Two Great Days!

Practice on Wednesday was probably the best vaulting day I have had yet this season.  Started out a little rough, but I was finally able to start feeling like I was moving the pole again, not just getting slammed.  I even managed to get some decent jumps in from a 5 step.  The fear wasn't there either which was great.  Lifting went well too.  Front squats 3 sets of 6,6,7 at 140 lbs.  We also did hang cleans, 3 sets of 8 at 100 lbs.  And managed to get bench in as well, 3 sets of 8 at 90 lbs. 

Got up for 8 am practice, after finally getting a decent amount of sleep!  Did some decent approach work, for both triple and pole vault.  Then we ran a workout.  3 sets of 3 150s.  There were just three of us running them, but thats the best I have felt in a workout in a long time.  Coach Lou gave us times to hit each time, the only time I was over the time was the very first one when he asked for a 21, I ran a 22.  Was not sure at the start what exactly the pace should feel like...Afterwards I did abs and some good stretching.  Then I sat in the cool pool for a while.

I am excited for the meet tomorrow.  Hopefully it will be a good day!

Stupid Fire Alarms...

Tired to be a good student athlete and go to bed by 11 only to be woken up by the fire alarm at 12, then again at 3:30, and again at 4:30.  By that point I was afraid to go asleep, thought it would go off again.  On the bright side I was awake well before my 8 am practice today!!! 

Practice went well considering I was running on only a few hours of sleep.  Did some good approach work for both triple and pole vault.  Then did about 5 sets of 20m harness, 30 m sprint from 3 point stance, and 30 m from blocks.  After that Coach Lou took us through some quick abs. 

Now Ive got to figure out how to get through the rest of my day with no sleep!  Yay Coffee!!!

New week!

Practice today went  pretty well.  It was a jump day.  I did mostly short approach stuff.  Trying to get my run relaxed again, stop being a line backer...I made a little progress today.  Coach made a really good point today, I have to keep in mind the big picture.  Pole vaulting is about running and jumping, getting the pole up and moving, that's it.  Everything else I try to adjust is for that purpose.  I have gotten really focused on the small stuff lately and lost track of the big picture.  Now I need to just step back and vault.  Hopefully, this will result in some big improvements and less stressful meets than last week.  It was also really nice to be able to go get in some triple jump work to distract myself a little from pole vaulting. 

I am exited that for Liberty this weekend, but a little disappointed that I have to miss 2 of my Friday classes.  Looking forward to a nice week, its exciting having SAO recruitment :)  Now off to bed...8 am practice yay!

Meet weekend!

After finishing my first full week of classes, I headed to the freeman center for our first indoor meet of the semester.  Pole vaulting was Friday night.  I had a pretty rough warm up.  Still feel like I have no confidence in my jumping and I have no idea why.  Its beginning to become incredibly frustrating!  After some terrible jumps at 8 and 8 6, things started to improve at 9.  My best jump of the day was at 9 6.  The only one I made on my first attempt...  The jumps at 10 were alright.  Nothing special, just started to run out of steam...  Needless to say it was an incredibly frustrating evening.  I am hoping that things can greatly improve for next weekend.

Saturday morning I triple jumped.  I wasn't even supposed to jump until the middle of the week, so I never really got a chance to practice.  I was nervous but had nothing to loose.  It extremely comforting to have a 24 foot board.  I was just certain that I would make it in to the pit which was a big problem last spring.  My best jump was just 8.86 m (28' 6").  Not much to report, but I was happy that each jump got better.  I am looking forward to actually getting some time to practice triple jumping again.  It was really nice to think about something other than pole vaulting too.  The rest of the meet went well, it was exciting to see the rest of my teammates compete, especially the heptathalete and other guy pole vaulters. 

Overall it was a pretty fun day.  Not a bad start to the indoor season.  Coach seemed content.  Hopefully the rest of the indoor season continues to get better!

Whhaaattt Wednesday and early thursday

Whhaaatt wednesday is this new thing that Coach is trying to start to get some recognization on campus.  Every wednesday we are supposed to wear team stuff, even some of our uniform gear.  Its been a lot of fun seeing other teammates around campus wearing their stuff!

Tuesday was an interval workout day.  8 200s, beginning every 3 mins.  They were pretty tough.  We were supposed to be between 34 and 37 secs.  I was in range the whole time, usually closer to 35.  I was quite pleased.  I was exhausted afterwards though.  Then we went to the weight room for axillary lifts.

Wednesday was a jump day.  I was getting frustrated because it seems like every practice I don't ever really get work done becuase I am freaking out about my run the whole time now.  Its been like 2 years, i really wish that this problem would go away.  For lifting yesterday we did front squats, 140lbs for max reps (8,7,8).  Then, hang cleans 100 lbs 3 sets of 8, and bench 90 lbs 3 sets of 8.  This is way lower than I am used to, but Coach really wants me to focus on getting them all of the way down.

This morning I got up early and headed to the freeman center.  Today was supposed to be just some approach work followed by a work out.  Thats not what happened.  I warmed up then did some work to prep my triple jump approach for saturday.  Then Coach wanted me to make sure my pole vault marks were good for tomorrow.   Rich was doing some work for the decathalon, so some how I ended up getting to jump.  I got off the ground a few times, but they were really ugly, I don't understand why this keeps happening.  Hopefully, things will come together better tomorrow!!  Pole Vault begins at 4 and I am going for 3.35!  Here's hoping for some new heights!

back to work!

