Leaving for Jamaica on Wednesday to compete Friday Saturday. This past week has been more touch-up work than anything else to make sure that I am ready to compete for my third decathlon of the season.
I am super excited to travel to Jamaica and have high hopes on what the outcome of the meet will be. With what I have been able to accomplish in practices and in competitions over the past few weeks, I feel like I am ready to set a personal best in the decathlon. Hopefully the weather and the accommodations will provide a scenario for a big score.
This week we worked a lot on my high jumping as it has been touch and go since the first decathlon. The rhythm and the jump are looking much better than a few weeks ago. We did some springboard jumping that I thought you all might want to see. We do this for many reasons but one is to practice the "climb" during the jump, meaning the time spent during the vertical leap. Here is a couple attempts at 7'4 that I almost made:
Pretty close on all the jumps I had and I was able to get the feeling that I have been lacking during the competitions, and that is to just jump high!!
Hit a little shotput practice this week as well and continued to work on pushing the ball a little bit more. Here's a good one from practice:
Other than that I feel that I am ready to go. Did a little hurdles and javelin today and then tomorrow completely off, travel Wednesday, warm up and shake out Thursday, and then compete Friday Saturday, then back home Sunday night. I am told that this link should have results and photos if you have facebook but who knows. If not check either of these, link 1, or link 2, and click on NACAC Championships on the last one. For some reason they never do a good job of posting results during meets like this but hopefully there will be something up.
I'll do my best to try to update while I am down there but who knows if we will have Internet and what the time schedule might be. At any rate wish me luck and I will update for sure when I get back stateside! Thanks for all the support, you all rock!!!
Chris Randolph
Monday, May 23, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
7814 and a look at Toyota
The Claremont Decathlon was a success. Here is how it went:
The first day started off well with a solid 100 meter time with 11.25 and I felt strong and fast and ready to compete. In long jump I only had one fair mark at 6.99 about 23 feet which was a bummer because the two jumps after that were closer to 25 feet but I scratched them by an inch or so. A little discouraged I moved on to shot put were I struggled to muster a 44 foot shot put. Knowing that I had strong events ahead I didn't let it get me down and pressed on to high jump. Jack and I have been spending a lot of time working on the penultimate step leading up to the plant, and without him at the meet I had a hard time telling if I was doing the correct motion. I only jumped 6'4, but I know how well I can jump and look forward to the meets ahead and doing the correct motions. Felt a little exhausted during the 400 meters but still ran a decent 50.48. After decompressing the day I knew that even though I was already a tad behind on my previous score at Mt. Sac Relays I could still post a better second day score and put up a season best.
The second day I ran a tentative 14.88 and felt really close to the hurdles so I backed off a little and tried to work on the form and running solid. Both days saw a lot of tail wind and I did my best to compensate and work on the rhythm. Discus I put out a great throw at 151 feet that caught the wind perfectly. Still feeling great we moved on to pole vault where I jumped 15'7 and felt confident at the next heights but just needed a bigger pole. Javelin was an event that I was really looking forward to and I threw close to a personal best at 202 feet and really wasn't hitting the point so I know there is more in the tank. The 1500 felt great also as I concentrated on my training and ran a season best time at 4:32 and felt strong and confident all the way through the end. Total points for the meet rounded 7814 and broke the stadium record which always makes you feel good.
As the days continue to pass after the meet it is good for me to look back and see the moments where I competed very well and also the moments where I struggled with my concentration. A decathlon is always full of ups and downs and never turns out the way you think it would. The best thing to do is to focus on what YOU can do to compete to your full potential. And I am getting much better at finding that place. Its exciting to see where I can pick up close to 400 easy points in the next decathlon.
This week is mostly recovery and a preparation for the meet in Jamaica next week for the America's Cup. I am really looking forward to getting down there an putting up an even bigger score!
In other news if you missed the Toyota commercial that I was in check this link and click on the "Beyond Limits" video. It was pretty cool to see this on the IAAF site. Stay tuned for another update next week before the Jamaica dec, let me know if you want to see anything!!
