Simply Irresistible!! - 12 Days Until Reno!!

Of course I never start with music but today is the day because it played a big factor in my training.  I was torn between using Robert Palmer's, "Simply Irresistible" or Don McLean's, "The Day the Music Died".  The first song was playing when MY "music died" today right before my running workout.  I had charged my mp3 player and when I unplugged it I forgot to turn it off so it has been playing non-stop until the battery was dead.  It held up during the gym but crashed right before my running began.  OUCH!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNFp7zStBvY

I'm in this weird and painful phase that I strangely like.  I vault one day so my legs are trashed.  The the next day I lift HARD legs (borderline puking) and THEN I immediately go do my running.  The dead legs, being asked to run with a natural rhythm, do not respond well DURING the workout, but I feel much quicker in the legs my first day back out to jump.  It's kind of a simple way to jump up my conditioning pace.  Beat them when they are already trashed.  This will sound strange but I also have actually jumped right after lifting hard legs.

The background - I had a decathlete from Germany at UC Irvine who was a dangerous vaulter so I wouldn't let him vault.  Instead, reasoning that he had to warm up every day anyway, I gave him a series of pole and plant / take off drills to do.  After two months I let him vault from 4 steps until he could make 12'.  Starting this process he gripped 16' and made 13' 9".  At the end of his first year with me he gripped 14' 9" and vaulted 16' 9".

Chapter two - with this in mind, I gave my top two collegiate vaulters a 1:45 minute warm up on their vault day.  BEFORE they vaulted they did running, sleds, hurdles, bars, drills, etc.  Needless to say they were dead legged when they got to vault so they were able to focus more on technique since they had no chance to jump on big poles.  The result as the girl went from 12' 7" to 14' 5' in SIX MONTHS and the guy improved by 1' 3".  Works for them, why wouldn't it work for me?  Besides, I'm too tired to use a big enough pole to get hurt.

Back to running.  Clearly I am not used to it.  I ran 6 X 100m with a fairly quick pace and nice stride length.  I was not as out of breath and it felt manageable.  But when I went to do my 6 X 50m, both groins were sore from the quick movements required to run a fast and rhythmical pace.  EXACTLY what I wanted.  Go after the weakness in a controllable environment.

I'm hoping this jump starts my speed endurance and stride length quickness so I don't have to fear longer runs at Reno.  I'll try to run from 8 steps on Wednesday and that will be my start place at Reno.  If I can get to 10 steps and on to my 14' 7" (4.45m) poles then I should be in business.  The only caution is warm up.  If I can get through warm up and the sitting around with no issues, I should be OK to go a little bigger.  But not without this time of running and this training configuration.  Have a great day and thanks for your support!  Bubba