The Bigger Picture

As my indoor season came to a close this weekend, I try to stay positive. The Stevens Point Final Qualifier may not have gone to my liking, but I can't let it put a damper on all that I have accomplished this season.

 PFQ Final Results

I may not have made nationals, but I sure as hell gave it my all this season.

I need to remember where I started this year, and look at how I finished it. My weight throw personal record coming into this season was 15m, now I hold the school record with a throw of 16.27m. That's insane! I wanted to break the school record this year, but that was always just a dream until I actually did it. I didn't know that I had the capacity for such a feat.

I had become discouraged about my shot put abilities. I was at a stalemate, neither progressing or digressing. There were many times when I almost wanted to give it up to just focus on my weight throw. But I stuck with it, and I even got better at it. I finished the season with an indoor pr of 11.86m, besting last years indoor pr of 11.60m. Now that may not seem like a lot, but to someone who thought they were never going to improve its a world of a difference.

Indoor Season Progression

I've grown a lot as an athlete and as an individual in the short expanse of this indoor season. I have come so far from last year. From having no coach, and having our teammates coach each other, to having two coaches has been amazingly beneficial for the throwers progress so far this year.

My teammates have kept me motivated to keep improving myself. I owe a lot of my success to them, and my coaches. I may be putting in all of the physical hard work, but they're keeping my mental game strong.

 

Photo from Cardinal Classic

 

There are so many things that I have to proud of, and so my main thoughts as I leave the indoor season are that I need to look at the bigger picture at not get caught up in the details. This was an amazing season for me, and I just need to accept that and know that there is more in me for outdoor and next year. And now, it's HAMMER TIME!!!

 "Sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture."

- Eddie Montgomery

CCIW Indoor Championships

What a wild ride this weekend was! North Central College hosted the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin(CCIW) Indoor Championships on Friday and Saturday. It was quite the meet to remember. Many amazing performances all around.

 Image taken from one of my teammates instagram accounts

The men's team came in a very close second place. The women's team may not have been as close, but we were supposed to get around 140 points. Illinois Wesleyan was banked to get about 240 points, so we took quite a few of their points away from them.

Team Scores

Our women won the 3K, 5K, 60H, DMR, High Jump, and PV, which shows you the diversity of our team. We picked up points in almost every event, and some were unexpected which is always a great surprise. We started out strong on Friday, which gave us great momentum going into Saturday.

The weight throw took place on Friday, and shot put on Saturday. I came out swinging with a pr and new school record on my first throw of the day. It was an amazing feeling, and got me hyped for the rest of my throws.

Twitter Post 1

I placed 2nd right behind Mia Bennett from Carthage College who had a huge pr of 17.47m from her seeded 16.65m. 

 

Weight Throw Final Results

Friday went by with great enthusiasm amongst our team, and gave us a great push into Saturday.

Shot put was later in the day, about 2:30pm, so we had quite a while to wait before we competed. The throwers cheered for the other events that were going on before ours, and helped keep the energy up.

Once shot put finally came around, Naomi Yamane and I had fantastic performances. Naomi finished in 4th place with a lifetime pr of 12.42m. I finished in 6th with an indoor pr of 11.86m. Both of us were seeded lower, and we both moved up in places to score more points for the team.

 

Shot Put Final Results

Twitter Post 2

We finished out the two days in quite amazing fashion. 

Twitter Post 3

Now begins an interesting time in the season. Some people will keep training indoors for the final qualifier and nationals. Others will move on to outdoors and begin their training for all of the new events that are added on for outdoors.

I will be continuing on indoors this week in the hopes that I can qualify for DIII Indoor Nationals.

"It always seems impossible until it is done." 

- Nelson Mandela 

The Benefits of the Ice Bath

I have recently been converted to a firm believer in taking advantage of the ice bath. At the beginning of this season, I was peer-pressured into participating in an ice bath for the first time ever. Now that sounds kind of terrible... But it was a good kind of peer-pressure. It was something that opened my eyes to the advantages of taking an ice bath.

Google Image of an ice bath

The first I took an ice bath, I thought I was gonna die. Ok... that might be a little too melodramatic, but it sure felt like it at the time. They're not lying when they call it an ice bath. It's freezing! It might be about 60 degrees in the water, but that's way lower than our natural body temperature.

Now that I've experienced it a few times, my body accepts the cold because it knows what it is doing for my body. The cold water seeps into my skin, reducing swelling and tissue breakdown. My athletic trainer has us only stay in the water for 10 minutes max because our bodies could start to think we're catching hypothermia and warm us back up to fight it off. This would be very counterproductive.