The first day started off well with a solid 100 meter time with 11.25 and I felt strong and fast and ready to compete. In long jump I only had one fair mark at 6.99 about 23 feet which was a bummer because the two jumps after that were closer to 25 feet but I scratched them by an inch or so. A little discouraged I moved on to shot put were I struggled to muster a 44 foot shot put. Knowing that I had strong events ahead I didn't let it get me down and pressed on to high jump. Jack and I have been spending a lot of time working on the penultimate step leading up to the plant, and without him at the meet I had a hard time telling if I was doing the correct motion. I only jumped 6'4, but I know how well I can jump and look forward to the meets ahead and doing the correct motions. Felt a little exhausted during the 400 meters but still ran a decent 50.48. After decompressing the day I knew that even though I was already a tad behind on my previous score at Mt. Sac Relays I could still post a better second day score and put up a season best.
The second day I ran a tentative 14.88 and felt really close to the hurdles so I backed off a little and tried to work on the form and running solid. Both days saw a lot of tail wind and I did my best to compensate and work on the rhythm. Discus I put out a great throw at 151 feet that caught the wind perfectly. Still feeling great we moved on to pole vault where I jumped 15'7 and felt confident at the next heights but just needed a bigger pole. Javelin was an event that I was really looking forward to and I threw close to a personal best at 202 feet and really wasn't hitting the point so I know there is more in the tank. The 1500 felt great also as I concentrated on my training and ran a season best time at 4:32 and felt strong and confident all the way through the end. Total points for the meet rounded 7814 and broke the stadium record which always makes you feel good.
As the days continue to pass after the meet it is good for me to look back and see the moments where I competed very well and also the moments where I struggled with my concentration. A decathlon is always full of ups and downs and never turns out the way you think it would. The best thing to do is to focus on what YOU can do to compete to your full potential. And I am getting much better at finding that place. Its exciting to see where I can pick up close to 400 easy points in the next decathlon.
This week is mostly recovery and a preparation for the meet in Jamaica next week for the America's Cup. I am really looking forward to getting down there an putting up an even bigger score!
In other news if you missed the Toyota commercial that I was in check this link and click on the "Beyond Limits" video. It was pretty cool to see this on the IAAF site. Stay tuned for another update next week before the Jamaica dec, let me know if you want to see anything!!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Claremont Decathlon
Leaving tonight to head down the LA to compete in the Claremont Decathlon slated for tomorrow and Friday. I am excited to compete again and feel like this is a great opportunity for me to put up a high score and prepare myself in two weeks for my trip to Jamaica. The decathlon starts at 2:00 on both Thursday and Friday and you can check results on the Claremont Athletics Page, they should be posted after each event.
Practices this past week have been some of the best of my career and I can't wait to display the new things that I have learned down at Claremont. The decathlon should go fast as there are only 7 competitors which makes doing ten events easier when you don't have to wait for 20 guys to complete an event.
I thought I would post a link to the ESPN 1280 "Living the Run" show that aired last week Wednesday with Paul Terek, Ryan Foran and I. Click here to listen to the broadcast online, there was some good information and a lot of making fun of one another, should be entertaining to listen to.
Other than that wish me luck this week down in LA and I will do a post after to comp to let everyone know how I did. Thanks for the support!
Chris Randolph
Practices this past week have been some of the best of my career and I can't wait to display the new things that I have learned down at Claremont. The decathlon should go fast as there are only 7 competitors which makes doing ten events easier when you don't have to wait for 20 guys to complete an event.
I thought I would post a link to the ESPN 1280 "Living the Run" show that aired last week Wednesday with Paul Terek, Ryan Foran and I. Click here to listen to the broadcast online, there was some good information and a lot of making fun of one another, should be entertaining to listen to.
Other than that wish me luck this week down in LA and I will do a post after to comp to let everyone know how I did. Thanks for the support!
Chris Randolph
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
ESPN Radio 1280
Tune in tonight blog followers at 6:00pm to ESPN Radio 1280 or http://espnradio1280.com/ for the "Living the Run" show. You will hear Paul Terek, Ryan Foran, and I talk sports, nutrition, and banter back and forth about random happenings which will include a lot of making fun of one another. Should be entertaining!!
Chris Randolph
Chris Randolph
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Twitter Time!
A quick update to let you all know that you can now follow me on Twitter @ChrisRando. Welcome to the digital age!!
Friday, April 29, 2011
The General Specific
After a double day Thursday of straight up running it was about time that I worked on some specific event training on both of the events that I really struggled with in the decathlon at Mt. Sac.
