Rain, Rain!!

It's winter in Texas when the temps stay in the 50s and it rains for a few days straight, then clears and goes cold and windy, and then repeats until late March. I lifted in the gym today so this doesn't really affect me. Don and I usually wait until the temps get past 45 to go out on jump days. To me this just means better quality of training and smaller poles because it's not worth forcing anything in bad weather. And we WILL have bad weather for the next few months. Many view this as a reason not to train but I view it as a chance to get ahead. If it were that easy every one would do it. It's not fun but it comes with the territory just like the heat in the summer.

Training felt good today, partly because I know I'm now on a schedule. Typically we don't have a meet until early January but this year my third meet will be January 2, so it makes it easier to train harder earlier. The key to progressing at our age is consistent effort on a scheduled program over a long time period. Because I "trained through" for Australia in mid October, I entered this part of the year in the best shape ever. Because World Indoors are March 5, we will all be at a higher level sooner. Our National Masters Indoor meet is always at the end of March so we target that as our "launch" to be prepared for the outdoor season, but this year we will be ready before that because of Kamloops.

I guess my point is I feel like this year will be my best chance to step up a level physically because I have and will continue to have big meets along the path that normally represents rest or lower level training. I like that. It feels good. It doesn't mean I'll jump higher but it means I should have better tools to apply toward jumping higher. Talking to Kris after Sydney, I told him that last season I won nationals and won the World Masters Games, so this year is about jumping higher. I'll stick to that and if that happens then I'll probably get a few more medals. As I approach the middle of my age group the younger guys coming in will make that more difficult.

Have a great day!! Bubba