Current items of interest in Track & Field throwing events, and my progress as a Masters Athlete.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Strategic Slacking
I eased off of my training regimen recently, partly just to recharge the old “batteries” at the mid-point of the competitive season (and in advance of some of the bigger meets), but also partly because of a bout of really bad hay fever allergies. Now that I’m starting back with my normal routine I don’t think I lost much in the way of strength or technique, but I now feel really mentally rested and ready to attack the remainder of the season. As much as I hated to do it, in that it felt a whole lot like slacking off, I think it was probably a smart move on my part.
The next meet should be a good one for a number of reasons. One reason is that it will be my first Weight Pentathlon competition for the year, and unless I go to Montana for the National Championship meet later this summer, it may be my only Weight Pentathlon of the year. Too bad they aren’t held more frequently. You would think that any meet in which the 5 events are already being contested would go ahead and score for the Weight Pentathlon, but that’s just not the case.
Another reason this meet should be a good one is that the folks who conduct it do a really good job. They get a quality venue, they know how to run a meet, and in return their meets are usually well attended. While I’m on the subject of attendance, I’ve been missing a couple of the guys I’ve been throwing with and against for the last 3 years. One of them I’ve only seen at the first meet of the season, and the other I haven’t seen at all. The upcoming meet is close to where they live, so if they aren’t at this one then something is definitely “up”. If that’s the case, hopefully it’s nothing bad.
I’ve been seeing some hints of improvement in both Discus and Hammer recently. That’s good, because although I’ve slipped to an 8th place ranking in Discus I’m still holding on to 4th in Hammer, but there’s just no way I’ll maintain those rankings with my current throws.
I’ve just about given up on the glide technique in Shot Put. I now work almost exclusively on the spin in practice. Even though I can still throw farther with the glide I think the spin will ultimately produce for me. It’s just a matter of how long it will take to figure out the technique. I’ll just keep after it, and if it’s not ready by meet-time I’ll revert to the glide for the competition and then go back to practicing the spin until I nail it down.
Javelin is…well, Javelin continues to be an enigma. I’ve changed my grip, and I’m really concentrating on improving my technique, but I’ve yet to see much in the way of longer throws. One would think that with as many random throws as I’ve taken at least one would have accidentally been a good one. But noooo…Very frustrating!
Yowzuh! Today I threw a practice PR in discus of 152' 1". That's like 25 feet beyond what I've been throwing in competition lately. Granted, there was a favorable wind, but I've thrown in favorable winds before and have never come close to a distance like this. I had a couple of 140'+ throws right before the "bomb" too, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't a fluke. Too bad it had to be my last throw of the day (a guy on a tractor started aerating the field, and I didn't want to kill him). So now, I just need to grove the technical change I made that produced this improvement so that it doesn't evaporate under the heat of competition. If I can do that I might just be on my way to being one bad discus-throwing muthuh.
I guess I shouldn’t complain too much about my disappointing performance in some of the events at Saturday’s meet, because there definitely was a least one big bright spot.
Late in the long, hot, humid day I walked into the hammer ring, very tired and dehydrated and I threw the hammer farther than I thought I could…4 times in a row. My previous personal record was just a hair over 105’, a mark that I set at the last meet of the year last season. While this was only about 6’ further than I had thrown at a meet earlier in the year it was good to end the year on a high note, albeit a small one. After all, it was only the 5th time I had ever thrown hammer in competition.
On Saturday however, something got into me. God only knows what, because I haven’t been practicing hammer very much at all. In spite of this I opened with a throw of 115’ 4” and a new personal record. I could have walked away at that point and been a “happy camper”, but I followed this effort with a second throw of 117’ 2”. After sub-par performances in the 3 previous events of the meet, all of a sudden the day was starting to look pretty good. My third throw was 116’ 2.5”. It wasn’t an improvement over my second throw but it made me start to think that maybe my first two throws weren’t lucky shots, and that just maybe I belonged in this neighborhood. On my 4th and final throw I just relaxed and let ‘er rip. I uncharacteristically let out a grunt as the hammer left my hand. It wasn’t intentional, it just came out. As I watched the hammer fly all I could think of was “don’t foul”. My first 3 throws had been more or less right down the middle, but this one was heading toward the right sector line, and I had experienced some serious right sector foul trouble with the Weight Throw earlier in the day. As it turns out the hammer landed safely, about 10’ inside the sector line, and 128’ 7.5” away.
I must admit that improving my personal record by over 23.5’ was a major rush. It’s right up there with my 134’ 11” discus throw back on April 11th, and my 36’ 5.5” shot put on April 22nd. So far this year I have personal records in 4 of the 5 throwing events that I normally participate in. My only remaining record to fall is that of the Weight Throw. And that one is pretty much of a “lock” at the next meet. Actually, I would have thrown a personal record in the Weight Throw on Saturday if I had only kept it in the sector. My record in the weight is 40’ 2”, and on Saturday I had 4 throws over 40’, but all were out of bounds. (I know what to do to correct this.)
Discus and Shot Put were also disappointments on Saturday. I was unable to recapture whatever it was that allowed those big throws earlier in the year. My best discus mark was 124’ 5.5” and in Shot Put my best was 33’ 2”. Still, it’s been a very good season for me so far, what with the 4 PRs, and season averages near or above last season’s all-time PRs. Life is good…lifting weights is good.
One more thing – I tried the Super Weight on Saturday. This event is definitely not for me, and I doubt I will ever throw it again…at least not this season. I will need a lot more meat on my bones before I wrestle with that monster again!
It's Tuesday...Three days until the first big meet of the year...Two days since I've slept. You see, my wife brought home a puppy two days ago. (Picture of un-named dog is above.)
I really miss sleep. And a lack of sleep doesn't tend to produce good athletic perfomances. That's why I've rented a motel room for the night before the meet, even though the meet is less than a 2-hour drive away, and the implement weigh-in doesn't start until 9:00am. As cheap as I am, I guess I love sleep more than I love saving money.
I'm really looking forward to sleeping alone...in a flea bag motel...next to the highway. It all sounds soooo good to me right now...it's like Christmas.
