Making Progress

I had my little test meet today at the John Ward Masters Games at Santa Ana College today.  Weird winds made it interesting but it still turned out to be an OK day.  I decided to only take my 14' 7" (4.45m) poles so I was really afraid with the wind squirrely that I wouldn't be able to jump.  Much to my shock I was able to turn up and complete a jump on my smallest pole from eight steps, or 43'.  NEVER have I done that. In fact last year at nationals I had to jump on it from 64', and the only time I used it this year I barely got in from 53'.  So to comfortably complete a jump from 43' is a huge deal.

That said I moved back a stride so to 10 steps so I could really just relax on the pole and you know what that means.  YEP, too little.  I made 12' (3.66m) easy in warm up but the pole was too little and I stopped.  As predicted, when I entered the meet at 11' 6" (3.51m), I had a scare just like Palo Alto where the pole was so small it was useless.  Somehow I made 11' 6" on my first and moved on.

At 12' I was on my next pole from 53'.  I haven't been on this pole from this run since last July.  Made 12' by a mile but didn't really move the pole as much as I thought I should so I moved back to 64' (12 steps) for 12' 7" (3.84m) and up another pole.  Though I made it fairly easy the pole was tiny from that run.  I think I can now use it from 10 steps again which would put me back on track for when I was jumping my best.  BTW - I told the official I had made 12' 6" already this year and wanted 12' 7" so that's how we got the weird height.  It was just me and Charlie Brown by that point.  He beat me on a miss as neither made 13' and he made 12' 7" on his first and me on my second.

At 13' I was ready to make it happen but when I bent over to move my runway marker I felt a little weakness in the hamstring area behind my left knee.  Since I have that big meet in Texas in two weeks I just stopped.  I figure I'm right where I need to be.  I'm not injured or dinged, my body is just reacting to me all of the sudden asking it to crank up about five notches. All and all a superb day.  If nothing else it shows that my plan to remain true to my stadium ramps, squats and bars will pay off in bigger poles and increased runway power and speed.  I'll get the 12' and 12' 7" video up later.  Have a great day and thanks for being here!  Bubba