It's Hard Acting Mature!

Well, I got my running and warm up done this morning and the sprinkles started. I thought, "It might rain in Sydney so I might as well jump". The closer I got to getting the pit and poles ready the harder it rained. Finally I blew off my jumping and finished my running and sled and headed home. My decision then was do I go about my regular training or do I back off and wait to vault tomorrow or in our little end of the month meet on Saturday? I called Kris to ask him but I knew what he would say and I agreed - blow off the vault component of this rotation and stay on schedule with the rest of my training. Tough as it was, that means going to the gym to lift legs and do bars. Walking through the gym doors today was very difficult because here I am fresh and ready to jump, yet I am about to destroy that feeling in the next hour. "Oil well", I did what I needed to do. Sometimes I hate growing up but it's not worth the risk to get off of schedule at this point.

I'm sure on the surface this looks like a "no big deal" moment but the fact is that I love to pole vault so I HATE it when I have to miss a rotation. I've had three hernias and two Achilles surgically repaired so I can continue to vault. My buddy Dan West has a bad take off foot so he has learned to vault off of the other foot as well as left handed because he too loves to vault. So when it's your day and you can't it SUCKS!! Fortunately I have a good balance of work and rest right now so jacking with the schedule is not a good idea as it would risk injury or a loss of sharpness.

With today's miss I have three vault days left of which only one will be at what I consider an intermediate to high level. After that its hit the plane and let the rest begin. When I vault at the meet it will be nine days since I have vaulted and that's about right for me. I like to come in a little more focused but also more fresh. I'm starting to get excited, but it's too early to register much more than a blip. Stay patient - that's the rule and today was a good test!!

More on Poles
We got an email today from the World Masters Games telling us that we have to bring or provide our own poles and that if we needed help that DB Schenker would be the freight contractor. That's the same company that originally told me it would be $2,300. Going through Bruce Caldwell and them I got $1,900 but that's still a lot. Apparently since Australia is an island country they are very serious about what disease come in and out of their country. I don't blame them but that really adds to the expense of sending poles. My poles are being fumigated before they are sent to save money off this end and to keep me from having to re-tape all seven poles if they were to use some type of soapy stuff. I can get them to Oz for $184 but it takes nearly $500 for them to clear customs, and then they must be transported to and from the stadium, back through customs and then come home. Fortunately I paid for the rest of the trip many months ago so it makes this necessity a little easier to swallow. If I don't do this then I have to show up and hope to borrow poles that I have never seen before. That's too big of a crap shoot for such a big event.

That's it for today. Many thanks to you all for your support and interest. Two weeks from today I will be there. Bubba