Beginning Indoor Season 2014-15

I just competed in my first meet for this year’s indoor season with high hopes. It’s been different this year having a coach who is an expert in the hurdle event. Because of this, my summer training has been much different that it has been in the past few years. We worked on some form changes as soon as I met my coach in April, with 8 weeks lift in the outdoor season. With some success I decided to stick with him as my coach.

Now I have been with him for about 7 months and things are coming alone. My form has changed a lot, my quickness has changed significantly, and the other pieces of the puzzle are soon to come. Working on drills after drills every week (sometimes 300-500 reps a day), my hurdle confidence has risen. I am extremely excited for this year’s season, with some of the biggest meets of my career possibly coming up. Even if a world team is out of reach, my goal is to become a relevant and visible piece to at least one nations national vision for the future.

On the 29th of November, I took a trip with my father and coach to London Ontario for the first meet of the season. This meet was not supposed to be a big time meet, mostly just a meet to get out of the flow of practicing alone in Ann Arbor. When I got to the meet, I looked at the heat sheet and noticed there was only one other competitor and he would be an even match for me. I was excited. A one on one match up with a hurdler who I had not yet raced in Canada, who also was about 6' 4". This race was going to be fun, and it was.

Although I lost both the heats and finals, I finished with a smile and shook my competitor’s hand, along with his coaches, while thanking them for having me.

The work I had done over the summer was paying off, but there are also some pieces which have not been laid.

This is the earliest I have ever competed, and this coming week will be the first time I compete in two separate meets in one weekend since my year coming off injury about 5 years ago. I am looking forward to the work I will put in this week at the track.

This week’s meets will consist of the first home meet for Grand Valley State University's indoor track facility on Friday December 5th. The following day I will be driving from Grand Rapids Michigan to Ft. Wayne Indiana for the IPFW Mastodon Opener, where I compete against my alma mater, Oakland University.