Halloween Vault

Another beautiful day for our annual Halloween Vault.
http://www.bubbapv.com/Pages/Halloween09.html

My leg is still getting better today. I got an email yesterday from my buddy Dan West, suggesting that my transition to this type of lifting, though for the best, may take months rather than weeks to get to a point where I am strong at the new lifts. He's the master of this stuff and I believe he is exactly right. I'm glad he told me though because it will probably save me some frustration and prevent further injuries.

I'll skip the next rotation too and start again Thursday. Apparently this is a "pay me now or pay me later" rest demand. After every big end of the season meet I seem to get some type of little ding right out of the box. So I'm going to give up two weeks anyway - I might as well do it up front. Thanks Dan!! Bubba

All Videos From Sydney

These are now posted on the website at http://www.bubbapv.com/. I put them up so Kris could hit "Pause" and then use the cursor to go frame by frame through the jumps. Also the picture is bigger and more clear than on the Sydney blog.

Being hurt, watching these gives me a little more sense of worth when I'm laying around feeling worthless. HaHa!! Bubba

*** All Videos From Sydney - Warmup - 11' 9 3/4" (3.60m) - 12' 1 1/2" (3.70m) - 12' 5 1/2" (3.80m) - 12' 9 1/2" (3.90) - 13' 1 1/2" (4m) ***

Feeling Better

Well the rain is clearing and I woke up with my leg feeling significantly better. I remember back in the early 90s I used to have lower back issues. My friend, Brian DeRoo, told me to attack the problem head on with straight leg deadlifts and hang cleans. Brian was a masters decathlete who had retired as a receiver for the then Baltimore Colts. He was right as I have never had an issue since. So that means I will hit a series of three types of lunge and lunge jump type combinations starting at a very low level. This is a little contrary to my orthopedic surgeon's advice that if your training is hurting you but your event is not, then you need to adjust your training. In this case both groin injuries were caused by vaulting. Time to attack the weakness.

Today is "Family Training" as we prepare to try and bring my 93 year old mother in law home after a stroke. We're not sure we can do it but we will try. I'm a big help with a groin strain - NOT. We should find out a lot about what we can and can't do today.

Tomorrow is our annual Halloween Vault. here are some links to the past ones. Have a fun day! Bubba
2005 - http://www.bubbapv.com/Pages/Halloween05.htm
2006 - http://www.bubbapv.com/Pages/Halloween06.htm
2007 - http://www.bubbapv.com/Pages/Halloween07.htm
2008 - http://www.bubbapv.com/Pages/Halloween08.htm

Skipping a Rotation

Well, my left leg is even more sore today. In fact, it feels injured but there is no bruising. Because of this I'll skip the rotation of today and tomorrow's lift and let it just rest completely. What's funny is that if it's pretty warmed up it feels quick and strong but if I hit the wrong position I'm stopped in my tracks. I won't fight city hall on this one. I used to be a master at turning something small into something big. I don't do that anymore. All the best! Bubba

Dinged

My soreness in my groin is officially a "ding" because there is no way I can sprint or jump. Normally this would bother me but not today. First, I did not have an "event" where I felt an injury. That's big because that usually means 1-3 weeks of a ramp back up to 100%. In fact I didn't notice it until the next day. Had there been an event, it would be 4-8 weeks.

Next, it shows a sign of weakness that I have scheduled to condition anyway so soreness in a weak area is expected. I'll go through my workout and do what I can tomorrow. I know it happened during bench step ups because that is the only motion I mimic that makes it flare.

Earlier this year I felt a little grab in my left adductor when I slammed my foot down to take off on a big pole. WELL, this will be a way of life this next year so I might as well address the area now. Bench step ups puts an Olympic bar and weights on your shoulders and you explosively step up on to a bench and jump up at the top of the step. PERFECT!!

I'll report back after tomorrow's attempt to get a full workout. Have a great day! Bubba

OFF

We got flooded with rain yesterday so the fields are way to flooded to run on so I'll take the day off and stretch later. My left adductor/inside groin is a little too sore from running and jumping so the day off will be good on top of my normal day off tomorrow. It's not anything to worry about but sometimes I get rained out for a reason - to protect me from myself. Today was an easy run day but the break will be good since I sprint faster and shorter on Thursday. I will dial it back if I have to.

More later. Bubba

Let the Grind Begin

I guess officially it's not a grind until you're into a complete and set program but I make an exception today because it is the type of day you absolutely do not want to work out. My body feels so so, but I feel lethargic and lifeless. That's the body's way of telling me that it doesn't like the changes I'm making. Knowing this, and that I'm not lifting hard enough to get hurt, I slogged through it and "survived it" at best. I was careful to use perfect form and not push the weights. Still - NO FUN!!

I have a feeling it will take me 3-4 weeks before I am settled in enough that I can do all planned activities at a high level. I need and want to vault starting from a longer run one day a week but I can't do that until my legs feel sound. Who knows how long it takes to get used to running real sprints - short and long, and lifting Olympic and Power lifts? I'm guessing it won't be this Thursday.

All of this said, I can feel a difference in my mobility and my ability to run is back again. On my 200s yesterday I felt I had some extra gears without risking injury. I haven't felt that in a long time. My best time was just under 40 seconds which is not fast, but I wasn't trying to run fast. My goal will be to get under 30, which too is not fast but the most I will ever run to vault is 88' so I'm not too worried about it.

So no Halloween Vault this Saturday. I'll just stay on schedule and see how I feel as I approach the 11/15 meet in Austin. Worse case I should certainly be a go by the 12/19 meet in Dallas, the first indoor meet of the year. I figure I jumped 12' yesterday from 32' 6" on a tiny pole so it's not like I will lose anything in this transition process. In fact I'm only making such drastic changes in my training because I think I have a higher potential with this approach. PATIENCE! Or so I keep telling myself.

During today's lifting I had a few revelations about the order of both lift days so I think that will be totally dialed in by the end of the week. That excites me because I don't feel like I'm wasting efforts but can get directly to the meat of the essential lifts. You can lose momentum during a workout if this stuff isn't right.

It's so hard to motivate yourself to train like this day in and day out unless you really LIKE your training plan. I'm getting close. I do my first short sprint day Thursday so at that point I will have done all of the components in what I hope is the final format. Final of course is relative as I will always modify the days as needed to avoid injury or an overall body rundown. But once the base program is set I follow it to the letter better than 80-90% of the time. It take a real red flag to make me modify or vary. Fortunately I've learned to spot those red flags a little earlier.

Rainy here today and the phone man is here to finally get that system fixed. Gotta run. have a great day! Bubba