Indoors vs. Outdoors

I got a few emails about why my indoor PR would be so much lower than my outdoor PR and also inquiring what is the difference between the two types of jumping. In general, indoor PRs are lower because these are the first meets of the year so you're usually not in great vaulting shape yet, and you don't have a wind assisting you to run faster. That said, the world record is a little higher indoors than out - 20' 2" to 20' 1 3/4". Another thing to consider is that many athletes don't have that many opportunities to vault indoors.

We are an exception in our area because vault coaches have built indoor facilities to stay out of the heat and cold. Two of our meets this year will be at indoor football practice areas at high schools that have a couple of runways/pits on the perimeter. My coach, Kris Alison, spent a fortune to build a huge building to house an entire training center with weights, gymnastics, etc., with two pits and runways inside.

My deficiency? For me personally I made some technical changes to my vault in very early 2008. I could take off and get in on a big pole but when the bar went up I either wasn't in far enough to attempt a clearance or would come down on the bar badly. This meant that I was letting pressure off of the pole in order to go vertical. Recovering from an ankle sprain on my take off foot I decided to get to the bottom of this by starting on tiny poles. That year I blew indoor nationals in Boston and got 4th because I did not trust my new technique which required that I use stiffer poles so that I always felt tension on my hands. It was a very frustrating lesson but that ended my season with a jump of 11' 1 1/2" (3.40m). I vaulted 13' 5 1/4" (4.10m) outdoors that year.

As I sometimes do, I took this new discovery to another level and tried to see how big of a pole I could jump on from 33'. I got on my 14'/170/17.2 but in the process strained my triceps and got a tendon inflammation. I screwed around with this rehab for about 4-6 months before a sportsmed orthopedic physician injected cortisone at the tendon attachment and showed me how to train around the problem. So in 2009 I was only able to vault in one indoor meet, indoor nationals in Landover, Maryland where I won with my opening vault of 12'. At 12' 6" I got a little hamstring ding and stopped.

This year I have seven indoor meets on the schedule and I'm already in decent shape so I'm hoping to create a training environment that puts up some good marks all season long. At the end of this season I will take a very long break and re-tool my running and lifting for 2011 when the National Senior Games will be in Houston and the World Masters T&F Championships will be in Sacramento. I will be 58 and my age group will be full of young guys much better than me unless I make this overhaul.

Got a garage lift and bars this morning as well as a speed endurance running session today. Looking forward to it. Have a great day! Bubba

Official Results From LSPV

I've got a gym lift today and speed endurance tomorrow. I travel Tuesdays and hope to get a good vault session Wednesday. Got plenty to work on. Here are the results from yesterday. I was 36 years older than the 2nd oldest person. That still cracks me up. Bubba

PS - I was disappointed in my vault timing as the pole I wasn't really getting in on should have been too small from that run. I need to hit bigger poles from a shorter run to fix this before my next meet. Running further and faster to come up short on a pole that usually works from one stride closer is not a good sign. You shouldn't use speed to make up for technical misfires and that's what I was forced to do yesterday. Sucks!!

Results from the 2009 Lone Star Indoor Open
OVERALL COMBINED RESULTS:
Moises Gomez, Tec de Monterrey, 4.61m/15'1.5"
Mykhal "Blake" Luther, Lone Star PV, 4.31m/14'1.5"
Jon Johnson, Lone Star PV, 4.31m/14'1.5"
Daryl Burrell, Lone Star PV, 4.01m/13'1.75"
Jordan Worthington, Los Canguros, 4.01m/13'1.75"
Doug "Bubba" Sparks, The Woodlands PV, 3.86m/12'8"
Oscar Longoria, Lone Star PV, 3.86m/12'8"
Carmelita Correa, Tec de Monterrey, 3.71m/12'2"
Darci Joseph, unattached, 3.56m/11'8"
Marc Bolles, Lone Star PV, 3.51m/11'6"
Mason Gill, Lone Star PV, 3.51m/11'6"
Malachi Bauman, Los Canguros, 3.36m/11'0.25"
Chaney Turney, Lone Star PV, 3.36m/11'0.25"
Isabella Smith, Tec de Monterrey, 3.36m/11'0.25"
Cameron Barbier, Los Canguros, 3.36m/11'0.25"
Augie Gmitter, Lone Star PV, 3.21m/10'6.25"
Meredith Driskell, Lone Star PV, 3.21m/10'6.25"
Kally Long, Lone Star PV, 3.06m/10'0.5"
Walter Taylor, Pratt Athletics, 2.91m/9'6.5"
Brianna Akins, unattached, 2.76m/9'0.5"
Sadie Sublowsky, Los Canguros, 2.61m/8'6.75"
Ana Cecilia Cantu, Pratt Athletics, 2.45m/8'0.5"
Annie Harwig, Lone Star PV, 2.45m/8'0.5"
Larisa Rodriguez, Lone Star PV, 2.45m/8'0.5"
Kristi Pratt, Pratt Athletics, 2.30m/7'6.5"
Kara Zuspan, The Woodlands PV, 2.30m/7'6.5"
Marisa Lozano, Pratt Athletics, 2.15m/7'0.5"
Dorian Garcia, Tec de Monterrey, NH
Luis Carlos Nevarez, Tec de Monterrey, NH

Survived My First Indoor Meet

When I left the house for the 3.5 hour drive at 5 AM it was 19 degrees. Fortunately last night about an hour before dark the sun came out and the wind picked up so it dried things out so black ice wasn't an issue.

When I arrived at Kris' place it was 25 outside and felt like 15 inside his steel building. He had heaters going in the spectators area but the runways were certainly cold. He opened the big garage door to let some sun in and that helped a little.

