Sunburn Confirmed! YES!!

It didn't take long or many jumps for me to confirm my hopes that my little pain during my last vault session was in fact a little adhesion breaking free, or the remaining "sunburn". You may remember my MD says that when you do too much too soon you can expect to need a longer break before resuming. He compared it to the sunburn you get on the first day of vacation and how you have to go back out slowly after that. He was right about this one - thankfully.

Rather than wait for tomorrow, I decided to take a few jumps with the kids today. I figure I'm in LA on business Tuesday so I need to lift tomorrow and Monday. Also I needed to show them that you CAN complete a full vault on a bending pole from 4 steps (23'/7m for me).

I took only three jumps because I needed to coach more than jump, but in those three jumps I felt like I will be able to move forward and slowly add reps. I made 10' (3.05m), 10' 6" (3.20m) and 11' (3.35m) easily and stopped with no new pain or irritations.

YES!! RELIEF!! I quit while I was ahead and next time maybe I get 4-5 jumps. But at least I'm jumping!! Thanks for being here and have a great day! Bubba

John Mayer - "Waiting on the World to Change" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBIxScJ5rlY

And a 1, and a 2 and a 3!!

HERE is a great take off!!  Click to enlarge.

As Lawrence Welk used to conduct and Jack LaLane used to instruct, this count means basically "here we go, try and keep up". That's pretty much my story. I'm taking yesterday, today and tomorrow off (1,2,3) in order to come out fresh Sunday and see if my leg is dinged or "sunburned". Based on how it feels today it's sunburned because the hot spot has diminished a lot. As mentioned yesterday, it really doesn't matter as I will continue my regular plan to the point that I feel anything and then I'll stop.

Several years ago when learning this drill - http://www.bubbapv.com/Pages/drill.htm I overdid it by trying to see how high I could grip on a non-bending pole. The result was that when my leg snapped straight it caused a hyperextension of my left knee that sent a signal to the nerve saying I was about to hurt my hamstring; hence my white knee brace in every video. I screwed around with this thing for several months treating it like a hamstring injury and it never was. What I finally decided to do was to jump on a really tiny pole until I felt it and then stop. After two weeks I could jump on my regular poles and not feel it at all. Now I had tried this earlier but I tried to use big poles from the start rather than ramp up so that triggered the nerve. Anyway, my under leg ding thing I think will respond the same way. Keep it light and easy and stop when I feel it. I should be able to do a little more each time f that is the answer. Hey, it worked before Reno this year for the same injury.

Our Olympic team was set yesterday with a series of very pedestrian vaults due partly to bad weather. Fortunately there will probably be rain in London so I guess that is good prep work. Our girls also had unremarkable performances. Now this doesn't take away from the joy and pride of making the Olympic team, but overall as a country we are now far from the dominant force who won the silver and bronze in 2000 and 2004 with four different vaulters. On the girls side, Stacy won the gold in the first ever vault in gold medal in 2000, and Jenn got the silver last time.

At this point the only athlete who can compete at the 5.90m (19' 4 1/2") mark is the winner Brad Walker, who jumped a foot below his AR to make the team. No one in the world fears the Americans. Why? I think there is too much emphasis on the grip and size of pole and not enough time spent on technical improvements. When is the last time you saw a take off like the girl above and I have never heard of her.  Of course soon we all will know her because with this type of technique she WILL improve. 

I see a lot of athletes saving jumps out of bad to average positions rather than making jumps with technical prowess and awareness. My 2 cents. Have a great day and thanks for being here! Bubba

Robin Trower's, "Too Rolling Stoned" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBoq8aoWB4E Working on this song on guitar.

Today I Know Less!!

The mystery continues as my leg felt pretty good today. I've pretty much decided that I don't care. Since my heel doesn't hurt anymore I'll do my two days of shorter sprints at a low level and do my hard hill on my bike two days. On the run days I'll do my heavy pole drills and get on the runway until I get a hint I may not be OK and then stop.

