More Rain!

So today in anticipation of rain we had practice inside!  It was fun to move the other pit around!  Practice went really well felt great, only did shorter approach stuff though because the pit is new and hard so coach did not want anyone falling to it from any great height and hurting themselves.  Then headed to a quick dinner and spent the next 4 plus hours studying for the two exams I have tomorrow.  At least they will be over around noon!  Excited to see my parents and grandparents tomorrow!  Also, Conference gets rolling tomorrow at 5 !  Lets go CNU TF!!!!

Rained out!

Went to practice today, got all warmed up before Lindsey pulled us into the room under the stadium because the golf course siren went off announcing lightening in the area!! Tried to wait it out while coach went over stuff for the meet the weekend. No triple jump just going after the girl in the pole vault!  Got to the point where we would not be able to start again until five so Coach just let us go since most of the team wants to go to the memorial service for Brian 'Swerv' Herrmann, a basketball player who was killed in a car accident last weekend. 

Finals are rolling along, enjoy a little rest since I have til Friday for my next exam.  Excited to celebrate Michael's Birthday tomorrow with Dinner here tonite!  Im getting better at this whole cooking thing!  Hopefully he enjoys it!

Continued prep for conference!

Took a leadership final this morning, hand is sore from writing, but went well.  Then enjoyed a very chill afternoon since my next exam is not until friday morning.  Also had a nice cook out with the SAO girls!

Practice today was quick but still got a lot done.  Still not sure if I am triple jumping, but seems more likely! yay! Pole vault went ok, did not have a lot of time to spend there.  Runs started out great and I was jumping well.  As my step got more correct I started to get weird and could not get jumping.  Then headed over to triple jump to get in some really good bounding work!  Coming back to pole vault didn't go well, I was unable to get my run back after leaving.  Luckily we got all out work in before the rain hit.  The start of practice gives me hope that it is there, looking forward to hitting it this weekend!

Finals Week

Had a nice weekend off leading into finals week.  Enjoyed the time to relax, Marissa and i got in some good shopping.  Michael and i had a good run, though I did nearly die because I could not breath after about 2.5 miles.  The results of dehydration and excess heat.  Then had a nice dinner with Michael's teammate friends.  Easter sunday was very nice, went to 8 am mass with Michael, then he came with me to Northside at 10:45, lots of church!  managed to successfully make cheesy potatoes for dinner with Kels.  According to grandma i am now successfully domesticated! not sure how I feel about that!  After a fun dinner, enjoying the successful completion of lent, came back and got to work studying.

This morning i had my toughest exam of the week, radiochem.  Went much better than expected, took a long time but overall I feel pretty well.  Had a good practice this afternoon.  Working on building my confidence for this weekend! should be big!  triple at 10 then pole vault at about 2:30.  I am currently seeded about 7th for triple so I am looking forward to the chance to compete and hopefully pick up a few points.  In the pole vault, I am seeded second behind the jumper from Penn State Behrend who hit 3.50 back in march.  She has not done took much since so it will be interesting to see!  Hopefully she does well so she can push me to some new heights!!!

Preping for my leadership exam now, then have essentially three days to get ready for physics and o chem in friday.  Everything is falling into place!

ALL Done!

Once again the time got away from me and I have been negelecting posting!  Overall it has been a good week.  Wednesday practice went well, had several good attempts one the 13, 130 pole before my legs got too tired.  Then hit the weight room for one last day of lower body.  Got there with enough time to do 3 sets of front squats, 5 at 160, 4 at 155, and 3 at 150.  Then spent the rest of the evening writing a paper for my honors project!