There is no evidence that the cold makes poles stiffer but they sure feel that way when you're body is somewhat frozen. A couple of times the spray I put on my tape to make it sticky made my hand numb because it was so cold. By the time my warm up was done I felt OK considering.

We had about 40 vaulters entered including some guests from Mexico so everything today was metric. To avoid ties in rankings Kris did metric plus 1 cm. We had eight people on our pit starting at 3.41m (11' 2"). I started at 3.71m (12' 2") and made it on my first jump from 53' on the 14/169/17.0. At 3.86m (12' 8") I felt I had no chance on my next pole from that run because it may be too big and if I moved back a stride it may be too small. So I moved back to 64' and skipped the 16.5 and went right to the 15.9 carbon pole that I made 3.90m (12' 9 1/2") in Sydney on. I made 12' 8" easy on the first jump but the pole felt really stiff. At 13' 2" I moved my grip up a couple of inches and had about 9" of height but came down on it. I went ahead and stopped without taking my last two jumps. I felt I needed to be on that pole to make it but I would have to run faster. Since I haven't been on 14' poles since Australia, and it was still under 40 degrees. I didn't feel it was safe to try and run harder so that was my rationale to stop.

So my day was 4 X 12' in warm up from 53' (14/169-17.0) and three meet jumps with a clearance at 12' 2" and 12' 8", and a miss at 13' 2". Seven total vaults but my body feels good and safe. It's been nearly six hours since I stopped and my toes are still cold. I know I'm a wuss.

We did a mixed group so we had two girls in our group. I got 3rd place of the eight vaulters and we calculated that I was 36 years older than the 2nd oldest vaulter in my group. Pretty funny.

I give my vault grade a "C" because my timing was inconsistent. Most of that will fix itself as I have not run that far or used 14' poles yet so it takes a day or two to get used to getting to the box with more speed and power. If you miss your take off timing just a little then your body gets knocked out of position.

BTW - my indoor PR (Personal Record) going into today was 3.67m (12' 1/2") so both clearances were indoor PRs. Hopefully I'll be back over 13' at Dallas in two weeks. Even though I get a "C" I'm happy with the height considering the cold and no vaulting at this level. I was a little surprised I made 12' 8" that easy with such a sloppy vault. I'm optimistic as I return to the grind.

Have a great evening and thanks for being here. Bubba

Snow!!

I got my poles from the school yesterday since today is forecast for rain and snow. Sure enough about 9 AM we got some pretty big flakes flying and it's only going to increase until 9 PM tonight. Then it clears out and gets down to 19 degrees.

I've just got an easy indoor stretch but it's nice to see the snow if you don't have to train in it. By the end of the weekend we are supposed to be back in the 60s.

BTW - weatherman is the best job in the world as everyone expects you to be wrong yet you still get paid. Have a great day! Bubba

Meets in New Mexico & Canada 5 Days Apart?

In a round about way through my friend and fellow M55 vaulter, Bob Crites, I am going to be invited to jump on February 28 at the USA Track & Field Indoor Championships for the elite athletes in Albuquerque, New Mexico. http://www.usatf.org/events/2010/USAIndoorTFChampionships/

There will be an eight man field vault on Sunday morning at 10 before the elites jump. The top two in the elites meet go to World Indoors in Doha. It's the big showcase meet for US elites this year so getting to be part of the warm up act is really awesome. VERY cool.

If you have watched this blog closely you already know what I'm thinking - I'm vaulting on Sunday in Albuquerque, leaving Wednesday for Canada and jumping in World Masters Indoors on Friday. That's five days from meets in New Mexico to Canada. I can make that work training wise but my poles will already be in Canada.

I've already emailed Kris this morning to see how we should split up the poles for each trip. Clearly Canada is the BIG event but I need a vault session before then anyway so I'll use smaller poles in Albuquerque. I also skip poles in my series depending on the meet so I'll take the big poles to Canada and the in between poles to New Mexico. I think. We'll look at that some more this weekend.

SO, pretty exciting opportunity. Last year I got to vault at the 100th Drake Relays and this year will be the first time ever that masters have pole vaulted at the elites national meet. It's one of those things you can't say no to. Have a great day!! Bubba

UPDATE - It's official, I'm in the Masters Exhibition at the USA Track & Field Indoor Nationals for the elites. Should be fun!

Getting Ready for Saturday

Today was a normal lift in the garage. The weather was in the low 50s but I have a heater out there anyway. Believe it or not we are supposed to get snow on Friday. That rarely happens!

Kris will have both pits indoors on Saturday so I'm going to the meet. He is also adding extra heaters. He has a HUGE steel building in the middle of nowhere so it attracts some wind. It's also a quarter of a mile from the New Braunfels airport so I'm sure at some point when Don gets his plane we will fly in for a session. It's a 40 minute flight rather than a 3.5 hour drive.

Coincidentally when we drive I always pick him up at the airport where he will keep the plane.

Have a great day!! Bubba

Up In The Air

I'm not sure that I'm jumping at Kris' meet this weekend. He is having an indoor section and an outdoor section to make it go faster. I don't blame him for that but I'm only interested in an indoor mark, so if I'm scheduled on the outdoor pit I probably will stay home and practice instead. It's hard to say since we are supposed to have temps at 25/36 and he is supposed to have 26/44. Of course indoors that doesn't matter. If it's under 45 I don't jump outdoors anyway. I especially don't drive 3.5 hours to jump outdoors in the cold. Tomorrow is 36/53 so that may be my best shot. We'll see. Have a great day. Bubba

UPDATE - Looks like the whole meet will now be inside so I'm going.