Alan's 2013 Season Log

[Martin Roy]

Definitely not what you want going into Pleasanton.

[o1d_dude]

Have a short memory and just go there to have fun.

The throws will take care of themselves.

[Alan H]

Last night after work, I went out and threw three HWFD and three LWFD. Just three. The foam rolling, rolling on a softball, and ice bath helped my hips tremendously, and the throws were MUCH better, in fact one of the LWFD tosses was very good. I feel a LOT better, now.

More foam rolling and softball rolling and stretching were on the menu, before bed last night. I'll do that again tonight, get lots of sleep and eat lots of protein, and go have fun this weekend.

[Martin Roy]

See you there. Kick a$$.

[LitTrog]

It'll all be okay.

Puff, puff, pheeww.


Had them days, even in my short time doing this.

[Alan H]

I got my butt kicked and I threw not-so-great. I was *horrible* in a couple of events and "sorta OK" in most. Thats' all there is to say. I know I'm at my long-term peak and that I shouldn't expect any more days of 2-3 PR's a game, but sheesh. This was a tough bunch of big lads and I just plain got whupped....which I'm totally OK with, but I'm NOT OK with my weights and light hammer.

OK the rundown.

My Braemar stone was OK, but not great. It was sort of typical @ 25' 10". Kirk Taylor had a suggestion for me to help activate my left side in this throw. I took one extra throw that didn't count, doing what he suggested, and put another foot on it. GRR. OK, but at least I can incorporate that in the future. 10th place...just plain outclassed, here.

Open Stone... just over 30. This is two-three feet off what I was doing in practice at Herron Island. Blecccch. Where are the 32 and 33's I was getting last season? Very frustrating, though at least I kept it over 30. 11th place. Totally outclassed.

Heavy Hammer, I went 64' 9" which again is sort of my usual, maybe a bit off. I always want 65+, but 64' 9" is a perfectly respectable throw for me....which go me 9th place! whoah....tough crowd!

Light Hammer. I had no speed, no mojo, nothing. This was the worst outing I've had in light hammer in probably two years, though my miserable performance in hammer at Ventura last year might give this a run for the money. I didn't even get one throw out to 80 feet. 77' 5", for 10th place.

Weight over Bar...I got 13. About half the time I get 13 and half the time I don't, so I'm OK with this, though I would sure like 14 someday. I'm not sure what to do to get there, though. I tied my friend Steve for 8th with that one, and actually, 4 of us topped out at 13, so I'm in good company. I'd have tied for 7th if I hadn't bunged up my first throw....I got it the second time. 13 got me a walk to the podium, in 3rd place, two years ago, though! this is a tough bunch, the bar has been raised in this class!

Light Weight for Distance...I fouled all three throws out the back of the trig. I've only fouled all three throws in an event once before in six years of doing this. Every single thing I've worked on since Portland went out the window. BLECCCH. SO so so so so flippin' sick of this.

Heavy Weight for Distance...fouled my first one out the back again, which was a 33 footer. So I stepped forward a totally ridiculous amount in the trig and managed to get in a semi-halfway decent throw that was nearly 30 feet. I should be throwing 33-34 regularly, so this is really annoying me, and it's all tied into my totally messed-up first turn. H_(*&#R$, I threw 33 in practice on Thursday!. 10th place

Caber...the one bright spot of the weekend, I turned the caber 3x. It was a ridiculous shootout on the stick, the boyz were ON...that stick confounded the class at Dixon last year, and it was the competition stick for the class last year, but we were all just ON. I pulled into 3rd place with a beauty of a toss on my last one, got an.....get this..... 11:57, which edged out Paul Saunders 11:55!.... kind of silly, but from my perspective I nailed one really good one on that caber, and laid down two others which were about 10:45-11:00's and 'tain't nothing wrong with that.

Overall, 10th place, 12 points behind Kirk Taylor in 9th and 9 points ahead of Steve in 11th. The verdict? I didn't throw *great* but the only event I totally, utterly hashed up, was LWFD. I think my throws were about 47-48 footers. If I'd not fouled one of those, I would have come in about 7th or 8th. I'd have dropped 6 points out of my score, and that would have not changed my overall placing, at all. So while it's annoying as h311, in the overall placing, it didn't do much. The flat-out truth is that our local lads...especially Roger and Paul Saunders, have just gotten a LOT better. Dennis Schultz, who won has absolutely and utterly improved beyond belief in the past two years. Richard Campbell and John McClure and Kirk Taylor have "graduated" into my class and they're really good thrower. My age class out here on the West Coast has just gotten a LOT tougher in the past year, and I've gotten better, but the spectacular improvements of past years are over, and it kind of is, what it is.

