Kara Patterson

I returned to San Diego from Colorado Springs last Monday morning, and went straight to practice; my first one with 500-gram javelins.  That’s always a little awkward, as my problems with lunging forward as I throw are blatant with a lighter-weight implement.  When I throw heavy javelins (700- or 800-gram ones), my arm and upper body are forced to stay back, and I get a big stretch before the implement is released.  Not so with a dinky javelin! I have to make sure I’m patient and really learn how to purposefully wait on the release.  I’ll do my best again today.

Another problem I’ve dealt with in my throwing for a very long time is controlling the tip of my javelin at release.  I’m pretty flexible (understatement alert?), so I pretend that I can feel more stretch across my shoulder by breaking at the wrist when I throw.  This makes for loss of distance because my power isn’t going into the javelin at the correct orientation; the tip gets too high.  This week, I’ll focus only on keeping my wrist in line and making sure my javelin flies correctly.  It’s a little bit daunting to think about fixing this, because it is something I’ve always struggled with.  Better late-ish than never…

I’m so happy to be back at the Training Center and able to practice normally every day.  It’s fun to travel and see family and get my workouts in elsewhere, but never is training as beneficial as when I’m in the environment I’m familiar with, with my coach and training partners. Four or five solid months of training regularly here is an exciting idea for me!

I know what my goals are, but I haven’t written them down yet.  Soon, I’ll write measurable goals for training and competition!

I have decided that this week is Christmas Week. I always get really sad the night of Christmas Day, because Christmas is over! No longer, I say.

By the way, my Christmas Day was amazing; Russ got me super sweet and thoughtful presents, and the collection of gift cards I have from his Mom and my parents is really exciting! Christmas week this year takes place in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Russ and I plan to get lots of outdoor activity in; the weather has actually been gorgeous so far. It’s clear and sunny, with temperatures maybe between mid-20s to high 40s. That’s pretty awesome, considering I’ve been really cold here before. It was pretty chilly at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo last night, though!

Training while we’re here will be a little bit of an adventure. When I’m on vacation, I seriously love making my workouts fit in with the time I spend with family! It’s like this timing puzzle that’s super satisfying to solve, because I feel good physically and mentally at the end of the day; I get my workouts in and I get to bond with loved ones. This morning, I threw an 800-gram ball around in the park near Russ’s Mom’s house for my throwing practice, and I’ll lift at a random gym in the area while Russ is at a dentist appointment. Tomorrow, I’ll run in that same park, and do gymnastics on the jungle gym! Last week, we were in Orange Beach, Alabama visiting Russ’s grandparents and Dad, and the local recreation center offered everything I needed for training; all I had to do was be a little creative.

This morning’s practice marked the beginning of the first week of Block 3 for me (my 9th week of training). I’m really excited about some of the technical things we’ve been working on this fall! My last throwing session before this Christmas trip started made me a little frustrated with figuring out the new positions, but I’ve been visualizing them pretty consistently, and really focused on them this morning in the park. I’m getting low in my legs in order to get my left down quickly, staying really closed until my left foot is down, and really trying to keep the javelin angle down at release by keeping the tip as close to my face as I can for as long as I can! I’m really looking forward to early spring training.

The Diamond League schedule for 2011 came out recently! Here is an idea of the meets I’d like to compete in this year:

last weekend of April: Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa
May 26: Rome, Italy*
June 4: Prefontaine Classic* in Eugene, Oregon
June 11: New York*, New York
last weekend of June: USA Championships in Eugene, Oregon
July 8: Paris, France*
July 22: Monaco*
August 5-6: London, England*
August 27-Sept. 4: World Championships in Daegu, Korea
September 9: Zurich, Switzerland*

*Diamond League meets

Merry Christmas Week!!

>Russ and I drove back to San Diego last week, arriving on Saturday in order to start practice on Monday. I have to say, vacation was so much fun and we lived such a “free” lifestyle that it was difficult to face the facts again! Our road trip all the way down the Oregon coast, across to Reno with a stop at Lake Tahoe, and down the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains was one last taste of outdoor exploration before beginning fall training. It was beautiful!

Now that practice has begun, I can talk about javelin again!

The first four days of training have been awesome. My upper body (mainly my chest and shoulders) is unbelievably sore, and I’m sure my legs will catch up after tomorrow! Starting October 14, I had little preparatory workouts four days a week, which made it easier to transition into these full-fledged workouts that we’re doing now!

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday are two-a-day practice days, and Wednesday and Saturday are “active rest” days. Monday and Thursday, Mike and I do drills and throw javelins in the morning and lift in the afternoon. Tuesday and Friday, we have conditioning exercises of all kinds in the morning and do gymnastics with the pole vaulters in the afternoon. Wednesdays this year, everyone goes to the beach, we take a 20-minute run, do general strength exercises in the sand, and then go for a dip in the ocean to cool off!

