Alan's 2013 Season Log

[RogerWS76]

Listening!!! (And you just DID write it down!)

[Alan H]

I'm listening, too! I'm convinced about the hammer-0-rama, convinced enough to give it a shot. I'm also convinced that I need to drop 30-35 pounds. 275 is plenty big enough to be doing this stuff.

No worries about training the 56 too much. I know, now that I can do, maybe 5-6-7 throws for distance with the 42 pounder, and that's it, in a workout. I never throw the 42 on consecutive days. I will have to scale that back when I'm throwing the 56. It would be nice to be able to chuck the 56'er about 26 feet in Scotland. Right now I can stick it out to 22-23 on a reasonable day, and I've done 24 in practice.

See, I know that I have no chance of placing well at any of these Games in Scotland. Well...I might place in the top 5 in some events at Inverness, if they have a really low turnout, like they did in 2011. I'm realistic about that. It's the going, and the being-there that counts....be ON the field, doing my thing to the best of my ability. I have no illusions about winning anything.

In WOB, I can clear 10 feet with the 56 pretty much every time and I can clear 11 fairly often on a fixed bar. Sinclair Patience is the Home Boy at Inverness and Sinclair usually goes 14 in WOB, he just got 15 for the first time a couple of weeks ago. So I can come in at 10 and it'll be OK. If they were going to top out at 18, then 10 would be dumb. If I train the 56 in wob I might be able to get it clean at 11 feet, which would be cool, but I'm not even thinking about 12.

My goals for the Scotland trip? A.) To just do it and to not suck. B.) to pick, carry, and give it a go, at the Inverary Caber Champs. There's no way I'll turn the Inverary stick, it's the Scottish National Caber Champs and the stick will be enormous, but if I can pick it, control it, and give it a good run-up then that's a victory as far as I'm concerned. C.) to wrap my mitts around the Dinnie Stones and pull. I'd like to get the bigger stone off the ground, at least an inch! D.) to give the Inver Stone a go. It'd be cool to get it to my chest, no way in this lifetime that I'll press it, and I'll faint if I get it to my shoulder.

I'm not going to throw at the Masters Worlds at Inverness in September, I want to throw at a SCOTTISH Games, not an American Games, transplanted to Scotland.

[RogerWS76]

Well, since there is no sheaf that the MWC, it can hardly be called an American Game, Ha!

[Alan H]

I just checked with Sinclair Patience... the actual Inverness Games are 5 events:

1. 16 pound hammer
2. 28 pound weight
3. 56 pounds over the bar
4. 26 pound Braemar throw
5. Caber, and since they busted their old ones, two of 'em in 2012, they have a new one and it's a monsters...19 feet and 100+ pounds. There's video of Sinclair NOT turning it, on YouTube, so that says something. Maybe they'll cut a foot off of it!

I checked the 2012 results at Inverness.

Sinclair won, and there was another guy throwing at nearly his level. There was a total of 9 male athletes. I can beat one of them pretty much for sure, and throw more or less even with another one. There's another guy that I can maybe hang with, if I have a really good day. My point is that I won't be grossly in last place by a mile in every event.

A couple guys cleared 10 feet in WOB, and two got 11 feet. Sinclair won, I think with 14.
Sinclair won the 28 weight throw with 73 feet. Next down the list was high 60's, then another 60-something. Last place was just shy of 40. If I threw a 49-50 footer I'd have placed 6th. so in other words, I won't be out of place at this event.


There were also 3 female athletes and they were pretty good, but not phenomenal, except that one lass got 16 with her WOB and that's no slouch. Bethany can hang with them in the other events.

Inverary will be a completely different affair!

---------------------

Last night practice, I did next to nothing, and just played coach. Hips are still recovering from Pleasanton. Nate Tuffanelli was out for practice, the guy has good potential. After a toeboard sequence and some warm-ups, he threw a couple of solid 30 foot Braemar tosses. LWFD, got one out to 41, most around 38, he'll get better, fast. Hammers are low 70's but we didn't do much with it, and he had to leave.

I did some line drills with the 21 pound weight, to demonstrate for Nate. I think I did three light hammer throws, which made me realize that at Pleasanton, I lifted into the last wind, but I didn't push AT ALL, which is why I sucked so badly. Ah, well. Today my hips are better, but I still need to rest so I will take it very easy and play coach again.

