"Gettin' swoll" and running in parking lots

With indoor season and the local all-comers starting in January, we are officially in the end of "pre-season" training. But, with the start of winter comes the winter rains. While the majority of California is probably rejoicing at the possibility of breaking our epic drought, the majority of California doesn't spend hours at the track every day. [Warning: Humblebrag coming in the next sentence!] Laura and I have spent the last year averaging a total use of 30 gallons of water per day (The Alameda County average is about 200 gallons per day). Perhaps we were just being "good Californians," or maybe we were secretly hoping we would be rewarded with a magical dry window when we were trying to train outside.

When I was running "distance," I didn't mind the rain much. Unless it was really cold or windy, in general as long as you kept moving, you create enough body heat to get yourself through the run without feeling cold. When you were done, you would immediately get into your car (or into your house) and blast the heat.

Unfortunately, most of our training consists of lots of short bursts of energy with minutes of break in between. Throw in any sort of rain and it is a recipe for misery, since you aren't really keeping yourself warm. The rain also make pole vault poles slippery, makes your shoes have no traction in the throwing rings, and pretty much blinds you while you are trying to run at a hurdle.

Yesterday our planned workout was a "speed" day followed by our main lifting day for the week. Unfortunately, fate had decided that it would be raining, 50F, and fairly windy during this workout. If we were in most states, we would just head to an indoor track. But since we are in the only state in the nation with no indoor track (I just made that up, but I think it is true), we could either take the day off or suffer through the rain. Our friend Leslie recently sent us some pictures and video of the indoor track facility he trains at, I was frustrated and jealous. It was dry, looked warm, was well lit, and even had pole vault pits set up at the end of the straightaway.

Doesn't it look inviting outside? Can't
wait to leave the car and run in the rain!

Luckily, the high school recently installed a fantastic indoor/outdoor training site! Now most people in the community would look at the CVHS parking lot and just see solar panels, but I see a nice 150m overhang covering smooth asphalt. With the rain cancelling soccer practice, the area was conveniently car-free. With only minimal rain blowing sideways under the overhang, we were able to get our workout completed and remain partially dry.

Parking lot by day.... rain-protected training center by night....
I don't have a picture of us running in the rain, but you're all smart
enough to imagine what that would look like.

Afterwards, we were still fairly wet and cold, but definitely better off than if we had run on the track. It was about 6:30, so I had trouble imagining driving home and still feeling motivated to lift in our crowded and cold garage, so I went to check out if the high school weight room was open. Not only was it open, but it was empty! For a few hours, we got to pretend we had our own fully-set-up personal weight room.

This was the start of our third "cycle" of lifting. Some of the lifts we hadn't done since college, so it was pretty fun to get pumped up and feel "big" again. This cycle I added in "rack pulls," which are the ultimate ego-boosting lift. Since it is only the "top half" of a dead lift, you can really throw on a lot of weight. 4 sets of 5, ending at more than double my weight was sufficient to get me feeling and acting like a dumb meat head, probably to Laura's annoyance, as I started making grunting and hissing noises while lifting and spontaneously yelling things like "get it!" As long as I was acting like an idiot, I figured I might as well insist she take a picture of me lifting.

Here is a picture of me grunting, hissing, and generally feeling awesome.
I wish I had brought lifting straps; my hands were killing me.

Laura's hamstring has been bugging her, so she got to add on some hamstring "rehab" that I didn't have to do. I managed to disguise the fact that I was filming her, so you get to hear some candid singing, aren't you lucky?

After we finished lifting, I was still feeling thoroughly pumped up, so I took advantage of the empty gym to do some "line drills," for the discus.

I also took a few minutes to work on balance and stability with some "air squats" on a ball.

Finally finished at about 830, it was time to figure out what restaurants were open. We entered Rigatoni's like two wet dogs coming in out of the rain.... minus the dog part...

Laura dressed up for a night out to dinner.

Stay tuned as we figure out our first meet coming soon. Probably mid January.