My guess is that my body will let me get a little further each week since this has worked on other issues before. My current feeling is that my touch of pain yesterday was an adhesion breaking loose or what my orthopedic surgeon calls "sunburn". That means if you haven't done something for a while and get it sore, you can't go right back out and do it again. I'll go with that for now.

Today is the 2nd day I have been under 175. It's taken me a month to get back to there. I never got over 180 but I felt like crap. My metabolism is speeding up again plus I'm used to the training enough that I'm not always starving. If I can get back in the 170 range over the next couple of weeks I may just start feeling like an athlete again. Have a great night and thanks for caring! Bubba

I Don't Know Day!!

I went out to vault this morning and noticed that the underside of my right leg was sore. I feel this from time to time but figure it's no big deal. I'm probably just sore from jumping on Sunday and then today. Nevertheless I stuck with my plan to use my first 4m pole from 4 steps. I made 11' (3.35m) but felt my leg a little on that last take off. I can only hope it is an adhesion or just general soreness and will be gone when I go out on Sunday.

In any case I'll just go out and see how far it lets me go and then stop if I feel it. I did this exact same thing before Reno and it slowly went away. Here’s to high hopes. If not then I won't jump for 8 weeks or so. It really is Russian roulette right now but I feel a bit more like 55/45 or 60/40 that it will be OK because this is what happened before Reno. Give me a break - it's been a couple of days short of four weeks. It SHOULD be better. Have a great day! Bubba

I Recognize This!

Today when I went to lift I felt a little stiff and pretty beat up. Since I'm going to try and vault a little tomorrow morning I cut my lifts in half but completed my stretching. My gut tells me that since I am a pole vaulter that I should be ready to vault on vault days, even if I don't feel perfect. For that reason, I'll cut things out that might interfere with that goal. We will see tomorrow if that really works. Have a great day and thanks for being here. Bubba

Another Day!!

I did a double lift today because I'm going to jump again on Wednesday rather than Thursday.  Got family coming to town so Thursday is out.  Because the kids will be jumping I'll take my 4m/16.3 for my 4 step run and my 14.7 for my 6 step run.  I think that's pretty safe.  Imagine that; jumping twice a week for fun!!  Yahooooo!!  More soon.  Thanks for being here!  Bubba

Birthday Vault Session!!

Anatomy of my many dings - ;-)

I made a random decision last night that I would blow off my lifting today and instead go out and do a low level vaulting session to celebrate my 59th birthday. I reasoned that since I had done a couple of simple demonstrations for the kids that I could use their 1360 and 1370 and play around a little.

Since I lifted major legs Friday and secondary leg lifts yesterday, I wasn't exactly sharp on the runway. In fact I felt super awkward until I got some rhythm going. I even missed the box on my first take off from 4 steps. My mind said I was at the box but my body didn't run fast enough to get me there. Not only that, I missed it again later with the bar up. Fortunately I was holding low and was able to bail out safely but DANG: not much of a confidence booster.

So disturbed was I by this lack of snap and depth perception that I went inside to get the extenders and put the bar at 6'6 " (2m). Why? One jump I'm off the back of the pit and the next one I'm not getting in enough to turn up and complete the jump. Not sounding too promising huh? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Moving on, I put the bar up at 6'6" and made it by 3' (1m), took down the extenders and moved the bar to 9' 6" (2.90m), the lowest notch. I made that two times and went to 10' (3.05m) and made that twice. The 1360/18.3 was feeling real little from 4 steps so I moved back to 6 steps (33' - 10m) and attempted 10' 6" (3.20m) on the 1370/15.6. I missed the box on the first jump. So much for confidence. All of the sudden I felt relaxed and in control of what I was trying to do technically instead of paying attention to the bar. I made 10' 6" twice and then made 11' (3.35m) twice, very easily on the second.

So my low level birthday vault yielded 9 bar clearances and two times where I missed the box completely and hit the back bun of the pit. All of this said, it was fun and nothing hurt. Yahooooooooooo!!

Have a great day and thanks for your support! Bubba

Living Colour's - Cult of Personality, which I'm trying to learn on the guitar tonight- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xxgRUyzgs0