USA vs Germany Thorpe Cup

August 3rd

The second day of the Thorpe cup was just as hot and humid as the first day. It was so hot and miserable and I felt good warming up. Hurdle warm ups were really good and ran a 14.26 and got second. This moved me up in the standing. Discus my hip began to tighten up like it had all year but I still threw well 45.71 (150’) and then came Pole Vault which by this time my little injuries began o come back I cleared 4.95 (16’ 2 ¾) which was not bad but running down the run way was not so fluid. I moved into first and with Javelin and 1500 left. Javelin was 58.04 (190’ 5) which put me a little more ahead. With just the 1500 I was ahead by about 90 points but the German behind me was good in the 1500 and I had about 9 seconds to spear. I ran 4:36.1 which was good for me with 4 weeks of little training but the German beat me and won by 8 points about a second to slow for me. I was very happy with this meet scoring 8191 my second best ever and it was good I took part in it. Our team won with the second best team score ever averaging over 8000 points for the 5 guys. Now back to getting healthy and getting ready to make the Berlin World Team in 2009.

August 2nd

Today was the first day of the Thorpe Cup and it is hot and humid it was 105 degrees with 95% humidity. As always I woke up got my breakfast and headed to the track. I felt good even though that I have not done much in the last four weeks because I was letting my body heal. But I knew with the training I had done all year that I was good to go and feeling healthy was way better then anything. I had personal records in the first three events 100m was 11.03 a .05 sec improvement, Long Jump was 7.22 (23’9) which was a 9 inch improvement, and the Shot Put was 15.17 which was 800 points in a throw. High Jump was better then it had been all year and I went 2.00 meters ( 6’6 ¾). Due to the injuries and everything after Trials I really kept the training down so the 400 was a challenge and I ran 49.49. Which was not bad considering the lack of training. This was a PR first day in the dec by almost 100 points, it was 4161. Good start to the dec in Manhattan.

August 1st

Manhattan, KS is hot and humid. Today it was 100 degrees with about 95% humidity. This is the expected the weather for the rest of the weekend but may be hotter. This will be interesting to do a decathlon in this kind of heat. It been really fun at this meet so far because it a team atmosphere out here and I haven’t had that since college. This is the first time this year that I have not been stressed out before a meet. I actually feel like I used to when I had fun competing. With the Olympics and everything it been a crazy year. Good Night

July 31st

Well today I am flying to Manhattan Kansas to compete in the USA vs Germany Thorpe Cup decathlon challenge. My coach Sheldon Blockburger was selected as the Head coach for the men’s side and I was chosen as Captain. The Thorpe Cup is 7 German decathletes and 7 USA Decathletes that compete in the decathlon. The top 5 scores from each team are added up and high team score wins. It will be a close battle and I expect USA will be on top. I feel we have 7 strong decathletes on the team that will do amazing.

July

After trials I sat down with my coach and we discussed the hip and abdomen issues I had been having for the last year. We were saying call it a season and begin the healing but I had been dealing with it for a while and wanted to compete one more time at USA vs Germany Thorpe Cup. So we decided that I would take two weeks off and come back training with no volume and just technical work. It has been working and even though I may loss some stuff in events been healthy is more important through 10 events.