Outside the Aspire Dome

So the meet I had in France this past Friday went alright…I suppose. I set an indoor personal best of 16.64m and came in 4th behind three jumpers who went 17 meters (one of whom was Christian Olsson, the indoor world record holder in the event). As you can imagine, I had higher aspirations for my first meet on the “pro circuit,” especially considering how things were looking before I left the States! But hey, I won’t complain with a personal best after having just hopped off the plane a couple days earlier. Not to mention the fact that the point of the meet was to get a solid jumping session in ahead of the World Indoor Champs, and to cut down the amount of traveling that I had to do to get to Doha. Oddly enough, leaving from Brussels to Doha on Saturday after the meet wasn’t the piece of cake I had anticipated and I only made it to my room in Doha after about 22 hours of traveling from start to finish! But that’s an entirely different story.

Since arriving after 1 am Sunday morning, my time in Doha has been amazing and my body is finally getting acclimated to the time zone and the travel. The hotel is top notch, as are the food (fortunately enough) and the service from both hotel and IAAF staff. Additionally, I was one of the first few athletes to arrive so for the first few days I had my own driver taking me wherever I needed to go. It’s quite easy to see that Qatar/Doha is pulling out all the stops for the event and that their top priority is the comfort and satisfaction of athletes; after all they do have their sights set on hosting the 2022 World Cup and I’m sure that this event is a small stepping stone towards that. The city itself is beautiful and the 85 degree weather doesn’t hurt either. Whatever stories you’ve heard of Doha and its rapid growth, if you’ve heard or read such stories, are all true. There is construction EVERYWHERE and many people have told me that they’re attempting to play catch up with Dubai which is for the moment the top tourist/business spot in the Middle East. As nice as it is here in Doha now, I’d love to see what things are like when their plans are even further along, although it means that the traffic that is already horrendous for a city of less than 400,000 will no doubt be several times worse.

As far as athletics facilities are concerned, everything is top notch to say the least. The grounds of the “Aspire Zone” are pristine and the stadiums, fields and even shopping areas included in it are all amazing. We’ve been using an outdoor track as our practice area for the past couple of days, but I managed to sneak my way into the Aspire Dome itself and it too is spectacular! I’m glad I got my “jaw dropping” moment out of the way nice and early though so that when I’m in there later in the week, it’s truly all about handling business.

While there is of course “track and field after World Indoor Championships,” I’ve had my eyes set on making this final since my first global level competition (which was admittedly just 7 months ago). I am certainly more excited than anxious to get this show on the road, mostly because I know what needs to be done and how to do it. These last couple days leading up to Friday are just about fine tuning things with some speed work and explosive lifts, while enjoying the fact that I’m here! Rest assured, I’ll definitely enjoy the competition experience as well.

P.S. Congrats to the George Mason track and field teams on their performances at ECACs and IC4As this past weekend; particularly the men’s 4 by 4 with their 3:07.43 and qualification for NCAAs.

The indoor season is quickly coming to an end with the World Championships just over a week away at this point. This has been the most extensive indoor season that I’ve had since about 2005, and that’s because the plan all along was to build on things from meet to meet. I definitely think I’ve been doing that and fortunately enough, things are coming together at just the right time. Before heading to Doha I’ve made a stop in northern France for a meet being held in Lievin on Friday evening. As I’ve said before, the meet on Friday will be a “systems check” before the first round of Worlds on the 12th. Speaking of “systems checks” though, I competed at a relatively low key meet at George Mason this past Sunday and although I had planned on taking just one jump (because I had a weight session afterwords), I ended up taking 4 and managed to run ALL the way to AND through the board on 3 of them. 2 of the 4 jumps produced “big fouls” but as we all know, there are no such things as “big fouls,” only “big jumps.” Still, the meet was definitely a success for me, I was able to actually feel what my approach should be like from here on out and on Friday I’m just going to duplicate what I did on Sunday so that I truly get it down before hopping over to Qatar.

