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!