WEDNESDAY

Saw Nathan and best of the rest of the Don’s T&F team for the first time since their regional meet.  Congratulated him on his PR of 13’9″ in the vault, Emmy (fantastic 1600m win in 4:55!) and the junior 800m girl’s winner (can’t recall her name at the moment).

I had a late lunch and was initially too full to run much and my achilles tendon CONTINUES TO BE SORE.  There was the annual Stanley Middle School track meet scheduled so the place was full of youngsters and parents and the football squad working out.

I threw discus pretty crappy.  Didn’t help the football squad was squeezing me out of real estate on the combination back up football field/discus zone.

I got pretty tired of that so I vaulted with Nathan and Bob.  Did a bunch of swing throughs and then some 4-step vaults over the bungie.  Cleared 8 feet without too much effort.  Bob will be coaching the vaulters next year and has offered to train me.  Additionally he suggested that my daughter, who will be a 6th grader and wants to vault, work out with the high school team.  Awesome!

• 400m warm up
• Light stretching
• Standing throws (9x)
• 2nd position throws (6x)
• South Africa (6x)
• Full throws (6x)
• Pole vault swing throughs
• 4-step vaults

FRIDAY

Nice day.

And an even better than nice day because I GOT TO POLE VAULT!!

That’s right.  I held on to a long pole, ran, and vaulted my 54 year old body into the air and into a landing pit and it WAS AWESOME!

The plain fact is I only did approaches, plants and (I don’t know what you call it) swing ups and into the pit.  But it was so much fun – I didn’t want to stop.  John, the PV coach, the top vaulter and the school and the other vaulters all were impressed.  Honestly, I did well considering it’s been nearly 40 years.  I really think this is still my event.  I’d definitely like to try the high hurdles as well.

Achilles still pretty sore so I had to lay off serious sprint/long jump/1500m work.

DISCUS  (POLE VAULT) and LONG JUMP FOCUS

• 800m warm up
• No stretching – stupidly
• 12 standing discus throws
• 2 second position throws
• 2 south africa throws
• 12 full throws (working with “Troy”, HS thrower – fun!)
• A bunch of pole vault stuff
• Long jump approaches (slow)
• Pop ups
• 400m cool down