Thursday was a busy day!  Last day of both honors and leadership, Then a few more hours on the paper.  Followed by a tough practice.  One paper the workout did not look hard, 3 x 300 with full recovery.  But when running at race pace and still not feeling 100 % healthy it took all I had!  Did manage to stay pretty close to the times given though.  The range was 45-49 secs.  I ran the first in just under 48, then second at 49, and the third at 50.5.  Def pleased.  Afterward, we hit the weight room for some upper body work. 
 3 sets of 10 bench at 105 lbs (moving my grip out made it easier! Thanks Michael!)
2 sets of 10 shoulder press at 50 lbs
2 sets of 10 incline press at 50 lbs
2 sets of 10 low rows at 25 lbs
2 sets of 10 NRG pulls at 75 lbs
2 sets of 10 Lat pulls at 75 lbs
Overall a pretty good day.  Managed to get my paper all done and printed out.  Turned it in friday morning

Last day of class today.  Disappointed my radchem prof did not get our tests back, but i will live.  Also, pleased to end o chem with a 95 on my last test, especially when I did not study much!

Today's practice was a little more rough.  Legs were kind of sore from yesterday and running felt awkward.  Could not get a consistent step going from any distance, even my three steps were weird.  Coach told me to just call it a day and let the legs rest over the weekend.  Then watched my team finish up a round of the circle game.  Now its on to a relaxing weekend of studying for finals!

Also very exicited about the Easter packages from Grandma and Grandad and my parents!  Looking forward to enjoying them once lent is over! Only two days!

From PR weekend to week under the weather

The home  meet this weekend was absolutely exciting!!  It felt great to PR in the pole vault especially when I was the only one left jumping! New PR is 3.21 m or 10'7".  After this jump coach sent me straight to 3.55 m about 11 9, the provo mark for nationals.  Didn't make it but could certainly happen in the next few weeks! It was great to have Michael, Mr. Zimmerman, and Andrew there to support me!!  Triple jump was also pretty exciting! managed to make it to the pit on 3 of my 6 jumps,  farthest was 9.41 m, about 30 feet, just excited i made it in!

Was also incredibly excited to watch Michael and the team play W and M on sunday!! It was a beautiful day!  They played a great game and ended with a 0 - 0 tie.  Was great to see Michael start, he played real well!! Already looking forward to their season in the fall!

Then by monday pick up some sickness from michael, strange form of a cold that is just making me super tired.  Made the jumping day on monday a little rough!  Still did 3 sets of back squats though, 5 at 200, 4 at 190, 3 at 185.  Then an ab workout.  Tuesday was also a little rough felt very slow on the 5 120s.

Hopefully todays jump day will go a little better!  Excited i took my last o chem and radiochem tests this week!  nervous to see the results on friday! Also quite happy to have met several of my CA classmates via facebook!  Starting to get really excited for the trip!

Busy week!

Wow this has been another very busy week, no time to post!! Overall it was a pretty decent week!  got clear into the pit from just inside the 28 foot board with a half approach for triple!!!  Wednesday's jump day went well, even managed to take a few jumps on the 13 130!  Could be a nice pole to move up to tomorrow!  Thursday we did a pretty tough run, 4 sets of 2 150 (walk back the hundred in between)  these were all supposed to be at full speed.  Hit the first around 23, the second around 22.  then got a whole bunch of bad starts because I always managed to stand behind the person who missed the start!!!  But did manage to pick off a bunch of people as we were running.
Today was a kinda rough pre meet.  Triple jump run throughs felt great!  It was way to windy to pole vault though, tried a few but the wind got so bad it was literally pushing us off the run way!! Its ok though, sometimes it is best to have a bad practice the day before a meet!!! Hopefully the rain will hold off so we can have a great last meet, and so the CNU men's soccer team can tear up in their game against W and M!  Should be a fun day!

Crazyness

School has taken over this week, making the blog much more difficult to keep up with.  I had a great practice on monday, took a bunch of good attempts at a 3.50 m bungee, (11 6).  Coach said that if the standards were up i would have been over it!  Also, I was on the big 140 lbs pole!  13 foot pole here i come!!!!  then we ran to the weight room to get in what we could 3x back squats 5 at 200, 4 at 190, 3 at 185, and 1 set of full cleans 5 at 110.

