lessons learned

OH man, it's been a month and a half since my last post! (I feel like I'm making a confession. "Hi. My name is Laura and it's been a month and a half since I've updated people on this uninteresting journey I'm on.") We have been a little busy, which is 99% our own doing. We are both currently coaching at Castro Valley High school, trying to finish up our kitchen remodel (which has, not surprisingly, been going on since January), working full time, starting a business, brewing beer for a super important 3-day wedding, and trying to train. (If you ever are wondering, "what are Josh and Laura doing at this moment?", it is going to be one of those things.) So unfortunately, that made blogging a very distant 10th on the priority list.

But I'm here now!!! :D

Following nationals, somehow Josh agreed with my pestering to do a multi. He wasn't particularly looking forward to it since we hadn't really been working on anything. Quick recap:

• We both managed to fall pretty hard onto the track, me while warming up for hurdles, Josh while planting for one of his long jumps. I walked away the least scathed with just a bruise on my backside. Josh ended up doing a back flip and landing in the sand (in some ways, it was lucky he was going full speed at that point). He now has a pretty good looking scar across the outside of his thigh. (Reminds me of Ayla's cat scar from Clan of the Cave Bear.)
• Event results ranged from mediocre to awful. In my head, I imagined myself finally breaking 5000 pts, which was my goal. However, it's really hard to set a PR in the multis when you completely neglect javelin, barely throw shot at all, pretend to work on hurdles, and run a really crappy 800. :) I was in 1st place by 1 point going into the last 2 events (jav and 800) and proceeded to throw the shortest ever and not pull it through on my last 200 of my 800. I got 2nd and didn't improve my overall score. Josh did well in pole vault considering he hasn't practiced much and was able to high jump much better than we thought. He had been trying to high jump off his 'wrong' foot because of the pain from his broken ankle. However, that was a disaster and we scrapped that plan the day before the meet. Luckily, high jump didn't hurt his ankle too badly, he only had to take 3 days off from running for his ankle to go back to normal size again.
• We were sore for a good week after that. The first day, we were barely able to move. (Josh moreso than me; the hep is no where near as taxing as the dec!!!)
• We got super sweet t-shirts for finishing! Well, I really like mine at least. It's so soft!

After a lot of reflecting and giving in to my pride, I relented and told Josh that he had been right all along. Why should we spend so much time and energy into an event when I could possibly go so much farther by focusing on one event. Plus, I was so tired from trying to cram so much in. Over-scheduling ourselves was really starting to weigh us down and something had do go. We made the decision to drop the multis and focus on the events we really wanted to do. Josh: pole vault; Laura: long jump, high jump, and a little dabbling of hurdles.

Since then, I have jumped at 2 meets and Josh has vaulted at 1. Josh's vault is coming around really nicely. He's been putting in a ton of work and it's starting to finally pay off. (Whenever you're learning a new skill and trying to change things, marks seems to either plateau or drop off. He's getting to the point where all that work is moving him past the plateau and vaulting him higher.) ;) Once of those meets was back in Davis. It was so nice to be back at Woody Wilson during Picnic Day, but was very sad to be there without Dee and Vee. The video is of one of Josh's pole vault clearances. I don't know the height because I was high jumping at the time and ran over to catch it.

My jumping certainly hasn't been what I have wanted. I've jumped low 19s and high 18s. If you had told me that a few years ago, I would have been stoked. However, my goals have increased and those marks just aren't where I want them to be. 

I'm jumping at Stanford Invite in a few hours. (Finally, long jump that's not first thing in the morning!!!!!!!!) Then I'll be going to Eugene to jump at the Oregon Twilight. That will be it for May. Then in June, we'll be going to the PA Master's Championships (still can't believe that at 31 we are considered Masters, but we'll take it!) and the PA Championships. That will potentially wrap up our seasons unless I can pull something together for Nationals. Practice is looking better in spurts. Just need to pull the pieces together. 

That's what I'm hoping to do today. And then just kill it! :D