Bouncing Back

    You know what one of the worst things about having the flu is? Not being able to drink coffee for a few days. That's one of the few things I have to look forward too anymore as my diet has become more and more strict in honor of this Olympic year. I am feeling much better though, and am enjoying a delicious cup at the moment.
     It is true, I am feeling much better. Yesterday I did what I called a test day, that turned into more of an activation day. With each careful exercise or interval I felt stronger and faster as the reps increased, but the best way to describe the preliminary sets was something like trying to move through water or sludge even. But, like I said, the more I did, the more the poison seeped out, and the mix of water and electrolytes crept back in. So much so that I was tempted to jump today, but the smarter voice inside, the one that often gets interrupted, cried out in refute of the idea. So another activation day, and then.....jump day? I'm waiting for that voice again, it appears he doesn't seem as opposed.
    You may be thinking, what a sissy, it was just a flu, and you may be right. But in my defense, I've prepared an excuse, I'm a skinny 6'1" at only a 170 lbs, with 3-4% body fat, lower than it probably should be. So when I get hit with a bug like this and lose 10 or 12 pounds in 4 hours, it takes a devastating toll, I don't have an once of weight to spare, and am always religious about hydration when I do shed my precious fluids during training, in an effort to prevent injury. The jury is in this morning, after breakfast I am still only 165lbs. It scares me to think I weighed that much in high school and have been as big as 195lb during my pole vault career. Hey! It was a lean 195lb too, I know what you were thinking.
    An interesting turn of events. Always in my career when things have been clicking, I mean really clicking so much to the point that I expected to be over a 19' bar within the week, something catastrophic always tends to occur. I could throw out examples, but they are pretty depressing, and the stories would be long, so in summary I just want to say that the weeks leading up to now, I was clicking. Not that this was catastrophic by any means, it's not near my top 10 probably, I was just stating fact.

This is my last jump at 18', in my last session, breaking my last crossbar.

    I switched to my 5.10m poles during my last session, the day before I started puking. It was a terrible session. But its clear that the poles weren't to blame, the operator was. By having something different in my hands, I changed on the runway and in the air, and not by choice. I had a consistent, comfortable system in place, and when I rearranged it, there was resistance. Then I got sick, so I would like to have a better training note to look back on, but the next session will be that much more fun, exciting, and ultimately gratifying.

    In 3 days I had a departure planned, to be a bum in Southern California for a few weeks, but as things are unraveling I get the feeling those plans have changed. With all these days to think, I realize I have been too focused on getting an Olympic "A" standard (18'9") to extremely strengthen my chances of making the team in June, and I've been wrong to do so. If I'm healthy and fit come June 25th and 28th, my chances of succeeding are far greater based on that rather than any performance I can post in the meantime. So my efforts have been appropriately refocused.