Goals and Expectations

[World Record Russian hammer thrower Tatyana Lysenko ]

It’s hard to believe but the countdown to the first meet is down to just 6 days now. I think I began ticking off the days way back when the 2006 schedule was first posted, and when the “days remaining” were at 117. My, how time flies when you are having fun. A quick check of Saturday’s weather forecast shows an expected high temperature in Austin of 66 degrees (19 C), and lows of 56 degrees (13 C). As I begin with Shot Put at 8:00AM, it appears that I will need to be prepared to be a little chilly. Also important to note is that there is a 40 percent chance of rain. Hmmm, maybe things will improve. Six days out is still pretty “iffy” in the weather forecasting business.

Aside from the possibility of really bad winds and a slippery wet surface, I fully expect to throw personal records in all events. I don’t mean to sound too cocky about this – I actually have some good reasons to feel this way. First, I’ve been practicing a lot since last season, and my technique is much improved in all events, except maybe javelin, where my technique is at least no worse than last year. Second, I’ve been working out with weights very regularly and although I am still no powerhouse, I am a lot stronger than I was last year. Finally, once I’m properly warmed up I’ve been regularly throwing personal records during just about every practice session lately. The determining factor next Saturday will be consistency, and whether I can get off at least one good throw out of the 4 allotted attempts.

Over and above the expectations of PRs are the goals I have set for myself in every event. These goals are in some cases significantly beyond my PRs, but when I set them way back at the end of last season they seemed achievable and necessary to keep me on track to achieve the even more aggressive targets I have for later on in the year. My goals for each event are as follows:

Hammer Throw – 125’ (38.10m), PR +6.08m
Shot Put – 35’ (10.66m), PR + 0.29m
Discus Throw – 130’ (39.62m), PR +0.48m
Javelin Throw – 125’ (38.10m), PR +6.75m
Weight Throw - 42’ (12.80m), PR +0.55m

The Shot Put, Discus and Weight Throw goals are all distances I’ve achieved in practice on more than one occasion. The Hammer Throw mark is one that I’m on the verge of seeing. But the Javelin Throw mark is still just a dream, and certainly has the lowest probability of happening. I would actually be very pleased with anything over 110’ (33.53m) in Javelin, and this would still be 2.18m beyond my PR. Also, 120’ (35.58m) in the Hammer Throw would be ok and would represent a PR +3.56m.

And just for fun I’ve entered the 56# SuperWeight Throw for the first time. Who knows what to expect in this one. I think my goals for SuperWeight will just be to not embarrass or hurt myself. It’s not an event that is contested very often, or one that is entered by very many competitors. (Should this be a warning?) At any rate, the national rankings showed that only 7 marks were submitted in my age group last year, ranging from 11.21m all the way down to 4.42m. I think I’ll pick 6.10m as a target, which would have ranked 4th last year. Who knows though, I may not even be able to pick up the damned thing!