The meet itself ran like clockwork and outside of the two World Championships that I’ve been to in the last year, this was the most spectacular meet I have gotten to experience; and in most ways it was even better than World Indoors in Doha. Despite the cool weather and drizzle, there were 50,000+ people in the stands and they seemed to be engaged for every minute of the competition. There were musical performers performing between events and the announcer was one of the best I’ve heard at a track meet as well. After the meet, they even had fireworks to go with the presentation of the Diamond League winners. I wasn’t in the mood to stay and watch those fireworks or the presentation but it looked great from the bus that I was on heading back to the hotel. All in all, the meet was top notch and I can say that in spite of the fact that I was initially disappointed in my performance. I really hope to be competing at the Memorial Van Damme meeting again in the future! I also got to walk around downtown Brussels a bit on the day after the meet and the city managed to jump right up to my top 3 of favorite foreign cities along with Paris and Berlin (I suppose the list of major foreign cities I’ve visited isn’t quite THAT long…yet).

Now that the season is done I’m still going to be working out a little bit for the next couple of weeks. I’m going to do a light jumping workout next week just to make sure there aren’t any lingering injuries before I truly shut it down for 2010. Of course, by “shut it down” I mean drop down to just a couple days of light, emphasis on light, lifting each week along with some swimming, and biking. I likely won’t have more than a week or two of doing absolutely nothing but I’ll still be sure to get my fair share of R&R in while also supporting Ayanna since she’s powering through till the Commonwealth Games all the way in October!

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.

Aside from hitting the weights relatively hard, I will most likely spend a fair bit of time in the pool over the next couple of weeks. I haven’t done pool workouts since college though so I’m actually looking forward to it. It will most likely just consist of drills and some sprints in the shallow end, which will allow me to get some resistance training in…not very much resistance, but it’s better than nothing. I guess you just have to “make it do what it do” when you can’t put the sprint spikes on and speed down the straightaway. I’m also pretty certain that the pool workouts will help with recovery from the little nagging soreness I have from the intensity of the past couple week’s workouts which consisted of a good amount of box drills and heavy lifting, with some light speed work mixed in.

I also try to link up with my high school coach (Coach Burks) and his team while I’m home. Not to workout really, but rather to spend some time with the kids and share some of the knowledge and experience I’ve gained since leaving Newburgh Free Academy (NFA). Every now and then,  I’ll get lucky and Coach Burks will make use of his connects and get the team into West Point’s indoor facility for a few workouts. It beats running through the high school’s hallways or shoveling snow out of a couple of lanes and hitting the track, which is what we used to do! So, I of course have no problem making the 25 minute drive out to West Point and tagging along with the team for the chance to get a quality workout (even though the pool work definitely serves a purpose during this transition portion of the season). In the event that I make it out to West Point during the break, I’ll definitely try and get some jumping in with the weight vest.

I do have a favorite hill nearby that I like to use whenever the temperature gets above 40-45 degrees during the break, BUT given that the forecast for the next week or so doesn’t mention anything above 35 degrees, I’ll stick to the weights, pool and cross my fingers for an opportunity to head to West Point. I’ll update everybody on how things are going to shape up for the early portion of the indoor season once 2010 gets here. Right now though, all things are pointing towards a January 16th start to my season and I’m looking forward to it. To quote a friend of mine: “2009 was the preparation and 2010 is the execution.” More info to come though…

Happy Holidays folks!