Baseline Vaulting & Caution

Today I felt OK but during warm-up I felt like I was leaning more toward feeling flat than good so "caution" became the word of the day. I knew it was going to be my long day as far as running and lifting so basically I just wanted to survive it with a little lower intensity but a focus on quality. On this day I'm at the track nearly two hours and in the gym for an hour which includes stretching. It is definitely the long day of the week so I'm out at 7 AM on Sundays.

Because of this, vaulting today was held to my "baseline". Baseline for me is a 12' (3.66m) vault from a 33' (10m) run. I don't have to run hard enough to get hurt, yet can work on some technical things. Today I had six jumps on four poles with the last one being an easy clearance at my baseline, 12'. I "felt" like I could have easily taken more vaults but it didn't "feel" smart. I was getting little hints that my body was fatigued because this is my short rest cycle and I haven't been vaulting twice a week at this level. Better safe than sorry so I quit with four of the six jumps right on target for what I was trying to do - better arm pressure and no hip break.

Again I resisted the urge to incorporate some new lifting and running into my program. I really want to try the new stuff that Kris and DJ have planned for me for next year, but I can't. I tell myself it couldn't hurt but I actually have been hurt the week before a big meet by making similar changes. Any little change can throw your body off just enough that it may not adapt, recover, or remain sore for the next session. Any of these spell trouble.

SO, if I'm typing this I survived it. Had I been hurt I would have been bitching about it this whole entry. Instead I was careful again as I needed to be. I think the big difference is that I am healthy enough that being careful does not mean training scared like I was at the beginning of this blog. Now I can always do something safely and if I can just hit my baseline on a regular basis, I can easily ramp up the last steps before the big day.

I'm slowly ramping all of my components up and they will hit their highest point on the next to last cycle before I go. The last cycle will be the short one which will be my final recovery cycle. I feel reasonably in control of where we are right now, and pretty confident that we can stay on that track without issues. That's a good feeling. Staying there depends on patience.

All the best and thanks for your support this fine Sunday! Bubba

PS - got over 500,000 lbs. lifted since this blog started with 506,016 with 351 bar exercises.