Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Always looking up…Part 2



Καλησπέρα από την Αθήνα!

This blog comes to you from Athens, Greece...how cool does that sound! I am such a fan of the Mediterranean culture...it is similar to Southern California, but without the egos! ;)

I am here at the Athens airport about to catch a flight over to Rome, Italy for my next shot at the IAAF Golden Leagues...Rome will mark the 3rd Golden League that I have been in the last 2 years, the others being Oslo and Berlin, the only remaining meets left are Paris Brussels and Zurich, all of which I probably will not be attending (explain below)... After being in Rome for a few days last year, I can say that it will probably be the coolest Golden League Meeting, aside from Oslo because I have so many close friends there. The city of Rome is literally one big museum and I cant wait to go back.



Competition updates: After having placing 2nd at our National Championships with my 2nd best throw ever (82.06m) and qualifying for World Championships in Berlin...I have done absolutely nothing ;)

I flew straight back to San Diego and moved everything that I own into storage units because the training center is once again re-evaluating the program and they wanted everyone out before they went to Europe. So, to make a long story short, I moved pretty much non-stop from the time I walked off the plane until about 2am, I got up at 5am and finished packing a few last minute items and headed straight over to France. I got in around 8pm that night and threw the next day...not a good idea.

ahhhh France, where do I start...without being too hard on them let me just say it was not the place I wanted to be as the July 4th holiday was approaching, I was oozing red white and blue and it must have showed all over my face! Let me just say that all of the stereotypes that you hear about the French...are true! I was blown away, in a bad way, but like I said, I wont go into too much detail about it but I realize now that stereotypes are usually based on fact! I even refrained from dropping the best one liner EVER! I was being spoken to (in a very condescending and sarcastic tone) by a French guy at the Paris Nord Train station, about my javelins "being in his way" as he was trying to pass... All I heard was blah blah blah wee wee wee, and he was looking at me like I knew what he was saying! I refrained, but all I wanted to say was,
"Im sorry, the only French I know is I surrender" :) (don't worry, I didn't say it out loud, but he deserved it)

anyways, after the sub par meet France, I met up with some of my training partners from the training center in Saarbrucken, Germany, a very very cool little town with a nice training center, I hung out there for 2 days and then headed down to Greece, Patras to be exact and threw again last night, another sub par result. My technique is hiding once again, but I'm sure it will come back, I just hope it comes back before I get to Rome and bang heads with the best in the world.

After Rome, I head straight back to Athens for the Athens Grand Prix on Monday the 13th and then off to Zaragoza, Spain on the weekend...after that, it may be time for a small, very small training period to rebuild a bit before Worlds in Berlin.

Till next time, missing the fireworks and BBQ's
M++

"Athletics is a balancing act, its a series of highs and lows, its how you manage your average that counts."



Roma Stadio Olimpico




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