I guess it has been a while since I posted anything, and prior to heading out on a long vacation I thought an update is in order.
Following the season I was able to spend alot of time with the family. Taking the kids to spray parks, outdoor swimming pools, bike rides and just having fun around the house. I have to admit it was nice to take a break from training to play with the kids.
One day about a month ago I just started weight lifting again and putting in some core workouts around this. I have also been trying to eat everything in site to supplement the weights and add some size for next year. Good news is that it is working, I am up about 5-7 lbs since the end of May. I have been tracking my food intake on a daily basis in order to ensure I was eating more than enough calories in order to help gain.
Later today I will start the long drive to Phoenix with my daughter. My in laws have a vacation house there and we get to use it whenever we want. This year we will be there for the entire month of October. I am looking forward to the heat (avg 35C) and some cross training. Mountain biking, swimming are literally in my back yard, plenty of green space for weighted ball throws and turbo jav and a high school track 10 minutes away. Looking forward to continuing the work I ahve been doing over the past month and comeing home bigger, more relaxed and a nice tan to go along with it.
David
Monday 30 September 2013
Friday 26 July 2013
End of Season
This past weekend was Capital Cities annual Sherwood Park classic. This year the meet also served as Alberta Provincial Championships. Knowing that this was going to be my last meet of the season I wanted to have a good day and reach a new seasonal best distance.
About 5 days before the meet I was in my garage and threw a backpack into the back of my Xterra and as I twisted I slipped a rib. No fun for anyone who has done it. I have done it before so I knew exactly what the issue was, and how bad for throwing it could be. Luckily it was monday and I have a great chiropractor who I have been seeing for almost 7 years. Three adjustments throughout the week, some groovy over the counter drugs and I was feeling better.
As our club was hosting the meet, I was required to volunteer some of my time to the event. I brought my parents along and the three of us spent the day helping to measure various throwing events. Lot's of fun, but by the time I was in the final few rounds of throwing in my event, I was getting pretty hungary and tired.
I had a great warm up and came out with a seasonal best first throw of 43.5m. After that things declined with every throw. 43.5 was good enough for second place and a silver medal.
One of my major goals at the beginning of the season was to reach new seasonal bests at every meet. Out of the 5 events I attended, I obtained seasonal bests in 4 of them.
Another goal was to throw 50m this year. I did not make it to 50m this year but I know that a full off season of dedicated throw training will get me far beyond the 50m mark next season. Hopefully even up to 60m so that I can qualify for nationals in Edmonton!!
This year was a great experience and I had such a great time training and competing. Meeting new peers on the track was also a nice change. I love my triathlon friends but it was nice to change things up this year.
It is very strange for me to be talking about the end of season in late July. I will actually get to have some hot summer time off without the pressures of training and dedicating time to workouts. I am sure the family wont mind either.
David
About 5 days before the meet I was in my garage and threw a backpack into the back of my Xterra and as I twisted I slipped a rib. No fun for anyone who has done it. I have done it before so I knew exactly what the issue was, and how bad for throwing it could be. Luckily it was monday and I have a great chiropractor who I have been seeing for almost 7 years. Three adjustments throughout the week, some groovy over the counter drugs and I was feeling better.
As our club was hosting the meet, I was required to volunteer some of my time to the event. I brought my parents along and the three of us spent the day helping to measure various throwing events. Lot's of fun, but by the time I was in the final few rounds of throwing in my event, I was getting pretty hungary and tired.
I had a great warm up and came out with a seasonal best first throw of 43.5m. After that things declined with every throw. 43.5 was good enough for second place and a silver medal.
One of my major goals at the beginning of the season was to reach new seasonal bests at every meet. Out of the 5 events I attended, I obtained seasonal bests in 4 of them.
Another goal was to throw 50m this year. I did not make it to 50m this year but I know that a full off season of dedicated throw training will get me far beyond the 50m mark next season. Hopefully even up to 60m so that I can qualify for nationals in Edmonton!!
