INSEP

Last wednesday Rudy and me did some plyo. Arno was back on the track and it was good to have him there. After the training we went to France, to Rudy's parents. They live in a little village (Longpré les Corps Saints) 30km from Amiens.

The day after we took the train to the national sportcenter of France (INSEP). Rudy is going to INSEP once a month to train pole vault with Sébastien Levicq (former decathlete = +8500 points and 5.60m PV).
I did some pole vault myself as well. I have trained for PV before but it was a long time ago. Unfortunately I could not test how high I could jump because the bar was on Rudy's height.
After the PV-session we ran 8*100. That was hard because I had to run sub 13.0 and I only had 90 sec recovery.

INSEP is a really nice center with a huge indoor accommodation. The hall excists of a 330m round track, which is flat. In that track there is a 60m sprinttrack, a 160m roundtrack and a cycle track next to eachother. It's possible to run 110m straight. Then there is a room for weights.

Rudy told me that Christine Arron, Ladji Doucouré, Ronald Pognon and several other French stars are training there daily.

After the training we went to our room. And that was a big disappointment. I truly had the feeling that I arrived in a prison in eastern Europe but then 50 years ago. The room and the shower were dirty and without flip-flops I didn't dare to walk around. ABout the toilets: It's enough to say that we had to share with 10 other rooms.
Fortunately they will renovate the whole complex for 110 milion Euro and the dormitory is on top of the list. Plus we were in the worse part of the center. All the other blocks were already renovated.

The next day we had to get up very early because the breakfast was only until 08:00. Rudy did some PV again and I did some hurdles. After that we took the train to Amiens to do a maximum weights session.
I had a lot of muscle pain because of the running session the day before so weights was hard, but i had good marks in the test and I'm on schedule.

Yesterday (saturday) I did an 800 session. It went pretty easy (for as far as possible) and I was happy.
Then we went to Rudy's aunt to celebrate Christmass Eve. This year is the first year I celebrated X-mass without my own family and that is pretty weird. But his family is really nice and it gives me a lot of opportunity to practice my French. So hopefully in next year I can speak three languages fluently.

Tuesday I did a good plyometric session. Arno wasn't there because his mum was in bad shape. Unfortunately his mum died on thursday morning and with this message I want to wish Arno and his family lots of strenght to deal with losing a precious family member.

Because of Arno's absence Rudy and me did a alternative session. We ran 10x60m hurdles (12 hurdles on 4.25m) and 3x150.
These runs went very easy. I'm running times now which were my 150 PB just 1.5 years ago. Only now I run it comfortable and on technique.

Today I did some shot.It is very nice to be able to train indoors when it's storming and raining.
Because we shifted the training a little bit, from quantity to quality, I can see my technical events go a lot better. I notice that especially in the shot. Timing is much better and therefore distances are better. I'm looking forward to South Africa where I can prepare my indoor season and see what events we need to work on for the summer

Tomorrow a 800m session is waiting...... Hopefully the weather is better tomorrow

Yeah

Sometimes after training I just have a "yeah-feeling". That happened today after the speed-endurance session. I had to run 300-250-200-150-100. I ran the 300 almost 4sec too fast!!. So I expected to blow myself up. I thought the man with the hammer was waiting for me at 100m before the finish and he would attack me sooner or later during a run. But he didn't hit me, my legs just kept on running and in the end wasn't even that lactic.

I just checked my training diary of last year and every run was at least 1 sec faster. My diary also said that last year's session ended in vomitting. This year I was nowhere near that feeling.

This morning the throwing session went ok. Because i hurt my wrist yesterday in cleaning, I was a little bit more careful in the shot. But technically things start to fall in place. Javelin went well.

well, that was it for today...

tired but happy

Last tuesday was a killing session. When I start to run the speed endurance sessions I always think it will be ok, but when I have 2 runs to go I regret that I ever thought it could be easy.
But I read in Michael Johnson's book that the question should be: "is it worth trying?" and not "can it be done?". Well, it was worth trying because I know it will help me improve.

Wednesday we did plyometrics. At first I had some problems with getting my legs "working". It seriously felt like someone superglued me to the track. But after 30min it went a lot better.

Thursday we did some high jump run ups en hurdles technique... Especially in the hurdles I feel a big difference compared to last year (technically speaking), so I'm curious what my competitions can bring me.

This morning I brought my parents to the airport. They just came back from Aruba and now they are on their way to New York (birthday present for my mum). They are visiting my family in the States. I have been there in 2001 after I passed my high school exams. My dad and me left exactly one month before 9/11. I would like to go back there and see the big changes. But first I have to safe money for that.

Tomorrow training starts early again, because my club could only rent the indoorfacility at 08:30 in the morning. But it´s better than to do shot put outside in the cold
well, that is it for now... speak later...

stronger

I did a very good weights session today.
I was happy because I can do sets of 3 now with a weight that was my maximum last year around this time... Maybe I will get strong sometimes...

It was a quite wet day today. It has been raining a lot. I will be happy to go to South Africa in january. It will break my winter and ofcourse it's nice to train in the sun and warmth.

This morning I went to school (I'm studying physiotherapy) and me and my friend Susan worked on Electro-stimulation (and related therapies). Today we did Ultra-sound and short waves). I think it's a very boring subject so I left this exam for the last weeks. I'm not looking forward to do the exam because we have a lot of work to do. But what has to be done, has to be done.... I'll be looking forward to my internship, hopefully in february. After that I will probably go on studying (maybe a master), we'll see... 2 internships to go....

Tomorrow will be a hard training day. Throwing in the morning (I hope it won't be too cold) and speed endurance in the early-evening, and that last one is going to be killing. The best thing i can say is: "impossible is nothing"

sometimes it just doesn't work out

My site was meant to be online completely but an internet crash passed our way and now only my diary was added. Well anyway... you can read about me and find my progression of the last years... yahooo!!!

We just finished a typical Dutch national day: Sinterklaas (St-Nicolas) and because I have soe little children in the family this is usually a very noisy evening... they all get so excited when they see all the presents... :-)

Yesterday we went to see the new Harry Potter movie... nice film, but we were home late and this morning I had to be in the indoor hal at 08:30 to start my shot put session. Very early and I was very tired.... it didn't go too well as you can imagine.

Afterwards we went to Amsterdam to train for long jump (and Rudy did some pole vault). The jumping session went very well cause my body woke up in the meantime.

It's always very nice to see all the other multi eventers... Even if it's just to hear the newest gossips. It was only two weeks ago when I heard that Karin (Ruckstuhl) and me are supposed to have a fight. We don't know why this story is going around, but we'll know better. People just like to talk and if they want to talk about us... I'll let them...

Tomorrow I have a resting day (and I really need one). Next week I have to do some heavy sessions. It's going to be difficult but in every difficulty lies opportunity. And i think that that is a nice line to say bye for now :-))