After speaking with a couple people down in Puerto Rico, I've decided I will still run at World Champs in March. I am NOT in the shape I hoped to be right now (because of freezing weather) but I am still in pretty good shape.
So far all year Coach McGills time trials have been within 0.05s of my actual FAT times. In late December my time trials were consistently 7.8x and i ran 7.84 in my first meet with about 90% effort. The 60 Dash trials were always 6.8low and 6.7high and i ran 6.85 and 6.83 in the dash. If his timing skills are still on par then i am currently well under 7.70 in the 60 hurdles.
In practice coach gives us two whistles. The first is SET and the second is GO. He starts the clock as he blows the whistle, and stops the clock when one stride clears the finish line.
When you start the watch off of movement you will get varying degrees of accuracy because the timer is starting anywhere from .2 to .3 seconds late. Same goes when one person starts the athletes and another times the athletes. The timer is having to react to the starter just like the athletes, which causes a loss in accuracy.
Through trial and error we have found that having the person timing, be the person giving the commands gives the most consistent times and also brings us as close to FAT as we can get without setting up the actual electronic equipment.
The last meet i planned for this indoor season was to be at Vtech on the 19th and 20th of the month. After emailing them though i found out that only unattached athletes who currently train at the school are allowed to compete in the meet. So I wont get a chance to compete again before the championships.
I will instead head to Puerto Rico to train in the warm weather for 2 weeks before i head to Qatar. I might run at a meet in Puerto Rico next weekend, if i get down there in time. But seeing as they dont run the shorter distances, it will be over a full flight of 10 hurdles and 110 meters. Should be interesting to see what i can do.
So I guess im still on for this indoor season. I will be going pretty hard these next 3 weeks in practice and although this indoor season did not go according to plan, i still plan on doing big things when i get to Qatar.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Indoor Update
Sorry i haven't updated the blog in a while. I didn't have anything interesting going on. But here is a quick rundown of whats been happening.
Practice has been pretty great. I hit a major breakthrough last week in practice. All the new technique i have been practicing finally clicked. My 7 step approach is pretty incredible, even when is "OFF" its faster then my 8 step from years past.
I competed twice this year. The first was at UNC where i ran a pretty easy 7.84 in the prelims, and a faulty 7.87 in the finals. I also ran the 60 dash for the first time ever and clocked 6.85 which i though was decent.
For my second meet we drove up to Liberty in Virginia. I ran 4 races within LITERALLY 10 minutes. The setup was 60H, 60D, 60D final, 60H final. I took 4 victories but none of the times were very impressive. I was all over the place in the 60 hurdles smashing hurdles to run 8.17 in the prelim and 8.15 in the finals. In the 60 dash I got out for about 20 meters and then cruised to the finish for a 6.99. In the finals i gave a good effort to run 6.83 but it felt horrible and i was certain it was 6.9x seconds, it would have been one of those runs where had it been a time-trial in practice i would have told coach he did a bad job timing. After the meet we drove in a foot of snow for 6 hours because we weren't trying to risk spinning out or crashing in some random VA town.
My plans for the year were to run at UNC, Millrose, Boston, Tyson Invitational, and VA Tech in late February before heading to World Indoor Champs in March. I am certain this would have been enough to put me in decent shape to make the final at world indoors. From years past you needed a low 7.6 in the semis to make the final, and we were planing to be running consistent 7.5s by then.
But things changed. I did not get invited to Millrose, Boston Indoor Games, nor Tyson Invitational. I literally BEGGED to get into the meets, and having finished 3rd at the Millrose Games, and Boston last year i figured i should have no problems getting in, but that was not the case. I have no agent and meet directors refuse to negotiate with the athletes themselves... as if i was asking for anything more than a lane. Last year i payed for my own flight (with 3 days notice), and my own lodging while in Boston, though i did stay at the meet hotel in NYC. I would have very easily done the same this year, but as i said Meet Directors do no talk with athletes themselves and so i did not run. What was worse is that BOTH meets had a lane open. Makes no sense right? An athlete will pay his own way, you don't have to put him in a hotel, and yet they would still rather leave the lane open.
After coming to the realization that i would not run at those meets i decided i would run at UNC 3 times and VTech to prepare for world indoors. BUT we hit another hurdle.
At UNCs first meet over 30 unattached athletes did not pay their entry fee. So UNC decided they would not let unattached athletes run at their next 2 meets (which are always available to open athletes). The reason being because athletes weren't paying their entry fees.
But is this really the athletes fault? They know who did and who didn't pay, so why not prevent those athletes from competing, rather than ALL open athletes? It is not my fault that the staff was incompetent and allowed athletes to run who hadn't paid. UNC did, allow many unattached athletes to run at the following meet though, but i unfourtunatley was not one of the select few to be accepted. I ran into the meet director the day before the meet and he pretended as if he would try to find me an open lane, but of course he did not. Maybe had he told me a week in advance (as he did with the many other unattached athletes) i wouldn't have had to waste time and money in driving to Virginia. Pretty shitty, but such is life.
They are hosting a meet this weekend, which is always available to open athletes, but they've decided to allow only college athletes to compete. I am certain i will see unattached athletes compete though.
On top of not being able to compete we were hit with a snow storm here in NC. Even when the snow finally melted it was too cold to get any kind of fast training sessions in. I asked Puerto Rico if they would be kind enough to fly me down there so i could at least train in the warm weather before heading to World Indoors but i have yet to receive word from them.
So i have decided to cancel my indoor season, and start focusing on outdoors. This will give us plenty of time to allow this new technique to sink in, will hopefully allow the warm weather to return to NC, and will also get us out of "rush" mode, which is what we will have been in trying to make up for 5 weeks of cold weather.
