Flagstaff Highland Games
22# bs - 37+ - 2nd
16# os - 47+ - 1st
56# hwd - 40+ PR - 1st
28# lwd - 82+ PR - 1st
22# hammer - 85+ - 2nd
16# hammer - 117+ - 1st
18ft 100# caber - 12:15 - 3rd
56# wob - 15'6 stand season PR - tie for 1st
1st overall w/ 12.5pts
Def didn't see this kind of performance coming. Stayed up late on friday then got up at 430am to drive up to Flagstaff. Felt very stiff, tired and still pretty beat up. Nutrition has been off, calories very high and dirty. Training has been feeling pretty awful, still feeling a bit overtrained and having a tough time hitting positions. Even told my friends I was expecting them to step up and deal me a loss. Apparently I had more in the tank than I had thought.
Braemar went as expected, blegh. Watching the video I can see I still have very little separation. I need to get my hips in front FIRST. Need to drive this into my skull. I'll get some big tosses once I learn to separate on these standing throws.
Ostone was blegh. Just trying to hit positions. Really focusing on turning my right foot but kept opening up early. Also letting my left drop in the sprint, blegh. Just bad all together. Need more reps, lots more reps. Several things are coming together here, but I need more time. Hopefully I can put it together for pleasanton. I'll need something big with John D, Beau F and Duncan there. Who knows what other massive stone putters will be there.
HWD was kind of a turning point for me. Warmups felt good. Not far, but not sloppy either. Felt smooth and easy. Did a couple 1 turns and 1 full throw. First toss I took it a bit too easy and fouled out the left side, very slow on my sprint and finish, just pushed me out. Pulled it together and hit a nice 40'4". Missed the sprint phase but had a big finish. Took 2 extras and finished with 40'10" but I missed the finish. Had a great sprint but closed myself off pretty good. Watching the vid, I need to be more active about placing my low point in the back. I changed my cast to be a bit higher that way I can "drop into 1" better. I also started turning my upper body a bit sooner rather than waiting for the weight to get in front of me. This is letting me get my hips around and into position for the sprint faster. So, focus now is going to be get that low point behind me again so I can get a longer sprint and pull/push on the finish. Once this comes together, there will be some big numbers.
LWD felt good but started off slow. My series went 74-77-79. On extras I went 82 & finished with 81 before calling it quits. Really nailed the drive to zero and the sprint on the 80+ throws. I had great separation and had my left leg down when the weight was still around 8:00 so the drive was big. Looking forward to some big tosses soon. Same thing with the low point though, I caught it drifting a bit to the right. Will fix this.
Hammers were a shit show. Apparently when you go from 2500ft elevation to 7000+ elevation, it does something with the oxygenation in your blood... Well.. from the start of my warmup winds I felt a bit off. Was getting dizzy and tunnelling out while winding. This carried over into my throws. After every throw I had to stand there for 2-3 seconds while my vision came back. I didn't fall over or anything, but it was very akward. I was able to maintain composure for the first 2 winds, then the 3rd one would just put me over. Finished with 85 heavy hammer and my first toss with the lightw as 102 ft. I decided to go to 2 winds since it didn't bug me as much on the 2nd wind and dropped one out at 115. Won with 115 and went 117 on extras. Def more in the tank, just hadn't practiced 2 winds in a few weeks so felt off.
Went to lunch and hit wob afterwards. After 13', Brozina wanted to go to 14'6 so he could PR at 15'6. We all missed our 1st attempts for stupid reasons and we all nailed our 2nd attempts. Onto 15'6, I hit that 1st attempt and Adam missed it. Went up to 16'6 afterwards which would be a PR for me and hit the bar twice. Just not that much in the tank. New technique needs some polishing. Focused on getting a huge pull ala Zolk style. As soon as it drops, pull like hell and pull my body backwards as well. As soon as I released I would have to take a step back to catch myself. Going to do some playing around with this.
Caber was meh, as usual. Easy qualifier then onto William, AZ's only A class stick. First pull was 12:15 which put me in the lead. Passed my 2nd and hit a 1:30 on my 3rd. Adam and Karl stepped up and nailed a 12:00 and 12:05 respectively to push me to 3rd here.
Overall a great games. Thanks to Erin Huizingh for doing a great job again this year. Props to Sarah & Keith for helping out with scoring, setup, teardown, etc. Thanks to Adam, Brandon, Jose, Andy, West and all my competitors for pushing me to suck it up and throw far. Thanks to Ryan Seckman for helping me with my throws as he was judging. Pointint out mistakes and what to work on. A great training partner and friend. Huge thanks to Tod Stewart (1800ourlawyer.com) for sponsoring me and continuing to support me. Thanks to my Mrs and son for being there on the field for me, cheering me on. Thanks to my family and friends for coming up to watch and support me as well. Everything means a lot to me and I couldn't be where I am without everyone's help. Thanks once again!!
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