Letter to all

Josh: Last year we finished the season with a mixed post on this blog. On the one hand, we had some PRs (myself in the LJ, PV, 100m and Laura in the 100m hurdle and a wind aided LJ PR) and some late success, on the other hand, we didn't know if we could continue to workout as hard and long as we did knowing we would never be elite track runners. What was the point, what was the payoff? "Personal satisfaction" and "improving yourself" are somewhat hollow goals if the sacrifice to achieve them becomes too high. Time spend on track is always at odds with time spent on family, career, or just relaxation. As a result, we weren't sure if we would continue for another season. However, after taking it easy for the summer, we decided we would compete in one final season. After this year, I'm sure you'll still see us at an occasional meet jumping into a PV or LJ flight, but most of our meets after this year will almost certainly be as high school coaches instead of unattached athletes. So, I'll hand it over to Laura...

Laura: With the start of fall comes the next transition in our training regimen. Workouts start to shift a little from just building a base, to adding in specific workouts and lifting. Starting lifting soon means we need room in the garage, which lead us to clean out the garage this weekend. [Yay for cleaning and organizing!!!! (I don't think Josh shared my joy.)] The increasing focus and specialization leads to more time on the track and less free time to spend with friends (unless, of course, you want to hang out with us at the track, which we always welcome and encourage :D)

Every summer, we try to make it our 'summer of yes!' We say "yes" to as many invitations as possible and try to see our family and friends as often as time permits. Both of our last two summers we had 8 week stretches where we weren't home for any weekend. This is a bit stressful sometimes, but we also had a lot of fun.




Josh: here's a quick picture from our summer of "yes," a shot of us at our friend Liz's wedding (one of 7 weddings this summer...)





Josh: here is another picture, from when I sailed from SF to Santa Barbara and back with two (previous to the trip) complete strangers.

Laura: Then fall hits and the reversal happens as the 'summer of yes!' turns into the 'winter/spring of no'. :( Practices start running anywhere from an hour to three hours an evening with all comers meets on the weekend in the fall and winter and "real meets" every weekend in the spring. PB&J, bean and cheese burritos, and cereal for dinner start to become staples because, frankly, when it's after 8pm and I'm just sitting down to dinner, I really do not feel like cooking! (Not that I typically do anyways, but that's a separate issue...)

Josh: It's not an issue, I like cooking...

Laura: My goals shifted drastically after last season. Previous seasons I just wanted to just train hard, push myself to my limit, and compete with the young kids. Now though, it's my last chance to push for the big meets. Some athletes dream of making the olympics and we have some teammates pushing for Rio. For me though, a more realistic dream is making USATF Nationals. After this past year, this seems like less of a pipe dream and more of a potential possibility, since I jumped a wind-aided long jump mark (6.50m) that would have qualified for outdoors this year, were it wind legal. I also now have multiple outdoor meets with legal marks that would have qualified for indoor nationals if they were done during the qualifying time window.

In order to actually make it to Nationals though, it's going to take more focus and dedication than in previous years. I want to try and go to some bigger meets, which are not always close by and may require us to spend more and more time away from home. However, as my patients seem to like to remind me (on a separate topic...), my proverbial clock is ticking and I cannot keep up this level of commitment for long. So it's my last and best chance to make a push for the Nationals.

There is going to be more times that we are unable to do things and have to turn invitations down. It's going to get harder for us to do activities during the weekends and pretty much impossible during the week. While we might not be as available to do things, it certainly doesn't mean that you are all in our hearts and minds any less than normal.

So, therefore, I'm writing to preemptively say:
"I'm sorry!"
I'm sorry if we have to say 'no' more often or if we are difficult to get a hold of.
I'm sorry if it seems like we have disappeared for 6 months.
I'm sorry.

But we're not that sorry, because we're excited to pursue this adventure for one final season. We will try to keep you guys updated as things happen.

So, if you ever feel like we are lost to the rest of society, we can almost always be found at the track, either running, throwing, jumping, or coaching. On Saturdays, we are always at the track, whether it's for ourselves or the high schoolers that Josh coaches. If anyone is interested in seeing a meet, (we think they're exciting, but we realize that not everyone else does!) let us know and we'll be happy to let you know when they are happening.

And OMG everyone!!! USATF Indoor National Championships are scheduled to be in Portland, OR! I have been telling my family up there for years that I intend to come up there for a meet. That just gave me another motivating factor! :D I can't imagine anything better than getting the chance to compete in close proximity to my extended family, who have been so supportive during these last few seasons.

