Friday, November 04, 2005
Sparkie Pole Vaults
OK - the correct title should have been "Sparkie shuffles with a pole vault in his hands and jumps into a sand pit", but the marketing people said it didn't appeal to our target demographics. But yes, after several months of promising, I showed up to my first pole vault session yesterday. I left with mixed feelings - on the one hand, quite a few things came naturally, and I was not a total clutz (particularly as my left hamstring is still far from perfect), but on the other hand, it as a very technically demanding event, there is so much to learn and yesterday was the equivalent of getting up from the couch and jogging to the corner as part of preparing to run a marathon. However, when I left, I asked Jim (my coach) how long it will be before I might actually get over a bar (expecting a vague, ego-sparing answer) - his reply - "if you come to training on Sunday - you'll clear something then". However, this 'something' is likely to be in the vicinity of 2 meters - which barely qualifies as a jump. Still, the first time I hit the mat will be pretty exciting.
This was a big lift after another week of no running due to my dodgy hamstring. Physio has been going well (although Liz would be mortified if she knew I was running round with 3 meter poles in my hand), and in a week of getting my act together, got back into weight training, doing an hour of upper body work twice this week. Coupled with daily strecthing and abdominal work, I have been making forward progress in my fitness - I even managed to fit in 2km in the pool on Wednesday (a pleasing effort, given I haven't swum since March).
The shot put and discus I have on order are stuck in the Customs IT nightmare, but I checked out the throwing and horizontal jumping facilities at a nearby oval, which are remarkably good (given the running track is a shocker), so once the leg is good again, I can start doing some field event training sessions there in the mornings. High jump coaching is the only real gap at the moment, and once the leg is sorted, a have a couple of contacts already.
Despite the hamstring, life in general is falling into place nicely. Working from home is going really well - I am being very productive, and my client is really happy with the output, but I am also seeing lots more of Louis and Amelia, which is making me love fatherhood even more and has been a big boost to my marriage, as we now have the time to communicate, and share the workload around our other commitments. Hell - I've even done some things around the house (well actually, I called the tradesman and he came and did them, but that's progress for me). Training is slotting into my schedule nicely, rather than being squeezed around other commitments (having the discipline to get out of bed at 5:30 is making a huge difference here).
You can sit around forever waiting for the right circumstances to come along, or as I discovered this week, you can get off your arse and make it happen right now.
This was a big lift after another week of no running due to my dodgy hamstring. Physio has been going well (although Liz would be mortified if she knew I was running round with 3 meter poles in my hand), and in a week of getting my act together, got back into weight training, doing an hour of upper body work twice this week. Coupled with daily strecthing and abdominal work, I have been making forward progress in my fitness - I even managed to fit in 2km in the pool on Wednesday (a pleasing effort, given I haven't swum since March).
The shot put and discus I have on order are stuck in the Customs IT nightmare, but I checked out the throwing and horizontal jumping facilities at a nearby oval, which are remarkably good (given the running track is a shocker), so once the leg is good again, I can start doing some field event training sessions there in the mornings. High jump coaching is the only real gap at the moment, and once the leg is sorted, a have a couple of contacts already.
Despite the hamstring, life in general is falling into place nicely. Working from home is going really well - I am being very productive, and my client is really happy with the output, but I am also seeing lots more of Louis and Amelia, which is making me love fatherhood even more and has been a big boost to my marriage, as we now have the time to communicate, and share the workload around our other commitments. Hell - I've even done some things around the house (well actually, I called the tradesman and he came and did them, but that's progress for me). Training is slotting into my schedule nicely, rather than being squeezed around other commitments (having the discipline to get out of bed at 5:30 is making a huge difference here).
You can sit around forever waiting for the right circumstances to come along, or as I discovered this week, you can get off your arse and make it happen right now.