I know in my heart that there are still one or two lifetime PR's left in this body. I don't think it will happen on stones or hammers, but I could go 26 in sheaf, I had the height for it at Monterey, I just put it outside the standards. If I settle down this nagging issue with my first turn in the weights, I could squeeek out another PR in light weight for distance. And of course, there's Scotland next year to look forward to. It ain't time to retire, yet!!

************

Sundays WOB championship...I had no chance from the outset, but hell if I'm going to show up to Pleasanton and not give it a go! We started at 13 feet and I didn't quite have it, this day, so I was out in the first round. A bunch of guys cleared 14 and I think we topped out at 15.

THE BIG ONE#......this is the one thing that I really came to Pleasanton to do...get on the podium one more time in the Sunday Caber Championships, this is what I've worked my keister off for, for the past 5 weeks, but I just didn't quite have it. I turned the Big Stick twice, for a 10:45 and an 11:00, but I made a change in how I approached the run up on the last throw, and I couldn't lay it down for a third turn. A bunch of guys had 11:30's and 12:00's and I think I finished 5th overall...still, a very respectable showing, in this bunch of lads.

It's funny...hammer used to be my *thing*, and now it's caber! Who'd a thunk it?

Now to plan for the last 5 weeks of the season. I'll be at Dixon and Ventura....Ventura, gunning for the 26 foot PR in sheaf.

[o1d_dude]

Getting old is a drag, Alan. It drives a lot of throwers out of the games.

You have two choices: Continue training like a madman and show up to the big games tired and overtrained -or- follow a more moderate approach recognizing that you can no longer handle the volume of work that you once could.

You're also carrying a lot more bulk than when you started in the games. Drop 50 lbs and work on technique instead of beating your bones and joints up.

Paul and Roger are training mostly with underweight implements as do I. They were skeptical at first but are believers now. The Hamm-O-Rama really works if you take the time to make up a complete set of hammers (10, 12, 14, 16, and 22 lbs) and follow the regimen every week. Three throws with each starting with the lightest. Emphasize technique and don't pay much attention to the distances until you get to the 16 and 22.

In the WFD, make up a 23-25 lb and a 35-36lb and train with them exclusively.

Stones: 14 and 18-19 lbs are good. Drill for technique. Do 15-25 "imitations" daily. That is drill through the delivery without a stone. This imprints the correct technique in muscle memory.

WOB: You must BEND YOUR KNEES. Ask Roger and Paul how many times I have complained about them trying to jump shot the WOB. In Paul's case it's the oompa lumpa toss.

Getting strong is easy. Almost anyone can do it. Getting quick is a whole different matter. There are really no 300 lb fast guys. Just a bunch of guys who move pretty good "for a big guy". Ever seen Bill Lefler throw? He looks like a javelin thrower, lean and wiry. I dunno, maybe he was a rodeo cowboy.

Sailing analogy. A heavy boat sits deeper in the water giving it a larger wetted surface. Same hull but lighter sits higher in the water with a smaller wetted surface and goes faster. I could be all wet on this but you get my drift.

[Alan H]

Yes...the volume has GOT to decrease. What's messed with me this season is three things.... 1.) a sore elbow that I pranged up early in the season, doing drills with a softball. - which has resolved itself pretty well in the past 3 weeks *finally* 2.) this extremely tenacious tendonitis in my hands - which is finally starting to get a little bit better and 3.) the real bug-bear...I'm training more than I ought to and not allowing enough recovery time.

When I started this stuff I used to throw once a week. This season I threw twice or three times a week from April through June. Then I dropped to two times a week in July and August, with a strong charge of throwing a MESS of caber and Ostone the last couple of weeks. I'm dropping down to once a week through Ventura, and actually I'll have a week off, car-camping with Joan so I should recover before Ventura.