Josh: I realized I let this post become all about Laura and the not-quite-out-of-reach goal of her reaching USATF Nationals (either indoor or outdoor, or both). Since I became fully aware years ago I don't have the talent to ever reach this level of meet, I'll post a couple of quick goals for myself that I think are challenging but achievable for this next season:
LJ over 22 feet
Pole vault well over 15'
Not completely suck at hurdles

However, part of the reason I let this post become mostly about Laura is because it kind of is. For 6 months of the year, we're spending 20 or 30 hours a week together working out. Her success really is as meaningful to me as my own. But it's more than that. If she makes it to Nationals, I totally get to claim that as her coach. If I have to sacrifice some focus on myself as a mediocre athlete in order to achieve what I see as a higher goal as a coach (taking an athlete to nationals), I'm happy to sign up for that.

Last season... whoops

The most wonderful part of vacation is the time to write...

When Bachelorette parties land in the middle of season,
you still have to get your workout in!

I have sat down in front of my computer so many times, intending to write a new post. Somehow, I was always able to convince myself to walk away and never actually put anything down. Mostly, it seemed to stem from the lackluster performances we kept putting out there. I felt so frustrated that I knew it would just come out all mopey. I did a lot of reflecting during that time and have started to piece together some ideas as to what happened. (That'll be the next post though.)

Bachelorette party #2 workout:
What else is there to do in Vegas? ;)

However, the last 2 1/2 meets seemed to make up for everything crappy that happened! While down in Claremont for our last multi, my first day went pretty horribly. However, during day 2, I threw about a 15 foot PR in the javelin and ran sub 2:30 in the 800!! Those two things made me super excited despite how poorly the rest of the events went. 

A few weeks later, I competed at the USATF Pacific Association (PA) area meet in San Mateo where things could not have gone better! The wind was pretty high so it's hard to be too excited about my marks, but mostly, it was just so nice to have a meet where nothing went horribly wrong, as had been the case the rest of the season. I ran a 12.15 in the 100 (with a 5 meter/sec tailwind though!) [race is the video below] and a 14.5 in the 100 hurdles (3 m/s wind). 

Beautiful College of San Mateo track!!

However, the most exciting part was I jumped 6.50 meters (21ft 4 inches) in the long jump, which was a foot and a half PR (granted it was a 3.2m/s tailwind). :D I just kept staring at my mark in utter disbelief. I was so stunned, I started crying a little bit and wasn't really able to get back to that same mindset for my other jumps. However, you only need one! :) Had the wind been legal (although of course I probably wouldn't have jumped quite as far with legal wind), I could have qualified for the USATF national championships!! It certainly caused me to change my thinking on things, but I'll go into that in another post. Another amazing part of the meet was getting to see my old teammate, Adriana, whom I hadn't seen in an embarrassingly long amount of time, considering we live like 25 minutes from one another. Hopefully, this just means we'll start to get to see each other more often. :D

A few weeks following, Josh and I competed at the Pride meet in San Francisco. It's a really fun, laid back meet where individuals of all ages get to compete with one another. We got to see an 80 year old woman run a world record time in the 80m hurdles and I ran a 4x100 with an over 70 year old man on my relay team. Made me really think that I'm never going to be too old to still be running and training, just maybe on a different level. 

I ran a forgettable 100m hurdle race and an ok 100 race. During long jump, I was running back and forth between all my different events (Have I ever mentioned I hate rolling schedules?) so got 2 jumps in before my hurdle race. I pretty effortlessly popped out a 6.03m (19'9") wind-legal jump and was pretty happy about it. Josh ran the 100 and got out of the blocks pretty nicely! He also long jumped 6.18m and was happy I didn't beat him. ;)

Below is the video of my 6.03 at the pride meet. This is the longest jump I've taken that I have on video. Josh's comment on this jump was that it was "pretty far for a mediocre jump." He thinks 6.50 really is possible with a better jump in legal wind.

We've had a lot of conversations this off-season, trying to decide what to do about this upcoming season. Doing multis is so much fun and so much work/time. The season was pretty frustrating and painful, emotionally and physically. From breaking his ankle and separating his shoulder, Josh struggles through pain every day we are out there. He's even had to learn to jump off his opposite foot in high jump and is considering learning to throw javelin with his opposite hand to try and eliminate some of the pain. Prior to the PA meet, I was ready to hang up my spikes, so to say. But after making that last jump, I almost don't feel like I can quit now. We have a few more decisions to make over the next few months until training starts to ramp up again. For now though, I think we can safely say we're not quite ready to stop.