This year was a great experience and I had such a great time training and competing. Meeting new peers on the track was also a nice change. I love my triathlon friends but it was nice to change things up this year.
It is very strange for me to be talking about the end of season in late July. I will actually get to have some hot summer time off without the pressures of training and dedicating time to workouts. I am sure the family wont mind either.
David
Tuesday 16 July 2013
A few weeks off before the end of the season
Since my last post and the CALTAF meet things have been pretty busy for me. After taking a week to myself to work on the ITU World Cup Triathlon in Edmonton I started hitting the gym and had a really great session with Rob at the track that included about 70 throws (mostly to work on form through my final two cross steps).
It has been raining like crazy for the last little while in Edmonton and after the Edmonton international Track classic two major track facilities were torn up to prep for improvements, 2014 nationals and an up coming Pan am games bid (so I have heard). Needless to say track space has been limited.
I have not talked alot about the elbow pain I was having earlier in the season. Turns out it is very common in throwers, especially ones with poor form. Well minimal throwing over the past few weeks have halped so much in giving my arm a break. This weekend is Alberta Provincial championships and our club is hosting the event. I am looking forward to a new seasonal best distance and having some close family and friends onsite to watch.
I occassionally follow an australian blog and came accross a great quote that really sat with me:
"It’s amazing as people how we try and talk ourselves out of doing things that we know we want to. It’s self sabotage of a the highest order. If we somehow convince ourselves that something is too hard or too much of a risk, we find it easier to avoid challenging ourselves. The sad truth is that subconsciously we would rather avoid the challenge of achieving something than risking failure in our attempt. Fear inhibits what we achieve in life and I could feel the battle in the my head begin."
Sebastian Terry via 100things.com.au
It would have been easy for me to remain with triathlon. I would have had success but would I have been happy and excited about what I was doing? It is scary to change your athletic way of thinking after 11 years. Taking the challenge and stepping off that ledge was definately worth it and I dont regret it for a second.
David
It has been raining like crazy for the last little while in Edmonton and after the Edmonton international Track classic two major track facilities were torn up to prep for improvements, 2014 nationals and an up coming Pan am games bid (so I have heard). Needless to say track space has been limited.
I have not talked alot about the elbow pain I was having earlier in the season. Turns out it is very common in throwers, especially ones with poor form. Well minimal throwing over the past few weeks have halped so much in giving my arm a break. This weekend is Alberta Provincial championships and our club is hosting the event. I am looking forward to a new seasonal best distance and having some close family and friends onsite to watch.
I occassionally follow an australian blog and came accross a great quote that really sat with me:
"It’s amazing as people how we try and talk ourselves out of doing things that we know we want to. It’s self sabotage of a the highest order. If we somehow convince ourselves that something is too hard or too much of a risk, we find it easier to avoid challenging ourselves. The sad truth is that subconsciously we would rather avoid the challenge of achieving something than risking failure in our attempt. Fear inhibits what we achieve in life and I could feel the battle in the my head begin."
Sebastian Terry via 100things.com.au
It would have been easy for me to remain with triathlon. I would have had success but would I have been happy and excited about what I was doing? It is scary to change your athletic way of thinking after 11 years. Taking the challenge and stepping off that ledge was definately worth it and I dont regret it for a second.
David
Tuesday 18 June 2013
CALTAF, progress as the season goes on
This past weekend I headed south once again to Calgary for another meet at the Foothills athletic Park. This was scheduled to be one of the bigger meets for me this year. At the start of the season I was hoping that I could win this event and gain entry into the Edmonton International Track Classic. Little did I know that there would be some heavy hitters at the meet this year compared to last.
Last year, the winner of the event threw 48m. This year that would have gotten him 6th place. Like I said there were some heavy hitters this year. Pearsonally for me it was a good progressive day. 2 of the 3 meets this year I have achieved seasonal best throws. This weekend I threw 3/6 throws as seasonal bests. My final throw was 3m further than my previous mark set a month ago in Calgary.
