Vaulting in the Big Leagues

This past week’s training:

Monday – 4km on the track in 20:10.00, Cleans, Squats, Dumbbell Bench

Tuesday – 6x50yd sprints (full recovery), Plyometrics

Wednesday – 8x200m tempo (100m walking recovery) Clean&Jerk, Snatch, Pull Ups, Lunges

Thursday – 6x50yd sprints out of blocks with spikes on (full recovery)

Friday – 4×300, 4×200, 4x100m tempo, HOT out!, Snatch (back cramp stopped me), Leg Press, Bench, Abs

Saturday – Off

Sunday – Off (Happy Father’s Day!)

Maxes this week:

Cleans: 120lbs, Squats:235lbs, DBench: 110lbs, Jerks: 110lbs, Snatch: 95lbs, Lunges: 75lbs

Feeling good this week. Very humid. Started off chilly and easy to run in, ended in a heat wave. It’s still pretty hot, and this week will be pretty heavy in the heat. If you’re working out in this heat and humidity, remember to drink tons of water, or you’ll get muscle cramps like I did on Friday. Be Smart!

-Sambo

Ok, since I am not only a vaulter, and I am not in competition mode, let’s focus on the sport that brought us pole vault, and how to train for it COLLEGE STYLE!

Track and Field is a wonderful sport and I, like many of you, have been called to many other events OTHER than pole vault. Yeah, pole vault is the best event and the most fun to train for and compete, but you have to be in shape to do so. First things first: If you want to be a world class vaulter, you have to be a world class sprinter and jumper.

So how do you get there?

Summertime is a great time for preseason shape up and now is the time to get yourself prepared to multitask, and to take on anything late in the season. The base you build up over the summer and fall will carry you on to an explosive indoor season and by the end of outdoor, you will be smashing PRs all over the place!

Since this is my only blog, and it is a sports blog, I think I’ll post some workouts I’ve been doing. perhaps some of you can take something from this. Don’t do exactly what I am doing, cause everyone is different and I am training for decathlon, not just the vault. So here it is: (week of 6/6 – 6/12)

• Sunday: 20 minute run around neighborhood in Lowell [PV practice canceled ]
• Monday: 20 minute bike ride, cleans, back squats, bench press, simmons
• Tuesday: 6x30m sprint workout, full recovery, at baseball field
• Wednesday: 10x100m tempo, 50m walk recovery, clean&jerks, snatches, lat pull downs, lunges
• Thursday: 6x30m sprint workout, full recovery
• Friday: 4×300 (1:45 rest), 4×200 (100m walk rest), 4×100 (50m walk rest) tempo, snatches, bench press
• Saturday: 20 minute run around Auburn

I am working on endurance for the season, and trying to maintain sprinting speed and explosiveness. Coming off of a hiatus from running, this is a decent starter schedule for a college athlete. The 20 minute runs and the long tempo help with endurance. The short sprint workouts and short tempo allow you to revive your explosiveness and form early in the season and stay relaxed. I do not exert myself during any of these. Everything is done at around 80%, including my lifting. You gotta be able to last through workouts and feel fresh the next day to take on other ones.

The above schedule excludes my ‘daily routine’ at the track. Every day, I do a 4 lap jogging warm up on the turf field, where I mix in skipping, bounding, arm rotation, karaokes, and backwards running. After, I do leg swings on the fence, then about 6 half-field runs where I work on various hip exercises for strength and flexibility, and sprinting drills. Everyday ends with a one lap (usually barefoot) jog around the turf, rolling out of muscles, toe walks, heel walks, and side-of-the-foot walks.

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. You will not be doing exactly what I do, no matter who you are, or the level you’re at. Your warm up will probably be different, and you will have different workouts. I am only posting this so you can take a look at what else is out there, and judge what you could try for a different workout. This schedule is typical for Umass Lowell athletes, and you should stick to what you feel to be regular to YOUR team practices. Just don’t treat it like you’re in season, cause you’re not and you don’t want to peak too early, and exhaust yourself before your season ends.

My lifting maxes this week:

Cleans – 110lbs

Jerks – 100lbs

Snatches – 90lbs

Squats – 225lbs

Lat pulls – 150lbs

Simmons – 45lbs

Lunges – 75lbs

Dumbbell bench – 105lbs

All 5 sets of 5.

Again, with lifting in preseason, don’t come close to ‘maxing out.’ You don’t want to feel like you’re pushing until the 4th or 5th set of a lift.

I hope you enjoyed my first weekly workout post. The others will not be as long, I promise. This was the ice-breaker. If you have any questions or want to talk about training, vaulting, college athletics, running with me, or anything you can comment on here, friend ‘Sambo Fancypants’ on facebook, or leave me an email at sam_lebeau@student.uml.edu

Thanks for reading! Train this summer, but don’t beat yourself up. You’ll be prepared when, in mid-season, your coach throws you (a vaulter) into the 1,600m or the 400m.