Back to the subject of the fake World Tour that I’m on at the moment though. Ayanna and I spent some time in Paris in August and as you can imagine, northern France (our hotel is in Lesquin) is nothing like Paris and certainly not during March when its only 40 degrees. Everybody has been quite helpful and very hospitable though and they seem to love the fact that I speak French (to some extent). On top of that, the hotel isn’t bad and although I wish there was more water available to us, the meals are free and even edible so you’ll hear no complaints out of me. I got to do a little bike/treadmill workout once I got here so my body feels pretty good for having just flown for 7+ hours, but I’m looking forward to getting a track workout in today.

Check out the startlists for Friday at: http://www.meeting-pasdecalais.com/6LIEV10StartListau3mars21h00.pdf. It seems as if all of the events are packed with top level talent and my guess is that everybody is trying to get a meet in before Worlds, like myself. As far as the TJ field is concerned; I think all but maybe 2 of us will be heading to Doha over the weekend so as far as test runs go, Friday’s meet will likely produce something relatively close to the competition atmosphere I’ll get next week. At the end of the day though, it will still be just another meet where I’ll be trying to bring as much speed in my approach as possible and work on my hop phase…much like I have all season.

I’m going to pencil my most recent competitive outing in the “personal victory” column. As with my other competitions this indoor season, it was definitely a learning experience but at least the result was a bit easier to swallow than the rest have been. I still need a ton of work, and all of that work is going to be on my approach, speed down the runway and rhythm. Those are things that I can correct and adjust in training but that I will only get more comfortable with through meet situations.

I entitled this blog post “Patience” because although my best jump was measured at 16.51m, I took off at least 8 inches from the back end of the board. It’s an indoor personal best by a few centimeters but not exactly the distance I was after. So I’m being patient. I know that things are coming together little by little and that they will come together exactly when they’re supposed to. A 17 meter jump at Virginia Tech wouldn’t have done much for me and I have no problem with waiting to drop that big one when it matters/I need it most. I’m also aware that the goal for me beyond the World Indoor Champs is consistency beyond 17 meters, so I tinker now so that things come naturally and effortlessly in June and beyond.

Ok ok, so if it looks like I’m jogging, it’s because I am. But in all honesty, I didn’t realize that I was coming down the runway slower than molasses! And yes…I am still stuttering before the board, but at least I got a comfortable jump in (unlike in NY). My goal for my next few meets is to run hard and fast through the board and allow my speed to push me down the runway. After this 16.80m jump (from take off to landing), I know what I can and will do in Doha once I actually run down the runway; and that’s exciting.

So although I went into last weekend’s meet with big plans, I didn’t accomplish my goals; any of them. But believe it or not, I am quite alright with that. Although the meet results say something different for some reason, I’m pretty sure I ended up jumping 16.25m, which would be a season best by 3 centimeters. I guess the fact that I’m not entirely certain what I jumped lets you know how little the distance mattered to me in the end. Right from the start of the competition my approach was WAY off and to make matters worse, I was stutter-stepping about 6 to 8 strides out from the board so I couldn’t really get a read on where I should have moved my mark. Needless to say, I also couldn’t work on having a consistent and fluid rhythm through the board like I planned so I was neither fast nor efficient in the 2 or 3 legal jumps I got in. That said, the best way to bounce back from a disappointing competitive performance is to figure out exactly what went wrong and toil away in practice until things are corrected; especially since World Champs and the outdoor season are the true goals.

So in spite of the fact that the snow in Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia this week has made it pretty difficult to get to the track on some days, I’ve managed to have a great week of training thus far. My coach and I tweaked my approach once again and it feels amazing, far better and more comfortable than it did before NY. On top of that I’ve been working, little by little, fixing my left arm on my hop phase to ensure that it gets back, even if it’s just a little bit.

Here’s the product of that work from a short, very short, approach. Some more speed should push each phase out a bit more, particularly the step And please excuse the commentary from my roommate/training partner/videographer Jeff, I suppose he enjoys workin’ the camera; although he is right about the road to Doha:

And I’ve added one more meet before Worlds, so I’ll be competing somewhere next weekend, though I suppose I should figure that out ASAP; and I’ll also be taking a couple jumps in Liévin, France before heading over to Doha. I was pretty excited at hearing about the invitation to my first “pro” meet. The meet in France will act as a final systems check before the big show. Check out my meet schedule for the links and more info.

