Training Vlog November 2 2013

The Comeback

All is not well in knee-land. It's been 13 months since I suffered a small tear in my left patellar tendon. The past year has been pretty brutal performance-wise. I only came within 75cm of my personal best once and the last time I felt comfortable jumping (without worrying about pain) was August 2012. For the past year and a half there has been a bottle of champagne in my apartment with the number "15" on it, I have been waiting a long time, and I don't really have anything to show for it yet. I have been moving progressively farther away from my goal, regressing by a meter or more but for the first time in a long time my knee is giving me hope. The pain has been getting less severe recently and I've started to incorporate plyos into my program. I was even able to do a couple seven step long jump approaches last Saturday.

   I think if I'm smart I can hit my goal of 15m this year and finally get healthy. I have finally realized as well that there is no point in constantly trying to minimize my caloric intake, right now I'm in a strength block and just trying to get a strong as possible before cutting down to a respectful competition weight. I'm about 170lb's at the moment and on the precipice of cleaning 300lb's for the first time so I have sterngth to spare. The next step after this training block is to incorporate more short approach work and become a "jumper" again. Unfortunately at the moment my training volume is so high that I have hit 6000 or more calories some days. Groceries are expensive!

Here's what I've eaten today: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6apc4ypRUdaYURJcC1oZ0hBSHM/edit?usp=sharing

July 6 2013 Video Log

June 30 2013

June 24 2013

A Change in Physiology

Over the past 12 weeks I've focused on getting strong and powerful. Mission accomplished... But something is lacking, at the moment I am not a triple jumper. I am heavy, inelastic and borderline over-trained. Perfect. It is now time to enter the metaphoric cocoon and emerge a specific type of athlete. Over the next three weeks leading into the first real competition of the season, the training volume will be slowly reduced with a pretty big deload during the final week. All the work in the weight-room will be focused on producing force quickly with the occasional heavy lift thrown in for the sole purpose of maintaining strength.
   A week ago I weighed in at a hefty 81kg which is bar far the most I have ever weighed although this week I weighed in again at 80kg. The main focus all season has been to be in peak form for Canada Games in the second week of August but in order to get there I need to make sure that I am at least semi-peaked for the trials in six weeks. I am hoping to compete at around 74kg which will not be an easy task. First, I don't want to lose my strength, or at least as little as possible. Realistically losing 6kg in 6 weeks is not a healthy goal but I feel I have plenty of excess weight to shed. I just cut out creatine last week which means I should continue to lose excess water wight. I can easily cut out 2-3kg of glycogen weight when I reduce my overall caloric intake and taper down the few days before the meet. And of course I can definitely lose another kg or so in the couple days leading into the meet. This means of actual weight lose I only need to lose 1-2kg in six weeks which is a very realistic goal. Say half the weight I lose comes from fat, I will only have to lose about 1kg of excess muscle which I definitely have at the moment, especially in my upper body. My goal is to continue to eat as healthy as possible and make sure the quality of my workouts doesn't decline at this delicate time.

Turn A Setback Into A Comeback

This truly has been one of the most disappointing seasons of memory, the last time I can remember being so disappointing at the end of a campaign was after my last year of legions nationals and I missed the final by a couple centimeters. I faulted a jump that would have been a huge pb 20+cm and it was the last meet of the season, so just like that I had to wait another year to hit the numbers I knew I was capable of, well the next year I had a very successful season and ended up putting 75cm on my pb.
   I'm feeling pretty broken down right now, finishing the season exactly 1.00m off of my pb. But I know that I can make up the difference pretty quickly, give me 3 technical practices and I'll be right back. But I won't be satisfied with a mere 14.40m this upcoming season, I want to explode. The last outdoor and indoor seasons haven't gone as planned but I have learned so much... I feel like in mind, I'm miles ahead of where I was this time last year, it's just time for my body to catch up too. I want to have that smug moment where I have a huge pb and make everybody wonder where it came from. Essentially I feel like if everything goes right, I have a legitimate shot at breaking 15.00m... Then I can finally break open the bottle of champagne in my room!