Today was a pretty light day, I didn't get to the gym until late and I was really feeling like I could use an off-day to recover from the soreness in my lower back and left shin. I jump again in two weeks and this time something big is going to happen, not 13.58m something big. I have the adrenaline and everyday I become more well rested, it's inevitable.

This weekend is definitely not what I had hoped for. 13.10m and 6.17m I can't believe how badly I performed. I keep trying to find ways to justify it but no matter how I make sense of it I'll still have doubt in my mind. That's why I HAVE to jump in Gagetown in two weeks. I would probably be better off training through to AUS but I'm desperate.
   Let's start with triple: well besides being stuck on a bus for 14 hours and having about four hours of sleep the shortened runway broke my concentration. I couldn't get my runway down, half the jumps I faulted and on the other half I jump 40cm before the board. I'm just going to assume this won't be a continuous problem.
   Long jump was just as bad, I felt more well rested but due to all the delays I ended up warming up for almost three hours. My first jump was 6.17m and felt terrible. The two jumps I faulted definitely felt like they were over 6.40m but I need to fix the runway. At the next meet I think I'm going to set my runway to 30.80/31.50/35.20

Tomorrow morning I leave for Montreal, competing on Friday-Saturday. I must admit I am quite nervous, the competition itself is meaningless but I still need to get one big jump on paper and this may be my best opportunity.
   My hop must be bigger and more dynamic but I don't want to change it too much and end up jumping like 10.00m. I'm thinking I'll have to start out conservative on my first jump and try to get a safety jump, hopefully a pb, in before I start overhauling anything.

Today's workout was much longer than expected. Originally supposed to be a 30 minute ab circuit and hurdle mobility turned into four hours (and I never got to the hurdles). Some days it seems I can spend hours in the Dalplex without really doing anything at all. I spent about 45 minutes warming up then followed with the core curcuit (3x10x6+15x4). My legs were still sore from yesterday so I spent another 20 minutes rewarming-up and running the softball over my IT bands.
   I started off with five bounds for distance and then moved down to three with a five step approach instead of a three step approach. They felt better than usual and after five sets of each I moved to standing triple, three step and five step. I really tried to focus on driving through the hop and I opening up my arm action. They felt good, by the end I was pretty well clearing the crash mat I had set up. I'm looking forward to seeing if I can translate this power to a full runway on Friday. It hasn't been translated into muscle memory yet so my fear is I won't be able to replicate it or I'll replicate it poorly and wind up jumping poorly. I really need a pb here.

   Luckily when I woke up this morning I wasn't nearly as sore as I was expecting, the stabilizers around my hips were a little sore but I rubbed some catsclaw on them and it seemed to do the trick. Sunday's are usually technical days and I decided to stay on that schedule even though I competed yesterday. After a very quick core circuit and full warmup I started with some bounding focusing on keeping the front foot tucked in under. However, on every set it felt like I was getting too much height but that was probably because I only took a three step run in.
    After five or six sets of bounds I moved onto standing, three step and five step jumps with emphasis on the arm drive off the hop. A few jumps felt good but most of them felt like my foot contacts were poor.
   Weights were very quick today at 8x2x135lb jump squats and straight legged deadlifts with a like 60% weight, I think I used 185lb's. Few future reference I need to remember to keep my upper bed straight and not be tempted to bend my neck upwards.
   I feel like my hop phase has shrunk over time, estimating from videos from the less few meets it looks to be in the 4.60m range meaning that I must be very jump dominate. That's a switch from the days when my ratio was about 40:25:35. Although my phases have become more equal I feel like I should try to extend the hop. I have been told to drive forward and hold the take off position longer. I don't want to drastically change anything in McGill but I do want to set a significant pb.

