FINAL THOUGHTS

I see that it’s been a month to the day since my last post.   Tomorrow I leave for D.C., and my competition is on Friday the 20th. 

I think my lack of posts reflects the way I’ve felt over the last month.  Some of the wind has been lost from my sails, and I just haven’t felt much excitement.  Training has become more of a chore, and I have become more resigned to the fact that whatever happens is now out of my hands.

There are a number of factors that have brought me to that realization.  Probably the biggest is the fact that there’s at least one other guy in the field I really have doubts that I can beat.  Most of the other competitors have been doing this for years, so their previous results are posted on the internet.  This guy is very good and has a lot of experience.  I think that his best probably beats my best, and that was discouraging.

I also got to a point where I was overtraining and my body just couldn’t take it.  For months I had been making a steady progression with my interval times.  I was pushing myself brutally hard, but it was working.  My times improved a little bit just about every time I ran.  That all ended this month.  My legs felt heavy and I couldn’t match the times I’d been putting up just a few weeks earlier.

Event training remained very difficult to fit into my schedule.  I either wouldn’t have the time or it would be too cold to even attempt it.  I got in plenty of shot put drills and some hurdling practice, but that was about it.  I think I had one day where I did a little high jumping, and I never long jumped.

The training I did do was uneven to say the least.  I feel like my hurdling form has improved, but every time I work on it my hamstring takes a beating.  I would have big improvements in the shot put drills I was doing, but the gains wouldn’t show up when I actually threw a shot.  The one day I high jumped didn’t go very well.  My confidence was waning instead of building.

Last Friday I ran some sprints so I could check on my mark for my long jump approach.  I felt a little tightness in one hamstring, but it didn’t feel like anything serious.  I continued my workout, stretched and felt OK afterwards.  But that night I woke up around 2 a.m. and could feel that it had gotten very sore.

It’s now Tuesday, and the soreness is still there.  I’ve been going some running and a lot of stretching, but it’s still tight.  My plan is to try to hurdle this afternoon, but I am worried.  This will be my last chance to workout before I compete, and hurdling is always tough on that hamstring, even when it feels good.  Fortunately it’s supposed to warm up to close to 70 degrees today.  Hopefully that will help.

Other than the hamstring, things were a little bit more positive over these last few days.  I feel like I’ve recovered from my bout of overtraining.  I don’t know if I’m quite as fast as I was before it set in, but I should be relatively close.  I finally broke the 40′ barrier with the 10# shot, so that was encouraging.  I may not win, but I should be towards the front of the pack.