The Land of Good and Plenty

Ok so we are here in Götberg, Sweden, and I think it's time for an update. Dustin and I flew into Stockholm a week ago, struggled to get our poles from the plane to the terminal, left the airport (with 4 other runners that hated our guts for taking so long), and hit the road for Karlstad, which is about 4 hours away. We got in around 230am, checked into our hotel, had to switch rooms, rock-paper-scissored for who had to sleep on a mattress pad on the floor, and went to bed.

The next day was the meet and we both felt incredible warming up, and had to move our marks way back. I was coming from about 41.45m, which is about 40cm further than i usually do, and was still hitting some under mids and getting picked off of the ground. Unfortunately, the pits and box were not cooperating with the bending poles, and neither Dustin or I could get even our small poles to roll into the pit. I was on my 13.3 in the meet, with a bit of a tailwind, unable to catch up to the pole and going straight up in the air. I managed a measely 5.08 (hard one to post), but fortunately Dustin got it wired a tiny bit better and ripped around his 17.6 to blow over 5.25m for second place. Luckily I learned a valuable lesson in pit slapping, and next time i know it's happening I have a few tricks on how to deal with it.

Two days after the meet, after some hanging out by the river and riding bikes around karlstad, we headed to Götberg by train, took a cab to Friidrottens Hus where we would be training, and found the place where were staying, G.A.K, a wrestling facility not 50m from the track that features some nice bunk beds, wrestling mats, a weight room, a locker room and a kitchen/cafeteria. Sanitation is questionable but were immuned to that now.

The next day we went to the train station to pick up Greg, who never showed up, so we left. About an hour later he strolled into the near-impossible-to-find facility, and we were psyched to be re-adjoined. We have already seen lots of the town thanks to our new friends Oscar Janson and Alhaji Jeng, and we've gotten in two really good sessions of training, which is the reason we came here in the first place.

Tomorrow we are planning on having a jump session here, even though our poles are already in Copenhagen waiting for us at our next meet. I'm sure we will be able to find a few poles at the facility to jump on, and maybe we will post a few vids.

Until next time,

The thrash will go on here in Sweden!

Sittard/Monaco/Jockgrim/SWITZERLAND/Now

OK. Lot's has happened so I'll list them in order by place.

Sittard:

1. Rippin headwind
2. Dustin landed on the track and hurt his wrist
3. I made 5.15m
4. We feasted on brats, pasta and Dutch beer
5. Talked to Rens Blom over dinner
6. And his hot blonde girlfriend
7. Dustin got no-shame 2011 off to a good start with Olive
8. Changed into suits in the parking lot
9. Blew Jason Wurster's mind with our exit
10. Headed to Bern

Biel:

1. Rolled in on Mitch and Nicole at 2am
2. Ate some Chocolate Hot Dogs
3. Breathed the Swiss air and were immediately addicted to Switzerland
4. Slept a few hours
5. Drank some Level 10 Coffee and ate some more Chocolate Hot Dogs
6. Left 1 hr late for Monaco for no reason

Monaco:

1. Rolled in an hour late for the vault
2. Found out the vault started an hour later than we thought
3. Settled down in the thick of it. Deep in the cut.
4. Watched Renaud blow over 5.90m and almost 6.05m - High salt.
5. Took a picture with Bolt in the hotel lobby. He loved the thrash
6. Went out to a club between the 2 biggest dudes in Monaco, Cantwell and Dylan Armstrong
7. NEVER TOOK OFF THE SUITS
8. Scrapped things together in the morning
9. Swam in the Mediterranean Sea. Negative ions.
10. Ate some gelato, peaced out back to Biel.

Biel:

1. Rolled in on Mitch and Nicole at 1am
2. Ate some chocolate hot dogs
3. Flew around on Camp Greeley internet.
4. Rock-paper-scissors'ed it for the bed each night. I never won.
5. Slept until 12:45pm. Greg was pissed.
6. Had a sprint session at a track so deep in the woods I thought it was a joke, and then it turned out to be the sickest Olympic Training Center of all time.
7. Watched mitch go cowabunga on some shit in a jump session - repping 5.50m's with 4.10m+ takeoffs. Biggest PV transformation I've ever seen. Hands down.
8. Floated down an amazing river for 2km in 16 degree C water that felt incredible. Best thing I've ever been a part of?
9. Greg and Mitch chewed on some African Mud.
10. Dustin got blown up by a fountain.