-Sambo

Hey PPVC community! I’m back.

As you may have read in my previous post, my sophomore year was turbulent. It’s officially over now, and although I have taken a hiatus from a number of things (this blog, athletics, life in general) I am ready for my return to the world.

I have basically been in hibernation, getting my life back in order. I have taken the year to bond with my track team, plan for a future in graphic design, put together a debut album for my music project “Dino Stampede,” lease an apartment, and figure out where and who I want to be. And one of those titles is still ‘pole vaulter.’

Yeah, I broke my foot, got sick, became ineligible credits-wise, got sick again, failed a class, and broke my leg. BUT, wakeup call after wakeup call, I’m finally up! I’ve built up stronger character in the meantime. The time I had to take off made me miss track and field more than anything! I’ve been itching to get back and compete, and now have a chance again. I’m ready to take it on now. Ready for big things. It sure is a downer when all of this happens, against your will after Doug tells you beforehand: “I’ll be mad at you if you DONT clear fourteen this year!”

So summer has started. I have a new outlook. I have been attending Sunday practices at North Andover High School. My new roommate is a recent graduate of the nutrition program, and is in the process of becoming a personal trainer. I have been taking his advice in regards to summer training, and feel great about it. Lotsa lifting, lotsa volume. If you’re looking to train over the summer, remember: it’s not all about speed right now, it’s about finishing workouts and maintaining good form comfortably.

I will be competing for Umass Lowell as a sophomore next year, although I am technically a junior. I can’t make promises, but I’m feeling good as of now Decathlon and UML school record possibly in the near future. FINGAZ CROSSED!

-Sambo

So, I’m sitting in my dorm room right now on the 14th floor of a residence hall at Umass Lowell, taking a break from finals studying. My third semester at college will be over by noon tomorrow and needless to say, I have a few regrets. Hopefully some of the High Schoolers and College Freshmen can take something from this. First things first, this is a pole vault blog, and I absolutely love pole vault, but unrelated circumstances do affect whether you can pole vault or not, so here’s some things I did that you should NOT do if you want to maximize your pole vault potential and get through college less stressed out.

First of all, settle on a major you will enjoy studying and are capable of succeeding in. It is great to have a plan for what you want to do after college, but BE REALISTIC! I did not declare a major immediately, but enrolled in classes specific to Marketing. Bad choice since I’m awful at math, numbers and graphs. To not fail, I had to withdraw from two of my classes, leaving me with a credit total under 12. Since I was under 12 credits, I was no longer a full time student at the university, and therefore no longer eligible to compete, or even practice with my track team. Total bummer. I’ve been out of team practice for over a month, and let me tell you: it’s depressing. So, pole-vault youth, don’t jump into a subject you’re not familiar with because you could end up not being able to pole vault, and we all know that that’s the end of the world for people like us.

Secondly, BE CAREFUL! If you’re a college athlete, you probably know what pain is, and chances are you’ve sat out a few meets due to a pulled muscle or stress fracture or something of the nature. Athletes get hurt during practice, and that’s that, but earlier this fall I attended a track team cookout and decided it was a good idea to enter a relay where I had to spin 180 degrees in mid-sprint. It didn’t end great, and I broke my foot. No running for at least a month. BE CAREFUL, KIDS! FOR THE LOVE OF POLE VAULT!

A few more tips: Eat healthy, don’t get sick. I was sick twice this semester and it got pretty ugly. The only advantage of this miserable entrapment in my dorm room was that I developed an obnoxious cough that turned out to be a KILLER ab workout. Also, it’s college. People drink stuff they’re not old enough for, and do things that can mess up their health. While I refrain from consuming anything more severe than coffee, which I still don’t drink, I still have a great time at school with my friends. As lame as it sounds, it’s true. I’ve enjoyed college to the fullest so far, and I haven’t even had a beer. Oh, and before I forget: SLEEP! Sleep like it’s your job. Don’t miss class, but get your rest! If you’re an athlete getting less sleep than you crave, you will be very sorry.

So, that being said, I don’t want anyone to worry about me. My semester ends tomorrow and I am enrolled in some nice easy classes. I changed my major to Graphic Design and am looking forward to it. I will be able to practice and compete with the team when they all move back to campus on January 6th.

Don’t do what I did. Think things through and do your research before enlisting yourself for the long-haul. I’ve been very unlucky this semester and I have alot of make-up work to do when I come back for class. I hope some of the young adults who read this will think before they act, stay healthy, and drive those heels up!