This was the goal this year was to continually improve and increase my distance at every competition. I think this goal has been achieved to this point. Continual improvement over this year is a huge positive point for me as I move into a more specific off season training plan. There are still a couple of meets in July that I plan to attend including our club meet which is also acting as Provincial Championships. A month of practise and training will hopefully get me closer to the goal of 50m this year
David
Last year, the winner of the event threw 48m. This year that would have gotten him 6th place. Like I said there were some heavy hitters this year. Pearsonally for me it was a good progressive day. 2 of the 3 meets this year I have achieved seasonal best throws. This weekend I threw 3/6 throws as seasonal bests. My final throw was 3m further than my previous mark set a month ago in Calgary.
This was the goal this year was to continually improve and increase my distance at every competition. I think this goal has been achieved to this point. Continual improvement over this year is a huge positive point for me as I move into a more specific off season training plan. There are still a couple of meets in July that I plan to attend including our club meet which is also acting as Provincial Championships. A month of practise and training will hopefully get me closer to the goal of 50m this year
David
Sunday 19 May 2013
Competition update
After a good practice session with Fish on May 8, I headed back to Calgary for a meet on May 11. This time the family came with me to cheer me on. After a 25 minute stop on the side of the road to feed baby Henry, I arrived at the track a tad bit later than I would have liked.
I was able to get in a fast warm up and get ready to throw. Along side me warming up was Kyle Nielsen. The last two years Kyle has finished second at senior Nationals and last year was only beaten by Olympian Curtis Moss. Needless to say it was pretty impressive watching Kyle throw 70m+ in warm up. A sign of things to come was all I could think.
As I said in my last post the goal for the season was to set a new seasonal best throw at every meet. last week was 38.4m, this week was 40.7m. definatly an improvement. Good thing for that throw because the other 5 I had on the day were unimpressive, including two fouls. More good news was that Fish was onsite watching me and providing feedback after every throw and was able to come to our next practice with some specifics to work on.
I don't compete again until a small meet in Edmonton on June 2nd, so I have lot's of practice time to work on footwork and release technique so that I can set a new seasonal best mark.
David
I was able to get in a fast warm up and get ready to throw. Along side me warming up was Kyle Nielsen. The last two years Kyle has finished second at senior Nationals and last year was only beaten by Olympian Curtis Moss. Needless to say it was pretty impressive watching Kyle throw 70m+ in warm up. A sign of things to come was all I could think.
As I said in my last post the goal for the season was to set a new seasonal best throw at every meet. last week was 38.4m, this week was 40.7m. definatly an improvement. Good thing for that throw because the other 5 I had on the day were unimpressive, including two fouls. More good news was that Fish was onsite watching me and providing feedback after every throw and was able to come to our next practice with some specifics to work on.
I don't compete again until a small meet in Edmonton on June 2nd, so I have lot's of practice time to work on footwork and release technique so that I can set a new seasonal best mark.
David
First competition......more baby steps
May 4 I left my young family sleeping at home and drove 2.5 hours to Calgary for a 45 minute competition. We were given 4 throws for the full competition as there were only 6 in my category. One thing that I had really been working on was my foot work and timing. Glad to say I had 4 successful throws with no fouls. As my results started to come in I had to remind myself that this is the first competition and that this is just the start. By the end of the day i was 3rd and threw 38.4m, not great I know and not even halfway to Canadian Olympic standard. I was a little disappointed as I drove the 2.5 hours back home to Edmonton, but it did give me a lot of time to reflect. The one key thing I took away was that this was just the first meet and that the goal moving forward was to achieve a new seasonal best throw at every meet.
We'll see how that goes as the season progresses. Next weekend I am back in Calgary again for another meet.
David
We'll see how that goes as the season progresses. Next weekend I am back in Calgary again for another meet.
David
New favorite little man
Ok I know that this is a blog about my training but I can't leave out a post about my new favorite little man. My son Henry James was born on April 24th. A very healthy and hungry 8lb boy is keeping us very busy. I love having a son and knowing that our family name will pass on to another generation.
David
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