Training Notes

Today I was blind-sided!!!!! Coach Bondarchuk had a new program waiting for me when I arrived to practice this morning. There was the 9kg hammer waiting for me. lol This is one of the heavier hammers to throw. I felt as if I'd never thrown the hammer in my life. And I'm sure it looked that way as well. That is one heavy hammer. All of my throws very really bad technically and I was getting the right amount of coaching on what I needed to do right. Your rhythm is completely different throughout the throw. So I had 11 throws and I thought I was done until coach told me I had to throw the 6kg hammer as well. Definitely a hard practice.

After being caught off-guard this morning, I at least knew what I'd throw in the afternoon the 7.26kg and 5kg. And despite looking really shaky, I threw a practice P.R. (personal record) of 58.80 meters up from 58.10 meters(April 8th 2007). This is not a bad start for the first day out with the 7.26kg. My technique was not good at all though. I was jumping to my left leg throughout the entire throw and I was not pushing the ball around my left side/leg. So I had my fair share of coaching critiques from Dr. B. But at the end he came to me and told me, in his Ukrainian accent and little grin, "Congratulations Mike, you grow" lol. After having felt bad because my technique was complete trash, those comments sure put a smile on my face.
March 2008
7.26kg
22nd - 58.80m New P.R.

Training notes

Hello everyone,
My training is progressing steadily. We are throwing outside for one session a day and are inside for the other. I'm still on the 5kg program but the volume has been reduced because of my 'down' state. The reduction in volume well help trigger a start towards a peak condition. However, I've been feeling pretty weak over the past week. My distances dropped slightly over a few days but are still above 65m. Coach Bondarchuk thinks that my 5kg should be +70m but if I was entering a down phase in my throwing condition this would explain my throws between 65-68m. I hope this is the case but I wouldn't know for sure until I actually throw over 70m. As time goes by Dr. B will understand my body better and that will help him in knowing where I'm at at different stages in my training cycles.
Marks (5kg hammer)
March 2008
7th - 68.40m
8th - 68.60m PR
11th - 68.50m
12th - 65.90m
15th - 67.50m
18th - 66.10m
21st - 68.70m NEW PR

Training Notes

It's been a while since I last blogged but I've been training hard. The weather is much warmer and favorable now. I caught a cold over the weekend and took two days off from practice. I feel better now and returned to practice on Wednesday.
I'm happy to announce that we trained outside today. Though they may be afternoon practices, it's great to be outside. I threw a p.r. with the 5kg, 68.40m. I think this is a good starting point even though I don't feel great coming off the flu. It will still take some days to adjust to throwing outdoors again.
I'll keep the posts coming.