Last week I was stll a bit unsettled but shot a 352. Tonight was bust-city again, 329.
Equipment issues:
The entire sight assembly fell out of the dovetail after a shot! Guess that might account for some of the up/down crap in the 4 ends or so before the thing dropped. The set screw in the lower elevation adjustment knob backed out and let the detent ball escape, so that sucks. Release was marginally better tonight, maybe. I should try to get a lesson in with the guys at Flying Arrow.Two weeks ago I was down in the lower 330's.
Half to try and remember to keep my right hand "level", metacarpals parallel to the floor, not angled up or down. Hold steady, good sight picture. My current aperture sucks, must replace.
Follow through. Relax the release hand at release.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Worst night so far.
Wow I sucked. Shot a 297. I really struggled with technique tonight. Am now shooting the 40# limbs. George thinks my arrow flight looks really good though.
So, I can't afford to dick around holding the shot after the clicker goes off. Like the book says, 7 or 8 seconds is it then I need to let down if its not coming together. Also, in order to comfortably increase back tension and have the clicker release with the correct draw, I need to place the draw hand more precisely. I found I need to pull from the first joint, not the pads. Pulling from the pads feels weaker and results in my having to contort in order to pull enough shaft to release the clicker arm. This makes getting a good release a little more difficult. I found I was plucking the string a bit, sometimes down and sometimes out. I need to practice the former bits, then keep good form while increasing back tension keeping the elbow up and relaxing the fingers.
Equipment issues.
Locknut on plunger keeps coming loose.
Tip weights coming loose.
Stabilizer coming loose at riser.
Left side rod too close, need an extension.
Training notes.
Still haven't gotten on the bike this winter. I'm running more often but not quite regular enough. Saturday I ran for an hour straight (4.2 miles). Tonight was a bust at fencing so I did 2.75 miles when we got home (~35 minutes)
So, I can't afford to dick around holding the shot after the clicker goes off. Like the book says, 7 or 8 seconds is it then I need to let down if its not coming together. Also, in order to comfortably increase back tension and have the clicker release with the correct draw, I need to place the draw hand more precisely. I found I need to pull from the first joint, not the pads. Pulling from the pads feels weaker and results in my having to contort in order to pull enough shaft to release the clicker arm. This makes getting a good release a little more difficult. I found I was plucking the string a bit, sometimes down and sometimes out. I need to practice the former bits, then keep good form while increasing back tension keeping the elbow up and relaxing the fingers.
Equipment issues.
Locknut on plunger keeps coming loose.
Tip weights coming loose.
Stabilizer coming loose at riser.
Left side rod too close, need an extension.
Training notes.
Still haven't gotten on the bike this winter. I'm running more often but not quite regular enough. Saturday I ran for an hour straight (4.2 miles). Tonight was a bust at fencing so I did 2.75 miles when we got home (~35 minutes)
Monday, January 5, 2009
New Year Results
The other guy that shoots at 5 took two weeks off, so tonight was my first night back since before Christmas. I'm using a clicker now as well as a jbar and side rods. I had the clicker set up too long for my draw length so I had to dick around quite a bit to get it in a more comfortable spot. I also had a miserable time settling my sight picture and I blew many releases. I had one really crazy flier high on center in the 2 ring. Shot 345.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
As it turns out, there is a line that shoots at 5:00, so by going early I can shoot and make it to fencing in the same night. There were only two of us so we made it through the entire course in an hour and we were done by 6 pm. I didn't catch my scores from each round but my total was 371 again. I was much more consistent tonight and was in the gold more frequently with several x's. Had some trouble settling on target and some release control as well. I managed to fall out into the blue only a few times.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
It's December already...
Iain is running indoor track so Monday night fencing is even quieter. Kind of want to take a break from the regular schedule and keep shooting, so I'm trying to shoot every other week in the Monday night archery league at West Albany Gun Club. Last night was the second week and it had mixed results.
The format is 3 rounds of 5 ends of 3 arrows, 45 arrows total from 18 meters.
Week 1 I settled down pretty quickly and shot a 371. 118/139/114, with a high end of 30.
Week 2 I never really settled down and seemed to chase my groups high-low, up-down. 331 106/106/119, high end of 27.
The format is 3 rounds of 5 ends of 3 arrows, 45 arrows total from 18 meters.
Week 1 I settled down pretty quickly and shot a 371. 118/139/114, with a high end of 30.
Week 2 I never really settled down and seemed to chase my groups high-low, up-down. 331 106/106/119, high end of 27.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Where did the season go?
This has been a pretty uninspiring season. I had a lot of trouble getting out the door. At least I wasn't completely inert all year, fencing twice a week, played a bunch of lacrosse, getting some running in. Anyway, I'm trying to refocus and get back in some kind of groove. Looking forward to next week as Thaddeus is coming up and we're going to get some riding in.
Iain and I also just got involved in archery. This past weekend was kind of crappy as far as weather goes but we spent as couple of hours at the range. Iain grabbed this image of my first flight of the day.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Brief diatribe on cycling politics
Preface:
I'm not a professional cyclist nor do I know any personally. I could be completely full of crap. Please feel free to leave a comment even if you disagree with me.
If you follow professional cycling at all, you may tend to look forward to certain races and keeping tabs on certain riders and their teams. I've really been looking forward to this year's Tour de France as I'd like to see Levi Leipheimer improve his 3rd place finish from last year. I also wanted to see his Astana teammate and fellow American, Chris Horner ride another TdF. Last week, the ASO, organizer of the Tour and a bunch of other classic bike races in France declared that Astana would not be invited to any of their events this year. You could debate this issue at length, and it is a deep and convoluted one involving past interactions between the ASO, the UCI and other entities, but since this is my blog I'm going to state that some of these organizing bodies really suck. No transparency, no due process. They break their own rules when it pleases them.