I'm getting myself a 14 pound hammer this off season. Roger and Paul and you have convinced me of that. Their hammers have just gone through the roof the past season and a half, clearly they're doing something right!! I think I will make another 42 pound weight and cut down the current 42'er to around 35, and work on that for WOB. I'm sure that I'm strong enough to get 14, it's a speed issue. Kirk Taylor got 14 at Pleasanton, and of course STeve Elliott gets 14 pretty often. My offseason squat and DL are roughly equal to Kirk's and actually a bit bigger than Steve's so there's a lesson to be learned, there.

Next year is going to be interesting. The throwing/training focus for next year will be doing four Games in Scotland and taking a shot at the Inver Stone. I'm going to grab the Dinnie Stones and pull, but I know full well that no matter what I do, I will never lift them so there's no point in training, to try to! Over there, I'm going to have to throw the 56 for height and distance at the Games, though, so I'll need raw strength. However, I'm not throwing any better this year than I did last year, despite that 400 pound deadlift, so I think the off-season plan is going to change. I forsee myself doing something like this.

4-5 weeks off after Ventura. I'm going to do NOTHING but ride my bike to work a lot, and do a caber-cutting expedition up to Douglas Sisk's place in late October. Hopefully this will let my wrists recover from the tendonitis, too.

Mid-November to Christmas.... 6-7 weeks
1.) flat bench, 2.) overhead press, 3.) backsquat, 4.) hang clean plus the usual accessory stuff, but this time, no more 1RM's... Going for 3 RM's. --- and no more big deadlifts. I might sneak in some deadlift series in there just to mix it up, but it's no longer a focus.

January through beginning of March ... more "functional strength and speed"

I think I'm going to do a lot more hang cleans, dumbell snatches and Hungarian core blasters. Once a week, if Lance is up for it, I think we'll load stones and flip tires and bust on the tire we'll get for him, with sledgehammers. If I can't get to Lance's, I'll go down to Shaffer field and load stones and flip tires and bust on a tire down there. And I'll run/bunny hop stadium steps, again.

More speed, less bulk. And yeah, I should drop some significant weight, for my health if nothing else.

Next years Games schedule will probably look like this....

NO to Queen Mary.

April 14th - Ardenwood AD, but I'll probably have some fun with the Ardenwood Stones walk and maybe some MAS wrestling for giggles.
Late April - Woodland, B class not Masters because I want to throw the 56'er in competition a few times before we go to Scotland.
May - Costa Mesa, B class
June - Santa Cruz, B class
July - Scotland... Stirling or Rosneath, then Inverary, then Inverness, then Airth
August - ??
September - Pleasanton if I get an invitation, and Dixon or Fresno. If I don't get an invite to Pleasanton, then I'll probably help out and if they don't need me then I'll have to think about the vague but unlikely possibility of throwing at Calgary, which would be pretty cool, too.
October - Ventura.

And that will wrap up my 8th year of throwing.

[RogerWS76]

Just throw with us in Masters and bring your own 56 to use!!! Geez Alan, that's like a whole year until September before we get to throw with you!!!

[o1d_dude]

Alan, you should talk to some of the pros about how often they train with the 56. Then scale back from because you are not a 20-35 year old pro.

Your plan to train to throw the 56 sounds like a recipe for injury and disappointment. Just saying.

As to your fouling out the back of the trig, sink your hips into a proper position rather than bending over at the waist. It will keep your torso more upright and allow your right foot to stay in the trig. Why is that? Because you can lean back from the weight to control it. If you bend over at the waist you CANNOT lean back from the weight. The weight will control you. Are you listening, Roger? Your first spin should be slow enough that land your footing properly. Speed won't help if you foul out the back. Go into the second spin as fast as you can possibly control. That's where speed counts.

You must remember that a thrower and the weight are a dynamic system. The center of gravity must be somewhere between the thrower and the weight. You control and accelerate the weight by leaning back from the weight to draw the center of gravity closer to you. Bending forward to the weight is the absolute worst thing you can do as it has exactly the opposite effect.

Sticking your left arm out while spinning will help, too, from a system center of gravity perspective.

Then there's the whole high point of the arc over the trig board and the low point being out the back thing. Too far to the right and you bend at the waist and maybe foul out on that side. Too far to the left and you probably will step on or over the line on that side.

I should write this stuff down someday.

http://www.old-dude.com/video/hwfd.mpg

Use that wingspan, Old Dude!