Eugene Training Camp

Howdy! Just finishing up a week long training camp here in Eugene, Oregon...home of our Olympic Trials. About 9 of us from the Olympic Training Center came up for some mental preparation on the same track that we will fight for our Olympic births on. Most people would say we are crazy for leaving the sun in southern California for 40 degree rain in Oregon, and they are partly right. But its also nice to get a shot at track that the trials are on, and its ALWAYS nice to get away from the training center.
We arrived into Eugene late Monday evening and have been putting in 2 workouts a day everyday, and for most of us its the heaviest week or training as far as volume and intensity go. This is the last week of a 8 week long phase that I wrote about in my last blog entry and my body is finally showing the signs of the accumulated 8 weeks of pounding. I was playing with some numbers on the flight up here and here are some stats for you. In this last 8 weeks I have done the following:

Squated 44,160 kilos (97,152 lbs)
Power Cleaned 19,840 kilos (43,648 lbs)
Threw 2,400 medballs
800 javelin throws
1,600 weighted ball throws
*not even going to try to add up the number of miles SPRINTED

Anyways, I thought it was a good idea to add everything up and look at it in the big picture. One can almost say that the hay is almost in the barn...its now time to start tightening the screws and get ready for some big competitions and hopefully big throws. Speaking of which, today I am supposed to throw here at a collegiate meet at the University of Oregon. This comes to my coach and I as a surprise because when we departed for Oregon at the beginning of the week we had a schedule that said I was to compete Saturday evening. As a result I threw yesterday morning and lifted last night very hard. So it will be interesting to see if I can still manage to throw over 80m with every part of my body aching from the last 8 weeks beatings. My coach has let me know that unless I feel 100% sure that I am capable of throwing that I do not have to.
In other competition news, I have been confirmed for my 1st IAAF Super Grand Prix which will be in Doha, Qatar on May 9. I will finally get to rub elbows with the big guys, Andreas Thorkildsen (2004 Olympic Champ) will also start his outdoor campaign there as well.
I have also launched a website that you can get all kinds of goodies on like my music, javelin training info and of course links to In The Arena, check it out at:

www.web.mac.com/mikehazle