Wednesday, September 7, 2011

9/3 & 9/4/11 Pleasanton Games

I'm going to skip the prior posts mainly because they are all just deload workouts working up to this. On friday 8/26/11 I straiend my left patellar tendon. I've been battling wrist issues as well as that dislocated/broken toe from the 45lb plate. On top of that, at some point during that week I rolled my ankle because now that is hurting and swollen... I'm falling apart.

Anyways, onto the P-ton writeup. My wife and I flew into San Francisco where it was a stunningly cold 59 degrees. We walked down a bunch of piers, caught a glipse of Alcatraz island through the thick fog, then drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, seeing absolutely nothing due to the heavy fog. About 3ish we headed to pleasanton, met up with Adam Brezina, chilled for a bit, picked up some grub and went to sleep.

We headed over to the field after breakfast, getting there at about 815a which was apparently too late. After checking in, getting my gear on and very quickly stretching, I got in about 3 warmup throws with the open stone and we were off.

Saturday's series was as follows:

16# open- 42'8' - 6th
56# wfd- 33'9.5" - 5th
16# hammer- 110'8.75" - 4th
Caber- 18'3", 95# - 1:00 - 9th
56# wob- 15' - 2nd

A few notes, everything felt awful. The stone was super wet, even after "drying" it off with the towel. Just wasn't loose enough to get a good wrap. Matt V took this stone 54' so there's no excuses, I just screwed this up bad. HWFD felt awful, I felt like I had no drive whatsoever and most certainly had no lift. Hammer actually felt pretty good, however, digging in was nearly impossible. The first two attempts my blades popped out just after lifting the hammer so I took it nice and slow and went for a huge pull. On the 3rd attempt I finally got dug in and some good speed going, then missed the pull. The caber was a complete shootout caber. It was an easy pick and turn for everyone. Apparently I have an issue with my plant just before pulling and turn to the right rather than landing straight and pulling. Not to mention, the ground was uneven due to the track. Meh, excuses right? I figured it out on the last pull but was still a bit off. I'm still happy with the 1:00. WOB felt great, slowed down the cast a lot and really dug deep. Cleared the 16' bar by 3-4" but didn't get it behind me. That 16' will be mine very soon.

The 2nd day went as follows:

26# braemar stone- 32'7" - 6th
28# wfd- 70'7.75" - 4th
22# hammer- 92'9.75" - 3rd
challenge caber- 19' 105#s - 70 degrees?
challenge wob- 15'

My knee, ankle and wrist were really bugging me the 2nd day, much moreso than the 1st. The stone was VERY hard to tuck and control. It came off the inside of my hand 2 out of the 3 throws and the one throw I got a hold on was hella flat. The wfd felt off as well. For some reason, my body just wasn't pushing 100% and I don't know why. I really pulled it together and dropped a big one on my 3rd attempt, but fouled it out the side. oh well.. Hammer felt really good. I went up to 4 winds which gave me 2 setup winds to get my balance and then 2 more to increase speed. I felt like I got a hold of the 2nd throw. I tried to add more speed on the third but tightened up a bit and lost a couple feet. Overall I'm happy with how the hammer went. Afterwards we went to a challenge caber where only Matt V turned it. It wasn't really a difficult stick, just couldn't get my pull right and being on the dirt track I was unsure of my footing, Cleared 15' wob on the 3rd toss and wasn't coming close to 16'. Just nothing left in the tank.

Overall I took 4th behind John Davis in 3rd, Robin Knebel in 2nd and Matt Vincent in 1st. It was a great competition with some awesome athletes. Really looking forward to the MN Ren Fest this coming weekend. Big thanks to Steve Conway for putting together a great event, as well as our judge Mike Qutermus and all the other assistance provided that made this run as smooth as it did.

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