 Google Image of a typical ice bath

After the 10 minutes are up, I get out and my skin loses contact with the cold source. At this point, the underlying tissues warm up and cause the return of normal blood flow. This helps my body to recycle efficiently.

Since Conference is this week, I decided to take one today and it was so worth it. It helped to relax my body after a very stressful week of classes and training. Now I feel ready to go throw some weight throw tomorrow and then shot put on Saturday.

"Relax. Let every moment be what it's going to be. What's meant to be will come your way, what's not will fade away." 

- Anonymous

Big Things to Come

This past Friday, North Central College hosted its annual Cardinal Classic track meet. The meet, technically, went well. I placed 1st in weight throw by almost a meter and a half, and had a season's best throw in shot put. You would think I would sound more excited, right? Well, I am excited, but something happened that I'm even more excited about. We'll get back to that soon.
 
Like most meets, we started off with weight throw. The men went first, which went really fast. They only had seven men entered, and one of them was unattached only six went on to finals.
 

Men's Throws

 

There were only nine of us women, mostly NCC women, so we also went fairly quickly.

 

Women's Throws

 

During warm-ups, something amazing happened. I had an amazing two turn throw, probably around 17 meters. It was absolutely incredible. Unfortunately for me, I was then psyched out and could not for the life of me hit that throw during the meet.

 

I had too much energy and hype going into the throws. I needed to stay more relaxed, but I couldn't shake the excitement. As you can see from the results above, my throws were all over the place. I wasn't able to stay consistent in my throws at all.

 

Shot put went a little better, I was way more consistent. I'm finally able to throw in the 11 meter range consistently again. Which is super exciting, cause that means I still have room to grow, whereas I believed that I had peaked last year.

 

At practice on Thursday, I discovered that I had been throwing shot put wrong for the last eight years of my life. So, I'm supposed to start off of my heel and tuck my leg under to get onto my toe for the finish. Well, this whole time, I've been starting on my toe and finishing on my toe, which is why I've been having trouble tucking my leg under me to get a better finish.

 

I didn't want to try the new technique the day before the meet, so I decided against it. On the day of the meet, though, I gave it a try and it worked! Who would have thought?  I threw a season's best off of it, and had some decent finals' throws with it.

 

Women's Shot Put

 

Now, back to the exciting stuff!

 

After throws were all over, we found out that we weren't going to be able to throw inside for morning practice on Saturday. A few of us decided to take advantage of the cage being up, and throw some more.

 

My coach and one of my teammates made two slight edits to my form, and then all of a sudden I was throwing 17+ meters throw after throw! I was so pumped! I kept telling myself to stay relaxed because I knew if I started to get too excited I would just pull the crap out of the weight, and it would be like starting from scratch.

 

Needless to say, I'm super pumped for CCIW Indoor Conference this weekend! If I can hit the 17 meter mark, I could book my ride to DIII Indoor Nationals. This week, I'm focusing on controlling my emotions and using the same form that I used to throw those 17 meter throws.

 

"Good things come to those who wait. But better things come to those who work for it." - Anonymous









The Glue That Holds Us All Together

With Championship season underway, it's been a stressful couple of days. Homework is piling up, work can be stressful, and sleep is fleeting. My one constant source of stress relief is throwing and lifting. I get to surround myself with my teammates and friends, my encouraging coaches, and a positive mindset.

UW-Whitewater Warhawk Classic

I may not always have a good throwing day, much like today went, but I always have my team to pick me back up again. No matter what, we're they're for each other. Just like anyone, you can be annoyed with them, but we always have each others backs. We are each other's support systems.

2015 CCIW Indoor Conference

We're like a family in that sense. I've been lucky enough to be able to have had amazing teammates throughout my track and field career. From the moment I picked up my first shot put in 8th grade, to the moment I broke the weight school record and more, my team has been there for me.

Grand Valley State University Invite

I've had a different group of ladies along side me throughout the years, but we've always become close like family. These kinds of relationships are essential to your health and happiness, because no matter what happens, you've got your [thrower] family.

UW-Whitewater Warhawk Classic

Today's practice was rough. I was getting frustrated with myself and my throwing. For some reason, I haven't been able to throw my two turns farther than my one turns. Yesterday I hit a few really good two turns, but today they were terrible.

My teammates got me through the practice. They gave me advice and encouraging words. The throws were still bad, but my mood wasn't as sour. I knew my teammates were there for me, and I was there for them.

