Kip is back...

I had a pretty good workout yesterday, did 400,300,200,100 in 56.5, 41.3, 27, 15. I wanted to run a little faster on the first 400 because I basically ran as fast as I could, but I didn't warm up a lot either. I tightened up bad in the last 100. The 300 actually felt easier, so I probably shouldn't be afraid to run a quick 200 before a 400. Then an hour later I vaulted and ran some hurdles. There's no way I could have done that last year or before. I'm basically healthy and working out harder than ever as a master, which is the good news, but the bad news for my record quest is that Kip Janvrin has come out of retirement. There's no way I can beat him, maybe 2 or 3 events, so even if I get a record in May or June, he'll demolish it after he turns 45 on July 8. That is if he finds a sanctioned dec to do after that date, which shouldn't be too hard if he tries. I'll try my best to go and do whatever dec he does just for the thrill of competing with him, but we'll see how the body holds up through three decathlons in one summer.
The vaulting is going well, I have my confidence up, and I even threw the turbo jav well last week. This Saturday I'm going to run a 100 at Hayward Field before the UofO dual meet with UCLA. They have a couple masters races, so this will be a chance to get some 100 meet practice.

April Is Important

Training has been going pretty well since the Kamloops meet. I actually don't have too much to report - my groin and hip have improved dramatically and I'm able to work out about as hard as my strength and energy will allow. My right knee tightens up a bit overnight, but seems to loosen up during the day. I'll have to watch it, though. I've had good sessions with the vault and jumps, and even the javelin. I've lost a couple more pounds, I've slipped under 180 for the first time in a while and still think I can make it to 175 by June. According to a table I found on the internet, every pound is worth 0.2 in the 400 as I may have mentioned in one of my earlier blogs, so the 6 pounds I've lost since August should be worth 1.2secs, and another 5 would mean another second. Those relationships don't always work out, of course, but I know less weight will mean better perfomance in all the runs and jumps. I'll need every advantage if I'm going to be anywhere near Kip Janvrin who apparently is going to try to do a decathlon and break the record in the 45 age group after his birthday in July. He did a decathlon a couple weeks ago and scored the equivalent of 8500 on the age graded tables, so I don't have any chance of beating him, but I want to be in good enough shape to do a dec with him and not look like an amateur!
I'll try to post some training videos here in the next couple of weeks. We're having some pretty bad weather, so it's hard to get the camera outside, but I think the week after next is supposed to improve, so maybe at that point I can ramp up the outdoors training and post some interval times.
BTW, I think I'll do a couple all-comers meets May 1 and May 22. I'd like to run the 100, because that's really where I need the most meet practice.
Decathlons are still scheduled for May 29 and June 19. Those two meets are the only chances I'll have to get a record before Kip does a dec(if that happens). I might get a record and only hold it for a month or two, but that's better than nothing.

Got WR M45 Indoor Pent !!!!

So hard work and constant hurting finally pays off a little bit, I was able to break the age group world record. The hurdles were slow, and my long jump wasn't great, so after the first two events I was behind pace, and actually doubted that I would get the record if it kept going like that. I connected pretty well on my third shot, though, and a PB 11.99/39-4 got me back on pace if I jumped 1.80 in the HJ. I opened at 1.67m/5-6 which I made first time, as well as the next height 1.73/5-8. I moved up another 6cm to 1.79/5-10.5, whereupon I said to myself if I make this I'll get the record. I figured I had 6 minutes to get the WR. I had a close miss on my first try, but an easy clearance on the second. At that point I knew I could run fast enough to get the record, but making the next height would make it a lot easier. I had two good misses at 1.82/5-11.625, so it was down to the last one. I just said to myself, "this is easy, just jump over the bar", which I did with room to spare. After that I calculated I needed about 3:15 in the 1k which I knew I could two twice in a row no problem, so I warmed up and ran a 3:09. I didn't run the best race, though, I should have a run faster. I went out a bit fast with the first 200 at 33, and then I didn't push in the middle. My last 200 was also 33-34, so I had some left that I should have used in the middle. I still was very happy that it was over and to get the record. I didn't feel good warming up first thing in the morning(the hurdles started at 9:00), probably because I was so anxious the last couple days before the meet. I wasted a lot of nervous energy before the event, and barely slept the night before. We got in late to the hotel, so I went to sleep about 11, and woke up at 3:45. I'm sure my unnecessary anxiety before the meet cost me some points, so hopefully that won't happen again.

So now it's the big push towards May 29th, the decathlon in Santa Barbara. My groins did start to bother me during the pent, so I have to get them to stay loose, or the second day the decathlon will be hard. Fitness-wise I should be ok, but I have to vault as much as possible to make sure I don't no-height. And hopefully my shoulder and groin will let me throw the jav enough to get a respectable mark there. The WR in the decathlon is possible, but I'm not going to obsess about it. I would be happy to get the AR. The AR is pretty soft, and if I don't get it, someone else will in the near future. Which I also believe of my WR in the indoor pent, I don't think that will last a long time either. The Brit Andrew Lewis is three years behind me, and had some pretty super marks at the worlds two years ago when he broke the M40 WR. Still, it doesn't matter how good you are, you have to go out and try, and that gets harder and harder every year!

9 Days To Go

Well, the World Masters Indoor is getting close now. I'm totally confident with regards to my fitness, but I'm a little worried about this incessant groin tightness. I think I'll be ok if I rest it a couple days beforehand, and then get lots of heat into it before competition.

I've had some good workouts lately. Yesterday I ran a workout doing 400's with equal rest(run 75 rest 75), and did 77,72,74,72,74 until I had to stop because my groin started to tighten up too much. I wanted to do 8, and I could have because I was barely tired when I stopped. I've never done that workout faster than 77's before. This bodes well for the 1000 (and 1500 in the outdoor season). And last week I ran a low 25 200 in a workout holding back and easing up, so that interval could have been in the 24's, which I've never done as a master. My high jumping and shot putting is going very well also. I've been taking good jumps over 6', and threw 38' a couple days ago. I haven't been able to practice the LJ a ton, but I did jump 18 from a half-run-up, so I think something over 20 should be easy if I connect on the board from a full run up. I had a lot of confidence in the hurdles up to about three weeks ago, but now I'm just a little worried, and it's the first event. I just can't hurt myself.

I think what's made such a huge difference this year with my jumping and intervals is all the in-place jumping I've been doing. I'll just jump up and down in place almost as high as I can in sets of 100 to 200 for a total of maybe 500 per workout. I'm much springier than last year and my legs just feel much stronger. I can feel it when I run down the track, and I feel like I can actually jump over the high jump bar instead of just run and "fall" over it.

Well, I'll sign off for now and post next week after the meet. By the way, I've also entered the National Masters indoor in Boston, so that gives me two chances to get the record if I need it.

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.