35 Days to go to WMA Kamloops

The month of January has been pretty productive for me, although I've aggrivated my right groin enough to where I need to take some easy days. This isn't too bad, though, and I think I'm going to be ready for the indoor pentathlon on March 2nd. These are the marks I'm shooting for:

60mh: 8.80

LJ: 6.40

SP: 11.80

HJ: 1.85

1000m: 3:05.00

tough, but doable.

I'm ahead of where I was last year at this time, so my hope that a second year of training would be better is coming true for the most part. I'm leaner, my abs are much stronger, my shoulder is pain-free allowing me to practice throws almost as much as I want, and my take-off leg is stronger than it was after all the injuries last year, and my flexibility is better. The only part of the puzzle that's weaker is my long-distance running. I can't run 4 miles as fast as last year.

I did a couple starts last Friday over the first two hurdles, and it was ok. My time to the second hurdles was a couple tenths faster than last summer in Seattle, and I wasn't even going all-out. I videoed it, and I don't like my start form, but maybe I can improve it and take out another tenth. I'm rising up too soon, and I'm not stepping over with my return foot, in other words, my foot isn't close enough to my butt as I bring it forward, meaning it's a longer lever than it should be. I can easily work on these things, though.

That's all for now, i'll update later in the week when my groin recovers.

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.

Nov 19 2009

Decent progress over last week. Took a rest day from running yesterday and just did sprint "machine". I guess I have to come up with a name for that drill. Tues did 1mile fast warmup, 4x200, some weights, shot practice, then in evening did vault strength workout and sled push. Very tired afterwards. Day before that I ran 5miles on track in 36min, then did 4x100 strides to loosen up. Threw discus ok. Sunday did 10 min warmup run, then hurdles, vaulting, sled push. Saturday did 5x430 on MAC indoor track and weights. Pretty good workout. Friday did same as Sunday, but with faster 14min run as warmup.

After all the injuries last season I had no hopes of getting close to the world record for M45, but I feel so good now I'm starting to look at it. The challenge now is to not over do the training because I feel good. Basically if I can stay injury free the WR is realistic because it's a bit soft. The injuries take so much out of the training momentum at my age that any one serious injury at the wrong time could mean the end again though. I'm working with a new message guy who's very good and that will help.

These marks will get me there:

12.10 100m

20-7 LJ

37-4 SP

5-10 HJ

54.80 400m

16.20 HH

128-0 Discus

12-10 PV

128-0 Jav

5:00 1500m

If I stay healthy, some of these marks will be easy, and I've done most of them in meets or practice in the past couple years. Putting it all together is always the test. When I look at them, I just laugh at how easy they would be for a younger guy. A good decathlete could do these in one hour literally without breaking a sweat, and throwing from a stand, etc. When I was 20 I jumped 21-0 in a long jump practice session with a 5 step approach. That's 5 steps, LRLRL, not 10 steps. Oh well, the years are not kind. These numbers may change up or down after a winter of training, but there's not a large range of performance that we older athletes can expect. I'm not going to accidentally bust out a 23 foot long jump, or throw the shot only 30 feet. The pole vault and javelin will always be the wild cards I suppose because of the nature of the vault, and my shoulder in the jav. If I regained full use of my shoulder, I could conceivably throw a lot farther than 128'

Dr. Heel Good

Full-bore training is underway and it's going pretty well. I think my heel bruise is gone, I only feel some sensitivity at times, but not enough to slow me down. I also continue to have soreness and tightness in my lower abs and groin, but it goes away with warmup, and regular workouts should get rid of it entirely. I've had three good workouts in a row. Sunday I ran 32 minutes, Monday I ran 4x600m in 1:58, 1:56, 2:03, 2:08. Not real fast, but have to start somewhere. I'll have to be able to knock those out in 1:45 by March 2 for the indoor pentathlon 1000m. Also on Monday I lifted arms a bit, did row, and step mill. Yesterday I did 4x100m fast stride + 1.5miles during the day, then we met at Rick's and did some throw practice and other misc. Our new track club, Oregon Multi-Event Track Club, will be meeting there tue, fri, and Sun.

I'll be trying to hurdle just as much as I can, and hopefully I'll be able to start practicing long and high jumps in December. I'm waiting as long as possible before doing that because of the heel.

My big thing lately is realizing that I need to alter my running stride by moving my footstrike back while sprinting. I've been running with a form that causes my foot strike to brake or block my forward progress with every step which is sudden death, so to change my form and improve my drive I built a frame that holds me off the ground, then allows me to attach a band to my heel and simulate the sprinting motion by pawing backwards. I've noticed a difference already, and think it has potential to really help my sprint times. Barring injury.

When can I start training?....

It's been over two months now since the decathlon and the heel bruise is almost all gone. I walked an hour today with very little sensation of the bruise afterwards, which is pretty good. I think I'll be able to start running again consistently here about the first of November, which is pretty good timing for next season. It would be good to be training already for the indoor season, but I want to be as healthy as possible before I start running for real. I'm still gunshy about all the injuries from last season, though, so I'm curbing my enthusiasm to the degree that if I start getting injury after injury again next spring, I probably won't follow through. For now, I'll hope for the best.

The main training objective for next season, besides not getting injured, is to lose weight. I had my body fat % checked three weeks ago, and it came in at 10.3% at 183lbs. I noticed that I was weighing about 186 at the time of the decathlon, and I realized that's too high. Because of the injuries since March, and the fact that I wasn't able to run consistently, I just wasn't as lean as I can be. I wasn't paying that much attention to how much I was eating, either. I should be closer to 175, which should make a big difference in my running and jumping. Being lighter helps 7 or 8 events in the decathlon, especially for older guys. When you're young, you have to have the muscle for the discus and shot and sprints, but as you get older, your energy and stamina and spring can't overcome any extra weight. According to one website I found, every pound equals 2 tenths in the 400, and about 1.5 seconds in the 1500, so thats a lot of points if I can lose another 8 pounds. The jumping events will be helped, too, of course.