P.S. Congrats to Chrissy Silvar, my best buddy here at Umass Lowell, for clearing 11′ and breaking the school record here! I’ll have my name on there soon, too!

Hello Everybody! Sam here. Just logged onto my brand new blog here on Patriot. I’ll use this first post to tell you a little about myself and my vaulting history, the role it plays in my life, etc. Growing up, I didn’t play sports at all. I learned how to play a bunch of different musical instruments instead. When I was a freshman in high school, I was first offered a position on a track team. I considered myself a fast sprinter so I decided to give it a shot. I showed up my first day in Chuck Taylors and sweatpants. After the first week of track, my coach noticed that I was showing promise in the high jump because I was sitting over the bar at 5’2″ and the other freshman and sophomores weren’t popping up like I was. Sometime within the next month, I was attempting 5’2″ again, cleared it, and landed off of the mat. To be fair, my calves and heels hit the mat but the rest of me was on the tile in the exercise room at the old Auburn High School. The next day, I went with the hurdlers. I found this event to be more suited to my style since I was flexible and fast. Over the next four years, hurdles became my thing. I qualified for the divisional state meet the next year as a sophomore. Track went well for me throughout high school and I saw a lot of success in the 55 and 110 hurdles. After winning the 55m hurdle final at districts my senior year, I was introduced to Doug. Doug was my coach’s coach in high school and coached him to state champion status is the vault. Doug told us that he had a full pit that we could take care of for him during the outdoor season. That march, I went to my first vaulting practice at Hit-Quarters in Shrewsbury. For some reason, I couldn’t hold onto the pole my first time planting. I was a piece of work. But, that night my coach and I drove the pads back to my high school and set them up in the dark. My first week pole vaulting got me over 9’6″, but when we put it up to 9’9″ I was stuck. I was at that plateau for what seemed like the longest time and I wanted to clear an even 10″! My first competition was at the District Relays for the CMASS boys. It was quite a debut because I was vaulting against the entire Central Mass District. Two boys on my team helped us stay in the competition by clearing 7’6″, the opening height. I cleared 9 feet on my first attempt and was beside myself. I celebrated at 10 feet on first attempt. at 10’6″ I turned and faced the bar for the first and only time of the season. When I cleared 11 on my first attempt everyone’s jaw dropped. I was the only vaulter from my class to clear 11 feet that day, winning individually and bringing the relay team up to 2nd place. Nobody believed I had only been vaulting for three weeks and my PR was 9’6″ prior to the meet. At the end of April 2008, I was 18 and almost done with school when the District Class Meet rolled around. I showed up at Fitchburg’s Crocker Field and started hanging out by the pole vault pads. Someone handed me the seed sheet and I found myself at 3rd place in the 110 hurdles and 2nd in the vault. I thought it was funny that I had been vaulting only a month or two, didn’t practice alot and was still doing slightly better than my main event of four years. I ended up getting third in the hurdles after hitting hurdle six and losing my rhythm, so I wasn’t too excited about the day. It was probably the most “meh” race I’ve ever run. I went to pole vault, opened at 10′ and didn’t make it the first two times. from 10′ to 11′, I was incredibly shaky, making it on 3rd attempts, and falling heels first into the plantbox. I cleared 11’6″ and just became indifferent. I had this attitude where I was like “alright, I cleared 11’6″ and ran a gross time in the hurdles. What do I have to lose? I really don’t care if I make it, this is my first time attempting this height.” First attempt, I squeezed over twelve and everyone there, not just kids from my high school, erupted. It was one of the coolest things. I broke my second school record that day. One that was set in 1975 and tied again in 1981. I didn’t do much after that in high school, but the Worcester Telegram and Gazette wrote a cool two page article about me that was published on my graduation day. I started to practice with Doug after I graduated a few times and moved into Umass Lowell in the spring. I met with the track coach and told him my stats. He said I would probably do well in the pole vault, although I had though my other events were more impressive. I guess 12′ is a good mark, even if you vaulted all throughout high school. Since we don’t have a coach here, my freshman year only boasted a 12’1″ and a 12’3″ clearance during indoor. Now, as a sophomore at Umass Lowell, I’m getting higher hopes in the vault, since Doug and the club has been running open clinics on our home field. I’m one of two and a half vaulters here at UML. Chrissy and I are the best of friends. She’s like my big sister when it comes to pole vault cause she’s been doing it way longer and she’s been driving me around to all the practices off-campus. The other vaulter is a heptathlete who doesn’t get excited about pole vault practice like Chrissy and I and is a bit stubborn when it comes to learning form, so we’ll say he’s a half-vaulter. So that’s my story. I’m a new kid on the block here, and I’m new to the event, but since I started, I feel really welcome in the Patriot Pole Vault Community, and you’ll be hearing more from me. 14? is my goal for this year so we’ll see!