I don’t know what Saturday has in store yet .

I’m excited about how the year has started off. We are running a lot compared to last year, doing running drills, doing more specific strength stuff, and much more challenging (for me) gymnastics. I remember feeling a little out-of-sorts last year, mostly because I was new and unfamiliar with all of the drills and terminology. The throwing that we’ve done already has shown that the technique I learned last year has stuck with me well throughout vacation! There’s also this feeling of excitement from everyone around here; I know it could be because it’s the first week back, but I also have this idea that it has something to do with 2011 being a World Championships year…hooray!

The annual Throws Summit that USATF puts on is this weekend in Las Vegas; I usually enjoy a good javelin technique discussion, and it will be fun to see everybody!

>I am totally loving vacation! Southwest Washington in October is absolutely gorgeous; foggy, cool mornings mostly give way to clear, sunny afternoons that showcase colorful trees. Perfect for hiking and exploring outside.

Tuesday, Erica, Russ and I hiked Lava Canyon at the base of Mt. St. Helens. It was an awesome day, with beautiful scenery and excellent company! The hike had really steep sections with huge dropoffs to the river and crashing waterfalls below, ladders we had to climb up and down, and a 1/4-mile stone staircase trail to the top of a huge rock covered with greenery where we ate lunch! The first time Mt. St. Helens erupted 3500 years ago, lava carved a path through the valley. Then, the canyon that was made got covered up by forest. When Mt. St. Helens erupted again in 1980, a mudslide uncovered the canyon and people discovered it! Such a fun and various trip .

Thursday, Mom, Russ and I hiked to June Lake, also at the base of Mt. St. Helens, for lunch. Then, we explored the lower cave of the Ape Caves in the same area!

Friday, Dad drove Russ and I to Astoria for lunch, and then on to Seaside for some cards (cribbage is the game of choice around here), lounging around, and a walk on the beach before heading back home.

I’m going to see my brother in Seattle and meet his girlfriend for the first time on Monday! I haven’t seen him in a long time (probably since last Christmas), and that makes me sad. I’m so excited to catch up!

>I traveled home to Vancouver (technically La Center), Washington today! It feels SO good to be here and to relax a little bit. I have absolutely loved my last three weeks in Colorado with Russ!

We camped for two nights on the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park, where Elk are abundant and active! The male Elk (“Bulls”) make a crazy, squeely, bugling sound at each other and to attract the females (“Cows”); it is quite a spectacle. The first night we camped there, a group of animals came right up to the road, vehicles and human audience and all.

We went on a hike the second day; one that led us past Nymph Lake and Dream Lake to reach Emerald Lake. It was much more populated than our previous hike to the other Emerald Lakes, but still awesome.

A group of Elk saw us out of the Park, and the Bull among them wasn’t the least bit camera-shy!

Russ’s Dad, Brad, has waited 23 years to have the opportunity to hunt for Elk in Moffat County, Colorado in a highly exclusive Game Management Unit. I do not claim to know anything about hunting, but what I know, I have learned in the past four days! This sector of Colorado is home to a huge population of large Bull Elk, and they were extremely active and vocal while we were in their territory. Before we left on this trip, I bought what’s called a “Zero Gravity Lounger” so I would be comfortable reading books in camp all day while Russ, Brad and Brad’s friend Les searched for animals in the woods.

It. Was. Awesome.

Camping was fun, spending time with Russ and his family was more fun, and I really enjoyed all the reading I got done, the sunsets I watched, and the fires I started all on my own.

I am only home for like two days! My roommate from Sophomore year at Purdue, Mel, is getting married on Saturday, and Sam is one of her bridesmaids. How could I possibly miss it??? I travel to Chicago on Wednesday, and I could not be more excited to see my friends!!!

>I competed in my last meet of the season on Saturday in Split, Croatia at the inaugural IAAF Continental Cup. It was a super neat experience, as being selected for the team was a real honor, and having teammates from other countries was new! I don’t speak Spanish, but I was able to help my javelin teammate understand what was going on during the competition; cool.

Croatia itself is beautiful; mountainous land with many, many islands and the gorgeous, clear Adriatic Sea! I didn’t take nearly as many pictures as I should have. Mike got some amazing sunset shots.

As for the competition, I was disappointed with my season-ending performance. I couldn’t manage anything further than 58.07m; by far my worst meet of the year. I also ended up 6th out of 7. The bottom line is that I simply got tired after two months overseas! My body broke down a little bit, and

I simply couldn’t get my mind past the fact that I was achy and sore on the day that I needed to be tough.

