Virginia and PanAm CE.

It has been a long while since you have last heard from Chen and I. Since our last post, much has happen. Chen went down to Virginia as we last posted. Things did not go as he had planned as he suffered another set back. Chen was forced to drop out of the decathlon when he sprained his left ankle and was unable to take off and plant from his leg. The set back was more physical then psychological. His focus shifted from qualifying for FISU to getting himself healthy enough to compete at nationals where he will aim for the podium and strive to book his ticket to Europe for Holland's international event and "Les Jeux de le Francophonie" in the south of France.

Chen got himself ready to compete in the open section of the PanAm event, where he would plan on competing with the decathletes for the running and throwing events. I was feeling healthy and ready to represent Canada on my 4th national team. I opened with a pb 100 with a time of 11.51. Here is the video our the timed finals. Chen is in heat one and I am in heat two.

 

 

The weather for our event was less than ideal. I would go on to score my second highest point total with 7183 and place 7th in the event. Chen didn't get himself any more injured and had some outstanding performances at the end of the day; highlighted by a 50.22 400m time, an impressive task with the gale force winds the facility endured. Chen also managed a season best shot put throw of 11.94. Here is a little bit of the fun we had warming up gloomy and early on sunday morning.

 

 

We both enjoyed our experience and are very excited for nationals which is fast approaching. We will be leaving for Moncton on a little road trip in 11 days and competing the 20th-21st. Since the decathlon this past weekend, Chen and I have received some publicity doing interviews for online sports pages and local papers. Here is an article featured in the Citizen post event. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Battered+weather+decathlon+takes+measure+athletes/8468157/story.html

 

 

Chen and I have found ourselves experiencing different emotions in regards to the Decathlon's we have competed in this short season already. The highs are addictive and the lows bring you into moments of perplexed wonder on how you could have performed in such a manner. Learning to keep our emotions in check while keeping our intensity at an all time high for 10 events will allow us to achieve levels of success that we train so hard to attain. The question remains, how to best stay excited for an event which you are not excited to compete in. For me that is high jump, the 400, and 1500. For Chen it is shot put and the jumps due to his injuries. After speaking with coaches, it would seem the best way to do this is welcome the opportunity to compete and the opportunity and chance to set a new standard for yourself. Confidence, relaxed, and embrace are a few of the words I heard a lot of this weekend. Now it is up to me to figure out how to best put these words into action and find a way to make them work for me. Cues are big mental notes, and Chen will need to find ones which work for him as well.

 

Chen and I will tackle Moncton as we head off for nationals in the next 10 days on a nice little road trip. We will be looking to get two Ottawa Lion athletes on the same podium.

 

Anyways, here is some long jump from the weekend.

Surprise!

Well it has been a few weeks since our last post (my bad) but lots has happened.  Firstly, it is with great pleasure that I get to finally say we have officially moved outdoors!  Ottawa decided to rid itself of its winter shenanigans, skip spring all together and jump right into 30 degree summer weather...OK!  See yeah later Dome, I'm done with you for now.

(working on our starts last Tuesday..great extension!)

Secondly, because of his stellar performance down in Tucson, Patty has become somewhat of a local celebrity garnering acknowledgement from all over including a local newspaper..article can be found at: 

http://www.emcorleans.ca/20130425/News/Top+10+worldwide+is+a+sweet+spot+for+local+decathelete 

Pat is now just killing workouts waiting until the Pan Am Cup in Ottawa on June 1st to unleash himself once again.  This meet (thanks to Lions organizers and other local contributors) is looking to become an amazing meet and if you're in the Ottawa area June 1/2 you should definitely come check it out!  Plenty of talented athletes will be running around Mooney's Bay (including these guys) so why not?
Check out this photo collage put together by Coach Ry Row to reminisce on last year and get excited for this year:

http://instagram.com/p/ZGl4lgDhxd/ 

Now because it has been so long since our last post, I get to surprise everyone with a decathlon!  I am currently in Charlottesville, Virginia ready to take on another dec.  After arriving yesterday the weather is quite warm, very humid, with some showers happening earlier.  All in all it is a very pleasant place with a gorgeous campus and facilities.  I was definitely excited to check out the track for our pre-comp workout and it didn't disappoint.  The track is beautiful and will be one of the few decs I get to do where all events are completed within the stadium!

