Decathlon: A gruelling two day competition of strength, skill, power and pride. The Olympic Champion of this event rightly claims the title "World's Greatest Athlete". We are two Ottawa athletes training together to master the event and run, jump and throw our way to success. We have complementary talents giving us ample opportunity to learn from each other. This blog will follow us on our journey as we train together and compete against each other for the coveted position on top.
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It seems the Olympics have come and gone. There have been so many ups and downs for not just the athletes, but what seemed to be an entire nation. From the womens soccer to the mens 4x100. World records fell, and Olympic records were eclipsed. The average age for the Canadian athletics team was 24.5 years, a young team that still managed to "inspire a generation". Hats off to all athletes and friends. Derek Drouin won our only medal with his 2.29m high jump, placing him 3rd. But what would this be if we didn't single out fellow decathlete Damian Warner on his 2nd best all time Canadian performance with 6 individual personal bests and a massive 300+ point overall best. Mark and I feel as motivated as ever to continue training and get to the next level for Rio 2016.
As the Olympics captivated and consumed all of our free time we managed to squeeze in our own training. As we prepare to leave to Holland in 8 days our workouts have taken on a higher intensity with lower volume overall. We are in our final week of workouts, lots of technical and short sprints with a one or two humdred meter that should get a bit of a lactic burn in there....yay!
Tonight the Olympics came to a close, very bitter sweet. As the torch is passed on so is the dream. The games may be done but the spirit is very much alive and well. Congradulations again to all the athletes in all sports for Canada. Congrats also to the new world records set by the Jamaican mens 4x100, American womens 4x100, Rudisha of Kenya in the 800m, and finally Elena Lashmanova of Russia in the womens 20km race walk. Mark and I sat here and watched you all compete whether that be live on tv, or streaming on our computers. At times we had 3 sources going.
This is some serious dedication. Not to mention every time we saw someone we knew we had to shout out their name, as if the other didnt already know who it was. It's just part of the Olympic spirit if you ask me.
After that long week of painting and renovating, Pat and I are finally all moved in to our new place. Even begun to make it feel a little bit more "homey"with a few trips to Ikea. Pat wasn't thrilled with that as he hates going to the Ikea store in Ottawa (Largest one in North America I hear). Although he had a good laugh when as we were walking in he saw the kids play area and noticed they are all numbered and kept saying "I'll take a number 12 please".
Here's a cool photo from the Men's 100m final at the finish line (Medal winners: Bolt 9.63s, Blake 9.75s, Gatlin 9.79s)
The only down side is that during the transition to the new house we have been left without cable and internet. This makes watching the olympics very difficult, although we still managed to see Usain repeat his gold medal in the 100m in a new Olympic Record. We've also been trying to keep track of all our Canadian Athletes and friends competing at the games. Shout out to, Inaki Gomez on a new Canadian Record and 13th place finish in the Men's 20Km race walk, and Ryan Cochrane on his Silver medal in the Men's 1500m Freestyle. Congrats to all others competing at the games, you are all champs!
As for our training, we're really gearing up for Woerden putting in a few more miles than in the past couple weeks attempting to work on our sprints and 1500m pace (which I've come to learn I have terrible pacing, Pat can attest to that). On Saturday we had Pat's boss from Canadian Strength Sean Young hop in our workout (300m, 600m, 300m 90s rest, then 8 mins 500m), which was great as he helped keep us on a consistent pace and even pushed us huge in the last few runs..Thanks for the push! We end this cycle with a twilight meet competition on Wednesday, our last chance to compete before we leave. It looks like we're both tackling hurdles, pole vault and a potential 300m. TBD.
This past week marked the start of the 2012 Olympic Games accross the pond. I think we can all agree on Mr.Bean being the saving grace for the opening ceremonies. The second highlight had to be the youth lighting the flame. Lastly, it was great seeing some familiar faces in the parade of the the athletes; Melissa Bishop and Curtis Moss were looking mighty fine! The rest of the team was in Germany doing final tune ups and races, missing out on the ceremonies. But in bigger news, Chen and I have begun two a days with coach Lou!
