Spiked up for my first competition in 13 months and first outdoor meet in almost 2 years! I competed in the pole vault (4.15m) and 200m (27.52). I had a blast being able to hop in a meet again after such a long time away from competitions.
The pole vault was an alright start to the outdoor season. Although I would have liked to jump higher, I am giving myself grace for battling less than ideal conditions in the cold and a hard cross wind. I could have done a better job mentally at 4.30m to jump with the wind (i.e. suck it up and run more on the right side of the runway and carry the pole more across the right side of my body to avoid the pole blowing out of line too much). It takes another mental gear to tap into and dig deep to want to jump in those types of difficult scenarios. Your desire to compete really has to outweigh the desire to stay comfortable, which can be a fine line between having fun and being focused. Regardless, it's been so long since I've really had to deal with those factors that it was a good reminder to be prepared for similar challenges in the future.
Next time when conditions are tough, I would like to challenge myself to attack the jump regardless and just give it a better attempt, instead of surrender and give up. It is good to practice taking hold of your nerves, anxious thoughts, worries, and excitement to re-wire your brain that you can overcome discomforts instead of be paralyzed by fear.
The best thing afterwards was to go be able to run a 200m and see where my time landed! Repeat 200's have been my favorite workout in fall training for a few years now. Calle me crazy, but I love to run! So this was a different stimulus to experience adrenaline and competition butterflies. I had zero expectations because this is not my normal event I train for, plus I got a crash course on block starts the day before.
It really was just good physical and mental training. Plus just plain fun! Getting out of your comfort zone is a good thing!
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