  

So I'll see you on the flip side..I'd say follow along with the results but I think the University of Virginia is having some difficulties themselves putting together a functional site.  The meet runs Friday and Saturday starting at 3pm tomorrow and 2pm on Saturday.  Doesn't hurt to check anyways if you have some time to kill..not 100% sure but try:

http://www.virginiasports.com/sports/c-xctrack/sched/va-c-xctrack-sched.html

Apologies for the delayed post, I promise to be more diligent in the future and don't forget to send me your good vibes!  See yeah later!

Jim Click season opener.

Tucson has come and gone. I (Pat) arrived in Arizona healthy and confident, ready to open up in my favorite state once more. I had learned from my mistakes competing in the desert last year, I felt well prepared and excited to step up on the Wildcats sun cooked track. As day 1 approached I felt more and more ready. I could not wait to get things started. Day one seemed to fly by, all of a sudden we were in the blocks and the 100 was underway, as we got in the set I just thought to myself "ok, its about to start. Its finally here. Time to go!" From there I never looked back, tying my best 100 time of 11.55 I then set a new best in long jump of 7.01m and shot put at 15.32m. I had my second best high jump in a decathlon and my second best 400 time. I scored 3768 on day one, which eclipsed my previous best of 3586 set on the same track last year. Here is my winning long jump.

After day one I was in 4th, just under 300 points behind first. But even then, I was simply thinking of staying on the pb train and taking the day one event at a time, staying hydrated and excited to compete. I knew if I could stay calm that I would be able to get the FISU (world university games) standard of 7250pts. Things kept going my way on day two as a ran myself to a new best of 15.00 in the hurdles, .31 better then my previous fastest time. Discus was next, my first throw was a pb over 49m. In round two I set a new club record from 36 years ago with a throw of 50.82m. I finished the day with 3825 and a final score of 7593, which was also a new club record and 10th all time score set by a Canadian. 

Here is a nice group shot of the coaches and athletes, missing from the shot are my parents who made the trip and helped me prepare for the decathlon, thank you! I would also like to thank Bill from UofA for the massage and treatment on both Mark and I throughout the meet. Everyone, and everything really came together to create a perfect storm for me.

Chen entered the event feeling healthy and excited to compete. He has been suffering some injury problems and spent most of the last weeks doing what can essentially be considered base training. Chen described his day one as a character builder for day two, having left his long jump to a third attempt jump and struggling with a short approach high jump. Although he did not have any personal best performances on day one he remained consistent enough to stay on pace for the FISU standard we traveled south to achieve. Day one was not what he had hoped to score but had to let it all hang out on day two and try to come back strong, which he did. Again, hurdles were not a pb but proved to be a very solid opening time and would set the tone for a 40m+ throw. Battling a stubborn cross wind in the vault, and jumping on new poles Chen failed to make his opening height of 3.70m. He then made the decision to pull himself from the remaining events and begin healing and recovering for his next decathlon in Virginia in the next few weeks. Here is a nice action shot of Chen's hurdles.

Although this dec was not what Chen was looking for going into the meet, he will be able to use this as a stepping stone for future competitions. The hardest part of our event is finishing the 10 events in one piece and being able to take something away from every competition. Chen learned a tremendous amount, and he feels like this was the lowest he has felt after a competition. However, this is not all bad news. His attitude and maturity are showing why he has the ability to achieve his goals this summer. The work ethic to pick himself up from defeat and bounce back, taking the ups and downs from Tucson and building off of this unique experience. No two competitions are ever the same, and we are all very excited to see Chen shake off the cobwebs of his injury and build towards Virginia.

