Back From Denver

NEED SLEEP!!  Tomorrow is back to running, lifting bars, etc. for the next four days!  Yahooooo!!  Texas next Saturday!  More soon.  Bubba

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

Rainy Day / Stretching

Easy stretching today.  I'm feeling pretty good overall so I'm tapering down properly I guess.  When I did my bars yesterday with the ankle weights it felt WAY to easy so that's a good sign.  Bleacher ramps could have been run much faster but that didn't feel like a smart thing to do so I stayed conservative.

As I've mentioned before, it seems like a straight hard 2-3 weeks of daily training is all my body can take before it needs a rotation break.  I'll have this meet Sunday, go to Denver and then come back and hit it hard Wednesday afternoon on until I go to Texas the following Thursday.  After that I will take a phase break as I move the rest of our stuff from Texas to California. Three days in a truck right after I jump in a big meet should feel really good, huh?

The very next Monday I'm off to Denver for four days for my big deal.  While there I'll be able to ramp back up my training and establish what I will do when I'm in town.  Of course I have access to gyms but the physical therapy company I'm contracting with for these two big orthopedic groups have a sports emphasis so I'm sure they will have some decent weight training stuff.  New adventures anyway.

Have a great day and thanks for caring!  Bubba

Timbuk 3's - "My Future's So Bright I've Gotta Wear Shades" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qrriKcwvlY&ob=av3e

Wild Days - Rocky Mountain High

Well I've been swamped as I bet you guessed.  Today I got in my one set of bars and my 5 X bleacher ramps so I'm on schedule.  Two big stretch days coming up and then the meet Sunday.

In other news, my little dog Tuffy had kidney stones 11 days ago and a $3,000 surgery later he came home.  Recently he hasn't been able to pee when he tries and then all of the sudden there is a trail of it down the hall.  Long story short, they missed two stones so it was back to surgery again today - no charge but I doubt he cares about that.

I go to Denver quite a bit on business and have been working on a massive deal with two huge orthopedic groups.  Today I received signed five year contracts from both and will now get to book three days in Denver every two weeks.  Not a bad place to be stuck and I can work it easily around my training schedule.  There is a lot of beauty there.  It is a great financial opportunity so that part is great.  Huh .. I moved to California for the same thing, and I have two big deals here too.  My point is that even with all of this activity I'm very comfortable with my training schedule.

In closing I'm sorry I missed a couple of days here and will do better.  Have a great evening and thank you so much for caring enough to be here!  Bubba

Day Off

I took today off because of my hectic schedule but I have bleacher ramps and bars tomorrow.  Have a great night and thanks for being here.  Bubba

Queen - Tie Your Mother Down - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V7KhDFW_Dg&ob=av2n

Another Mix Up

I got up in plenty of time to train but changed my program midstream by mixing the bigger parts of two sessions into one.  I will do the complimentary pieces that I skipped today later in the week?  Why?  I want to be fresh on Sunday so I hit the big heavy exercises today and will do the secondary exercises later.  Obviously the bigger lifts create strength, power and coordination, but it's the smaller secondary exercises that keep me conditioned and help me not to get hurt as easily.  I consider them more like "speed endurance" or short interval training as it could relate to running.  In any case, I had a great session and enjoyed the process.

Off to the school to help the kids who are on spring break.  I also need to get the info on the shipping dock here so I can send my poles to Texas in a couple of weeks. That time of year; shipping poles?  More on this later but I have a lot of thoughts about this year and how next year will be different.  I absolutely need to do what I'm doing this year to be able to "survive" what I will put myself through later.  Thanks for being here and have a great day!  Bubba

For the late Ronnie Montrose - "Space Station #5".  Of course Sammy Hagar is the better singer.  ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHmqWRY-OdA

Gorgeous Weekend in Southern California

Believe it or not we have had rain three of the last four weekends so it was nice to get back to "normal".  Workout went OK today but I moved the running up to today rather than tomorrow and found myself needing to cut it a little short.  Too sore and beat up from the every other day grind and all of the standing yesterday.

I'm trying to spread my work/rest this week and I felt like running tomorrow might give me a better plan rather than having to run harder later in the week.  I dd my gym lifting and bars as planned but skipped the garage lift. That will be tricky as I need to do both garage lifts tomorrow but the kids have practice at 9:30 because of spring break.

Overall my body feels pretty good but I really need to get a bunch of stretching in this week.  I'll report back tomorrow but it may be a double - Garage 1 in the AM and Garage 2 in the PM.  We will see.  Thanks for being here!  Bubba

Beach Boys - Wouldn't it Be Nice - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E4FRtrD9aQ