We now have morning speed sessions and are throwing a bit more weights around. Chen is feeling good, he had a nice one-on-one training block with our Vault coach Jeff Edwards on Saturday. My ankle is still a tad swollen given the fact I have not had much time to rest it.
The flights have officially been booked and we leave for the Netherlands on the 20th, where we will be ready to compete on the 25th of August!
Segway to the next point of discussion, the new house. As you may or may not already know, Chen and I are moving into a new house in the next week and have been doing way too much painting for how bad we are at it. There are new floors being put in, a basement finished and an entire house to be painted. All of our spare time has been spent working on this project. We have become rather seasoned painters at this point. In fact, we are such effective painters we decided to have a tutorial for all the up and coming painters. Sit back, grab a pen and pad and take notes folks. These are not stunt actors, we are professionals. Enjoy!
This was a low volume week gearing up for the next cycle leading us into our Woerden competition. It involved some light speed and jumps workout, ending with Pat competing in a Twilight meet where he continues to prove his consistency in the vault jumping 4.20m once again. Making it look easier every time. While warming up for the vault, Pat managed to thrash his ankle on a hurdle leaving it swollen and bruised, causing him to miss out on one workout but continued with training a few days later.
As Pat and I wait out the remaining weeks before we leave for Europe we have decided to "play" around with a few drills we saw in a video. Some went well, while others...well just watch the videos!
This is an alternating hurdle drill which we ended up really enjoying.
Speed hurdle hops are not as easy as they sound! Pat had an attempt too but his included a high pitch squeal..not sure which one is better
Also Pat and I spent a long day yesterday at our new place painting and ripping up the remainder of the floor boards Pat started on, getting it set for a sexy new face lift. Can't wait for it all to be done so we can move on in..by the way if you're ever considering pink paint or wallpaper, don't! Make it easier for those after you.
This week brought Chen and mines recovery week to an end with the athletic Ontatio championships. Well, lets just get into the results then eh! I (Pat) competed in 7 events. First up on saturday was shot put where I threw myself to 7th place, followed by discus where I placed 4th, and then hurdled a new pb of 15.30 qualifying for the finals in 6th and apparently false starting out of the final. I am claiming this to have happen..."I DID NOT MOVE!!!"
I took it like a champ and went and pouted by myself like a big boy? I then ran my first ever relay against the Canadian A team and B team, that was humbling to run as an anchor and only pass the 3rd leg runner Jarrod 15m before the line...sweet deal.
Day 2 of the champs had Chen competing in his first 200m in a long time, he held his own against a few Olympians and beat Coach James 200m pb, congrats on the 22.54. While he ran I threw some Javelin, two season bests over 61m and won the event. We both then went to pole vault. Chen vaulted 3.80, I predict 4m in Woerden in August. I went 4.20 which ties my second best vault ever. So that was suppose to be our last event, but being decathletes comes with its perks! Like getting put on a sprint medley relay for club points. Chen and I ran the 200m legs of the race and guess what, we actually won the race!!!! Go combined events!
Now its training as usual for another few weeks until we leave.
PS. Its been real hot in Ottawa for all you West Coasters #bigshoutout!
After a well deserved and much welcomed visit home, both Pat and I are finally back in Ottawa. It was a short visit but we had to return and get back into the routine of training and preparing ourselves for the next meet. We compete this weekend in Ottawa in our provincial championships.
Bringing Pat back to the west coast to meet my family and friends was awesome. He had never been that far west before and I think he enjoyed it. Our first outing was to show him the Pacific Ocean, where we dug to find Geoducks or "Gooey Ducks" on the sand bar. They are actually quite challenging to catch..crafty clams!
They feel kind of gross eh Pat?
Then over the week we enjoyed a few scenic tours as Victoria graced us with rather untypical summer weather, being anywhere from 20-25°C and Sunny. We also hiked up Mt. Doug, which is full of fun activities and I'm pretty sure I took what has become Pat's favourite picture of himself..
That's my dog Cambie trying to sneak into the background..