Today was a good workout, got in some good long jump and pole vault approach work.  Then we hit the bleachers.  3 sets of 4 single flights (62 steps : ) ) working on top speed mechanics.  Legs were shaking by the end, but was similar to a lifting workout not an endurance work.  then headed off to lab, only 1 left!!!  and we made slime today which was fun!  Afterwards, I decided to go visit Michael at the ticket office selling tickets for the high school soccer game, ended up staying and helping for about an hour!  It was fun though!

Looking forward to having all of this work done and getting to have a great meet and go to a good game this weekend!

Cold

Yesterday, we were up at Lynchburg, where it was once again cold.  I was really excited to jump and for the first time all semester I had a really good warm-up. By the end of the warm up I had already moved up to the 12' 140 lbs pole! I thought it was gonna be a fantastic day!  Came it at 9 feet, some how managed to miss my first two attempts because I was not jumping.  Finally got over it on the 3rd attempt.  Then went right over 9'6", felt like I was on a role.  Missed my first two attempts at what was supposed to be 10, only to find it was 11.  They moved it back down and I still did not clear it until my third attempt.  My first two attempts at 10'6" were getting close, but on the third one I lost it and ran though, not happy!  There were only 6 girls so I still took third, but I am ready to have a better day.

Taryn had a pretty good day and after a rough start cleared 9.  Joey opened at a PR of 4.50 m, not sure what that is in feet!  Also, Chris looked good in his outdoor debut.  Good day for the team. Weather is supposed to be better this week so I am hoping we finally get a nice day on saturday for our first of three home meets!

busy busy busy...

Life has been crazy with classes finishing up and the season in full swing so I have been a Little short of time to post latly.  Yesterday was a good workout day of 2 set of 4 150s.  Then hit the weight room for upper body,

3x10 bench at 105
2x10 shoulder press at 50
2x 10 incline press at 50
2 x 10 NRG pulls at 77.5
2x10 Lat pulls at 77.3
2x10 low rows at 25

Then today we were out at the track for a quick pre meet.  Legs feel good, had a slight relapse but did get a good jump at 3.50 m in today!  Looking forward to heading up to Lynchburg in the morning, but for now back to work!

Real Live Pole Vaulter!

Today I had without a doubt, my best practice while at CNU.  Because I am not long jumping this weekend i decided to just get right to work pole vaulting.  I really took my time and got myself really jumping from 0s, 1s, and 2s.  Everything was feeling awesome and by the time I was at a 4 step I was holding just as high as I did in competition last weekend!  I then moved up even for for a five step, then again for a six.  I had absolutely no issues taking off today, must give credit to Michael for his help in regaining control of my thoughts, I had let myself see myself crashing everytime I took off, rather than having a safe drive plant.  This instilled a fear that kept me on the ground.  Happy to say I am finally over it!  By the time I was at a 6, I was crushing the little pole I have been vauting on lately.  Coach moved me back to the 12' 130 I jumped on in indoor.  I hit it right away.  Within five jumps I was back in the shed with fish trying to find bigger poles.  We found a 12' 135, again, no problems.  I had several fantastic jumps where I felt truly upside down, something I have never done before.  It is weird to actually see the box below you when you are upside down on the pole, but it felt awesome.  By the end of practice I even got in two solid jumps on the 12' 140.  They were not quite as good as my jumps on the 135, but that is def a pole I will be moving up to during competition.  I am soo happy today! I felt like my pre surgery self for the first time today! It was fantastic! now I cannot wait to get to Lynchburg and see what I can do!  Was nice to hear Coach say i looked like a "Real Live Pole Vaulter!" rather than the wimp I have been lately!

We jumped for so long that we were very late getting to the weight room, but I did manage to get through my big lifts.

3 sets of front squats 5 at 160, 4 at 165 and 3 at 170
3 sets of hang cleans 5 at 100, 3 at 110 3 at 105

That was not the workout design for hang cleans but after all that jumping at practice I was exhausted and gave those sets all I had.

end of the semester craziness

Everything is coming to an end very soon which means all of my class  are going insane, it seems like everything is due next week.  Means I am a little stressed out but I have a plan and it will be ok.

