Monday, February 18, 2019

USATF MN Indoor Meet

            After such a great time at the USATF WI meet, I decided to squeeze one more meet in for this indoor season. There was an all-comers meet hosted at Bethel University, and while that’s a solid 4 hour drive, it’s also where I spent a year training during my internship year, which added to the appeal with a return to the old stomping grounds. It took a few days to recover from the last meet, but now that I had a recent meet experience under my belt, I was hopeful that I could turn up similar results again.
            It was a large field, with 20 total vaulters, and the entire meet was run co-ed. Despite the long line for warm-ups, I felt good going into competition. I cleared 10’ and 10’6” on my first attempts. Mentally, I was already happy with how I was doing, even though I knew I wanted more from the day yet. I made 11’ on my second attempt, and got some decent height on my 11’6” jump, with plenty of room on top, and while I bumped it on my way down, the bar stayed up! Alright, I’ll be honest. It was actually in metric at 3.50 meters, which puts it 11’5.75”, but close enough! February 6, 2010 – My one and only other meet I ever had at Bethel. I was a senior at Concordia. I won the pole vault with a vault of 3.50 meters as well! Here I am 9 years and 3 kids later, and I just jumped at the same place with the same height. I ended 4th overall and 2nd female.


            This really shows that what I’ve been doing in the weight room has done wonders! Triathlon is still on the fence a little bit for this summer, but I do know for sure I will be shooting for a new lifetime PR of finally clearing the elusive 12 foot bar! Other fun highlights from the day included dropping 4 seconds from my 800m time for a 2:47.62, in a very large heat of 16 athletes. My state miler, a senior this year, also ran a 4:48 mile and followed it with a 2:11 in the 800m. He will be starting this season off fast. Since this meet was in the Twin Cities area, I also had fans, which included Andy’s family, and my dear friend (and also a former Golden Bear trackster), Katherine, who will hopefully be re-entering the track scene with me next year! Now the tough part will be waiting 4 months to finally compete again!

Monday, February 4, 2019

BIG Week!

            As I contemplate Triathlon Nationals, part of the debate is whether or not I want to get back on the bike, or push hard workouts in the pool again. I’ve enjoyed being able to focus on lifting weights and running. This last week though, I hopped on the bike for the first time in over 7 months! I quickly remembered two things: 1) biking hurts! and 2) I have to break my butt back in to the seat! While it was tough, I feel like I could build back into it fairly well.
            I have also been working a few harder efforts into my swimming, but it’s always after a run and 45 minutes of lifting, which, frankly, means I’m exhausted. I had a chance for an evening swim this past week, so I did 10x100 on 1:30 (the staple workout) and killed it! That gave me confidence to move forward with Nationals in mind. I’m 6 months out, so it’s time to start training.
            The most fun part of this last week was on Sunday when Andy and I went to Carthage College for the USATF WI Indoor Open and Masters meet. To make it even more fun, two of our former Blue Jays (and also our first 2 kids we ever took to State!) came and competed with us. Since I haven’t vaulted in 6 months, I set low expectations, with my goal being 10 feet (that seemed realistic). Warm-ups went well, so I started at 10’ as normal, cleared it by a lot, and went on to make 10’6”. This was already a worthwhile day, but then I made 11’! I had some good attempts at 11’6”, but just wasn’t there at this point. I’m ecstatic that all of my weight room and high bar work set me up so well! (Although even all those box jumps could not prepare my calves for that much running on my toes – hurting today). There were 27 female vaulters (including youth) for the day, and I had the 3rd best mark (and definitely the only one with children)!
            I also ran the 800m with two other women. I am usually pretty good about being able to pace evenly by feel, but I haven’t ran that fast in 6 months (my fastest stuff being threshold pace), and I struggled with confidence to push harder in the middle 400. I had a lot left for a strong kick, but should have picked it up a lot earlier. It was still fun and I still finished in 2:51, which was definitely satisfactory (and a learning experience). Andy had a great day with the Long Jump and got to run the 55 as well (2 events he felt the best about doing without training for them)! We each came home with 2 medals and some hurting bodies. It was worth it! I am looking forward to everything that 2019 brings!