Martin roy training log

**Alan H** · 24th July 15, 11:22 AM

Well, Damn!.....*blink*

**Martin Roy** · 27th July 15, 11:36 AM

I've been disconnected for the past few days and I have to say I enjoyed it. Anyway....

Last Friday I had an after-work, end-of-the-week throwing session that was ideal. Shaffer Park all to myself and it was a perfect afternoon. Warm, sunny, light breeze and nobody to disrupt the natural silence. When I first arrived I just sat and decompressed for awhile, soaking in the scene. Then I warmed up to do some hammer. Because Monterey isn't a game where blades can be used I simply grabbed the hammer to start, threw it, walked to where it landed, picked it up and threw it again. Many times, all over the field. Realized a couple of small points in my form that could make a difference in distance - I'll work on this at least once more before the weekend.

After getting my fill of the hammer, it was wob. Not super intense, just enough throws to keep the feel close to the surface.

Saturday I was in SF with my daughter to see a performance of the Broadway show, "Matilda", based on the classic Roald Dahl book. Always an enjoyable experience to have lunch and a musical with her. She returns to college in about three weeks so time is a bit short. The play was good but the acoustics were not - very difficult to understand much of the dialogue and lyrics. I thought my hearing was going bad until I read a number of reviews that complained about the same problem. Overall, it's good but it never soared.

Sunday was family obligations day. So tonight, barring something unexpected, back to Shaffer to throw again.

**Martin Roy** · 28th July 15, 09:43 AM

Gman and I at Shaffer last night for a lengthy wfd session, heavy and light. Footwork and positioning are coming along - certainly I feel more comfortable and more fluid than a month ago.

We plan to throw again on Thursday - hammer and caber - and then R&R into the weekend at Monterey.

Right at this moment I'm feeling good about the recent prep work. I've followed the advice heard from several sources: throw more, lift less.

**Martin Roy** · 29th July 15, 09:51 AM

Light lifting and bike last night at the gym. Bench, incline, overhead, many reps with just the bar, going fast to induce blood flow and moderate fatigue. Feeling good for this weekend.

**Martin Roy** · 31st July 15, 09:36 AM

Shaffer Park last night with son for our final throwing prior to Monterey. Gman is with the lightweights on Saturday; I'm with the old(est) guys on Sunday. We focused on heavy hammer and caber; Gman also did some stones while I warmed up. My wrist has been a bit sore and I've stayed away from stones recently to give it a rest.

Monterey generally only does heavy hammer due to space restrictions so we wanted to get some reps. Each of us took about 15 tosses and I was happy with the results. Took video of several throws and things looked okay.

Followed that with about a half dozen pulls on the caber - 17'/80lbs more or less. Since Modesto we've upped our caber work and not surprisingly I'm seeing improvement. Last night I focused on a faster run up, firm plant, quick pull, and looking up as I pull. I'd realized that I was in the habit of pulling while looking straight ahead or slightly down. Looking up opens up the chest and enables more force to be generated in the pull. I got it right on the last two attempts and the pull was clearly stronger.

Leading indicators for Monterey are favorable.
Ready, steady, go.

**Martin Roy** · 4th August 15, 10:28 AM

Monterey was a really good game. I threw well and didn't have any bad throws. Very, very happy with the overall results. The high point, without doubt, was a huge breakthrough in heavy weight for distance. For years I had been stuck at about 20' give or take a few inches. Earlier this year in practice I finally started to go longer and I knew I was approaching a transition point. At Woodland I set a PR of 22 and change but I also knew there was more in the tank. Modesto and Vista for whatever reason were disasters for wfd both heavy and light; I felt like I had no timing and three left feet. At Monterey I broke through with a PR sequence. First throw beat the PR from Woodland by half a foot; second throw went to 24 even; on the third throw everything came together and I hit 26'7". I cannot really express how satisfying it was to finally get the heavy weight out into that range.
Best of all, I can feel that there is still more in the tank.

**Alan H** · 7th August 15, 06:57 PM

26 feet is no joke. You're earning some significant respect with that mark!

**Martin Roy** · 10th August 15, 10:39 AM

It really, really felt good to hit that. Now I'm aiming for more.
The never ending chase continues.

Last week I took off Wednesday and Thursday because I needed some recovery time. Friday I went to the gym for light work. Then Saturday afternoon I went to Shaffer Park for a drilling session. I normally don't throw on Saturdays but I knew that Sunday was going to be family stuff.

I warmed up with wob and did about half a dozen tosses not trying to go high, just to maintain the feeling. After that my main work was wfd - footwork and figuring out ways to increase speed while maintaining control through the trig to the delivery point. Next session will be a hammer day.

**Martin Roy** · 12th August 15, 10:06 AM

Well, that didn't turn out as expected.

Monday I did a moderate lifting session with squats and overhead press. No excessive weight, just wanted some decent reps to loosen up and get blood flowing. No problem during the session.

Tuesday while driving to work I noticed a slight twinge in my right shoulder, a strain twinge, not an impingement twinge. My first thought was that I'd slept on it wrong. That afternoon at Shaffer I got out the hammer and thought that it just needed to be stretched out and it would be fine. After 15-20 easy warm up winds it was clear that it wasn't going to loosen up so I shut it down. Eff.

So I'm treating it as a minor strain that requires a few days rest and recovery to heal; it's actually slightly worse this morning so the hammer winds did not help.

A small bump in the road.

**Martin Roy** · 13th August 15, 11:32 AM

Given that shoulder stuff is out for a few days, I did some fairly heavy leg press work. The leg press set up has you pushing the weight upwards at a 45 degree angle, with focus on the quads. Due to the angle, impressive sounding amounts of weight can be loaded up to push. I finished off with three sets of ten with 450. Aimed for an explosive push, visualizing wob and caber with each rep.

Also did some bike and elliptical, along with several other light moves to loosen the shoulder without taxing it.
Not a bad work out.