ROJO in Cornell

Hello to our lovely readers, #visitors :) I got twitter this week (@arbsy). It has been a very exiting time in my life. I am already at 48 followers, no big deal. In track news Chen and I had a short lived recovery week. We kicked off our weekend with a not-so-pleasant speed endurance workout. 4x120, 250+120, lactic much. As our month comes to an end, we soon begin the month of the Pan Am combined events meet here in lovely Ottawa. We're all feeling good and are excited as hell for the meet!

Friday was a relaxing day for all as Reid and loyal girlfriend Jojo (Reid+Jojo=ROJO) enjoyed a double date day with Chen and beautiful girlfriend Andrea (Mark+Andrea=Mandrea). ROJO and Mandrea went to see 21 Jump Street, and apparently had quite the laugh. I wouldn't know though because I was not invited... Following this Reid cooked up a storm in the kitchen and hammered out some amazing eats to the hungry peasants, complete with entrees and a desert.

All fuelled up, Reid was ready to attack his first meet of the year in Cornell, Ithica. Opening his outdoor season with the 110 high hurdles, a little bit of Pole Vault, and some 4x4 action. Reid has been recovering like a champ from his set back and as Coach Jamesy says: he has been training "angry."
The conditions in Cornell were not ideal as strong winds made for a tricky competition. On the bright side, the sun was out (pun intended). Reid hurdled himself to a 16.56, not too shabby for a cold windy day. Competing in an open Vault meet, the starting height was a respectable 4.20m. Unfortunately Reid was unable to make a clearance as the wind at his back made his poles too soft and mark inconsistent. Finishing off a long day at the track Reid split a 50.2sec.
Check out Reid's new look >

That sums up another week in the decathlon lives of your 3 most adored athletes :P
Look foreword to our next blog entry as we continue to look foreword to leaving the dome for the beautiful Mooney's Bay facility, #PanAmCupDecathlon.

Heres some dec love to get you through the week, so long!

Not so SUNY Cortland

Another week down, and we made it a good one.  A few members from our training group including Pat, Zachary, JoJo, Michelle and myself travelled down to SUNY Cortland (State University of New York) for our first decathlon and heptathlon of the year and Pat's second.  

A helpful tailwind started off Day 1 and kept rolling for the remainder of our events.  Sending me to my second best 100m (11.10s) and Pat a PB (11.63s).  After running myself into a bit of trouble in the long jump starting off with two fouls, leaving a very important and very nerve racking last attempt where I mustered a 6.97m jump!  Sadly this is not the first time I've done this to myself this year...I must help myself out a bit more and get jumps in on the first attempt!  The rest of the day went along smoothly and ended with a surprisingly calm evening for the 400m.  Wish that could be said for Day 2..

Day 2 began as a beautiful but overcast day. It quickly darkened during the running of hurdles (coming from indoors 10 hurdles is far!). Shortly after the long day of rain began, making the throwing events especially challenging. Despite the less than ideal conditions Pat still was able to hold onto the discus long enough to throw it a PB distance of 48.83m. Luckily the kind people of Cortland State moved the pole vault into their repurposed airplane hanger that is now an indoor track facility.  This proved quite beneficial as both Pat and I had PB's in the vault with Pat jumping 4.20m and myself 3.90m.  Next was the absolute worst conditions for a javelin competition we have endured.  It was raining, a cool 6 degrees and on GRASS!  Not to mention grass with potholes, rocks and divots making full runways absolutely out of the question leaving room for only muscling it out there.  Needless to say we were all way off our normal throws.  However, it was an experience and an obstacle we dealt with and got through, now anything will be better and absolutely welcomed compared to that.  

And then all that was left was a rather uneventful yet still exciting 1500m.  Prior to the race Coach James told me I needed a 4:51.00 to reach 7000pts, and after crossing the line seeing 4:51.xx showing up I was quite nervous that I missed the mark by mere points.  Then he proceeds to tell me about a time he scored his PB 6999pts. He told how awful it was to have this PB stand for a year.  At this point I'm fearing the worst and accepting the loss.  Then he tells me that he was a big fat liar and all I needed was a 4:54.00. I actually scored 7033pts...needless to say I got James'd (a slogan we coined for being smeckledorfed by James).  Very funny coach!  Pat finished with a solid second decathlon of the season with a third all-time best 6910pts.  Congrats!

Overall a very solid decathlon for all and a new experience, as all decathlons are. 

As for Reid, he spent the weekend finishing his last exam of the school year and began celebrating his summer with a trip to the casino winning himself a handsome $70. With some of his winnings he made a trip down to Chinatown to a shady little acupuncture store. He walked away with his own set of needles so he can practice unlicensed acupuncture on his and Pat's legs. He's seen it done in movies and is convinced it's easy enough. Nice work all around this weekend I'd say..Until next week!      

