French Champs

Because Rudy had the French championships in Aubiere (Clermont Ferrand), Arno and me drove down to support him.

It was a big change compare to the Dutch championships. Not only does the French Champs take 3 days, the average level of the competition is so much higher than in Holland.
I have seen a fantastic competition with some extraordinary results. As a Dutch athlete I was put back in place.

Rudy did a really good job. He broke his PB by 122 points and finished first. Before the pole vault he was 117 points behind the number one. After the pole vault I realised how much difference an extraordinary event can make: after the pole vault he was 97 points ahead.

The French nationals were a really good experience and it was nice to be back in the place where I had my international break through. Plus the fact I met Rudy in Clermont Ferrand.

With me everything is ok. My leg is recovering well. It will take me another 2 weeks to be back in training completely, because I'm building up training really slow. At the moment I'm jogging, doing weights for my upper body, I'm doing total exercises (kind of circuits), so i'm working on my base very well.

I strongly believe that this injury didn't kill me, it made me stronger....

I will stay in France untill the 6th of March. after that Rudy and me are going back to the boring conditioning work. Very necessary, but very boring.

Speak later

no indoor season

After a really good start of the indoor season I have to tell some bad news. The muscle that I injured in South Africa reacted a lot after the competition. As I don't want to get seriously injured I decided to skip the indoor season.

At the moment I'm jogging, cycling, doing core stability, circuits....... I'm pretty bored, cause it's not the training that I like, but very necessary at the moment.

I hope to back back in full training in the beginning of march. I will use the next couple of weeks to get back to the level I was before we went to South Africa. Then I will be in shape by the time Gotzis is coming. But I won't make any predictions because untill now, nothing went according to plan. But I will be patient....

good start

Sunday I ran my first competition. I can tell everyone that I'm left the stadium as a very happy person.

In the morning I didn't feel to good. I was tired and the first competition of the season is always hard.
But when I entered the indoor hall I saw Judith Vis warming up and that triggered me to run a good race. I ran 8.40 and that is 0.15 faster then my opener last year and only 0.03 form my pb.

I also competed in the long jump and high jump. I jumped 5.90 and 1.76. Long jump was 30cm further then my opener last year and high jump was an indoor pb.

Although it was a messy competition (I mean technically) I was very happy

Next weekend i'm competing in the international meeting in Prague.... I'm looking forward to it.

back in training

Since last week monday I'm back in training. I started with some accelerations en some light jumping. After that I started weights again en throwing. Sunday I ran my first 800 session. Everything went very well. I didn't feel my leg at all, so it was a good choice to skip some competitions and to let it cure completely.

Yesterday I did some block work for the first time since South Africa. It was a bit weird and the first 2 starts didn't go well. But during the session it went better en better and I went home with a good feeling. Today we (Rudy, Denise (shotputter) en me) did plyometrics with Arno in Haarlem.

Tomorrow I'll start on hurdles and we will do some competitions related work for the high jump and the long jump.
I'm really looking forward to sunday. I hope I will make a good start of the season.
I will do hurdles, High jump and long jump.

Fingers crossed!!!