I have a thrower who clearly is more interested in talking and chatting, than in throwing and getting better (not Nate) and it's getting on my nerves. I've noticed it before, but last night was bad. We were out there for almost 30 minutes, in which time I did my 3 throws, he did 3 hammer throws, and the rest of the time I listened to him talk. I have to think on how to handle this issue.

Nate, Denise and Denise's son will be going to Fresno, which is *great*!

[Alan H]

I just looked up the results from Rosneath, this year...hahahaha!!! Scott Rider, Bruce Robb and Lorne Colthart! ha. OK, then. Reality check!

Events...
16 pound shotput, 22 pound shotput, 56 over the bar, 28 LWFD, 16 hammer, 22 hammer, caber.

NO WIDOWMAKER FOR DISTANCE. Suh-weet. That's the Big Boyz class. They also have a "locals" class, which they may or may not allow me to take part in, since I'll be ridiculously outclassed in the Big Boyz Class.

16 pound shotput, 16 pound hammer, 42 pounds over the bar, sheaf and caber

[Alan H]

I played coach last night - "new girl" Denise, Gregor, Schantae and Ted were at practice. I hardly threw at all, just demo'd some stuff and we did some line drills. Denise picks up stuff fast, she's going to be good.

When everybody went home I threw 5 LWFD in the dark by myself. I paced 'em off, everything significantly over 50- feet. I really tried to MOVE FORWARD on the first turn, and wait a bit, to make it quick and not foul out the back. Then three 16 pound hammer throws and packed it in. Now, a solid week off with no throws, as we're going camping.

[Alan H]

I have now done absolutely NOTHING regarding throwing for over a week and I feel great. We spent the last week driving to/from the Eastern Sierra, and then hiking every afternoon. Hikes were all over 10,000 feet, with the easiest warmup being 3 miles and topping out at 8.5 miles and 11,300+ feet at Morgan Pass on Thursday.

I'm not going to do ANYTHING until Tuesday practice and see if my hips and core are back to full strength, after being horribly overtrained and tired for Pleasanton.

[Alan H]

First practice in a while, it was fun to be out there. Lance's back is killing him, I think he might be wrapping it up for the year. I got after Ryan to rip a few tosses, he launched his first 50+ foot LWFD throw last night...51' 1" and that's a single spin. He gets excellent speed in his last hammer, wind he just needs to learn to not pull it down and over, and he'll go 90+ feet. No more C class for Ryan.

Denise has been religiously coming to practice for a couple of weeks now and it's paying off. She's getting better by leaps and bounds....very rewarding to see.

Me? I did about 6-7 Open Stone throws. They feel good, I'm fast and strong, but they only go 30-31 feet. More legs, I suspect, and keeping my thumb down. I'm shoving the rock into my jaw, hard at the setup like Adriane told me and really trying to not drop my right elbow. I'm also making a fist with my left hand, it might be helping. Or not. I dunno. I don't expect any breakthroughs here, for the next month.

HWFD has completely fallen apart, to ridiculous extremes. It's just pathetic. It's not my big goal for the next two Games so whatever. It is what it is.

I threw LWFD about 6x last night and everybody is telling me that I'm now moving forward about a foot with my first turn. So no more fouling out the back. I just need to do that, and do it some more, and do it again until I vomit, to totally and utterly break my "out the back" habit. All throws over 50 feet, and I'm told that I'm staying down with knees bent pretty well through the throw.

6 light hammer tosses, iffy...some good, some OK. I just need to do what I figured out earlier in the season, and do it well and I'll got 80+ at Dixon and Ventura.

WOB...I did about 6 tosses, focusing on one thing and one thing only....fast hip slam. Upshot was, over 12 easily, over 13 with plenty of height, but somewhat less accuracy. Whack the bar at 13' 6.

[Alan H]

Short practice in the gloaming, last night. I wrote that just so I could write the word "gloaming:.

My weight throws are a mess. I'll stick one, then fall apart. My body knows no pattern, it's completely confused. I think the thing to do is just stop throwing weights and quit thinking about it. It's too late in the season to fix anything, so whatever happens at Dixon and Ventura, happens.

On the other hand, hammers are going well. So I'm liking that. I put two out to around 88 feet last night, which is very nice. Sheaf standards go up tomorrow, and we start working on sheaf for Ventura.

[Martin Roy]

Are you sure that sheaf is happening at Ventura? I know we've done it the last three years that I've been going, but I thought I read a comment awhile back by Ryan Seckman that sheaf wasn't certain this year.