Practice today was good, got there at 3:15 to do approach work before the work out.  Just ran 2 sets of 5 80s, supposed to be a speed work out so we had full recovery the whole time.  Kinda made for an easy workout, but I felt fast.  Then headed out to lab and tutoring so no lifting today.  Back to full practice tomorrow.

Broke the Curse!

Today I had a pretty exciting vault practice.  But first spent a good deal of time at the long jump, everything there went well.  Started out vaulting with some good short approach drill.  It was incredibly windy and warm but luckily all the wind was a tail wind.  Finally moved to short approaches with just a few minutes left before lifting.  First one step was fine, second and third were still good but would not jump. The fourth I knew would be my last, and I finally got myself off of the ground!!!  First time I have jumped from a full approach in practice since conference!  It felt great!!!  I am so glad I can see myself getting over this fear stage!! I am exciting to see what happens now that I am practicing again!

Then Taryn and I headed to the weight room to get in what we could before we had to leave.
3 sets of back squats- 5 at 200, 4 at 205, and 3 at 210
3 sets of hang cleans- 5 at 110, 4 at 115, and 3 at 115

This was a challenging lift to say the least.  Then we headed out to get ready to go to the PLP speaker, Rosemary Trible.

Lucky Weather

I was nervous this morning as we headed out to the William and Mary track.  I had seen morning showers on the forecast and thought it might make for a rough day.  Thankfully, I got lucky and it was sunny and even warmed up a little while I jumped.  I had a pretty good day.  Still no jumps in warm up but I am done with that and it will be gone on monday!  First jump at 2.80, 9'2", was rough but pulled myself together for a very ugly but effective second attempt.  Then went right over 2.95m, 9'8", on the first try.  Apparently the entire field wanted to come in a 3.10, 10'2", so I ended up waiting for quite some time before I got to jump.  This wait showed on my first attempt and my run was way off so I bailed.  Then went a little to the right, but still over it on the second attempt.  Then the bar moved to 3.25m , 10'8", a PR and new spot on the all time list.  First attempt I did not jump well and just got a huge bend out of the pole.  My second attempt was right on point, but I just tapped the bar on my way over.  On my third attempt I took off weird and did not get a full jump in. Dissappointed that I did not get the height today, but I know its there and I will hit it next week.  Also really glad Michael was able to come this morning! It is nice to have someone there to talk to to distract me a little from my nervousness while I jump!

Sadly, the boys were not as lucky as me and had to deal with spontaneous torrential down pours, crazy wind gusts and drastic temperature changes.  Neither Fish or Joey had a real great day.  Glad Coach let me stay to watch and help them rather than going to the high school meet.  Unfortunately that did mean that I got back to late to go to SAO service as well : ( 

Overall it was a good day.  Congrats to the boy's 4x800 for breaking the school record!!!!  Also, I got to see HG run on the Rider 4x800 team.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to find her after her race but its cool to see old teammates run!  Glad my outdoor season has been so consistent and has yet to be interrupted by serious injury.  Hamstring did not hurt at all and shin only started to hurt towards the end!  Looking forward to getting back to work this week to prep for Lynchburg next weekend!

Still cold, but less rain

So the weather was a little bit nice.  It was still very cold, but did not really rain, sprinkled a little but nothing major.  Went to rehab this morning for my legs, hamstring feels much better, but shin is still a little funny.  Ate lunch then turned around and went to the training room to heat before a quick premeet practice.  Fish Joey and I ran our own pre meet from 2-3 before the high school meet got underway.  Felt pretty good, but did not have a lot of time to do too much work! It was nice to practice without rain, but I am looking forward to true spring warmth!!!!  Spent the following couple of hours watching the high schoolers compete.  It was really cool to see the team from Great Valley here!! Can't wait to see how Tommy Doyle, a fellow vertical assualter, does tomorrow!

Got a busy saturday ahead with W and M meet in the morning, high school meet in the afternoon and SAO service project in the evening!  Should be fun!