Beginning of Fall 2010 Training

Well we have officially begun the Fall 2010 training. So far I am just lifting at Force Fitness and Performance in town with my new strength trainer, Wil Fleming. This week we are doing a three-day reintroduction to lifting, with a focus on a few tough complexes. Monday's workout was four sets of a snatch complex. You can watch that video HERE! Wednesday was a little different, as we hit some stability work first on TRX bands, then did some plyos to keep the nervous system firing, and moved to 3 sets of a tough little kettlebell complex (each set was about 3.5 minutes), and finished up with 3 sets of a medball throw complex. I am laying on my couch in my apartment right now quite sore, but excited to hit another one tomorrow. Next week I will start doing some running and biking to begin my GPP (general physical prep) phase, and we will move to my first cycle of lifting.

Chat with David Butler

Last night I was fortunate enough to have a long talk with David Butler, the vault coach from Rice Unviersity. He coached Jason Colwick, a 5.72m jumper who I jumped against in college for several years, and I have always been curious about his vault theory. He had some really different ideas and was even prepared after watching my video to talk with me extensively about how those ideas apply specifically to my jump. I know that to make those changes is going to take some serious work, but I'm interested to try them from short run and during my straight pole work. Beyond that, he suggested some interesting flexibility programs that I'm going to look into starting next week in order to improve my run mechanics and power through my hips. All-in-all he was confident that I would PR quickly if I began making these changes as soon as possible, and even suggested a trip to Houston for a weekend in October for a few training/vaulting sessions so he could show me personally what he was talking about. Anyway, all in all it was a great discussion, and I'm super excited about the things he was talking about!

Jeff

Starting the 2011 Season

I started this blog to document my journey in the world of professional pole vaulting. I figured there's no real better way to do that than to start at ground zero. I just finished my 2010 season, graduated from IU, and began my professional career with Team Indiana Elite/Brooks. The real challenge lies ahead of me in 2011. I will be staying in Bloomington, IN to train with my coach, Jake Wiseman and compete for Brooks and T.I.E. I have changed strength coaches, and am getting geared up to begin working with Wil Fleming, an amazing strength trainer and part-owner of Force Fitness and Performance. We already have a plan in place to get me ready to compete only a few times indoors this year, with a focus on the May-September season. Right now I'm sitting around my apartment on IU's campus, mostly enjoying my time off but itching to get back to work. My first day of lifting with Wil is going to be on August 30th. I won't begin any real running workouts until late October, but will be doing strides a few times a week and some 2-3 left vault work every few weeks to keep the muscle memory going. Anyway, I'm excited about the progress that is yet to come, and to prove it I'm going to post a photo of the run goal board that I made for myself yesterday. Keep in mind these are my ultimate 2011 goals, and while some seem lofty, I hope I'm not the only one that thinks they are also realistic! The columns that I used are approach distance in total steps, current run PR, which pole and grip I jumped that PR on, my goal PR from that approach, and which pole and grip I believe I can jump that bar on. You can also see video of all of those PR's besides my 2 left PR on the link bar on the right! Enjoy!

Anyway, for those of you that already saw that on my twitter or facebook, sorry for the repeat, but I hope that gives you an idea of what the goals are for the year! Anything can happen! Anyway, I hope to blog regularly in the future about my training and competing, and I hope people will follow along on my journey!

Jeff