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:

Atlantic's this weekend were interesting to say the least... First I woke up at 5:30am and traveled to PEI and long jumped (pb'ing) then I spent the rest of the day acting like a tourist, completely losing focus for triple jump.
   Long jump felt good but not spectacular, I captured a personal best at 6.47m but the only real difference between that jump and any other was the landing. Everything was in a row with nothing hitting back in the sand.
   Triple jump didn't go nearly as smoothly, it felt flat and my technique completely broke down. I had no motivation and had no energy. I guess it's hard to put two pb's together in one meet but it would have been nice.
   There's one more meet that I may or may not compete in coming up on Aug 27 but I'm not sure if I will be jump; I may be better off getting out of the competition phase right now. If I do decide to jump I'll only be doing triple, not long.

Had a great meet in Moncton yesterday capturing a 27cm personal best.  It was a small meet, only three of us jumping but the conditions were favorable; on my best jump there was a 0.5m/s wind and it had just stopped raining.
   Although the jump was 13.54m it could have been even farther.  I lost a good 15cm at least on the landing, it should have definitely been over 13.70m.  I guess I know what I have to work on for next time...
   I jump again this weekend, long jump on Saturday and triple on Sunday. It may be the last meet of the year so there's no holding back.  I really want to break the provincial record, 13.96m but I don't know how realistic that's being. I would still be ecstatic with a jump of 13.80m. At the very least I hope to break 13.56m and reach the Canada Games funding standard, $500.00!

   Today my legs were still sore from Mondays workout in the gym but I continued on my normal practice schedule.  I think I may have over did it a bit, my legs are a little sore right now but I'll see how they are in the morning.
   I did my own variation of a jumps decathalon today, my quads were sore coming in and it was pretty rainy out but at least it gives me some idea where I'm at/

Standing Long Jump- 3.01m (78.33)
Standing Triple jump- 8.20m (69.57)
Two hops, step, jump- 10.50m (75.43)
Two hops, two steps, jump- 13.40m (79.46)
Standing four hops and a jump (left)- 13.60m (69.10)
Standing four hops and a jump (right)- 13.00m (64.28)
Running four hops and a jump (left)- 14.95m (48.25)
Running four hops and a jump (right)- 14.60m (46.05)
Three step triple jump- 10.10m (71.35)
Five step long jump- 4.50m (35.14)

Total Score- 631.09

The first day of this weekends meet went really well but the wind was strong, making most of my jumps illegal.  I pb'd three times today: 13.19m, 13.25m, 13.27m.  The 13.25m had a legal wind but the 13.27m did not.
  The weather was wet and humid and my motivation was only about a 6/10 so I'm surprised that I did do relatively well but I stayed focused and I guess that was the difference.
  The 13.25m was by far my best, I didn't even hit the board on it, it could have easily been close to 13.50m if everything went right.  My landing was also lacking but it wasn't as bad as last weeks...  I didn't seem to loose too much but my feet were staggered about 5cm apart and my elbow landing behind me on several jumps.
  I don't compete again for nearly a month so I'll have some time to perfect my technique and get back into the gym before my next meet.  Hopefully I'll pull out a big jump in August...  The three marks I would like to hit are 13.80m, 13.94m and 14.00m...  I think I have the potential to do the first but the next two may be tricky.  It's a long summer however, I guess you never know!

Today I pretty much took the entire day off to rejuvenate my legs and energize before the meet this weekend.  I haven't been  overly busy this week but still my legs were feeling completely dead when I rolled up from bed last night.
   Sunday I competing at juniors, Monday I had a fairly extensive weight/tempo session and yesterday I was working on seven and nine step jumps, concentrating  on the landing.
   I'm looking forward to triple jumping on Saturday even if there is nothing riding on it, It's nice to have a meaningless meet every now and then.  And of course, after this weekend I won't be jumping again until August so it would be nice to get in some solid numbers before finishing off the second half of the season.  Who knows maybe if the wind it's good I'll come close to breaking my season goal of 14.00m!

Here's a video from yesterday's practice:

  Juniors didn't go quite as I had hoped, I was 17cm short of my personal best in long jump and only 5cm ahead of my personal best in triple jump.  It was a great experience though, running on a brand new mondo surfaced track, jumping along side some of the best athletes in Canada.
  I was 28cm short of making the final in triple jump, 13.43m being the 8th place finisher, it would have been nice to get three more jumps but I'm not too disappointed.  My runway was near perfect, for the time since the season started; all three triple jumps were on the board and only one long jump was a fault (by about a 2cm's).
  The biggest problem was my landing, on all three triple jumps I lost a good 20-25cm where my butt was hitting behind my feet.  I need to pull everything forward when I hit the sand, I'm going to work on it tomorrow at practice.
  I jump again this weekend at Beazly Field, it's going to be a large step down from the facility in Moncton but I'm looking forward to redeeming myself.  It's the last meet until August so it would be nice to get a solid result on paper before then.