Baby Steps

This afternoon marked the initiation of my 2010 hammer season. Today was also my first meet utilizing my “new” technique of four heel turns instead of a toe and three. Although essentially I am making the same number of turns in the circle, the throw (I feel) is a completely different animal. I’ve been struggling for the past week with the transition and catch between my first and second heel turns, so that was my focus for today. Essentially my thinking is, focus on the beginning of the throw and the rest of the throw will fall into place. I felt today that my first two turns transition and catch was smooth, and I even had a bit of a counter and sat my hips back! What was lacking in my throws today was tempo. My second, third, and fourth turn into delivery were all the same speed and I couldn’t find another gear without pulling my shoulders out of the throw. I was upset with this until I was reminded that I just finished week three of my weight room cycle (next week is a down week! Yay!!!) and am coming off of an injury where I haven’t done any speed or explosive work in two weeks. Derek said that he was pleased with my mark of 64.17meters (210’6”). He told me after my second throw that he was actually pleasantly surprised with the mark and it was a meter and a half further than he thought my best would be today. According to him, because I had had such a difficult week with my throws, he thought that a decent mark would have been a 62.50 or 63m throw. I had more lofty goals of around 65meters and can’t help but feel a bit disappointed. Technically I am pleased with how my throw is progressing, but part of me wants the BIG MARKS now! LOL. I know that it is a process, and sometimes I forget that I haven’t begin my throw with a heel turn in over five years. (and even then it was only a three turn throw and WAY worse!). My goal is for 2012 and I need to keep making successful baby steps to set myself up for the bigger picture. Having expressed my disappointment, keeping things into perspective, last year I only threw 60m(ish) in March with a toe and three heels….. a technique that I threw my personal best mark with. So in a way I consider myself to be 3+ meters ahead of last year. If my best mark this spring is 3+ better than my best mark from last year (68m) I’ll be a very happy hammer girl come July.

As I mentioned before, my training week in the ring was a rough one. I don’t think that I had a single mark over 60meters with the 4k or 10lb hammer. Even my 3.5k throws were nothing to brag about. Although I’ve been able to increase my reps in practice, I am still not back at the 30 throw practices I had worked up to. I think in the past two weeks I only logged 120ish throws (that’s both weeks combined). Generally I would have at least that many in a single week, I’m looking forward to getting that number back up next week.

I have been able to push it again in the weight room, but because of the recovery from my shin mishap I have stayed away from jumps and sprints again this week until I’m back to 100% health. My squat workout was better than last week with my final set of 4 at 365… better than my 335 two weeks ago. My clean and clean pull day went well too, my last set of 4 with clean pull was at 245! Other than that, I have eased back into switches (less aggressive this week with less weight) and have added the side snatch to my snatch day….. that reminds me… I CAUGHT a set of 4 in the snatch at 60kilos (135lbs)!! That’s by far my best for reps ever (I think the last time I MAXED in the snatch it was at 60 kilos! Lol). So once again, my weight room training continues to surpass any of my previous achievements, even from my 2007 season. I know once I find my throw, I’ll be at a fitness level far beyond anything I’ve had in the past. That can only mean good things….baby steps in the ring, baby steps in the weight room, and baby steps with my diet will all add up!