Good Decision Yesterday

This morning my groin is only about 20% as sore as it has been any time that I have jumped in the last month so it must be about well. That said, it probably would not have pulled yesterday but I sure feel better this morning having not pushed It. As much as I hated pulling the plug yesterday I feel reasonably intelligent about it today. As I told a friend, "yes I'm disappointed, but if I would have gotten hurt I would have been pissed". The good news is that this is not a true groin strain but a kind of stretch weakness that follows my hip stretch. Whenever I have dropped that out this goes away in a week.

I've decided to skip Joshua on the 15th and get back to full training. I've been thinking a lot about things that I have done before that have worked and it dawned on me that some of my biggest breakthroughs have come after a hamstring rehab where I hadn't jumped in 4-5 weeks. What did I do then? Bumped up the weights to reps of 8,8,6,6 with five breaths as a rest, did 12 minutes on the Gauntlet (StairMaster with actual stairs), 18 minutes on the bike, 100m grass running, tons of pole drills with a huge pole gripping 16' 5" (5m), massive bars, etc.. I'm on it and started today with all but the grass strides.

The reasoning is that my body is not used to so much quick twitch in the groin and hamstring areas and this fixes and conditions that plus gives me the speed endurance to hold my legs together at higher speeds from longer runs. I was watching some high school kids yesterday gripping higher than me, running twice as far with average to below average technique and soaring. I can do that but just have to have my body hold together.

The good news - NOW, yesterday my smallest pole was too little for the first time. In fact I easily could have jumped on it from 8 steps rather than 10 and I haven't been close to that. But my legs can't handle the quick twitch explosive stuff without better conditioning. I won't jump until Reno and my belief is that I will go there and my first two poles won't even be usable because they will be too small. That is my mission.

The reality is that my marks don't show how high I'm jumping because I clear 12' 6" easy with room to spare and then don't dial in the next pole. Now the next pole, and maybe the next one will be too small. How do I know this? Before I won Nationals in 1997 I was out for five weeks with a hamstring strain and Boston was my first meet to jump. I was up three poles from where I left and hadn't touched a pole in over a month. Just 23 days from Worlds in South Africa in 1997 I cam off of a hamstring strain and got the bronze in a big headwind. What I did is exactly what I started today. BTW - I have yet to be injured this year - knock on wood.

MY goal is to jump high this summer. So if this plan delivers the dividends I expect by Reno, then I will maintain it for the following five weeks until National Indoors. Nine weeks of a new kind of grind should get me through to all of my bigger poles and put me at the next level instead of just on the outside of it. What have I got to lose. The bottom line is to STEP UP the training in the weak areas. If I am unable to handle the increased mental and physical discipline then I don't deserve to be there anyway.

Hope you have a great day and thanks for being here. Bubba