Food for Thought

As Josh sits here, sewing my J heels that I broke at Chico, and I cook dinner for the first time ever, I contemplate the interesting gender roles that we have adopted...

But that might be a little too deep for here. We're getting We were all set for our next meet at Cal. Unfortunately we received notice on Tuesday that the meet was cancelled due to low turnout. Thus, to plan C we go! (I figure not doing a meet at all because of injury or something would have been a more likely Plan B.) Josh's high schoolers have a meet on Saturday which means he cannot do any meet this weekend. Luckily for me, SF State is having a meet and their entries were still open!!! I signed up for long jump, hurdles, and the 100. Hurdles and long jump are set to go at the exact same time (figures) so we'll see how that goes.

It surprised me how long it took us to recover after Chico. I was sore for a good week after that. Running didn't feel good until about a week and a half afterwards. My knees are still swollen for some unexplained reason and every workout seems like a chore almost. Usually we break our workouts into cycles of 3 weeks hard (including lifting any plyos) with 1 week easy. With the multi being on our easy week, it make the easy week not actually so easy. We then have to take almost the next whole week easy, which screws up our system. Having the multi this week would not have been ideal, but we planned for it so we were going to be ready to go. When the meet was cancelled though, Josh was left scratching his head about how to salvage this cycle so it wasn't just a waste of 3 weeks. He certainly managed to kick our butts today though so I know he still has some tricks up his sleeves.

Start of the food bag for the multi

Anywho, back to my original post plan. A lot of people (randoms mostly) keep asking me what I eat. (It's about 50/50 that they assume I'm vegetarian or stay away from gluten.) I get the impression that a lot of people assume that since I'm a female who is skinny, the secret must be what I'm eating. They have a really hard time accepting the fact that I generally eat anything and everything I can get my hands on because I am spending so much time in the sun and running. Most of the time, I don't bother explaining to them the amount of running and training we do because that usually opens up a conversation that they generally are not interested in. (The most common answer to "Josh and I do decathlon and heptathlon" is, "oh yeah, that's awesome. My sister/brother/uncle/friend does triathlons....")

While shopping for dinner on Monday night, I also stocked up on the foods we would need for the meet. As I lay my food out onto the conveyor belt, I felt a little ridiculous. On there was 4 large gatorades, wheat thins, about a dozen energy bars, plus all my other food. (I bet people thought I was this crazy gym-rat or protein-nut or something!) While all that though certainly wasn't going to be enough food for both of us, it was going to be a start at least. Usually when we go to multis, I have two bags: one with all my competition stuff in it and another with all our food in it. I've noticed athletes use a variety of calorie boosters during the meet, but one thing is certain: people are pretty much eating any chance they can get. Side note: Any thoughts on Pedialyte vs Gatorade? I noticed a lot of people drink Pedialyte. Seems odd to me, but maybe I'm missing something.

Pretty much sums up my life...

Here's pretty much the breakdown of what we pack in our bags, in general: PB&J sandwiches, orange, apple, banana, energy bars, Gatorade, water, Wheat Thins, and maybe some carrots or something similar. During Chico, we managed to eat everything in our food bag by the end of the meet. (Yay! Then we get to eat whatever we want for dinner!)

The Hanger is real.
Don't assume that's the reason though ;)

I tried to find somewhere that listed the number of calories expended while competing in a multi, but I couldn't fine anything. Josh contends that you don't expend that many calories per se, but It's being in the sun all day, having to stay warmed up, and expending bursts of energy that make you feel hungry and need simple sugars throughout the day. However, the trick is that there are good times to eat and bad times to eat. Eating right before the 800 is generally a terrible idea! But right after high jump, not so bad.

As many of you may know, I'm a Nervous Nelly when it comes to being out of food, keeping track of my food, making sure I have food accessible at all times... you get the picture. [One of my parent's favorite stories is recalling telling our babysitters that "Laura will have a snack after school. Don't worry, she will definitely eat all of her dinner later..."] During the multi, it's not really any different; I just try to be conscious as to the timing. On day 1, before and after high jump, I try to eat as much as I can, but then once shot put starts, I have to stop. Otherwise, I'll be hurting for my 200. During day 2, I'll eat some before long jump, a little before javelin, but then don't touch anything once javelin starts. This doesn't apply to Gatorade or water though. I try to drink consistently through the day. There's nothing worse than cramping during a meet from being dehydrated!