For all those interested here is a link to the results!

http://www.leonetiming.com/2012/Outdoor/Cortland/   

Lastly, a big congrats to our teammate Zachary Kevlar for his pb in the dec. 

Summer is Almost Here

This week Pat took full advantage of the weather as the summer sun made its appearance. It is still not quite hot enough to train outside, but that didn't stop him from playing the very legitimate sport of frisbee golf this Saturday.

I on the other hand was trying to stay awake and study. I don't know which reason made it more difficult to stay awake: the brutal 1500m workout that all three of us completed earlier in the day or my realization that I don't care whether or not the Real Business Cycle predictions reflect the actual deviations observed in the economy. That reminds me, I have good news for all of you. On Friday I write my last final exam and commence a four month summer vacation, so that was the last random economics reference you will have to endure for a very long time :)

Mark has been in much the same situation as I with writing finals. He wrote 2 last week and only has 2 more to go.

This coming week will have Pat already preparing to compete in his second decathlon of the year alongside Mark who will be contesting his first. The destination is not nearly as exotic as Arizona this time unfortunately, instead the forecast is for just above freezing temperatures with rain. I will be continuing to transition back into as much training as my rib will allow.

Last thing I want to say is CONGRATS to our awesome coach James and his lovely wife Vero for celebrating their 2 year anniversary last week!

Easter Weekend.

Hi there everyone! Happy Easter to everyone and their families from your three favorite decathletes!
In news this week, nothing happened to Chen...absolutely NOTHING of note, quite boring week for him, aside from the end of classes for the year (about time!).

Reid is continuing to heal and has really cool finger toe shoes -_-. He can run on his hands and we wouldnt know the difference, sporting his new VIBRAM shoes Reid kind of feels like this...

Reid has joined me at le Chateau Casa del Arbour. We enjoyed the closest most intense game of Bocce ball coming down to a 1" victory on match point. We will let you figure out who won ;)

I on the other hand am nursing the small aches and pains of the post-decathlon. The most notable of which being a fast fading tan. I miss Arizona :(
Thanks to Jen Cotten I have my day 1 and 2 recaps from the season opening decathlon. See below

 .

Have a good week everyone, and stay tuned!

Fine Start, Fine Art..

This was an exciting week for us as Pat he contested his first decathlon of the season in Arizona. It went extraordinarily well!  He began by running the second fastest 100m of his career and jumping a seasons best in the long jump.  The next event was the "builder" as Pat had a massive throw of 14.65m in the shot put. This was the first time in the 14m range outdoors (although his PB is 14.86m).  This clearly pumped him up as he tied his PB of 1.90m in the high jump.  This momentum carried Pat to his second best 400m to finish off with a day one PB of 3570.  

This mojo then carried over to Day 2 where Pat started off the gruelling day with a 0.2s PB in the 110mH running 15.38s. He followed that with a 37cm PB in the Discus, throwing 47.47m.  Now it was to the event Pat was really looking forward to, the pole vault.  Despite not continuing on the "PB Train" Pat jumped 2cm off his PB which he recorded a couple weeks ago.  Pat finished off the decathlon throwing 58.98m in the Javelin and 5:05.8 in the always painful 1500m, concluding his OPENING decathlon with a PB decathlon total of 7086pts.  Congrats to Pat, Damian (7977pts) and Jamie (7706) on an exciting start to our 2012 season!

Here is a cool article on Pat's decathlon in Arizona: http://www.harryjerome.com/2012/03/30/canadian-multi-event-athletes-shine-in-jc-shootout-in-tuscon/

This week was much less exciting for Reid and myself who, enjoyed a "lovely" one week period with no internet (because Bell sucks).  While Reid was still recovering (although he is back this week!) from a rib injury, and I was still enjoying a reduced work load, we had plenty of time to create our own fun.  Inspired by a great British improv show we decided to create an interpretive dance to a hit 90's pop-rock boy band song. Take a look at how the pros do it.  

Now take a look at our attempt. We encourage you to attempt our "masterpiece" on mute and see if you can guess the song.  If anyone is able to guess it I applaud you; you are one of the smartest people in the world...Fact!  

Reid also had a lovely visit from his mother this weekend and I benefited from a couple of dinners and a fully stocked fridge: score!

On another note the University of Ottawa Gee Gee's held their annual Athletic Banquet on Saturday night with a fine showing by Track and Field members.  Most notably Michael Robertson (400m) who won the coveted Male Athlete of the Year Award beating out some tough competition.  Congratulations to all Gee Gee's team members on a fine season.