We start off with the 60m Hurdles, head to the pole vault, and finish with the 1,000m - 5 laps around the 200m oval track.

60m
I started the year off huge here with my PR 8.27 a month ago at the Harvard Invite so I'm looking to improve even more onto that. Moose especially, but both Chris's are good hurdlers as well. It's going to be a fun battle. With the 60 though, you only get 5 hurdles so the start is huge.

Pole Vault
I've been over a bar once this whole year, and that was Tuesday night. I'm on a short 5 step approach, but even so I'm faster than ever and jumping well, so if my one practice of actual jumping is any indicator, I am going to get on some big poles real early this year. This could mean big heights. My PR as of this summer is 4.87m or 16 feet exactly, but in the past 4 years I have jumped 4.85m many more times than I would like to count. Sometime soon some big heights are going to come.
I think C-Bo has been around 5 meters before (16'-4") but Helwick has been near 17 feet. It will be a great comp.

1,000m
5 laps, as fast as you can. Moose is going to take this out because he's a stud. I have a little grudge against Helwick right now as I think I made a tactical mistake last year at the Sea Ray Relays to let him beat me in the 1,500m. Other than the occasional "long" (20-30 min) runs during the weekends I have done zero mid-distance specific work. I'm just going to go out, try to race, and see what happens. A 2:50 or better here will be a PR.

My PR in the heptathlon is 5,297 points from the UConn Heptathlon about this time last year.



I'm not sure if I will have time in between days, but I will try to post result when I can. The results should be posted somewhere on the Relays site here.

Wish me luck.

Go Time,
Matt

Happy New Years, Welcome to 2008

Happy New Years everyone. 2008 is a big year I think for all involved in track & field and I have a very excited mixture of relief and anxiety now that it is here.
I've just returned to Boston from a great trip home to California with family and friends. I was able to spend some great quality time with my family, get some much deserved rest, was able to get some good workouts in outdoors - something I don't get very often around here. In fact, it was ironic to meet up with some local friends that were trying to find ways of working out indoors because of how "cold" it was and yet I was so excited to get some workouts in on an outdoor track in the "warm" weather. What a difference a year makes.
As great as it is being home around my great family I'm excited to be back and ready to work. The break gave me some good time off and the body feels great. Coming back was a reminder of how lucky I am to have such great facilities here as well. The decision for me to move out here 16 months ago was one I had a lot of mixed feelings about and something a lot of people definitely questioned for the sake of my career, but my first workout back, last night, quickly reminded me on why things have worked out so well. Not many people decide to move from northern California to the Northeast to train for anything other than maybe hockey or bobsledding, but even in California it's not always calm and 65 or better. Here, it is, and it was nice to get in some work independent of any other obstacles :


Plus, before I left for break, I filmed a workout session of mine for another project, but I thought it would be interesting to post as a glimpse of one of my workouts, other than the hurdle clip on the end which I have already posted. Its just a few seconds of my warm-up and some clips of a sled pull workout.

New Years for me is always a big marking of the season - indoor competitions are just around the corner, which means the outdoor season comes much too quickly. This year, however there's a new sense of haste I am enjoying. Usually one to want "just another week" or so to iron out the details, get in just a little better shape, and fix just a couple more technical points before my big meets, this year I feel very different. I've found myself at a great point in my career. The difficult thing about the decathlon is that there is so much to learn, so much to try to master. It's in fact what draws me to the event, but it is also what can make it incredibly frustrating. Last year was the first time I really felt a sense of maturity in my event and was able to start stepping past simply learning and into really competing and performing. I've finally developed a strong sense of confidence in each of my ten events. I know I have weaknesses and strength, but my weaknesses are getting getting much less so. Anyways, although it is still really early in the season and I've only just began my event specific training, I am eager for my first my first multi coming up on the 11th so I can finally put it all to the test and see where I am at.

The break also meant I haven't been able to work with the Cambridge Jets in a couple weeks either so I am happy to get back working with them as well as my Harvard team this week. The Cambridge kids have been a very interesting experience for me thus far. They're great kids, and I always enjoy trying to teach and coach kids so young. Some of them even come straight from their high school track practices to our practices because they enjoy it so much. I'm always amazed of the ridiculous amounts of energy they have. I see these guys do activities that would double me over in half the time! I try to work them hard, but it seems as soon as they're done they give you that "so that was it?" look. It's definitely opening my eyes and stretching my own bounds as a coach. I hope they're getting as much out of it as I am, but they seem to be having a good time. It's always cool to have a couple of them ask me as soon as I enter the track before practice: "Matt, can we work with you today?."

Happy New Years everyone, have a great 2008.