Chico 2015 wrap up

First multi of the season is completed! Yesterday, after I (Laura) was done, my legs felt great. This morning though, not so much. Played around with some pole vault (who knew flying in the air was so much fun!) and that helped a lot to loosen my legs up. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

As I said, I had long jump, javelin, and the 800. For some reason, it was hard to temper my panic about the 800 during my other events. I had this sense of doom that every jump and every throw just brought me closer and closer to the 800. I tried really hard to forget that once I stepped on the runway, which I think I was able to accomplish. Long jump is always my strong event so my comfort in that event seemed to outweigh my panic. I put a solid jump out there on my first attempt at 5.73 meters or 18'9.5". I was pretty happy with that so decided to experiment on the next two by getting 'the clap' going. (If you don't know what I mean, here's an example.) I got super amped up but then couldn't really handle my adrenaline and ran horribly down the runway. Both jumps ended up being behind the board. Whoops. Guess I won't be doing that again! 18-9 isn't quite what we wanted, but it is a solid first jump in a hep. We've changed my approach a bit (My goal is to get over 20 feet so Josh felt a little more power in the back of my approach was required since I'm only running from an 8 stride), so I guess consistency isn't quite there yet (we've only had a few LJ practices so far this year).

So excited it's over!

Next was javelin. Like I said previously, we literally just figured out what we're supposed to be doing 5 days earlier. I tried to stay relaxed and just focus on what we were learning. My technique was about halfway between what I was doing and what I wanted to be doing. I threw a little farther (32.18 meters or 105'6.75") which was a PR for me, but definitely not where I want to be. I do feel optimistic about it though. Now that we have finally started to figure out the correct "power position" to the jav, I'm confident we'll start to throw much farther once we integrate it.

Last but not least was the 800. I tried really hard to convince the other women that we should just do a racewalk, but no one took me seriously. In practice, I've been trying a new mental mantra whenever I start feeling sorry for myself. My goal was to bring that into the race. I was successful in listening to my mantra and not settling in to the pain. However, I backed off on the back stretch a little too much and ran a 2:34. Not what I wanted to run, but certainly better than a few weeks ago.

Seeing as my day 1 set me up pretty poorly, I ended up in 4th place and about 250 points off my PR. Here's the Hep final results.

How do I have a sock tan in February???

A no-height in high jump for Josh allowed him to take some pressure off and just focus on the things he's been working on. First up was the big challenge of the day, hurdles. Now that we are all old and 30, we are now considered 'masters'. At 30, men can move their hurdles down from 42" to 39". However, the organizers decided they only wanted NCAA regulation heights and wouldn't allow him to race at 39". :( He decided to start from a 3-point stance (kinda like a football start, but with 1 hand up) instead of out of blocks. He came out from the start a little timid, which did not set him up nicely for the hurdles. (When the hurdles are that high, you kinda have to just go after it full-steam ahead.) The race wasn't the best, but he was able to 3-step the whole way, which still isn't easy for him.

Next up was disc. He hasn't been able to put in as much time as he wanted, but still finished with a solid 35.96 meters (117'11.75"). With just a little more time in the ring, he'll be putting them out there in no time. He has been working only on his entry into the ring, which he thinks will pay off this season.

His favorite, pole vault was next. He spent a significant amount of time focusing on this event during the summer and fall, focusing mostly on his approach. This winter/spring he has had to drop back to about 1x per week of vault practice to make time for coaching, but when he has been jumping for the last 6 weeks, he has focused only on the top end (getting upside-down and staying close to the pole as he comes up to the bar), so he has been feeling pretty confident. His legs seemed a little sluggish for the first few heights, just from being tired and waiting about 45 minutes for the bar to get to his opening height, but that is why you start with a safe opening height. After he shook some of the fatigue off, he changed from ugly vaults over safe heights to much better vault form as he approached his PR.