On the last day we enjoyed a walk around downtown and checked out Chinatown and the narrowest street in Canada! Then we had a great final dinner with the family and relaxed with a few of Mamma Chen's (or more like Laura's) famous Sangria. Make that Sh*t!
Fantan Alley in Chinatown (Thanks for taking the pic Ali!)
Other than that it was great seeing friends and being back with the family, even though I'm sure Mamma Chen and my sisters are glad to have us gone! I wish we could have stayed longer I really miss the coastal living... until next time Vic!
Where to begin, where to begin...This was by far the biggest meet of the year for every athlete in Canada thus far. Athletes congregated in Calgary this past week for 4 days of gruelling competition, hoping to punch their tickets to the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Lets just get into it then shall we! Chen and I met the new WR holder on Tuesday while we performed our competition warm up. I (Pat) initiated the hand shake with "Man, I gotta shake your hand, I just love you!" He wished us luck, talked to us for a bit (no big deal) and I have yet to wash that hand after soaking up some of his points from his 9039pt performance.
Reid entered these Trials knowing he would be competing in his final Decathlon ever. He has been fighting hamstring injuries and wanted to take the days event by event. Check this awseome story though. Reid opened his long jump with a SB attempt, and says "well im not jumping like an idiot so im starting a clap!" and then the event music they were playing came on and Reid says "man I wish that played when I jumped!!" *all sad and frowny. Next jump, starts the clap and lone behold what comes on?
(skip to 1minute in for the magic) and then Reid takes off and jumped his furthest distance in over 2 years of 6.86m! Reid held it together for his Dec and scored 6599.
Chen, feeling good and ripe to perform came out hard and fought for points all day. He seemed less than pleased with his day one performance yet sat in 3rd through 5 events. He placed 3rd in a fast heat of 100's and 2nd in the 400m. With the late start on day two, the three of us took to the pool for some aquarobic warmup fun time. Hurdles proved a struggle running into a 2.4 headwind, not ideal for a rhythmic event. He threw himself to a SB disc and the ground at the same time, literally fell on his bum in the circle, class act. His vault work this year paid off again with a consistent 3.80m. Chenery then gutted out a 4:48 1500m to finish up with 7001points and a 4th place performance. This marks his 3rd time over 7000 this year and qualfied him for the Woerden invitational in Holland and PanAms next year. Two teams in one year.
I on the other hand, went about scoring 7000 points in a quite different way, deciding to come out with a below average day one score which placed me in 7th place after 5 events. I ran a pb 100m (11.55) and my second faster 400 ever to keep me within striking distance for day 2. Feeling good the next afternoon I ran a pb hurdles race by 0.01 seconds into what felt like a hurricane head wind. I kept rolling on the steam from that race all day with a pb vault by 10cm of 4.30m. By the time the 1500m came around I had clawed my way from 7th back into a medal position. I had to hold Chenery off for roughly 30 seconds. I now have my second national medal and a 2 point better decathlon pb of 7088, woop! This marks my 3rd time over 7000 this year also. The program is working James! I will be joining Chen in Holland come August as well, back to the motherland! Can not wait!!!!!
Three cowboys being all cowboy like ^
(Dipping for the line, Chen far right, me far left.)
The Decathlon was over, but I still had to throw the next morning in the open discus. It went ok, and I came 9th with 47.19m. After the competing it was time for us to call it a week, get some sleep and read bedtime stories to one another and be good little angels. While everyone else partied we played scrabble and solved world hunger.
Reid is back in Ottawa now and Chen and I have gone back to his home in Victoria. I am overly exited to check out the sites and he is overly exited to see his puppies and spend time around the Ocean he misses oh so much. Theres alot of pictures being taken as I have never ventured this far out before, its all so new and pretty to me!
Huge shout outs to new Olympians and good friends going to London later this year. Can not wait to watch you all in those new sexy uniforms being all Olympian like!!! HIGH FIVE!
Check this super sweet article out also about Chen and I from before the trials. Getting some #geegeeslove. http://geegees.ca/node/374&sid=36&nid=2082