I don't know what to make of today's meet, I came nowhere near my personal best in triple jump, the event that I cared about probably due to long jump. Long jump went better than expected, 6.40m, coming within seven centimeters of a personal best. My first jump was 6.12m and didn't feel good at all, it felt like I fell out of the air and landed standing up. My second and third jumps were much better, they were both faults so I don't know how far they were but the second one definitely felt like a pb... I'm thinking 6.50m-6.60m range. My fourth jump was an oddity at 6.06m, it felt like I lost a lot of speed on the runway. The final two jumps were 6.30m and 6.40m respectively.
   After a two hour layover triple jump did not go so well. Since the indoor season has started my lowest jump has been 13.30m and today five of my jumps were less than that. The opening round was embarrassing: 12.96m, fault, 12.97m. I can't even remember the last time I was in the twelves. The final was slightly better: 13.17m, fault, 13.30m. Still, I'm trying to figure out why my performance was so poor. I think it was fatigue from long jumping beforehand but I hate using that as an excuse. It's a little perturbing heading into Montreal with high hopes for next Friday. Montreal is supposed to be where big things happen, I did not need today to rattle my confidence.
   I'll review the video later and see where I was going wrong. I think I was slow on the runway and opened up my step phase slightly. I just hope I can throw at least 50cm onto today's performance on Friday. I'm feeling a big one.

   Today was an off day in preparation for tomorrow's meet. I'm not looking forward to long jump, I feel like long jump is just something I have to do to get warmed up for triple. Hopefully I'll jump over 6.40m, a pb or a provincial record would be nice too (6.47m and 6.58m respectively). I need to stop jabbing at the board and focus on running through it. My landing has to be cleaner than it has been too.
   Triple jump is my main reason for competing and to be honest I'll be happy with any pb no matter how small. Well, a 1cm personal best may be a little bitter, I would like to be at least in the 13.60's. I need to have better arm action than I have had in the past, if I'm so headstrong on staying with single arm I need to use them. The step-jump transition needs to be cleaner too, no rolling an ankle or waiting to long to snap it down.
   I'm ready, let's see what happens.

Today was the last practice day before the meet this weekend. I still felt a little sore from the 200m tempo's yesterday--just above my left ankle, to the inside. It's noting serious, just a shin splint from running on the Dalplex's hard surface repeatedly. I did a total of 60 plyometric touches composed of depth jumps, bounds and standing triple.
   Hopefully tomorrow I will be feeling pristine, a big jump this weekend would be nice, something over 13.83m Perhaps?

Today was a fairly easy workout, essentially comprised of 10 sets of runways and then weights (jump squats, bench press, leg curls, pull ups). The only real nagging injury today was a shin splint on the left side, a minor one at that. Everything else seems to be feeling great, although I must admit I'm a little worried about how my right ankle will hold up during the meet this weekend, especially during triple jump.
   I'm feeling good about the upcoming meet, there should be at least two other people jumping over 13.50m so hopefully that will only strengthen my own motivation.

Today was pretty much an off day, I went over to the Dalplex this evening with the intention of doing a light workout on the track, some step-jump transition drills and finishing off with weights but I cut it short and just did a mini competition warm-up and some stretching.
   Tomorrow I think I will do a pool workout as well as the drills I missed today and a 3x10x6 core circuit. Hopefully my legs feel better tomorrow, today my IT bands are killing with me. I'm surprisingly sore considering I only took six jumps yesterday.

Today was a long day on the bus, waking up at 5:50am and competing at 7:00pm. The conditions were less than ideal and I think my performance reflects that. My first jump was 13.49m, a fairly solid opener but instead of each jump getting more technically proficient I started to concentrate on the distance alone. My second jump was my farthest of all, 13.58m, and was also a four centimeter personal best. Each jump after that declined (13.42, NM, NM, 13.33).
   I hate to make excuses but there were only three of us jumping and I'm fairly certain that the entire competition was finished after 15 minutes. Although going into the competition I felt perfect my motivation quickly dwindled once I took the lead by three meters. As soon as I jump against other jumpers in the 13-14m range again I'm hoping that my performance will increase to match there's. I'm looking forward to McGill, there should be at least a couple people over 14.00m (My goal).
   Next weekend is the second competition in this three week string of competitions. It's a brand new facility built for Canada Games so I'm looking forward to breaking it in. I'm thinking I will do both long jump and triple jump, maybe if I'm lucky I'll break one or both provincial Junior records (6.58m, 13.83m)


A picture of the new facility: