Wish Me Luck!!

In a couple of hours I'm heading down to Tom Black Track here at UT for my first meet in what feels like forever!!! Tim Mack has gotten some officials together so that we can have some USATF certified pole vault meets here in town. There are 4 post collegiate vaulters here (training with 4 different coaches... craziness) so getting the chance to jump locally is huge for all of us. The US Championships are less than 3 weeks away. I think only one of us has a realistic shot at qualifying, but it's on all of our minds.

I feel like my practices have gone well lately. I am running from a full run finally, but still gripping low on a really small pole. My biggest challenge has been to push myself past my comfort zone. We have moved my run back significantly, and I'm really trying to push that free take off. Trying and jump up onto the pole rather than simply running off the runway and just letting it take me up. They are really small changes that will have a big impact on my vault. And it's taking me a while to come around. I am still having a lot of run thrus. I know I could go ahead and move my run in, move my grip up again back to where I was last season. And I would have a realistic shot at qualifying in the next 2 meets. But I would rather not give in, keep everything where it is and just push through it a few more weeks until I make that breakthrough. It may mean waiting another year to get my shot at competing at Nationals, but I know it will pay off immensely in the long run.

It will just take one good day on the runway to get over this hurdle, so I am not totally discounting my chances yet. Today my goal is to build on my last few practices. I want to push myself to relax and open up my run. And take off right from the start. I am not worried about heights right now, I just need to embrace that my run feels different and just go with it. If I can minimize the run thrus today I will be happy regardless of the height!!