Beat Up

I was so sore and beat up in the legs this morning that I couldn't make myself do today's workout, even though it had nothing to do with legs. This leg day lifting is totally zapping my whole body for strength. I was told that whole body free weights (as opposed to machines) will feel like the difference between biking and running. I'm a believer. I've done TONS of free weights but not in the last few years because of a back irritation. Fortunately I'm not feeling that this time around because I am out of a rack totally free and not held in line by the Smith Machine I was using.

I would like to try and get in my first easy vault session Sunday but we'll see how I recover. I've got nothing real pressing so I'm fine to take the pace my body dictates in order to advance. My poles aren't back from Australia yet anyway.

I was planning to vault at our Halloween Vault next Saturday but I think I will train through it. Here is a page from the 2006 event so you get the idea - http://www.bubbapv.com/Pages/Halloween06.htm
Funny that in that year I came as Australia's Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin as he had just died. Now I'm just back from Australia.

I have a meet next month in Austin so I will plan for that, but I'm not that committed if I don't feel ready. Interestingly, Marion Jones will be doing a thing for kids about staying clear of drugs at that event. There are those for it and against it but she did her time, lost her medals and has been disgraced, so if after all of that she wants to help kids, good for her. I'm all for it.

December 19, is an indoor vault meet outside of Dallas I will hit. There's another one that's bigger, also outside of Dallas in early January. My first big goal will be at the USA Track & Field Pole Vault Summit in Reno at the end of January - 2,000+ vaulters compete every year on 14 pits. At this point I'm 50/50 for World Indoors in Kamloops, BC, Canada because I just did this big international trip and all of the hassles and expense that come with the pole situation. It's also three stops and 11 hours on planes. That in itself isn't such a big deal except that two weeks later is our Indoor Nationals in Boston. That will be my next to last national meet for 2.5 years without Gary Hunter, the ageless wonder who will enter my division the next January. So Reno and Boston for sure and Kamloops is a maybe.

Right now sitting on the toilet without leg and butt pain would be a dream. I remember in college when our National Champion shot putter, Syd Gilzow, got me in the weight room and taught me squats. I did 3X10 with 135 and could barely walk for nearly a week. But I remember clearly that when I could run I felt faster and more powerful than I ever have. I'm hoping to revisit that rebirth of speed and power once this soreness clears. I'll keep you posted. All the best! Bubba