After he matched his PR of 13-7, he moved back to his 7 stride to enable a little more speed for a bigger grip and pole. He cleared 4.25 meters or 13'11.33" for a new PR (oh man, so close to 14ft!!!) His attempts at the next height of 4.35 (14-5) looked really close, with the last attempt almost a clearance. He had the height, but just couldn't quite clean up the top end enough to avoid bumping the bar off. He was gripping at 14-4, (which would have been a 9 inch pushoff) so he feels his focus on the top end is paying off and will continue to do so as he continues to invert better and better with practice. A 9 inch pushoff isn't huge, but it is a lot better than jumping below or at your grip. His goal for the meet was just to jump higher than his PR of 4.15, so he walked away from this event satisfied. Video is from his clearance at 4.15 meters. Sorry, I was super excited and missed the top just a little bit.

Javelin was next. Due to us just figuring out what to do, his expectations were pretty low, similar to mine. He ended up throwing 35.15 meters (115'), which is farther than the 100' he had predicted. He was doing the same thing as me, collapsing the block leg which made the block useless. Very soon he'll be getting them out there. Just need a few more days under us to get it dialed in. We feel confident that "breaking" our javelin form will pay off with more legitimate throws later in the season.

Finally, the 1500. Somehow he managed to leave his distance spikes at home, so he ran the race in his regular running shoes. His days as a distance runner prepared him well for this event and he was able to run relatively conservatively to save his legs a bit since he wasn't going for a dec PR anyway.

All the Dec finishers (All Dec-ed out!!)

Obligatory awkward photo!

He didn't end up with as many points as he'd hoped, with the NH in hj, but we have a few more chances to pull all 10 events together in one meet! Here's the Dec final results.

We are counting ourselves pretty lucky though. The weather forecast was saying 60% chance of rain in the afternoon on Friday, which is when we were set to do everything. The rain held off, but the clouds, thunder, and lightning rolled in as pole vault and the 1500 were underway. After the celebrations, we went to get food. The minute we got inside, it started pouring! So glad we didn't get caught in it. The only real injury for the day were the chapped lips, which seemed to inflict everyone! (Dry weather! Gah!)

Next multi will probably be in 3 weeks at Cal (UC Berkeley). Here's to hoping for more beautiful days for track and field! Nay-moo on!

Chico Multi: Day 1 recap

Day 1 is over! Sorry that link I posted yesterday didn't work. No idea if it'll be up and running today, Chico's whole website is down. As for the results, it was fair to middling. Let's start at the top.

First up for me was hurdles. I've been working on remembering that I'm a sprinter first and that I need to just run fast and let the hurdles take care of themselves. I remembered that for about 4 hurdles and then everything fell apart from there. I hit hurdle 9 and barely saved the whole thing. As a result, I ran the worst hurdle time I ever had. But hey, at least I got some points! :-/

Next was high jump, which was the bright spot in my day!!! Pretty much every time Josh was pole vaulting, I was working on high jump and it paid off. I cleared 2 bars higher and got a 3 inch PR for a jump of 5'2.5". So much closer to being able to jump my height. YAY! :D

Shot put was next. This season we changed my approach to the shuffle from doing the glide. The idea is to make it easier for me to get across the ring and and get into a better power position. I've been executing somewhat inconsistently in practice. In practice, one throw might be 5 feet over my PR, the next 2 feet below my PR. I'm still figuring out the rhythm.  So it is maybe not too surprising I had a mediocre shotput yesterday. I put a good throw out there on my last throw of about 38 feet, which would have been a 4 foot PR, but then couldn't stop myself from falling out of the ring. Need to start catching myself in practice now. Urgh.

Finally was the 200. I was in the outermost lane, which I totally hate. I wish I could chase people and not be chased! I ran a pretty good 120 and then forgot everything I was supposed to do. I ran like a second slower than I wanted to. Over all, I ended the day with 2700 points, which is about 150 less than I ended day 1 last season. Full results are here. Oh well. Up for today is long jump, javelin, and 800.

For Josh, he started with the 100. His time was ok at 11.70, just need to work on his block start to get him closer to the pack from the beginning, rather than starting behind and trying to catch up.  Next was long jump. He did a much better job of running through the board and bringing his speed all the way through the jump. He got an in-competition PR of 6.32, or 20'8".

Next was shot put, which I got to see all of his throws thanks to scheduling. His best throw is below, at 11.99m/39ft. He's been putting big throws out there in practice of over 40 feet, but consistency isn't there for him either. Seems like by getting into a little better power position will make a huge difference, but for our shotput friends, any feedback? We could use all the help we could get!

