An Ill Wind

I’m trying not to get too discouraged here, but I’ve been practicing fairly regularly lately and I have absolutely no idea how far I’m throwing. You see, in the winter months the prevailing wind in South Texas is out of the North, which means that my practice area has been getting pretty strong and consistent tailwinds for the last several weeks. So while I know how far I’m throwing in these conditions, I have no idea if I’m better or worse than last year under “normal” conditions. Kind of frustrating.

I still haven’t thrown my new discus. It’s just too damn pretty. I’ll probably take one or two throws with it right before the first meet, and from then on I’ll probably only bring it out for competitions.

Hammer practice went a little better today. My footwork is finally coming back to the point that today I was throwing just about where I was last season. From here on hopefully I will see only improvements. I think all the work I’ve been doing to strengthen my legs for Discus may actually result in bigger gains in Hammer. It’s weird how this stuff works sometimes.

There was an interesting development in the Shot Put world this weekend. The Slovakian, Mikulas Konopka threw 21.57m to win the European indoor championships. He had 5 throws over 21m, and one long foul. But the really interesting part is that the guy “only” weights 240lbs. In an event in which the world leaders often top 300lbs. There’s hope for us skinny guys yet! (He can probably bench press a bus though.)