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.

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.