A change of pace

Over about the last week I've modified my training to incorporate more speed... a lot more. I've been throwing a 4k, 5k, and 6k. My reasoning for doing this started with the idea of finding what 80 meters feels like again. I did that last Friday with the 4k, having about 5 throws over 80m. I think being able to throw something over 80m is essential if my goal is to get in the mid to upper 70's with the 16lb. The feel of an 80m throw is very different from a 60 or 70m throw, so I think it's important to learn what that feels like, then try to transfer that feel to heavier balls. So since then I've had some nice numbers with the 5k (81m) and 6k (72m), and more importantly they are feeling more like the technique I produced with the 4k. I think trying to transfer this technique down to my 16lb will encourage a technique that could someday throw a 16lb near 80m. Only time will tell...

Season Bests so far:

4k- 81m
5k- 81m
6k- 72.20m
14lb- 70m
16lb- 65m
18lb- 60.20m

Fall Update

I'm about a month into throwing for the new season, and things are progressing nicely. I eased into training pretty slowly this year, because I think jumping back in too fast is what caused some injuries last fall. The main emphasis of my throwing has been on developing my technique, and eliminating some flaws I've had in the past. For this reason I've only been throwing 16lb and lighter hammers. I feel I've made some good progress over the last month, and I'm just starting to add some heavy hammers. My training distances have had decent conversions between weights so far. Here are my season bests for the first month:

6k- 70m (0nly threw one day early on)
14lb- 70m
16lb- 65m
18lb- 58m

I've set a variety of goals to achieve by Christmas, some related to strength, some related to technique, and some related to throwing distance. I'll elaborate on how those are going later on...

First throws of the season!

Last Friday I took my first throws of the 2010 season. My last throwing session was nearly 3 months ago, and I picked up just about where I left off. I took 10 throws with the 16lb hammer, the lowest being about 61 meters, the farthest being 64.90m. If you look down at my training PR's on this page, I'm not far off. The last month of the season last year I thought I made some big technical advances, and while I didn't throw over the last 3 months, I did do a lot of reflecting about technique, and why things got better in June. This apparently paid off as my best throw was about 4-5 meters better than I've ever started off the season. Should be an exciting year!

Kevin

Start up

With the start of a new season, I'm also starting this blog to talk about my training, competitions, and anything else interesting. This will be my second year training with no coach and writing all my own workouts. Doing this last year helped me to learn some things the hard way. I made some mistakes, had a couple injuries, learned what worked well, and ended up with a decent season. I'm excited to have a whole year with well planned training, improved technique, hopefully no injuries, and some huge throws!