...Out like a lamb

Well I finished up the season with back-to-back meets on consecutive weekends. Actually, my season ended over a month ago when I quit training and practicing due to illness, a 2-week vacation, and those damned soccer kids running around on my throwing area! So I expected less than stellar performances at these last 2 meets, and boy did I get them.

As it turned out I posted my 2 shortest throws of the year at these meets (both 38 meters and “change”). I had only 1 sub-40 meter performance all year prior to that, so these 2 efforts really brought down my season average. So my season average wound up at 40.45m, which was just under 1.5 meters better than last season’s average. All in all, it was a good year, but I’m just sorry to see it end on a down note.

Usually I take off a couple of weeks after the last meet before starting my off-season program, but this year I obviously took my rest time before the last meet. So I’m basically going from the last meet straight to the gym. We’ll see how things progress with that. There are a lot of big throwers moving up to my age group next year, so I’m not sorry to be moving to a new age group myself next May. If I can continue the trend of adding about a meter a year to my average and to my PR, I should wind up a little higher in the rankings in the new age group.

Back at last

It’s been way too long since my last post, but I’ve been traveling a lot and working way too hard to be able to do much of anything. My training has suffered too.

It looks like I may only have two more meets this season and I’m not very hopeful of any great performances at those. The first of the meets comes about 5 days after I have to take a 2-week trip so I will be out of shape for that one, and my technique will have suffered too. The second meet comes about 3 weeks later, so maybe my technique will be a little better by then. Compounding it all, it appears that the youth soccer league is getting ready to gear up again, so my practice area is going to be tough to use.

All in all though, it’s been a pretty good season to-date. I’ve had 2 discus PRs this season, for a total improvement of almost 4 feet over last season’s PR. I wanted more, but I’ll take it. I’m not completely giving up on more gains this season though. It’s just going to take the right throw in the right conditions and you can’t always count on that happening.

I had a pretty interesting training session yesterday. I went out to throw in the morning and was pretty frustrated by how far the discus was going. A week off due to my latest business trip was really showing in my distances, and I was just trying to recapture the proper feel of things when the field maintenance crew chased me off to do some mowing and fertilizing. Since I hadn’t gotten my fill I decided to return later in the day. I was starting to get a little stiff from the morning’s efforts so I decided to only throw the 1kg discus, and just work on form. Well, within about a dozen throws I had launched several really long ones, and the furthest measured out to just over 52 meters, or 173 feet and some change. THAT felt good. Now, if I could only figure out how to do that with the 1.5k implement.

So Close

I didn't quite hit 140 feet at today's meet, but I was able to improve my PR by 8.5 inches. That leaves me something like 1 foot, 3 inches short of the 140 foot target, and with very few opportunities left this season to improve it any further.

The wind conditions today were pretty neutral, so whatever was thrown was pretty honest. There was a 0-3 mph headwind, but most of the time it was zero mph. The ocassional breeze in the face was very welcome, not so much for throwing purposes, but for cooling purposes.

I may have one, or maybe two more shots this year to hit 140, but I've got to do a lot of travelling between now and then and that doesn't really favor good training. It's starting to look like 138' 9" may be "it" for me for 2007.

Goin' Throw Crazy

Yep. It’s starting to look that way. You see, there is a category 5 hurricane headed for Texas. It’s predicted that it will hit Wednesday night, and all I can think about it that if it waits until Thursday night then I have a really good chance of some great discus winds in Austin on Saturday morning. Pretty sick.

More throwing over 140’ in dead air tonight. I’m liking this.

Let's Go Throw!

The weather went from repeated heat advisories (108 degree heat index), to a direct hit by Tropical Storm Erin, all in the span of 1 day. Luckily there was an evening in-between where I was able to get out and throw. It went pretty well so I'm glad I was able to do it. My endurance wasn't quite up to par but the distances were there.

I had several throws around 140', plus or minus a little. But the best part was that there was no wind whatsoever, so they were honest 140' throws. I guess the little technical changes I made produced some results. The real question now is whether or not I will lapse back into the old technique under the pressure of competition.

The next meet is in 8 days, and it's one of the few meets remaining this year. We'll see.

Still Hopeful

There was a really sweet wind when I went out to throw this morning. It was exactly the kind of wind I would need in order to have a chance at throwing 150’. As it turned out I was only able to throw a few over 140’. But, that’s the sad state of my fitness right now. The good news is that it looks like the weather is going to cooperate for a while, and I’ve finally knocked out my sinus infection, so there may still be time to get back into shape and salvage the last part of the season.

I finally got a standing throw out over 120’ this morning. That was a first for the season if I’m not mistaken. And, my rhythm and trajectory felt pretty good, so there’s still hope.

Today's Meet Results

I threw 40.56m or approximately 133' 0.5". Not so good, but OK under the circumstances. The conditions were fine...I've got no complaints or excuses. The "circumstances" I refer to are related to my lack of practice recently.

Back to the drawing board.