TRAINING LOG: Sarah

Didn't get to make WaKeeney due to a family emergency, but that didn't stop be from being rather disappointed to miss it.  Next year!

However...I have moved into a new house, and on Saturday and Sunday I got to practice...in my own backyard.  Squee!  I have enough space to practice everything except hammers, and I even have my trig in the shade.  Granted, my yard is only barely wide enough to have room for a full trig and to practice LWD (my LW numbers weren't very good this weekend due to fear of throwing into the neighbor's yard, although they were rather intrigued by what I was doing!) but the space is definitely there and the worry will dissipate.  And then my numbers will be too large to use my backyard and it'll be a very happy day.

Jump rope - got 97 consecutive, which is a PR

Stones - working with 8# - saw 2' improvement in standing throw.  Huge number differences from last year, but still not where I want to be this year.

WfD - 30' standing with LW, 26'9" one spin for HW

Plan is to get my uprights up this week and then I can start concentrating on sheaf and WoB.

Hey Sarah....you can make cheap WOB/sheaf uprights from 3 inch black ABS plastic plumbing pipe from any big chain hardware store.  Yeah, sure steel is better but it costs a lot.

Get two of these:




They're cheap.  Pound 'em into the ground and then stand up the ABS plastic poles (with little pulleys attached at the top, somehow) butted up right on the stakes.  Wind a mess of duct tape around the poles and stakes to hold 'em together. Voila, WOB uprights for dirt cheap.

The Big Games use pole vault crossbars for a crossbar in WOB and sheaf, but  they're, like 13 feet long and those things cost a lot.  By the time you pay for shipping, buying just one is $100.  So I use a piece of 2 inch ABS plastic for my crossbar.  It's still kind of flexible so when a weight comes crashing down on it, it usually won't break. Even if it does break, a replacement is only $8 so I don't worry about it.

What you'll find, especially in Texas summer heat, is that if you leave the crossbar up all the time, it will sag in the middle. If you take it down every time and store it flat, it won't.  I don't much care, I just leave mine up but you should suit yourself.

The ABS plastic comes in 10 foot lengths. If you buy three poles, then cut one of them in half.  Buy some ABS cement and the plastic sleeves. Use the sleeves to make two, 15 foot uprights. All this will cost less than $30.

My gut feeling is that using ABS and fence pole stakes to go a lot higher than that is going to make for a pretty wobbly set of standards. I could be wrong about that, but that's my thinking.   Nobody will much care about 15 foot uprights in your back yard, but 20 footers might annoy the neighbors, I'd guess.  When you start throwing WOB significantly over 15 feet, well....

15 feet is kind of wimpy for sheaf, but it's better than 12, anyway.  Most people can't build 24 foot uprights in their back yard, you know?

My steel/ABS uprights  only go up to 16 feet, BTW.   Here's a video of how I made them.  The sound gets horribly out of synch with the video, but you'll get the idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCMOyb5JB-c

OK, my steel fence posts are 7 feet tall. I scrounged them for free out of a junk pile here at the University. The ABS has to overlap the steel pipe by about a foot for stability, so I don't get the full 17 feet....just 16.  The ABS pipe is 2 1/2 inch.

However, if you went out and bought two  ten foot lengths of 2-inch steel pipe, or 2-inch steel electrical conduit,  (10 feet is the standard length) you could make uprights that could go all the way up to 19 feet.  You'd probably need a ladder to set everything up, but then you'd have uprights that would only be ten feet tall when you weren't using them (think: don't annoy the neighbors) but would be real sheaf uprights for you when they were all the way up. 

I actually have beefy steel 21 foot standards for WOB at the Games I run.  21 feet is actually kind of silly. I should cut them down to 18 feet, nobody in our little gang of misfits is ever going to get close to 21 feet in WOB, and that's too short for sheaf.  The thing is that they're a PITA to set up, and these "sleeving" standards do the job just fine for practice.

Hope that provides some inspiration.

Ugh.... how'd that get broke?  Thanks Craig.

Sore is good!

WoB with the 42.  Ouch.  It wasn't that bad the first couple of throws, but it got heavy very quickly.  Not sure that my form was ever good with it...and then it deteriorated, and I stopped trying. 

But I tried! 

Worked on understanding the 'standing throw.'  Now to go do it.

30"   Open Stone is nothing to sneeze at Miz Sarah, and that you are slowly making your way up through the 20's is great.   A 52 foot LWFD is very respectable, and what...this is your first season?.. You are doing great.

It still feels surreal. I can't believe I'm actually going to compete in Iceland in 6 days.... SQUEE!

 http://icelandhighlandgames.com/

Big hug here from Holland !

was nice meeting ya partner

Hey lady,
When's your next competition?

No, ma'am. I wasn't invited.

Any chance of you coming to KS for our games Labor Day weekend? I
know that's the same weekend as Pleasanton, but thought I would
ask.

Check your email, sent you the info and registration.
Feel free to pass it on to anyone else.  Also have a thread on it in the Generals.
Hope you can make it.
As far as going to WA, I would love to, but you do remember I have 5 kids. Money and sitters, just not prepared for that this year.