No Jury Duty

As I read my notice to appear for jury duty over the weekend I noticed that they encouraged you to sign up and get a court assignment online. If you did not have that ability to go online then you could call in for recorded instructions. A funny thing told me not to go online but rather wait until Sunday afternoon and then call the recording. Sure enough, enough people had signed up online that my group was cancelled. YEAH!!

Beautiful day today. I went from 25 degrees and needing the heater to almost needing the fan today at 65. Another two months I will be pouring sweat again on the garage days. You just think you are getting into good shape until that heat hits and you basically start all over.

This afternoon I will go over early and re-tape my pole grips and measure them all so I don't get caught by surprise in Reno by gripping lower than I thought I was. Foolish of me not to write it down when I cut the bottoms off the poles. The grips felt a little low but I foolishly thought that was me just getting into better shape. Apparently not.

Happy Valentines Day to everyone. Hope you are lucky enough to have some special in your life and close to your heart like I do! Have a great day and thanks for being here! Bubba

Gaining Momentum

Inside of three weeks until national indoors so my strength felt better today and I felt less rundown. I'll have to look at schedule detail but I think I will hit my peak thrust by a week from Thursday and then it's taper down quickly. Normally I know this but I have jury duty tomorrow and have to travel on business a week from Thursday so there will be some juggling. Should be able to lift that Thursday morning and then either do Friday's late in the day or on Saturday morning. Need to study the situation.

When I start to feel trashed I really just focus on each set and each individual rep like I did today. I used to kind of look around to what my next exercise was and that got me off track of what I was presently doing. I've also written my blog twice before I worked out and then didn't work out so I will save that for afterwards unless I'm running.

All and all I feel a lot better mentally and physically then I did on my Thursday rotation, as I suggested I might. I'll need to because national indoors is really a preview to this summer's World Championships as 4-5 of the top 5-6 guys in the world are jumping in my group. You could likely see a 13' jump not get a medal and I'm not sure a 13' has ever not gotten 2nd in the M55 group. There were three of us over that in Reno on adjacent pits. Should be fun.

Enjoy your Sunday. Beautiful day here with 65 and spring like weather. Bubba

I Have A Lot to Cover or Uncover Today

More on this photo later in a technical discussion. Click to enlarge.

I am definitely in the grind right now. The first few sessions back you feel like Popeye, and by now I feel more like Olive Oil. What I really need is some oil rubbed on my aching body. I can tell how my training is going based on how long it takes me to get out of the bathtub soak. Tonight I finished the newspaper, Time magazine and the evening news on TV and still couldn't get out. It's funny because I am beat up but not yet overtrained. Overtrained feels dead and lifeless. Over the next week it will start turning around and quickly getting stronger. A week from tomorrow I will start my taper and back off the training for the final 10 days and then I will be revived. Hopefully!!

The photo above and the video below were taken by Dr. Peter McGinnis, USA Track & Field Biomechanist. The conversation is twofold; 1) is my plant late, and 2) why can't I roll this pole?
1) Everyone that watches me jump says my plant is late. I argue that for me it is perfectly timed. You see I spent an entire year trying to have my right arm locked when the pole hit the back of the box and found that I could not jump off the ground. Because I am not the fastest or tallest I DEPEND on jumping off the ground at take off. If you look closely I force my hands up as I jump up and then my body goes stiff. You couldn't throw a shot put with a straight arm nor do a clean and jerk without jumping as you thrust your arms up. Add to that the fact that if you were going to try and touch the basketball goal, at the top of your jump your body would automatically go stiff so my method accomplishes the same thing but at a later time. It's my way as I have tried all others. See below for #2.

You see I have good position and consistent arm pressure but can't get the pole to roll over enough to complete the jump. Below is the exact same pole with 3.5" (7 cm) cut off the bottom to effectively shorten the sailpiece just enough to roll the pole. ALL of my poles have now been cut 3.5" and I can use them, hence my PR in Reno.

Think of it this way - the pole is a 14' 7" (4.45m) with a 15' 1" (4.60m) sailpiece, cut to 13' 3" (4.05m) so that I can have my bottom hand deep in the sailpiece to give me a quicker return because the stiffness on my left hand pitches me up to the top hand for a faster transfer. Even though I am only gripping 13' 1" (3.99m), that same grip on a shorter pole will be a more sluggish jump with my style. So with 2" off it made it a 14' 11" (4.55m) sail and that's what I couldn't roll. Taking 3.5" off gave me just enough for it to roll and it is now effectively a 14' 8" (4.46m) pole. I cut the tops to keep the pole from hitting the bar.

Now for another great video, here is Dr. McGinnis. As a sports scientist he of course needs to have the best equipment and get to have all of the fun with it. So here is Pete taking a video of himself vaulting with the camera taped on the end of the pole. Enjoy and thanks for being here tonight! In the meantime - looking for a good massage!! Bubba

Cold But Better - Entered World Championships

I didn't go back in to the gym yesterday to finish my lift. I wanted to but it felt it would be too OCD to actually go through with it so I let it go. Had a better workout at home this morning. After having my coldest outdoor workout on Wednesday, it was 25 this morning with only a small space heater in my garage. My high parallel bars are outside so that was even colder. Fortunately the sun is out and there is no wind.