So now the 2010 track and field season is very much underway; not just for me, but for the majority of people who intend on competing indoors (and even some of those who aren’t attempting to head to Doha in March). This weekend, I’ll be competing in my “2nd” meet of the year at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational, to be held at the Armory in New York City. I say “2nd” meet because my interesting experience at an All-Comers meet a couple weeks ago ended up being more of a practice than anything…and not even a glorified practice. Couple that with the 3 rather than 6 jumps that I got at Texas A & M the week before and the two together might equate to one full competition. In any case, I’m pretty excited about competing this weekend.

Being from NY, I competed at the Armory while in high school so it’s always great to go back, not to mention the fact that my family and a couple friends usually make an attempt to come check me out at the meet. There’s also usually some worthwhile competition and this year will be no different. It all makes this weekend the perfect occasion to put a big mark out there and let people know I mean business (although other people’s expectations for me going into Worlds make no difference in the end). So, I figured I’d briefly share a preview of sorts on what I’m aiming for, expecting and looking to work on this weekend.

As you can all imagine, it has been a particularly difficult week, given the catastrophic earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday. My family was indeed affected by the tragedy, and though we still have not had direct contact with my relatives on the island, we have received news that most of my relatives are “ok.” My grandparents were staying in Port-au-Prince and several of my family members actually flew down to Haiti on Tuesday, hours before the earthquake. So what “ok” exactly entails will remain a mystery until someone can get through via telephone. With that said, although we had some idea before, my teammate Moise Joseph and I agreed that we’re now a bit more cognizant of the fact that our competing internationally for Haiti isn’t just about us. I had been planning on opening my season this past weekend for some time now though and still ended up heading down to College Station, TX and the Texas A&M Invitational to do just that.

I still have plenty of things to work on…but it’s the first weekend of January, which means that track and field season is officially here! No offense to all the cross country fans, but this is what I’ve been waiting for, both as a fan and a competitor. Since the World Indoor Championships are truly all that matters for me this indoor season, I have no problem working on things as the season progresses because I know that it means that I will be good to go once March 12th arrives. Now sure there were a good number of meets in December, but I’m willing to bet that even the folks who competed in those meets didn’t really consider them to be the start of the 2010 season. Today though, the season truly got underway.

I attended a meet at George Mason University and watched my girlfriend Ayanna compete in her “second” meet (since she triple jumped at a small meet in December), while the kids I coach at George Mason were getting their first taste of things. To be honest, I didn’t even stay to watch the men’s triple jump and since there were no George Mason athletes competing in the event, I don’t feel bad at all. Watching Ayanna handle business in the women’s triple jump, coupled with the anxiety of some of the collegiate athletes in the field house was all I needed to get me riled up and ready to compete. So even though all I did was hit the weight room today (for what was a high quality lifting session I might add), I’m definitely ready to get this show on the road! For now, I’ll spend a good amount of time tomorrow and Monday checking meet results just for the heck of it.

All signs indicate that I’ll be opening my season next weekend, although I’m not sure on the exact meet yet. I will update everybody on the “where” once I can say for sure. 2010…let’s get it!

One semester of school down, one more to go and now I’ve got a good month to myself before I get started on that last semester. Though I’ll readily admit that I am a bit tired of school, I am at the very least thankful for the time off between semesters and during the summer. I know that such vacations will be no more once I begin my stint in the “real world.” In any case, now I get to spend about two out of my four free weeks at home, with my family in Newburgh, New York. Oddly enough, I’m not one of those people who really ever gets tired of being home. In fact, when I’m home, I rarely leave the house…except to visit other family members and of course get my workouts in. One of the downsides of being home though is definitely the fact that the workouts I do get in, end up being pretty makeshift compared to what I usually get done down in Virginia.

Taking into account the fact that I don’t have an indoor facility to use on a consistent basis, my coach suggested that I take these next couple of weeks “easy.” That said, even though when I’m home I definitely still keep my lifting up as much as possible, there’s nothing like having platforms and bumper plates so you can throw your weights around during Olympic lifts. Since I just lift at a family-type gym nearby, I usually have to bring my weight percentages down a notch or two so I can actually catch the weights after each rep and avoid getting tossed out of the place for putting a hole in the ground. Luckily, I don’t have the same problem with squats so I’ll power through in that department in anticipation of things being taken up another level in January.

