The Gods are Against Me

It's rained every day for the last 8 days, and the long-range forecast shows rain every day for the next 10 days. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to be able to train in this weather!

Back at ya!

It’s been a while since my last Blog posting – 3 competitions to be exact. But, “life” got in the way, including business travel, out of town visitors, and a high school graduation in the household.

My expectations for the first of those three meets were not met, not only for myself but also for my friend who I had hoped was going to set an age-group WR. Conditions just weren’t right at that meet to produce long throws. The ring surface was brand new and had a very slick mirror finish, so everyone was slip-sliding around as they tried to push off. I only managed a 39.19m throw (128’ 7”) but it could have been worse. I tried changing shoes, including wearing one running shoe and one throwing shoe on one of my attempts. Just about the only thing I didn’t try was throwing barefoot, and in retrospect that might just have been what the doctor ordered for that slick surface.

The next meet was the annual Corporate Athletics Association regional meet where I rebounded with a 40.70m (133’ 6.5”). That was good enough to win, but clearly none of my “competition” had much discus throwing experience. Still it was fun, and it was good to get the taste of that 39.19m out of my mouth. I would really like to never throw in the 30’s again.

And then 2 days ago I attended the Cat Springs “Grunt-9” where I improved yet a little more. This time I posted a 41.49m (136’ 1.5”) to a slightly downhill landing area. Because of the slope I’m not sure that my throwing was actually much better than it was at the 40.70m meet, but I’ll take the 41.49m just the same. Lots of folks had PR’s at this meet, and while it’s good to see yourself throw a bigger number than ever before I’m afraid that they might be in for a sobering surprise when they try to duplicate those results on a level field.

My throwing has been very consistent this season. Most of my attempts at any given meet seem to be landing within about a meter of each other, both distance-wise as well as laterally. Having multiple stakes out in the field for my throws seems to be the rule, as more often than not I have throws that are just too close to call with respect to which one is further. And I don’t think I’ve had a sector foul or a foot foul all year. This consistency might mean that I’m about ready to jump out of the plateau up to a new level, or it could mean that I’ve reached the maximum that my technique and strength levels will allow, or that I’m playing it too safe and not “going for it” hard enough. Who knows for certain…but I suspect it’s the second one.

I finally got around to video-taping my self at practice a couple of weeks ago, and the results were shockingly ugly. I’m totally amazed at the differences between what my body feels like it is doing and what is actually going on. I’ve got a horrible problem with over-rotating out of the back, which produces all sorts of uncorrectable problems as the throw continues. If I don’t correct this now, I’m afraid that my best throws of the season may be behind me. So, I’m doing drills, drills, drills to try to learn what amounts to a new technique, and I have about a month before the next meet to get something accomplished. We’ll see what happens.