For someone who's "ramping back" I'm still working pretty hard.

[Martin Roy]

Glad you're back.

[Elizabeth]

I personally m glad you are going to be in So Cal for the games. Reading about making the cabers was very interesting.

[Alan H]

We went for a long hike and road trip on Saturday. The hike was about 5 hours worth at Grant County Park, in the hills above San Jose on the east side. You're up about 2700 feet. Anyway, it was a GREAT hike...saw lots of butterflies, frogs in the cattle ponds, lots of widlflowers. However, the wind came up after lunch and my allergies went on overdrive. Two decongestant/antihistamine pills did next to nothing.

That night I took some more and I spend Sunday with all the oomph of a snail. Wow, the mileage, allergies and pills kicked my hiney!

[Alan H]

It's been a good week, though generally speaking distances were not stellar...with one exception.

Tuesday is now Hammer Day for the month, which will end the week before Costa Mesa, as "Hammer Day" is absolutely brutal on core muscles. My goal is to go to Costa Mesa and throw "into the next dimension" of relaxation. The hope is, as always, that the tape will reflect the new skill level. However, if it doesn't, I will still know that I took my hammer throwing up a notch.

TUESDAY:

Stones - started with the toeboard drills and then standing throws with the 16 stone. The truth remains, I throw just as far, standing as I do with all the funny-business footwork. I dropped a few out at 32 feet, which was nice. That kind of wore me out so when we got to Braemar, I didn't have a lot of juju left, so just did 2-3 and knocked off.

Lance is going back to a glide in the open stone. I'm not sure this is a good idea, honestly.

Then, hammers

3 x 35 hammer winds. The last ten in the last 35 are in "the next dimension"... Bethany said that she saw it!
3 x 10, narrow stance hammer winds. The last 5-6 of the last ten are in "the next dimension". These didn't go quite as well.

Then, throws. We did about 6-8, each. Distances were not stellar. Everything decent that I released was over 70, but best of 78, whereas best last week was well into the 80's. However, I'm starting to settle into a 4-wind rhythm that "gets me to the next dimension". So the next two weeks are devoted to making this habit, so that I don't have to think about it.

WEDNESDAY

WOB... Me, Lance, Brendan... and Meghan showed up again! That was nice. We all rotated in for 3-4 sets of 3 throws. I was miles over 12 but couldn't clear 13. Poop. Lance introduced us to a cool new drill he invented, which I'll share with Marty the next time we're together. Anyway, we did that drill 4-5 times and then threw. It's annoying to not clear 13, but this "13" could be as high as 13' 6", my standards aren't very accurate. However, I'm driving the weight back, well, and sitting on it. At the delivery, I'm on the points of my toes with my calves on the verge of cramping. So I'm triple-extending to beat the band. I'm fully extended up, reaching for the bar. So all of that is good. I actually did a set of three with the 56 pounder and handily cleared 10 feet...not by a lot, but cleared it clean, all three times. That was nice. I think that throwing the 56 a bit is good, it's physically demanding. I just don't want to be doing it within two weeks of a Game Day.

Then we did some long-wire drills. I think I need to trim my wire/chain. It's almost 4 feet long. I should shorten it by eight inches. After 3-4 runs down the field with that, I threw the 21 pound masters womens weight-short handle twice, just focusing on 1.) wait in the back and 2.) make this the prettiest, most technically perfect throw that I can.

meh. The first one was good. The second one started great and ended awful.

Then some HWFD. I actually dished up some monster tosses, for me, right out the gate...33, 34 feet. The more I thought about it and practiced doing this or that, the worse it got. sheesh. It took a while for Lance to get it together but he put one HUGE one out to 44 feet. Watch out, Ken Lowther.... here comes Lance Creed.

We shut it down at 7:20 and I dashed off to jazz group practice.

[Alan H]

Prepped five cabers over the weekend, while I had a horrendous head cold...which I still have, BTW.

[Alan H]

Still dealing with the congestion. It's been five days, now for my sinuses and over a month for my right inner ear. I'm not liking this.

We did hammers and weights last night. This month, every Tuesday starts out with 100 hammers winds. Last night I did 35-50-35, so more than 100. Then Brandon and I threw. I'd seen a video on FB yesterday of Jake Sullivan with the 14 pound hammer and he did something that, combined with a memory I have of watching Dan McKim on video a few weeks ago, had me implement a subtle change. I'm also winding 4x now, not 3x. Well, it must have worked 'cause I dished up a mess of throws well over 80- feet. I know where the divots were and I set up cones at 80 feet later and my divots were out at 84-86 feet. That's HUGE for me. On one throw, the speed was almost frightening. I commented to Brendan "I don't think I can ever get the hammer head moving faster than that". Upshot is....to throw father don't throw HARDER. My new mantra is Relax more!

Then we did some weights, which were *meh*. I am smooth as all get out, but distances are down 2-3 feet from last year. Well, Brendan left to go to work and that left me on my own with an hour of daylight left. I just threw the 28. I don't know...20 throws? 25? More? Since I'm not practicing 3x a week now, I don't ever have an opportunity to just throw-throw-throw by myself. Howver, that's exactly what I needed. I hit on the idea of setting up more separation in the first turn, and POW...10 throws of something like 13 landed in a 4 x 4 square foot box out at around 46-67 feet. Bingo. Now I have to cement that.

This was a good practice. Tonight is WOB and SHeaf.

[Alan H]

Lance is just killing it in sheaf. He cleared 28 feet about 5x last night. Wow, just wow.

I'm down at 23. I managed to loft it over 23 feet once last night, but only once out of three tries. I'm solid at 20, 21 and 22. I need more practice at this, and it's hard to get it when we have to set up the standards and break them down every time.

The WOB. I didn't care about height too much last night, I just wanted to do 6-9 throws that all felt good, and that was no problem. Everybody says I have 13 every time so that's good.

An observation: practicing with 1 or 2 other people is great. Practicing with 5, which we had last night for a while, is too much down-time between throws.

Anyway, hammer winds and sheaf on Tuesday next week, then nothing on Wednesday and we shall see what Costa Mesa brings.