About Hometown Hopefuls
Hometown Hopefuls follows Atlanta Track Club Elite Team members Abe Alvarado, Brandon Lasater, Keturah Orji, Yolanda Ngarambe, Jarryd Wallace and Allie Wilson as they continue their journey toward Olympic glory. Be there every step of the way from training camp to the Olympic Trials and to Tokyo with every workout, every split, athlete reflections and coaches' comments too. Six athletes. Six months. Six shots.
Orji reflects on her training period between February 14-28 in this post. To learn more about Orji click here.
Workouts for the Week: February 22-28
Monday: Triple jump approaches, resistance runs, block starts, weights
Tuesday: Short approach triple jump, wickets, weights
Wednesday: Recovery drills: band walks, core, resistance band work, feet/toe exercises, hurdle walkovers, balance, video Review
Thursday: Landing drills off a box into the sand, 6x120’s, Single-leg med ball throws, weights
Friday: Box drop reaction drills, 8x60m grass strides, video review
Saturday & Sunday: OFF :)
Commentary and Reflection on the Week
Monday: We are finally in spikes! It has been really nice to be back running and jumping in spikes. My approaches on Monday felt really smooth and consistent and I am a strong believer in muscle memory, so if I can repeat my approach enough times with the right rhythm during practice, at competitions I won’t have to think about it because it will just be natural. I have never felt comfortable with block starts being that I am a jumper, but being able to work on that on Mondays and see improvements has been fun.
Tuesday/Thursday: My four step triple jumps felt great, but I’m still looking forward to jumping with more speed so that I can get more of a feel of where I am at. My coach and I have been focusing on my technique and the positions I’m hitting throughout my phases in the short jumps so that it will hopefully translate to my full approach jumps. On Thursday, I felt like I actually landed correctly for the first time EVER with the new drill we did. I’m not sure if I can replicate the same landing positions with full speed yet, but it was great to be able to execute it in the drill. In the weight room, I’m learning some new exercises that I have never done before that seem to directly correlate with my event so that is also exciting.
Wednesday/Friday: The video review on Wednesday’s and Friday’s helps me to be able to look back at my approaches and jumps from the week in slow motion and receive more specific feedback and cues for the next week. I also like that I get to see my training partners videos and we can offer each other feedback on the videos from the week.