Jockgrim:

1. Met up with our host family.
2. Woke up Greg because we were sleeping so late.
3. Got out-slept by their 12 year old daughter.
4. Met a genuine Nazi.
5. Jumped 5.30m in the pre-meeting, Team GS went 2-3-4.
6. Had some EIN STINE BIERS.
7. Ate some mustard with a 2am spread of food from our host dad.
8. Watched the main event. 5 over 5.72m and Grande robbed at 5.80m... easily 6m in the air.
9. Sung the National Anthem in front of 3,000 Germans thanks to Becky Holliday.
10. Dustin ended up behind the bar.
11. Greg wouldn't drink whisky, so for some reason ran around naked.
12. Everyone slept in their normal clothes.

So then we went back to Leverkusen, where we have a meet today.

There's a live feed here:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/leverkusen-pole-vault-classics

I'm not sure how well it will work, but it's worth a shot. The field is stacked, and it should be tons of fun. Tune in at 12:30pm EST, or 9:30am PST for introductions!

Hope all is well back in the states, and stay tuned!

Long Needed Update From Euroland

What up peeps?! Alright so the first two weeks of my euro trip have gone by in a flash, and it has been nonstop fun. Our first meet was in Uden, Netherlands, where it was cold rainy and windy, and I managed a 5m bar before blowing through not once, not twice, but thrice trying 5.20m... Still one of the most fun meets I had ever been to. We then journeyed south to vienna (pronounced 'ween'), where we jumped in a square meet.

By the way, when I say we, I mean the eurothrash crew. You have Dustin 'Howdy Duty' DeLeo, Bobby 'Power Steering' Talley, Greg 'Woepse Stanker' Woepse, Chris 'Grandpapa' Bencomo, Allison 'Bierdumpel' Stokke, Tori 'Bunners' Pena, and Theresa 'NoNickname' Raub. The crew has been awesome and they have made my stay incredible thus far.

Ok so back to vienna. We warmed up into a nice tailwind on a 1m tall runway, and I got to my 5m 12.9 in warmups. I started on that, blew through, went to the 12.7, made 5.15 and 5.28, and had some good shots at 5.40m... Better day.

Power Steering, the Stanker and I then ventured from Frankfurt to Dublin, where we jumped in an awesome meet with the Clonliffe Harriers, where I got my first ever european win with a euro PR of 5.30m. Greg was second in the meet, and we all enjoyed some pints of Guinness afterward in a pub right on top of the track while singing some Irish tunes with a group of DAF's (dublin folk) that called themselves The Elderly Brothers. Fun times.

The next morning, on the other hand, wasnt as fun. We had a hell of a time getting our poles to the airport, and when we did they wouldnt let them on the plane, and Bob and I had to hop a plane to Belgium instead, where we waited a few hours for Chris and Greg to get us and take us to Leverkusen, where we are based.

The next day we packed up and headed to a meet in Eindoven, Netherlands. We got lost on the way there, and showed up about 70 mins before the bar went up. I still ended warmups on a 13.3, quickly blew through a few poles while making 5.10m, 5.20m and 5.30m, and then had a nice second attempt clearance at 5.40m on my 12.7. The bar went to 5.50m, and Robert Jan went clear on a second attempt, while I had a standup and a blowthrough on my first two. I went to the 5m 12.3, and somehow made the bar on the third attempt, but it was ugly. I wasnt able to negotiate 5.60m because of some unlucky weather, but I went home happy with a Euro PB.

A few days later we found out that I got into a meet in Padova, Italy, right by Venice. We booked my ticket and I traveled this morning with my new German buddies Bjorn Otto and Danny Ecker to Italia. So far it has been fun, and Im rooming with my good friend Brad Walker, who looks more ready to go than I have ever seen him based on his last meet in Karlsruhe, Germany. The meet is tomorrow at 7pm, and im hoping for good weather and an opportunity to leave up some high bars. Everyone says this is a good place to jump, and amongst the likes of Brad, Bjorn, Danny, Alhaji Jeng, Steve Lewis, and Gio Lanaro, theres no doubt the energy level will be high for me. I am just looking forward to having a ton of fun, enjoying Italy, and getting back to the thrash in Germany on Monday.

Sorry for the long delay in posts, and I hope everyone is doing well out there in cyber land. Until next time, may the force be with you.

Something New: Eurothrash 2011

With the disappointment of not making USA's behind me, I went ahead and bought my ticket to Europe for the 2011 summer season, and I couldn't be more excited. I'm headed out on the 30th of this month and will arrive in Dusseldorf, Germany on the 1st of July.