National Girls and Women in Sports Day

Know that no matter what, someone is always there for you. You may not realize who it is, but they're there.

"You're part of a team. Something bigger. When someone is successful, it's good for the team as a whole. Everyone is in it together." - DePaul graduate Kelsey Reynolds

Hard Work Pays Off

This weekend, North Central College hosted the Chicagoland Indoor Championships. 25 teams from all over the area came to Naperville to compete. We kicked things off with the weight throw.

I had a while to wait because I was in the last flight of four. Two of my teammates were in the second flight, and one was in the third flight, so while I was waiting I cheered them on. There were amazing prs, but also some upsets. Naomi Yamane and Allison Shulski both had outstanding throws which led to some great prs.

Teammates' Throws

 
While, Monica Smith had a rougher go. She gave it her all, but was jipped out of her last throw. The officials declared her last throw a scratch because she supposedly touched the top of the board, when in fact she didn't. We take videos of everyone's throws, and her foot clearly passed over the top of the board without touching. Unfortunately, we have no way of challenging the call because there are no official cameras to double check that kind of thing.

These things happen though, and she'll move on and throw great next week.

Now it's my turn. My flight is finally up, and I am pumped to start things off a positive note. Right out of the bat, my first throw is a pr, and it was with a one turn(much to my coaches dismay haha)! This is fantastic, and it gives me momentum into my next throw. On the next one I power out a two turn, and land another pr. My final prelim throw doesn't go as planned, but doesn't get me down because I know I've got three more throws coming in finals.

Prelims

After a couple of the throwers do some pre-finals warmups, we're ready to get things moving. I'm currently standing in 6th out of 41. When it's finally my turn, I over-rotate with large steps and spin right out of the ring. It's all good though, I know I've got more in me. 
On my next throw, I completely shank it and it flies into the cage.

 

At this point, I made a decision to throw a one turn for my final throw. I ask my coaches, and they agree. Taylor, aka Coach Taylor Trockmorten, tells me to just get it out there and have some fun with it, and that's exactly what I planned to do. I've been having really solid one turns all week at practice, so I knew that I could really do something with this last throw.

I step into the ring and just build up all of the energy that I have in my body for this last throw. It's a go big or go home moment. I put on my big girl pants and just go full out.

That throw you see right there, got me the school record of 16.07m and bumped me up to 3rd place behind Amy Blucker of Olivet Navarene University at 19.12m and Mia Bennett of Carthage at 16.26m.

 

Final Results

"Hard work + dreams + dedication = success" - Anonymous

(Sorry this post is longer than usual! I felt the length was necessary to tell the whole story.)

Don't Let Your Head Get in Your Way

One concept that I've struggled with for a long time now, is that you don't need to PR every week. Some times it's better that you're being consistent. This is something that I've had a hard time ingraining in myself. I'll get really frustrated with myself, and throw off my enter practice or meet. I can get way too into my head at times and be really hard on myself.

I'm finally starting to realize that, no matter what happens, I give it my all. There is no reason to be so hard on myself. I've been putting in the work, but some times there are just off days.

This last Saturday was a partially off day for me. North Central competed at the Olivet Nazarene University(ONU) Invitational. Weight throw was first up. My warm ups were looking decent, solid 15s consistently. When it came to the actual throws, I couldn't get out of my head; I was stuck in a funk.

 Prelims

 

Finals

It wasn't even that I was throwing very poorly, I was just not being patient. I tend to move too early in the beginning of the throw, and this causes me to be too far ahead of the ball.

As you can see above, because I started early, I have to pull the crap out of the weight to get it around me to finish my throw. I've been working at this little(aka huge) problem for a while now. After I had changed my start, I had seen some improvement, but all the things I had changed went right out the window on Saturday. At least for the most part, anyway.

I got 5th place out of 31 throwers, finishing at the same seed I came in as. So, technically, it wasn't too bad of a weight day. It just wasn't what I wanted to happen.

Shot put on the other hand went better than it has in a while. One of my teammates gave me a tip to stay closed, and it really helped. He told me to over-rotate my upper half so that I was overly closed, and that the overcompensation would even out when I finished.

By following his advice, I was able to stay closed more and tuck my feet under me for some more powerful throws.

1st Flight Prelims

 

Overall

I may not be exactly where I want to be, but I'm definitely headed in the right direction.

 "A little progress everyday adds up to BIG results."

- Satya Nani