Here is a brief montage put together by coach Ryan Rowat, and some competition warm ups the wednesday before the gun. Go hard, and keep it between the lines.



Tucson Bound.

     This will be our final entry before leaving for our season openening meet in Tucson, Arizona. This is a meet that I (Pat) did last year and faired quite well, opening with an overall Decathlon personal best. This year I return with training partners, coaches, and family. Watchout Tuscon, HERE WE COME!!! The weather is showing to be suny days without a cloud in the sky.

Mark and I feel very prepared. Recently we have been getting James'ed quite a bit. This is the verb for having your coach (James Holder) try to make you experience as much physical discomfort as humanly possible. Here is a picture Chen snapped after a nice 400m workout #Jamesed. This is one of the three workouts we experienced lactic threshold.

Speaking of Chen. He has made quite the miraculous recovery and is in top form for this opener. He has taken care of himself and is now prepared to attack the FISU (World University Games) standard with me. For those of you who do not know, the standard we are looking to score is 7250pts to get us to Russia this July. More than reasonable for both of us. 

I will be leaving Canada's cold spring this Saturday and waiting for my better half to arrive on Monday to hammer out some warm weather workouts in the sun before the competition.  All that being said, stay tuned to the Ottawa Lions twitter account for results (@OttawaLionsTFC ), they will be more live and up to date with stories on the Ottawa combined eventers then the actual results. See you on the other side folks.

Signed, your two favourite Decathletes. 

So long indoor season

February has come to an end, and so has the indoor season.  With the last indoor meet for Pat this past weekend, this years indoor competitions have concluded.  This indoor season was exceptional for Mr. Arbour as to date he has set new pb's in pole vault (which he pb'd again in this weekend with a 4.51m clearance), shot put, tied his high jump pb and had a big pb in the hurdles and overall pent personal best!  He even had a second best effort in the long jump.  Not a bad indoor start I must say.  Big shout out to our PV coach Jeff who after this indoor season had 26 pb's from his athletes.  Insane!

Nice little picture of Pat doing what he says was "dialling in his warm-up"

While it was quite a short lived season for myself due to injury (only competing once, and barely at that), I can finally say that I'm virtually back to 100% training!  After months of waiting, I can now enjoy most workouts pain free.  Now that indoors is over and I'm finally healthy and Patrick is riding a pb train, what could make things better?  Knowing that we have only one month until our decathlon opener in Tucson!

We are both incredibly excited for Tucson this year because not only will it hopefully be a great competition with great competitors, but it will most likely be warm and sunny.  None of this cold, white stuff anymore.  This is also our one chance to get the FISU (world university games) standard, that both of us are hunting for. This would give us the opportunity to go to Russia in July and compete in the biggest international meet either of us would have been too.  It is considered the 2nd largest multi-sport games after the Olympics!

So until Tucson we'll be putting in the hours at the track to make sure we give ourselves the best possible chance to get on that team.  Just to keep things visual, here's a little compilation of some of our recent training indoors.  Lookout for our amazing videography.  We even dubbed in some slow mo and music...wild!  A little shaky on the robot running style and not too sure about the transitioning but we'll get it eventually ha ha.

McGill Pentathlon

Last weekend Mark and I traveled to the beautiful city of Montreal to contest the largest pentathlon event of the year at the McGill team challenge. Universities from both sides of the country came together to create another great event and charged up atmosphere. Mark has been battling his lower abdominal injury but thought he would give the pent a try, hes a competitor! The pent started at 8:45am with the hurdles. The Ottawa combined events group came to the track ready. Mark went on to run a rather impressive time of 8.39, given the fact his last race would have been when we were in the Netherlands. In my 2nd race of the season I went on to run a new pb of 8.38, shaving .10 off my previous best and opener. Check out the race for yourselves. I am heat one, our other roomate is heat two, and Chen wraps up the sweep in heat three.