I'll be jumping with a great group of dudes formerly of UCLA in Bobby Talley, Dustin DeLeo, and Greg Woepse, and we are poised to take Euro by storm. We all share a manager, the great Chris Bencomo, who has done a fantastic job putting together a series of meets for us. Our base will be Leverkeusen, Germany, and we will branch out to all sorts of meets from there.

I will keep blogging from over there for sure, so you'll have to stay tuned to be up-to-date on my plans. What I can say for sure at this point is that my first meet will be on July 2nd in Uden, Netherlands. I have a few more jump sessions before I take off, so if anything good happens before I leave, I'll post an update.

All-in-all, this season hasn't been what I hoped for as far as clearing high crossbars in meets, with 5.40m being my season and post-collegiate best, but I'm more excited to pole vault right now than I ever have been, and I'm pretty sure that's a good thing going into this series of meets.

Stay tuned!

Coping with Disappointment

Well for anyone that doesn't know yet, I failed to qualify for this year's USATF Championships. In my mind there is only one word that coincides with this fact: pathetic. I have spent a whole year only pole vaulting, and that has all led up to this, and I was unable to put myself in the top 15 marks in the country, and thus didn't earn a spot to the Championships. I am extremely disappointed in myself.

That being said, I know that I am a better jumper than I have showed in 2011. I made a pretty big gamble in coming out to San Diego for 3 months, stripping down my training and my jumping, and trying some stuff that I've never tried before. These changes (clearly) haven't yet transferred into jumping high bars, but are ultimately for the best. I cleared a season's best of 5.40m a few weeks ago in Walnut, CA, and that was the best that I have been able to manage this whole year. I feel confident, however, that if I stick with the changes that I've made, and clean up a few things within the jump, I will come out with a mark that I'll be happy with by the end of the summer.

Anyway, sorry for the somber and disappointing news, but I just wanted to update the blog and keep everyone posted on my journey. Let's hope this all ends up working itself out. I sure would like to leave a meet halfway satisfied with my result at some point soon.

Stay tuned.

Chula Vista Update

Well I can't complain about much out here in Chula Vista. It's basically 70-85 degrees every day and a nice tail breeze every day which makes for stress-free vault sessions. That's why I decided to extend my stay to a full 90-days as opposed to the previous plan of just 5 weeks. I've been hearing nightmares about Midwest weather this summer so far, and I have to say I'm glad to be avoiding it.

Training here has been great. Competing, not so much. I'm really getting a hang of the changes that we've been making now, and I've just recently been able to apply these changes to my jump in a way that feels really natural and makes it feel really possible to jump really high. We've adjusted a lot of things in the run and takeoff that have made things feel a lot more fluid and easy, but made for much bigger energy systems within the jump.

Tomorrow we have a meet here at the center, which should be good. My good buddy Yoo Kim is coming down here from LA to jump, and is bringing some of his crew, and my long-time buddy Nick Frawley is making the trip in from Phoenix. All-in-all it's gonna be a good meet with lots of high jumps, and if you're in the area you should come out to the center around 4 or so to watch it go down.

Anyway, since it's been so long I'll leave with a video. This is from a recent practice and is a jump from 6 Lefts at a 5.40m bungee on a 4.90m 14.0.

Also, speaking of Nick Frawley and Yoo Kim, check out the pole coming through under the bar and just about ruining my day. Always use a capper, y'all!

Peace Be With You,

Jeff

Chula Vistaaaa

Check it out. Training here at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista has been awesome so far. I'm training really hard and learning a ton. So far I have put in two really solid weeks, had five jump sessions, and made some strides forward.

Coach Ty Sevin has been awesome, and has taught me a TON in the jump sessions and run mechanics sessions that we've had. Within the jump we have just been trying to find more pressure to put into the pole to create more energy in the system, and theoretically jump much much higher on the same poles that I'm on.

Besides that my weight room numbers have also been awesome - a really easy triple at 80kg in the snatch, and a quad at 110kg in the clean. We've been working with a Tendo Unit a lot, looking at bar speeds and power outputs in various lifts. It's been really helpful.

Lastly I have to give a shout out to Agility Guard for fitting me (and several athletes from the OTC) for a custom mouthguard for athletic use. Just in the tests that we have done already I saw huge benefits in core stabilization and balance with the guard in. I'm really excited to get my custom fitted piece (right now we just have a temporary mold) and put it to work. Thanks a ton!

So my first meet is a week from Thursday at the Training Center. Hope for the best, and stay tuned.

Jeff