Developments

A few things going on today of general interest;

The decision was made that I would move up to 14' 7" (4.45m) poles. In fact, one that Bruce Caldwell of Essx made last week by mistake is the dead on perfect flex number to be my first in the new three pole series. AWESOME!!

Our new plant box was installed today so we can't jump on that end until Monday. I wasn't thrilled about that but then when they opened up the other pit they found it infested with ants, so it too is out until Monday. This means I'm driving to Kris' place 170 miles from here on Friday to get my last vault session in before leaving for Reno next Thursday. I'll tape up my new pole and stick it in my bag to ship, and then I will jump on my little pole series. Should be fun.

Today at the dentist I worked with a lady who I had not met before, Peggy Goodwin. She greets me with, "I hear you are a pole vaulter. My son was a pole vaulter". It turns out he was Kirk Goodwin, who went to Abilene Christian University at a time when Billy Olsen and other great vaulters were there. Kirk was a 17' 1" vaulter before he lost his life tragically in a car accident on his way home from school to visit his parents in 1984.

So I guess I've got a new pole vault mom. She told me that she could tell when her son walked on the field whether he was going to have a good day or not. I told her my mom used to say the same thing to me but I put a stop to it by telling her that if she saw I was going to have a bad day to let me know immediately so I could try and fix it. She got a good laugh out of that.

Of course I'm a little nervous about my bicep on Friday. The plan is to jump on my 13' (4m) 17.7, 14.3 and my smallest 14' pole. I can easily make 12' on each of those poles from 33'. So not too much stress on my arm but enough to stretch it out and break the little healing adhesions. I'm 100% sure it's fine because I can do all of my other bars/lifting with no limitation or caution. I've had this a couple of times before and it's a quick fix. Since I'm on bigger poles I gave it a lot longer to get well than I normally would. Still I'm a little nervous.

Just saw the the age 56 AR is 13' 3" or 4.04m. Though I'm trying to get 13' 7"+ (4.14m), I'll take this along the way if I can.

That's the news for today. No workout. Tomorrow is an easy stride/stretch after my road trip. I'll have a long stretch Thursday then go to Kris Friday. More soon. Thanks for being here! Bubba