Vaulting in the Big Leagues

I’d have to start out by saying my outdoor season was really bittersweet this year. There were SO many great things about my outdoor season that I am thankful and excited about. First and foremost, the addition of Coach Ken to the WPI vault crew. Finally having a consistent vault coach three times a week for the first time since my senior year of high school was the highlight of my season. The guidance and support was invaluable and I’m not just saying that because Coach Ken feeds us tasty things once a week! There were many physical and mental breakthroughs for me as well this spring, which went hand in hand with finally having a coach there to really critique and figure out what I needed to do to get better. I mentioned in previous posts about my epiphany about getting my hands up, but I also finally stopped (most jumps anyways) my terrible habit of round-housing my plant.

I’ll have to admit that my season did end on a bitter, frustrating note. If anyone saw me at NEWMACs (which thank goodness wasn’t -that- many people) you would have seen me miss my final attempt at 9’6″, a height that would have qualified me for DIII New Englands and extended my season, and march angrily away from the pole vault area.  I was upset with myself for not making a height I had made several times every season since 2009, for not extending my season (this was the first year that I didn’t make either indoor and outdoor DIII New Englands,) and for not living up to Coach Ken’s expectations. After I was gone maybe 15 minutes, my mother came to find me. We talked about why I was upset and my mom helped me see the light that it wasn’t a wasted year. Having watched me from my terrible beginner season to now, she told me this is the best form she has seen me in, and that I should be proud of my progress, even though it hasn’t translated to a new PR. She also brought up that this is the best shape she has seen me in, something I have struggled with since I graduated high school, when my HS coach told me I needed to slim down more if I wanted to be a serious vaulter in college. I also obviously talked to Coach Ken after that and even though I felt I had let him down, he assured me that progress had been made and that he was proud of what I had accomplished.

I took a week and a half away from the pit after NEWMACs to clear my head a bit. I thought it would be too painful to practice with the girls who were about to head to DIII New Englands and that it would spark those feelings of being inadequate again. When I did finally return to the runway, Coach Ken and I decided to try something new- going after that pesky free take-off I had never attempted before. We moved my step back the prescribed amount and it was magical. After the first attempt at that new take-off mark, Coach Ken looked at me and apologized for not thinking of that pre-NEWMACs so I could have gotten that 9’6″.

It was one of those moments where I just thought, wow, it would have been great to have known this then, but I never would have learned to deal with how I felt after not doing well at a big meet for me. That was the same day that I tweeted “Hands on fire, forearm bruise growing and I’m loving it. These are the days that I fall I love with polevault all over again.” And it’s true – through the frustration, the improvements, the failures and the epiphanies, I keep falling in love with the pole vault.

So, since my season has ended, a lot has happened. I’ve dabbled here and there in workouts, some insanity work outs, some lifting, some runs, but I didn’t do anything “serious” or “consistent” until this week. Like I said last time I was here on Nantucket, the gym is astronomically expensive. For three months, the local gym is $385, and as much as I want to be lifting, there is no way I am paying that much. Instead, I’ve started my own weird workout schedule. There isn’t much planned yet, but essentially I’m trying to get in a good mix of “distance”, sprinting, abs, arms and legs (if anyone wants to help me out with the legs things, that would be great. I’m having a mental block.) I put distance in quotes because I have never really run that far before. I feel like I need to ease my body into it. So, I have started doing a 1.2 mile loop, which has a nice big 200m hill in it, and once I do this for about two weeks (on my distance days) I’m going to up it to maybe 1.8 miles or something and keep going up once I feel comfortable at the distance. My sprints are currently 7x100m sprints, ever so slightly up hill. I’m aiming to do the sprints twice a week and my WPI coach wants us up to 10x100m sprints by the time august rolls around, so every few weeks I’ll add another 100m rep.

Essentially, I want 11 ft really badly. Not just 10 ft, which has been my goal since 2009, but I want something big. I want to go out my graduating season with a bang. To help inspire me, I made my own twitter hashtag to use when I’m doing workouts #11fttakeswork

Wow, that was probably the longest post I’ve ever written, and probably just sounds like a lot of jumbled thoughts. I hope ya’ll enjoy

I’ve had such a fabulous time vaulting lately. I’m no where near perfect (ask Iggy and Coach Ken) but I’m so happy that I’m finally starting to do things right!

1. I’ve started actually running. That doesn’t mean Coach Ken doesn’t still make comments about me being slow. I am still slow on occasion, but there’s actually some oomph to my run now!

2. I’ve learned the magic of actually planting the pole with my arms up and not just flinging myself towards the planting box. Get this- IT WORKS. I’ve had poles that I thought I was blowing through, but it turns out I just wasn’t planting right and harnessing the power.

3. Coach Ken makes really really really good food.

4. I know there is something to be said for quality not quantity, but I’ve been having longer pole vault practices lately. I used to feel bad whenever my mother would take me to practice at patriot and I wouldn’t vault for long, but now I’m taking advantage of the two days of the week I get to actually be with pole vault coaches.

I’m really excited to get going with outdoor competitions, but alas, I won’t compete again until March 31st. So until then- lots of pole runs, pole plants and work on my swing (ex. I said to Coach Ken at Harvard today “So THAT’S what a swing is supposed to look like?!”)

And I’m also super excited to keep being rewarded with Coach Ken’s food. If you haven’t had it, you’re seriously missing out.

Peace Love and Vault

Jacqui

Hi all,

Sorry for the hiatus from the blog. It was due to a big hiatus from the vault. At WPI we have a big project to do our junior year and I just happen to be completing mine off campus on Nantucket (living the life, I know.) I just finished my project this week, but have been stuck on this island the last two months with no track, no runway and more importantly, barely any streetlights for when it gets dark out. This made for some interesting workouts, especially with the gym on the island being $170 per month and me being too broke to pay for it.