I made the standard last year for World Indoor Champs, but will no longer be traveling to championship meets if i am not in medal contention or at the VERY LEAST in position to make the final. The days of traveling for the sake of traveling are over. If i will not be able to compete with the best i will not compete at all. May sound shallow or selfish, but i dont train 6 days a week 10 months out of the year, live off what averages out to be $4 an hour, to get a free trip across the world. I am training to be the best, and until i am able to compete stride for stride with the best, i will not be competing.
So although my indoor season did not go as planned i am still looking forward to a good year. I am still in a great situation with a great coach and as soon as these uncontrollable factors get out of the way, we will be good to go.
I dont have anything special lined up for Outdoors but here is what it will look like.
Open my season at NC A&T
Mt. Sac Relays
Puerto Rico Nationals
Ponce Grand Prix
Ibero American games in Spain
Central American Championships in Puerto Rico.
I will update the blog if any major changes happen. If not, then i will update it before my first outdoor meet.
Practice has been pretty great. I hit a major breakthrough last week in practice. All the new technique i have been practicing finally clicked. My 7 step approach is pretty incredible, even when is "OFF" its faster then my 8 step from years past.
I competed twice this year. The first was at UNC where i ran a pretty easy 7.84 in the prelims, and a faulty 7.87 in the finals. I also ran the 60 dash for the first time ever and clocked 6.85 which i though was decent.
For my second meet we drove up to Liberty in Virginia. I ran 4 races within LITERALLY 10 minutes. The setup was 60H, 60D, 60D final, 60H final. I took 4 victories but none of the times were very impressive. I was all over the place in the 60 hurdles smashing hurdles to run 8.17 in the prelim and 8.15 in the finals. In the 60 dash I got out for about 20 meters and then cruised to the finish for a 6.99. In the finals i gave a good effort to run 6.83 but it felt horrible and i was certain it was 6.9x seconds, it would have been one of those runs where had it been a time-trial in practice i would have told coach he did a bad job timing. After the meet we drove in a foot of snow for 6 hours because we weren't trying to risk spinning out or crashing in some random VA town.
My plans for the year were to run at UNC, Millrose, Boston, Tyson Invitational, and VA Tech in late February before heading to World Indoor Champs in March. I am certain this would have been enough to put me in decent shape to make the final at world indoors. From years past you needed a low 7.6 in the semis to make the final, and we were planing to be running consistent 7.5s by then.
But things changed. I did not get invited to Millrose, Boston Indoor Games, nor Tyson Invitational. I literally BEGGED to get into the meets, and having finished 3rd at the Millrose Games, and Boston last year i figured i should have no problems getting in, but that was not the case. I have no agent and meet directors refuse to negotiate with the athletes themselves... as if i was asking for anything more than a lane. Last year i payed for my own flight (with 3 days notice), and my own lodging while in Boston, though i did stay at the meet hotel in NYC. I would have very easily done the same this year, but as i said Meet Directors do no talk with athletes themselves and so i did not run. What was worse is that BOTH meets had a lane open. Makes no sense right? An athlete will pay his own way, you don't have to put him in a hotel, and yet they would still rather leave the lane open.
After coming to the realization that i would not run at those meets i decided i would run at UNC 3 times and VTech to prepare for world indoors. BUT we hit another hurdle.
At UNCs first meet over 30 unattached athletes did not pay their entry fee. So UNC decided they would not let unattached athletes run at their next 2 meets (which are always available to open athletes). The reason being because athletes weren't paying their entry fees.
But is this really the athletes fault? They know who did and who didn't pay, so why not prevent those athletes from competing, rather than ALL open athletes? It is not my fault that the staff was incompetent and allowed athletes to run who hadn't paid. UNC did, allow many unattached athletes to run at the following meet though, but i unfourtunatley was not one of the select few to be accepted. I ran into the meet director the day before the meet and he pretended as if he would try to find me an open lane, but of course he did not. Maybe had he told me a week in advance (as he did with the many other unattached athletes) i wouldn't have had to waste time and money in driving to Virginia. Pretty shitty, but such is life.
They are hosting a meet this weekend, which is always available to open athletes, but they've decided to allow only college athletes to compete. I am certain i will see unattached athletes compete though.
On top of not being able to compete we were hit with a snow storm here in NC. Even when the snow finally melted it was too cold to get any kind of fast training sessions in. I asked Puerto Rico if they would be kind enough to fly me down there so i could at least train in the warm weather before heading to World Indoors but i have yet to receive word from them.
So i have decided to cancel my indoor season, and start focusing on outdoors. This will give us plenty of time to allow this new technique to sink in, will hopefully allow the warm weather to return to NC, and will also get us out of "rush" mode, which is what we will have been in trying to make up for 5 weeks of cold weather.
I made the standard last year for World Indoor Champs, but will no longer be traveling to championship meets if i am not in medal contention or at the VERY LEAST in position to make the final. The days of traveling for the sake of traveling are over. If i will not be able to compete with the best i will not compete at all. May sound shallow or selfish, but i dont train 6 days a week 10 months out of the year, live off what averages out to be $4 an hour, to get a free trip across the world. I am training to be the best, and until i am able to compete stride for stride with the best, i will not be competing.
So although my indoor season did not go as planned i am still looking forward to a good year. I am still in a great situation with a great coach and as soon as these uncontrollable factors get out of the way, we will be good to go.
I dont have anything special lined up for Outdoors but here is what it will look like.
Open my season at NC A&T
Mt. Sac Relays
Puerto Rico Nationals
Ponce Grand Prix
Ibero American games in Spain
Central American Championships in Puerto Rico.
I will update the blog if any major changes happen. If not, then i will update it before my first outdoor meet.
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