I'm in that melancholy mode right now where everything is great in my life and yet I'm too far away from nationals to do more than just grind through my workout. Knowing that I'm not going to jump is fine but it feels too much like working out to be working out and not enough like I'm training for an event. This doesn't change my focus or my efforts but there is little excitement in the workmanlike way I attack the details of the day. I guess I'm saying it's boring and more of a mental grind, though the physical also sucks right now. OK, I'll quit there because I'm sure this doesn't make sense.

Oh yeah, I entered the World Masters Athletics Championships in Sacramento last night. BTW - "Athletics" is what the rest of the world calls "Track & Field". Since I"m not having to move to Florida I don't see why I shouldn't be ready; knock on wood for injuries. My heart is already there so now I have to get my body ready, and July 13 is a long way away. Have a great day and thanks for being here. I'll continue to pursue my passion one day at a time. Bubba

Harder Than It Has Been In a LONG Time!!

Let's start with my friend and masters vaulter from New Jersey, Carl Huff. He read my post about "The Brazilian", Fabiana Murer at the Milrose Games and sent me of a photo of him with her at that meet. Thanks Carl! Always great to hear from you my friend!

Yesterday I had written the day off. Then some weird spell came over me that said "if you can run today there will never be another day in Texas that you will skip, so go out and gain some mental strength". SO, it's 26 degrees, snow flurries, massive north wind I run my sled/hills into, and to make it worse, I forgot my music. BUT I did them. ALL 10 X 50m. Oh I really thought about stopping at 4,5,6,7 but after that I figured just finish the job so did all 10. Glad I did.

Today was a different story. I knew I would feel bad because I'm settling back into grind mode where you always feel pretty dead, but it was worse than expected. Did my cardio, bars and about half of my lifting very well before it hit me and I had to quit. The gym won the last half of the battle today I am sorry to say. I started feeling nauseous because of the intensity, then very dry mouthed and then I saw I was really up against the clock before a lunch meeting etc. If I would have just gone 30 minutes earlier as planned I would have gotten some water, regrouped and gotten through it. Hate leaving this way but I did get the most important parts done. Thinking about going back later and finishing the rest.

Win some lose some I suppose but I'm disappointed in my conditioning. Fortunately it comes back fast but it DOES suck along the way. It's a fine balance between speed, power and endurance. I used to read that the true test of both is being able to run a five minute mile and bench press 300 lbs. on the same day. It takes different types of training and one takes away form the other. Compound that with the ramp down for Reno followed by the week off afterwards and I should expect to have to climb back up a little. I'm sure it's not as bad as I feel about right now but I'll take the guilt for this moment. Thanks for being here and have a great day! Bubba

Cold, Rain, Then Ice

Seems I'm always dripping lately but here we go again. I've got 10 X 50m hill/sleds and there's no way I will make it. I'm fine with that. I probably won't try and make it up but rather just stay on track with my regular schedule. Surprisingly when I adjust my schedule to accommodate weather I can throw off my work/rest ratio and get out of balance. It either compresses everything and I feel overtrained, or it spreads it out and I feel like I lose conditioning. Therefore I just skip it and take up with the next day's practice.

That's the end of the short story today. I've become quite a fan of short stories to the point when I'm busy but that does not change my commitment. If anything it's greater than ever. Thank you for being here. Bubba

Pen Pals?

I was watching the other day as Regis Philbin was getting an explanation of computers, email, texting, Facebook, Twitter, etc.. Like me sometimes, he looked like a monkey trying to do a math problem. Then it occurred to me that a good way to describe the way we communicate now, to the generation before us, is that we are realtime "Pen Pals". In "the old days" people would correspond through letters and carry on conversations over years. We can do this in merely seconds. I'm certain we have only discovered yet another way to waste time, but I like having the option. If not, the only way you could read this would be in the newspaper, and who would publish that?

Back to reality. Our poles got back yesterday after being caught up in the storms. I couldn't wait to measure my grip to see what I was gripping in Reno. DEFLATE!! I thought I was gripping about 13' 3" - 4" (4.04-.07m) and I was only at 13' 1" (3.99m). It's good I can jump that well with a low grip but I have to grip higher and normally do. My fault for not writing down my own markings. No way I would have let myself grip that low. No arc to work with. I gripped 13' 3" a year ago and I'm in much better shape.

Talked to Kris about a meet this Saturday and he says I need to skip it and stick with the plan I'm on. He is very pleased with the technical aspects of my jumping but we have have to make those bigger poles feel smaller and that is just flat out grunt work. So as any decent athlete, I will listen to and trust my coach.

Out to the garage. Mid 30s with space heater going but have to get my butt out there. Thank you for being here. Bubba