Before the project when I was at school, there were also some complications involving my super time consuming prep class for this project and Kyle’s evening grad classes, so I only got over to patriot once during the fall

But here I am, ready to kick off break and my access to the gym tonight. It’s time to get back into weight lifting (ouch.) and get my butt into all around shape for january practices. Lots of core, yoga, sprints and pole drops for me this break.

I get one last vacation (read, cool stuff by day, NEED to work out *note to boyfriend who is taking me on this trip: NEED* by night) before the January season starts and then it’s back into a whirlwind of classes, practices and meets.

I’m not sure how ready I am to step foot back onto the runway. I have not attempted a jump since September and to be quite honest, I’m chalking my first meet up to getting the cobwebs out of my legs.

Anywho, I’ll let everyone know how the season goes, but as for right now, it’s time to get my butt out of bed, finish packing and get off this island and to the local Y!

Jacqui

It’s been a really long time since I posted. Wow, a really long time has passed. Flashback:

So last time I was posting, I was extremely mopey. I was struggling with a lot of pole vault and track related things. In all honesty, I considered quitting the WPI team and competing as an open athlete and practicing solely with Patriot. I eventually talked with the head coach about my concerns and what I was feeling and he had no idea any of the conflicts I was experiencing were even going on. He got right on most of them and life on the team became better.

Just as life on the team was getting better, I was getting ready to leave for Europe. I had been accepted to an exchange program in Konstanz, Germany. I’d been to the area before in high school and couldn’t have been more excited. I even found a pole vault ( Stabhochsprung in german) club for me to train with while I was abroad.

My excitement turned to anxiety before I left. 4 months is a really long time to be gone from your best friends, your family and boyfriend. I wish I had told my parents about my anxiety before the trip, but I just assumed the hysterical crying was from finals stress. I cried all the way through security in the airport and a few more times while waiting at the gate. It never got better- I began having anxiety attacks once reached my first evening in Germany. I had a white, asylum-like room which made me feel alone and I couldn’t stand it.

Long story short, I begged and pleaded and came home from Germany 3 months and 3 weeks earlier than planned. I couldn’t have been happier or made a better decision.

Coming back to practices were rough after taking 3 weeks off (New Englands ended two weeks before I left) and I was asked to sit out the first meet of the season because I wasn’t physically ready to compete yet. My first meet back was at MIT and I didn’t have high expectations. If I got one height, whatever it was I would be happy. I never thought I would be PRing for the first time since High School by jumping 9’8″.

The elation didn’t last long, between cold and wind, vault practices weren’t frequent and weren’t quality. The one day I finally get a good day to vault, I injured myself. It makes sense that as practices go on, and you get warmer, you will get faster until your energy starts going down. Well, after taking two gorgeous jumps at a 10 or 11 ft bungee, my step was severely under and my back couldn’t handle it. After seeing the trainers, they told me I was pinching nerves in my back.

Recovery was long, hard and incomplete by the time New Englands rolled around. I jumped 9’8″ and tied my PR and was very happy with how my season ended regardless of the injury.

And so Summer began with me giving myself ample time off to let my back heal so that every jump wouldn’t hurt.

Present:

I just returned from Bill Falk’s pole vault camp held at Rhode Island College. Having taken so much time off from workouts and vault to let myself heal, I went in extremely out of shape and knew pain would be involved.

I really liked the camp, which had the format of one off runway session and one runway session per day with an optional open runway session in the evening. I didn’t participate in the open runway sessions due to being sore and knowing my own limits. There was no point in vaulting with no energy and doing things incorrectly.

I really focused on getting my plant timing down and my run more consistent. I feel a lot more confident leaving camp, especially after I cleared 9ft several times yesterday with an 11ft 130. Speaking of poles, anyone from Patriot who is considering going to this camp in the future- borrow poles from Doug for the camp. I wish I had because it took me all 4 days to find the 11ft 130 I wanted to use and it was a pole that another camper had brought for themselves.

I cannot wait to go to the Vaultarama’s this summer and show off my new skills. 10 feet, here I come!!

I ask myself that almost every day, in almost every context. What should I be doing to get ready for this essay? What should I be doing with my free time? And the place you really should not be thinking this, but I do all the time, is what should I be doing for a workout?

Lately the other vaulters and I have been on our own for practices. I can’t really say that’s true of all of us vaulters. Some of the group have been blessed with great running ability, or great jumping ability. But me? I vault. I am pointing zero fingers saying, this person isn’t doing stuff, this person isn’t giving us workouts. I guess the only person to blame is myself. If I really wanted this, wouldn’t I have made the effort to either build a workout, or have someone build one for me?

Which brings me to my next point- WHY should I be doing this? I loved vault in high school. The competition was fun, the practices even more so. We worked, we improved but we had fun. Lately to me, collegiate pole vaulting hasn’t been as much fun. It’s been painful, stressful and makes me feel inadequate. Yes, I finally got up to my high school PR (and even technically beat it by 1/4″) but I don’t feel as accomplished as I once did.

I know Kyle asked a lot of you a while back why you ran, why you vaulted? I would like to ask the same thing. I guess I am looking for a reason to stay Varsity and not just switch to Open. I by no means want to quit vaulting altogether, but maybe it’s time I think about what I need to do in order to be my best, and feel my best.

I recently joined an organization that makes me feel great about myself. I’m confident, happy and everyone there just makes me more confident and happy. Varsity pole vault has been the opposite of that lately. I just want to get back to that place where pole vaulting made me happy.

So, tell me why you run? Why do you pole vault? email me your responses at jacqueline.foti@wpi.edu