Reno was super fun, but I blew it again. It was a pretty pathetic NH, and I walked away just feeling upset with myself. I had a great warmup and started the meet on a pretty decent starting pole, but when the crossbar went up I started running low, planting late, and not doing the things in the air that we had worked in practice. Bummer!
The rest of the weekend was super fun though, and it was sweet to see my best PV'er buddies (minus JP... so sad) and talk to all of the young pole vaulters. Here are some things that happened:
- Rosie's for at least 25 meals
- Gun Show
- Bro-Out all weekend
- Got fired up from Bemiller and Brad
- Blackjack table fiasco of 2012
- BTHBS (Bobby...)
- Chatted with some youngin's about the importance of proper training shoes. (Really? That's the best advice I could give?)
- Greg never showed
- Bencomo showed via Greyhound Bus
- Occupied the Horseshoe Bar
- Let the cat out of the bag about the T&M... so dumb... some of you know what that means
- Keno in Reno
- Howled like a wolf while winning on the Howlin' Wolf Slot Machine.
When the dust had settled, Dustin joined Vera and me on the plane back to Bloomington. We hit some hot training during the week, and I showed Dustin around Btown, which I had consistently, appropriately and perhaps exaggeratedly hyped for the past 9 months or so.
On Saturday, we had a meet at IU that went pretty poorly for us. I made 5.10m and 5.20m, and failed miserably at 5.30m, and Dustin blew over 5.10m by a foot, but then tweaked his hammy around the mid on his next trip down on a bigger pole, took it up anyway (gotta admire that), and came back down on the runway. He nearly saved it into a picture perfect tuck and roll, but he got tangled up, landed on his right foot, and bruised his heel a little. It's not that bad though, and he's been about 5.50m in the air every time he has the right pole in his hands lately, so look for a BIG one from him soon.
I also have to give a shout out to my boy Bobby Talley for his 5.31m PR this weekend in Seattle. If anyone ever gets a chance to watch him jump, please watch how hard he works in the air. It is pretty incredible. Serious feel.
So this weekend I'm headed to Champaign, Illinois to jump at the U of Ill, and I'm bringin back some old cues. I'm on the right track with things, but the only part that I'm missing is finishing jumps on the right poles. My 5.20m make this weekend was on a 5m 13.3, and was a pretty serious blowthrough. The problem, though, is that when I catch sight of the bar it feels as if I'm going to come up short. Because of this I'm not finishing the jumps I need to be finishing. In reality, I should have been on a 12.9 or 12.6 this weekend, which should equate to some big bars. SO, this weekend is going to be all about going old school... banging in poles and throwin' a spanker on it up top. In case you're a little confused about my nomenclature... here:
Part 1) Bangin' in poles
Part 2) Throwin' on a spanker
That's right.
OK, this is a super long blog post about mostly nothing, so it's over now.
Peace be with you all.