 

We followed hurdles up with some long jump. It was at long jump when Chen would start to feel the nuisance of his ab and after two jumps decided to wait until shot put to gather some more points. I on the other hand jumped my second best jump ever, 6.74m. Thanks to the lovely folks at McGill the entire meet was filmed and this jump is at 1:30min into this stream...

 



 

 

At this point I had quite the pent going, having won the first of two it was on to shot put. Chen took one throw and with that his indoor season as a GeeGee came to an end. It was an easy decision to make when looking at the bigger picture of making FISU this summer and focusing on the outdoor goals. I did not throw my best here but it was consistent enough to keep the lead and win my third event of the day with 14.41m. Our fourth event was high jump. This event has come to be quite the thorn in my...However, I finally feel like I am understanding my abilities as an athlete and with that my head space while competing. If I would be disappointed jumping sub 1.80m then the solution is to not make that an option. Simply enter the competition when the bar is higher and go over! That being said I went on to tie my best jump of 1.90 for the third time as an athlete. I will join the 2m club, one day. Chen speaks very highly of it (so punny!!!). I placed 2nd in the high jump and held my lead going into the 5th and final event, dumdumdummmmm the 1000m. Won't lie, that wasnt my shining moment. In typical Arbour fashion I managed to squander a 160point lead to Calgary's Craig Thomas who would nudge me off the gold medal by 17 points. Eventually I will be a force in the 1000/1500m, I almost kept a strait face there. I finished with a nice 108point pb though, 3710. Congrats Craig, see you in Arizona for the real thing in April. Here is a little montage from the weekend's events.

 

 

Now that the track talk is done. Let's take a minute to wish Chen a very happy birthday! He turned 25 yesterday and we celebrated with a super bowl gathering. Happy Birthday Mr.Chenery, we love you!!! Look how pretty he is, awwwwww.

Go home, GoPro

Welcome everyone to the new year.  2013 should be an exciting one, as we have high hopes for it.  As the new year roles in we have new goals we are looking to achieve.  This season is filled with great opportunities for us to compete, and can be seen in the freshly updated 'upcoming meets' and 'countdown' sections on the page.  

As for training right now Pat is moving right along in fine form keeping the strength and intensity up, and showcased quite a performance this past weekend here in Ottawa.  He contested the pole vault where he improved his PB to 4.46m, after throwing another PB in the shot put finally getting over the huge 15m barrier.  Finally Pat entered the high jump and concluded it with a 1.86m jump. For full results check out:

http://ottawalions.com/results/

Or for a small video recap of the entire meet check out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5bXvwVA7mwo#!

As for myself, I am slowly coming along with my injury (and I mean very slowly).  So this past weekend I was left to help out with running the pole vault competition and cheer on the rest of the group.  Not being able to train fully is quite difficult.   All I want to do is jump in workouts with the rest of the group and continue 'proper' training.  Hopefully in the next couple weeks I'll be able to slowly add more and more into my workouts.

As for the holidays, they were fantastic!  Pat enjoyed some quality family time at the Arbour household, and has been enjoying some quality ODR (outdoor rink) time, which I have yet to experience this year.  I cannot wait.  All the while I took in the fresh Victoria air.  After being away from home for so long it's always nice to go back.  Here's a little bit of a taste of what I was missing...

Courtesy to my sister Leanne for snapping this elegant photo of my buddy Tommy and myself, and me for taking the photo of my family's dog Kinley...lookin' good!

With xmas came lots of goodies.  Pat and a couple others in our group, solidified their plans and booked flights to Tucson, AZ to compete at the Jim Click Shootout April 4-5th for their season openers.  As for myself, I gained a little friend called GoPro, and together we are going to create awesome videos of training and whatever else we can think of to share with everyone!

Hope everyone is starting the new year healthy and happy (or somewhat at least), and can't wait for things to start rolling once again.  Dec duo out!