cari

Comment - cari

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:05:19 +0000

ross-

thank you so much for all that you have done for me these past 4 years. supporting silly hammer throwers.. i figured out why i get along with distance runners, cuz we both love turns. ha. in all seriousness, i really think what you do is amazing and you're just scratching the surface on a huge huge thing. good luck and thanks for letting me be on XO.

Blog - farewell to throwing

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 03:56:00 +0000

the first time i ever picked up a shot put was in 8th grade at a p.e. track meet at gage. i won. the next year i was a freshman at north, with no intention of doing sports.. somehow i was talked into playing volleyball and when i realized that conditioning was going to kill me i found a way out. track. my first year of throwing i threw the shot 32-2 and the discus 99-9. by my senior year i had improved to 41 feet in the shot and 160 feet in the discus. my senior year was also the first time that i ever picked up a hammer. at the ucla throwing summer camp i fell in love with ucla and learned how to do a hammer turn. when i left camp i bought a hammer, emailed lance and asked him how to throw. he wrote me back that i should just practice as often as possible doing multiple turns and try to keep my hips level. after regular throwing practice i would stretch a measuring tape out and practice hammer by myself. marking my improvement each throw. at an all-comers meet in january i threw the hammer 149-7.

the next year i was at ucla living the dream. i finished that year with a new PR of 197-7 and won junior nationals. by the time i graduated ucla in 2004, i was an 8-time all-american, pac10 and regional champion as well as part of 2 national championship teams. my heart wasn't at ease and i knew that i wasn't done throwing. after not making the finals at the olympic trials i emailed lance again and asked him if he would be interested in coaching me. about a month later he agreed to try it out and i moved up to oregon. i'm so glad he agreed to it and i'm glad i moved up here. my lifetime best throw is from my bruin days and i am proud of that. it proves that i gave everything i had to that program. moving to oregon has helped me to see that. its helped me to appreciate everything art did to make all of us exceed our personal bests. like in the alchemist i found out that i had been in possession of my treasure all along, but i had to go on a quest looking for it to realize this. i couldn't have ended my career any other way. a hug from lance then a hug from art. thanks to everyone that supported me along the way. cheers!

Cari

News - roommate needed for house in downtown eugene

Thu, 22 May 2008 01:25:00 +0000

just thought i'd let everyone know that we had a roommate move out and are currently looking for a roommate. its a 4 bedroom house in downtown eugene. its close to a lot of places. its a big room and there is a queen sized bed in it. we have a ton of appliances (washer/dryer, dishwasher, coffee maker...) its available immediately. rent is $350 a month plus utilities and wifi. let me know if you are interested.

Blog - addicted to magazines and pain?

Sun, 11 May 2008 04:41:00 +0000

i'm sure i'm like a lot of people, addicted to magazines. i subscribe to bike magazine since i'm an avid mountain biker. well maybe not avid.. anyway i'm getting pretty excited about this upcoming summer to go out to my favorite trails, find new trails just have a lot of fun out there. this edition is dedicated to pain. the cover says "pure, sweet, PAIN.. a tribute to suffering, adversity and the rewards for risking it all." well i started reading.. and one of the first stories is about a guy that is 22 and has torn his ACL four times. what i related to was his response to a question about the pain he felt when he hurt his knee. he said, "i have a really high threshhold for pain; i usually don't even hurt, even with all these surgeries. what hurts most is just knowing that something is wrong with your body. that's the most frustrating thing"

its so true! i think its why we're addicted to chiropractors to physical therapy, its why we become training room junkies. nothing is more unsettling to an athlete than the feeling that something is wrong with his/her body. you put all the time in training, in getting mentally prepared, but you cannot predict when injury will occur. on monday i was throwing and my back got stuck. it sucks a lot! i was really ready to throw, my strength was great! my lower back was finally strong. my technique was coming together and in one day, one throw its back to square one if i can even get there. right now the muscles around my spine are releasing but there is still something wrong with my back. i know it and no one else can feel it. i can point to the spot, i can tell people how it feels, that my hand gets tingly when i throw.. but no one can fix it. nobody else can feel how wrong this feels. how many times can you get injured before you lose the motivation to fight back? another story in the magazine features a guy that lost his leg and got a prosthesus.. no big story there except that doctors told him they couldn't make an artificial leg that would allow him to keep riding. that didn't stop him though, he designed and created a limb that would allow him to ride still so he could keep doing the thing that he loved. do you stop when people tell you there is nothing they can do, because do they really know what you're feeling? no. they don't know your limits, they only know your hypothetical limits.

Blog - font schmont

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:44:00 +0000

what oregon fans haven't experienced lately is good head to head competition that breeds huge personal best performances. i've been looking at these videos of interviews with oregon coaches and athletes and something is overlooked and that is that ucla is used to dual meets. every year the ucla-usc dual meet produces big marks and fast times, its a meet of upsets and letdowns in which the teams rally for points. its very exciting and fun to watch. ucla is a veteran team and they know how to win dual meets. i would argue that dual meets help athletes find a different more self-less way to compete. it sucks that the weather is going to be bad because there's nothing like training in 80 degree, sunny weather and coming to 40 degree cold rainy inclement weather. i don't think we'll see the same record breaking type performances if its raining, but i'm sure we'll see big gutsy finishes that make track so addictive. again i'm very excited for a close competition and for oregonians to enjoy a dual meet, not to see who wins or loses but to see how athletes' competitive nature is drawn out from this type of contest.

Comment - cari

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:59:30 +0000

i've been asked this question a few times and actually i don't care who wins i'm just looking forward to a really competitive meet. from my experience with dual meets people end up doing amazing things. its going to be really interesting to watch. i'm cheering for big performances and tight races. :)

Blog - insomnia maybe?

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:02:00 +0000

we just got back to eugene last night after a short but busy trip to LA aka the homeland. it was my first time competing in 2008 and only my second time throwing at ucla since i graduated in 2004 from there. i was pretty disappointed in my preparation for this meet, but i'm glad i went and that i did compete because now i'm motivated to not suck so much at the next meet which will be this coming friday at western oregon. i drove by the trials countdown sign and i can't believe we're in double digits. aside from the meet at western on friday i couldn't be more excited for the ucla-oregon dual meet. its going to be a great competition between two very strong teams. wow.

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