High jump followed. Seeing as I have been working on high jump while he was working on pole vault, he hasn't got a lot of practice with high jump. He's getting way over the bar, but then knocking it down with his feet. More practice time with the approach will help his timing. He ended up getting a no height. Disappointing, but he said "I guess I shouldn't be too surprised..."

Finally was the 400. High jump took a few hours (one guy didn't even open until a very impressive 2.07) so he needed to do a full warm up again. He was in lane 2, which allowed him to visualize the whole field from the beginning. He went out really smoothly, but maybe a little slower than he wanted. He ran a 52.12, which isn't bad considering he was hoping for a just sub 52. Later that night, we were looking at the points difference if he ran his PR of 50.04 and it would only give him a small amount of points, which made him more satisfied with his result, he is thinking about being a little lessed focused on the 400 in our training. Up for him today is 110m hurdles, disc, pole vault, javelin, and 1500.  We have completely broken down our javelin, so he expects that to go poorly for him today, but with the goal of it paying off later in the season due to fixing bad habits. We start at noon and 12:30 so hoping to finish before 6. We'll see though.

Nay moo everyone!!

Here we go again!

Hey everyone! Another year, another start of season. We're currently diving up to Chico for our multi season opener. I had good intentions to post before today but life got in the way, as it usually does. C'est la vie!

A lot has happened in the months since our last meet. Most notably, we got married! We got engaged in August and married in November so a lot of our training plans went out the window. For example, we intended to clean up the garage so we could start lifting in October but we didn't get to lifting until late in November. (And never really cleaned the garage. Whoops.) Also, we ended up neglecting many of our goals we had for the off season, including spending more time on skill events such as javelin and high jump.

Aren't we cute?

The weather in California has been another spring-like drought-filled winter. This has been great for training but terrible for our watershed levels. We only had to alter plans a handful of days so far due to rain, which is pretty sad. The sun has been nice and warm but I feel my sock tan shouldn't be as prominent as it is.

During the of season, we were so blessed with knowledgeable family and friends who helped advise us. Our friend and former teammate Courtney (and her husband) visited us over the summer and provided a few instructional sessions for javelin. I think she got a good front-row seat to our javelin woes. (Wish I could say things are better now but more on that later.) Heather has been suckered into running workouts with me, which has been a complete lifesaver! It's so nice having a new person to suffer with. :-) Also, with the 800 being such a points suck for me, it's been really helpful having an 800 runner to train with. (Hopefully we can con you into a race soon, Heather.) Morgan as always continues to add her wisdom on hurdles, whether it's watching us in person or critiquing our videos! Her advise helps both of us see important details we may be missing or may be unable to hear from the other person. :) Josh also gets tremendous help in pole vault from Chris, Jim, and Randy as well as his pole vaulting buddy, Joe. Their help is super great because my understanding of pole vault is still rudimentary. My uncle Kelly (who has been a track mentor to me since I was little) was at our wedding and provided Josh with a lot of good pointers, from a coaching and training perspective. Over the last weekend, my cousin Ryan provided us with some more javelin advise. His advise inspired us to stumble upon this youtube instructional video and this one which revolutionized the way we approach the event. While it might be too soon to see any impact from all of this support, we're hoping that it will all pay off by the end of the season! 

We're a little rusty going into the meet so it's hard to know what to expect for the next two days. We dusted off some of the cobwebs about 4 weeks ago at Cal, but have been unable to do much else due to rain and a death in the family. As I said, we're just starting (and by starting I mean learned 3 days ago) to figure out javelin but not sure if we will be able to implement any of the changes on Friday. But we sure are (at least I am) excited to see how it goes! (Have to start somewhere!) And we will never feel 100% ready so let's just do this! Tomorrow we start around 2 pm so I'll finish around 6 and Josh will be done around 730 hopefully. I have 100 meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, and 200 meter dash on my plate. (Stuck in lane 7 for 200. Ugh, I hate being chased!) Josh has the 100 meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, and 400 meter run to do.

You can keep track of our progress at: http://highspeedtiming.com/chico/multi/

Or you can just wait with abated breath until I recap the day tomorrow! :)

Nay-moo, my friends!