Kamloops 2 Months away...

So I've been a bit hampered for the past three weeks with a problem in the right knee. It's not as serious as the problem I had in my left knee last spring, but it's keeping me from running as much as I'd like. I think it's a tracking problem with the patella causing some mild pain and swelling. Wrapping it under the patella seems to help. I'm going to just run less frequently until it goes away. If it doesn't, then I think I can still do most of what I want to do, because it seems like my running is ok with less volume. My longer distance running will suffer, but everything else seems ok at this point. Yesterday i ran a ladder workout, 1000m,600,400,300,200,100 in 3:19,1:53,67,47,27,14. I was satisfied with that. I want to get close to 3:00 for the 1000m in the pentathlon, so 3:19 as an interval isn't too bad. If I run 3:00 they're going to have to scrape me off the track afterwards.

I high jumped over about 5-9 easily the other day from a half-run-up, so at least I can still count on that. David Lemen is helping me there quite a bit, as well as in the other events. Thanks to him. I think if I stay healthy I could jump 6-2 this year. My take-off leg has been totally healthy, and the heel bruise is all gone, so I feel strong there. Losing weight would help.

I need to start working on the starting blocks, and I also need to make sure I have a good mark in the long jump. I think my mark should be different than last year with all the work I've done on my sprint form, but we'll see. Maybe the mark will be the same, and I'll just hit the board with more speed.

I wrapped my wrist for the first time throwing the shot last week, and it made quite a difference. I can't believe I never did it before, that none of the coaches I had ever made me try it. They sucked. Maybe with my healed shoulder and a wrapped wrist I can get close to 40.

Sign off for now, Happy New Year Everyone!!

Rest Days

Body feels like it needs a rest, so I'm not running today, and tomorrow I'll just vault. If I feel refreshed by Saturday I'll run then, but if not, I'll wait until Sunday. I just felt very sluggish yesterday, so I'm assuming that means I need a break. I've had some good workouts since the last update, so I feel like I'm starting to get somewhere anyway. I did 5x200 on Monday between 28.2 and 29.3, so that's ok, and the last week I did 7x400 at a 79 second average with a 79 second rest interval. I ran 5 miles on Saturday in 34:50, so that was faster than last time. I threw the turbo jav on tuesday, and had little significant shoulder pain afterwards. It was the first time I threw the jav and had the first inklings of what it used to feel like to throw properly. There is some hope! I also did some easy long jump bounding step-step-jump the other day, and it didn't hurt the heel much at all, so I hope to start doing more jump practice next week. My only concern now is some mild pain in the tendons above my knee after the longer runs, so I'll have to watch that. Don't want it to become chronic.

I've seen a big benefit in my leg strength from the sprint trainer I've developed, and I'm finding new ways to use it all the time. More on it later.