Yesterday we had our first practice of the week after a nice weekend off.  Practice went pretty well.  Short approach stuff was good.  I am not sure what happened with some of my full approaches though.  I was running like I had two different legs or something.  Did get off the ground on the last one, but Coach decided to call it a day.  I am looking forward to a real jumping day on wednesday.  Lifting was good.  I am enjoying doing the "all american" workouts.  We did 3 sets of 85% of max for max reps for back squats.  I was at 165 lbs, sets of 8,8,6.  Then for full cleans, three sets of 8 at 100 lbs.  They were tough, but I am looking forward to getting better at them!

End of camp!

Friday was finally the last day of camp.  Man it was a hard day!  After a little bit of approach work we hit the track for a tough work out.  It was one we have done before.  4 sets of 150, 100, 50.  The recovery between runs is just the walk back to the line, then we had six minutes in between.  It was tough, but I felt really good.  After that we headed to the weight room for our last round of maxes.  First we did back squats.  I maxed just under 200 lbs for my single rep.  Thats about where I was a year ago, so it is going up again.  Then I made up bench from the day before.  I only did 5 reps at 115, which translates to about 130 lbs for my single rep.  That is much lower than it has been, but they were actually done right.  Finally, we did full cleans.  I managed a respectable 6x105lbs, which is just under the most I have ever maxed on those. 

After practice I got to spend a great evening with Auntie Pat and Kelsey.  It was great to get off campus and Beauty and the Beast 3D was awesome.  Saturday night we celebrated Kristi's birthday by going out to dinner, then I spent some time with my team.  More time with the team tonight, then my first SAO meeting of the year.  Been a pretty nice first weekend of the semester...too bad the rest won't be this relaxing.

First Morning Practice!

So like most normal non-college people, my life now begins at 8 am everyday.  Today I had my first morning practice.  It was not bad at all getting up that early, and I think I am really going to enjoy it.  Today I was just completely exhausted.  All of the work from the past week and a half really caught up with me.  I was not sore exactly, my muscles just did not have much left.  I did some decent short approach work and a few full runs.  Things felt pretty good, just slow.  After practice I got in the cool pool to ease some knee and shin pain I have been having for the past few days.  I am glad it is Thursday, looking forward to finishing this week off strong, and having a little rest this weekend.

Rain!!!

Today there were double header basketball games so we were outside for practice today.  Of course today is the one day of the week that it pours down rain.  It literally rained all day!  But because we are now wearing the team stuff on wednesdays we got to wear our gortex jackets.  I felt like a blueberry but at least it was warm.  But just because it was raining does not mean that today can be wasted.  We got some good acceleration and approach work done.  Even did some bleacher stuff to really feel the push of the acceleration.  Then we headed into the weight room.  Today we maxed front squats and hang cleans.  My front squat max stayed the same...for some reason they really hurt my back.  Hang cleans however went really well.  Maxed the most I ever have before, 6 at 105.  Thats a single rep max of 122 lbs. 

After practice most of the team headed to the second basketball game.  Tonight Jade was recognized for her accomplishments in cross country the past few years.  Including her performance at nationals this year.

It is exciting to be starting classes again.  All three went really well today.  Hopefully the two tomorrow will go well also. 

January camp

This week has been so busy I have not had the time to be on the internet let alone post on here.  Camp was really tough.  First practice was Tuesday afternoon, it was a circuit work out.  Two a day practices started on Wednesday with a lot of drill work. Thursday was 5x200s in the morning and drills in the afternoon. Friday we were at the track meet all day but got outside for a little while to do 6 laps of ins and outs.  Saturday we play ultimate frizbee as an entire team.  My team won!  Then we did a rough lower body lifting workout.  Set of 10, 8, 6, and 5, increase by 15% of max each time.  This was the set up for back squats, front squats, full cleans and hang cleans.  I ran out of time and did not get to the hang cleans.  Sunday we vaulted then hit the weight room for an upper body lift.  Sets of 10, 8, 6,5,4,3 increase 10-15 % I kept up with a guys bench for this work out!!!!  Then some auxiliary lifts. Monday we were back to two a days.  The morning workout was 2 x 5 20, 40, 60.  Then an afternoon of approach work, finished off by doing a jump circuit.  Today was our last round of two a days.  Did 4x300s this morning.  I was dead after them.  It has been a long week.  this afternoon we went back for some jump work.  Short approaches went well, but my legs just could not pull off full runs. 

Through out the week we had some great team meetings.   I also had a blast with the team this week.  I am really excited to see what we can do this year.   Tomorrow classes begin and practices goes back to a normal schedule.  Hopefully this semester will be better than the last one.

Great visit!

After a quick interval work out on the bike and some small lifts we headed back to Ohio to visit with the fam. Had a blast seeing everyone.  It was especially fun to see my little nephew!  He is crazy!  Got out and did one run while there.  It was just over two miles.  Unfortunately, I have no idea what the time was.  Did get a really cool new watch so coach can no longer make fun of me!  Hope everyone had a great New Year!  Hopefully 2012 is awesome!