The first event for today was the high jump, usually my bread and butter event. Over the past few years I have developed some ugly habits, one of them is running my right foot (the penultimate step before the jump) out of the curve. When that happens the velocity of the run up gets diminished and you loose a lot of force that normally propels you up over the bar. Today's task was to keep the penultimate foot in line and put a quicker more aggressive block through. Here's a mock jump of what we were practicing:
The acceleration into the jump and hip positioning is what to look at. When you watch this next one you can see how the force from my hips get accelerated up over the bar.
The second event of the day was the javelin, an event that I have made huge strides in and yet have not put it together in a competition to produce a good throw. Today's task was similar to high jump. Run off the right foot and stay behind the block (left leg) to put more energy into the throw. We started small with short throws and then progressed to a full throw. This is the first time in my career as a decathlete that I have had a full run up to the javelin. Here are a couple below:
Both throws were great indications that I am ready to throw a bomber in a meet very shortly. It feels incredible to continue building confidence in these two events. It is also extremely encouraging to feel some major power back in my legs. All the running workouts are molding me back into the runner I was born to be. Everything is falling into place as it should with meets to prove it on the horizon. Stay tuned!
The first event for today was the high jump, usually my bread and butter event. Over the past few years I have developed some ugly habits, one of them is running my right foot (the penultimate step before the jump) out of the curve. When that happens the velocity of the run up gets diminished and you loose a lot of force that normally propels you up over the bar. Today's task was to keep the penultimate foot in line and put a quicker more aggressive block through. Here's a mock jump of what we were practicing:
The acceleration into the jump and hip positioning is what to look at. When you watch this next one you can see how the force from my hips get accelerated up over the bar.
The second event of the day was the javelin, an event that I have made huge strides in and yet have not put it together in a competition to produce a good throw. Today's task was similar to high jump. Run off the right foot and stay behind the block (left leg) to put more energy into the throw. We started small with short throws and then progressed to a full throw. This is the first time in my career as a decathlete that I have had a full run up to the javelin. Here are a couple below:
Both throws were great indications that I am ready to throw a bomber in a meet very shortly. It feels incredible to continue building confidence in these two events. It is also extremely encouraging to feel some major power back in my legs. All the running workouts are molding me back into the runner I was born to be. Everything is falling into place as it should with meets to prove it on the horizon. Stay tuned!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Running it down
As another week goes by the emphasis remains the same: run, run, and the come back later and run again.
After missing a multitude of running workouts about midway through training because of various sicknesses, it feels good to be putting my body through the paces and multiple repeats on the track. I can feel myself getting stronger by the day and I can't wait to compete in the upcoming decathlon at Claremont on May 12th and 13th.
In other track related news I received an email from USATF that they would like me to compete in the Americas Cup in Jamaica on May 28th and 29th for team USA! I did this meet two years ago and placed 3rd and was able to get some good prize money and a big score. I'm hoping that this year will be the same and as it looks on the calendar right now, May is going to be a really busy month.
But a busy month is exactly what I need. More competitions and more running workouts are what make a great decathlete even better. Check below a couple of short approach pole vault videos that happened today. Mostly working on the run and not the swing but my legs where feeling the intensity still of Monday's 2 X 1000m, then one mile jog the corner stride the straights workout. Thank Jack for that one. Another update soon!
After missing a multitude of running workouts about midway through training because of various sicknesses, it feels good to be putting my body through the paces and multiple repeats on the track. I can feel myself getting stronger by the day and I can't wait to compete in the upcoming decathlon at Claremont on May 12th and 13th.
In other track related news I received an email from USATF that they would like me to compete in the Americas Cup in Jamaica on May 28th and 29th for team USA! I did this meet two years ago and placed 3rd and was able to get some good prize money and a big score. I'm hoping that this year will be the same and as it looks on the calendar right now, May is going to be a really busy month.
But a busy month is exactly what I need. More competitions and more running workouts are what make a great decathlete even better. Check below a couple of short approach pole vault videos that happened today. Mostly working on the run and not the swing but my legs where feeling the intensity still of Monday's 2 X 1000m, then one mile jog the corner stride the straights workout. Thank Jack for that one. Another update soon!
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