So now that the official announcement of the IAAF Diamond League is a couple of weeks behind us, and I’ve had time to gather my thoughts, I figured I’d take a quick break from studying for final exams and writing papers to share some of  those thoughts. Let me start off by saying that I LOVE my sport. If you know me, you know that I’m a huge fan of pretty much all sports, but I am truly passionate about athletics from top to bottom; 100m or javelin to 10,000m and shot put. What has been apparent recently is that the reception of athletics amongst fans and sponsors has not been what it necessarily should be between Olympic years. Sure every four years, track and field beats out gymnastics and swimming for the most popular sport at each Olympiad but as we all know, there are tons of very significant events and worthwhile individual storylines in “the mean and in between.”

For what is considered the second most popular sport worldwide (2nd to football…as in FIFA football, of course) as far as sheer numbers of participants and fans are concerned, athletics has suffered from relatively poor fan reception particularly outside of Europe.  So since 1998 the main staple of the IAAF’s World Athletics Tour/Series, the Golden League, was an attempt to generate interest and improve the sport’s following as fans kept up with certain athletes attempting to win a $1 million jackpot. It was eventually recognized that from a business standpoint,  the Golden League with all its meets in Europe, wasn’t doing enough to improve the sport’s appeal where it needed the most help. On top of that, fans began to scratch their heads as it seemed like the top athletes in each event would duck and dodge one another; which doesn’t seem to happen in tennis for example, which is the non-team sport people seem comfortable comparing athletics to. I feel that, unlike athletics, the fact that there is generally more money in tennis allows Rafael Nadal to lose to Roger Federer or vice versa, and not suffer as much monetarily as far as future appearance fees and winnings are concerned; but that is an entirely different issue. But let’s not forget the fact that the majority of athletes were unhappy with the “League” since it seemed to feature the saaaame “big money” events year in and year out. In comes the Diamond League – Year One: 2010.

Monday evening happened to be the first time I’ve laid eyes on my jump spikes since August 16th; the date of the qualifying round for the Men’s Triple Jump in Berlin. True story. I even joked with my training partners about how I had to clean out some remnants of “Berlin sand” before I put the spikes back on. Moving past that though, this week unofficially marks a new phase for my training group since lifting has changed a bit and more importantly, because we’ve started up with some light technique work! Until now, all of my jumping and bounding has been with some sort of resistance: either a weight vest or with 18 inch boxes. Things with the boxes have been going well and I’ve started with them as far apart as last year, which is encouraging but Monday’s jump workout was essentially a test of where I am; at least it was in my own mind.

After a pretty good warmup and lots of jumping drills to make sure the legs were ready to bounce, including long jumps off of my left leg which felt awkward because I’m a right legged long jumper, we were ready to rock. The workout was pretty simple, and light as I mentioned, beginning with short approach triple jumps from 6 strides, then a few from 8, and a couple from 10. I’ll admit, my first jump from 6 strides was far from spectacular, in fact, I don’t even think I completed the attempt. Not the best way to “start” the season but that one attempt definitely didn’t define the training session. I was trying too hard and had to slow things down and calm down a bit so that I could get the most out of the workout; eventually I feel I was able to do that.

The goal was really just to ease back into things and work on rhythm. Once we got back to 8 strides I figured that if I just focused on maintaining a solid rhythm through all three phases of each jump, the strength that I’ve been working on up to this point would carry me out past 50 feet (15.24m) without much effort. As I’m sure you can guess, that’s where the phrase “Easy 50″ came from. Nevermind the fact that just hitting 50 feet was the goal for about half of my collegiate career, reminding myself that I am now just looking for easy 50s helps me slow down, relax and focus on jumping efficiently and with proper technique rather than worrying about jumping “far.” I consider Monday’s workout to be a success simply because I can’t recall jumping 50+ feet from 8 or even 10 steps, let alone in November or with such ease. It was perhaps even more of a success because I now have in mind some things that I’ll have to perfect before I can take on the rest of the world in March and beyond. Things like keeping my posture throughout the jump, my timing, my speed and being careful not to land prematurely. The first few factors will come with time, reps and as our training is geared to work on those specific things but I still like knowing what’s holding me back. All the better to correct the shortcomings.

Happy Thanksgiving y’all!