I also had a hard time focusing on executing my technique well because I couldn’t get past the fact that I didn’t feel good physically. Mediocre technique plus decreased confidence in my physical abilities equals worse throwing than I’m used to these days!

I had a meeting with Ty today to talk about next years’ strategy, and discussing the future helped me understand what happened at the end of this season. This year, my training was designed to peak at USAs, with a maintenance program that started right afterward. That maintenance program allowed me to last about seven weeks in good shape before the affects of the training I did prior to USAs fully wore off. Seven weeks post-USA Championships put me right at Zurich, which is where things started to decline a little bit!

How cool to know why things happened the way they did,

and to know that we can change plans for next summer in order to be ready to throw far when we want to. Yay! I’m excited to have real focus next year instead of going meet to meet just, you know, seeing how things go. It will be good to have direction.

Overall, this season was amazing for me, and I’m super excited about how far I’ve come in a year, not to mention the room for improvement that I still see! Thank you endlessly to everyone that has ever offered me an encouraging word or ten, as it always, always helps!! Here are some statistics to compare last year with this one…

2009 average of top 5 competitions: 59.19m
63.95m (USAs)
58.56m (Regionals)
58.41m (ASU Invite)
57.90m (NCAAs)
57.14m (approximation…haha)

2010 average of top 5 competitions: 64.66m
66.67m (USAs)
65.90m (Prefontaine)
64.21m (Monaco)
63.41m (London)
63.11m (Gateshead)

Including all 12 competitions this year, my average was 62.28m. I threw 61.00m at 8 out of 12 competitions this season, or 67% of the time. In 2009, I threw further than 61.00m only once.

I’m extremely excited to have some rest! I fly to Colorado Springs tomorrow morning to hang out with Russ and his family, and we’re going to spend lots of time in the great outdoors, yay!!!!

>I was ready to redeem myself in Berlin this year, both because of Zurich and last year’s World Championships in the same stadium. This summer has been full of amazing experiences, and I’m so glad that I chose to spend an entire two months of the season in Europe instead of commuting back and forth from the states! I have, however, gotten a little bit shaky on my technique because I’ve been practicing alone.

In Zurich, my distances didn’t suffer as much from poor technique as they did from timidity. In Berlin, I had 3 throws over 60-meters again, but because of aggression instead of good technique. I forced positions and I was frustrated enough with mediocre distances in the beginning of the competition to simply try harder instead of changing technique, compromising my shoulder and elbow a little.

Any time my arm gets out of its “slot” behind my shoulder and I still try to put some big energy into the throw, things get dangerous.

I’m definitely not injured as a result, but my arm was much more tender after Berlin’s competition than it has been after any other all year! It was nice to get some rest, massage, and rehabilitation-type exercises in upon my return to Cologne.

While I did have three 60-meter throws, I didn’t have any 61-meter (A standard) throws. My best landed at 60.97m, which I’m pretty sure is exactly 200 feet. I ended up third to Christina Obergfoll and Linda Stahl. The rest of the meet in Berlin was really cool to watch, and was highlighted by a world record in the men’s 800m race! It was absolutely amazing to see David Lekuta Rudisha of Kenya run 1:41.09. I ran the 800 in middle school, and while I was nowhere near good, I have massive respect for such a cool result. It’s the best it has ever been done!! My friend Benn Harradine (shown below on the big screen!) threw well for second in the discus, and watching Brad pole vault again is really fun; this was only his second meet of the year!

I threw in practice today, and Ty was there to help me! It was so great to have his input again, and I’m feeling optimistic about my chances to go out with a bang at the Continental Cup. I leave for Split, Croatia on September 2nd, throw on September 4th, travel back to Cologne to pack up on September 5th, and go home to America on September 6th!! I can’t wait to get a San Diego beach day or two in before I go on vacation .

Here are my meets and distances so far this year (A standard throws in bold):

Drake Relays: 61.80m
Tucson Elite Day 1: 60.33m
Tucson Elite Day 2: 61.75m
USA National Championships: 66.67m
Prefontaine Classic Diamond League: 65.90m
Vancouver, B.C.’s Harry Jerome: 61.58m
Gateshead Diamond League: 63.11m
Monaco Diamond League: 64.21m
London Diamond League: 63.41m
Zurich Diamond League: 59.50m
Berlin ISTAF World Challenge: 60.97m

Eight out of eleven meets above the A standard so far! My goal for the season was to have 90% of my meets at that distance. Eight out of eleven is approximately 73%. There’s no way I’ll reach my goal with only one meet left in the season, but all things considered, this year has been one big confidence-building, successful learning opportunity. During the 2009 season, I had one meet over the 60-meter line. I actually only had one meet over the 58.56-meter line, and that was USAs at 63.95m. The 2010 season has been a whole different story, and this last meet is arguably the most important of the year! I’m really excited to finish strong.