I've come to the conclusion that professional cycling would be better off without the existing organizing bodies. I think the situation would be improved if cyclists disassociated themselves from the UCI, the IOC, WADA and its national bodies. I'd like to see them all gone, flushed goodbye. Let cyclists organize and manage their sport to their liking. Government Of, By and For the Cyclists.
If cyclists worked with parties interested in organizing events for the benefit of cyclists, they wouldn't be at the mercy of organizations like the ASO, or the ASO would have to learn to serve the needs of cyclists first. No sporting group owns the roads. If the ASO won't throw a good party, organize a better one yourselves. If pro cycling teams don't learn to play hard ball with ASO, RCS and Unipublic, more will find themselves in the same position as Unibet and Astana. All dressed up with no place to go and soon out of sponsorship. Kind of ironic that the teams had the chance to put collective pressure on ASO last year prior to Paris - Nice, and they declined. When the UCI subsequently backed down, they all handed the reins to the independent organizers who are now dictating terms to the rest of the cycling world. Of course, RCS followed suit and Unibet couldn't find a big race to attend, and they had to fold. Anybody else wondering how long Astana will last? You could write a cheap novel about Russian (or Kazakh) gangsters getting ready to hunt down Christian Prudhomme and shoving a bike frame up his ass before strangling him with a blue and yellow jersey.
Maybe I'm naive, but the case of Floyd Landis is one where a guy gets screwed over by a bureaucracy that's chasing its own agenda instead of serving the truth. I believe Floyd is clean. I have years of experience dealing with sampling and analytical issues and I wouldn't trust the French lab to find the bottom of an empty coffee cup. And the ass backward "hearing" that was able to rule against Landis' defense is an example of a process that serves an agenda, not the truth. Sorry, I know I'm shifting my vitriol between both sides of the issue. I see ASO/RCS/Unipublic as the other side of the coin as the UCI/IOC/WADA. Different side of the same screwed up relationship, each group as fundamentally fucked up and wrong as the other. When people say cycling is dirty, they're right but they're overlooking the worst offenders.
Please consider supporting Levi and Astana's cause by visiting LetLeviRide.com. Sign the petition, email the ASO and voice your displeasure. Hey it won't do jack but it can't hurt to speak up.
Ride safely out there.
I'm not a professional cyclist nor do I know any personally. I could be completely full of crap. Please feel free to leave a comment even if you disagree with me.
If you follow professional cycling at all, you may tend to look forward to certain races and keeping tabs on certain riders and their teams. I've really been looking forward to this year's Tour de France as I'd like to see Levi Leipheimer improve his 3rd place finish from last year. I also wanted to see his Astana teammate and fellow American, Chris Horner ride another TdF. Last week, the ASO, organizer of the Tour and a bunch of other classic bike races in France declared that Astana would not be invited to any of their events this year. You could debate this issue at length, and it is a deep and convoluted one involving past interactions between the ASO, the UCI and other entities, but since this is my blog I'm going to state that some of these organizing bodies really suck. No transparency, no due process. They break their own rules when it pleases them.
I've come to the conclusion that professional cycling would be better off without the existing organizing bodies. I think the situation would be improved if cyclists disassociated themselves from the UCI, the IOC, WADA and its national bodies. I'd like to see them all gone, flushed goodbye. Let cyclists organize and manage their sport to their liking. Government Of, By and For the Cyclists.
If cyclists worked with parties interested in organizing events for the benefit of cyclists, they wouldn't be at the mercy of organizations like the ASO, or the ASO would have to learn to serve the needs of cyclists first. No sporting group owns the roads. If the ASO won't throw a good party, organize a better one yourselves. If pro cycling teams don't learn to play hard ball with ASO, RCS and Unipublic, more will find themselves in the same position as Unibet and Astana. All dressed up with no place to go and soon out of sponsorship. Kind of ironic that the teams had the chance to put collective pressure on ASO last year prior to Paris - Nice, and they declined. When the UCI subsequently backed down, they all handed the reins to the independent organizers who are now dictating terms to the rest of the cycling world. Of course, RCS followed suit and Unibet couldn't find a big race to attend, and they had to fold. Anybody else wondering how long Astana will last? You could write a cheap novel about Russian (or Kazakh) gangsters getting ready to hunt down Christian Prudhomme and shoving a bike frame up his ass before strangling him with a blue and yellow jersey.
Maybe I'm naive, but the case of Floyd Landis is one where a guy gets screwed over by a bureaucracy that's chasing its own agenda instead of serving the truth. I believe Floyd is clean. I have years of experience dealing with sampling and analytical issues and I wouldn't trust the French lab to find the bottom of an empty coffee cup. And the ass backward "hearing" that was able to rule against Landis' defense is an example of a process that serves an agenda, not the truth. Sorry, I know I'm shifting my vitriol between both sides of the issue. I see ASO/RCS/Unipublic as the other side of the coin as the UCI/IOC/WADA. Different side of the same screwed up relationship, each group as fundamentally fucked up and wrong as the other. When people say cycling is dirty, they're right but they're overlooking the worst offenders.
Please consider supporting Levi and Astana's cause by visiting LetLeviRide.com. Sign the petition, email the ASO and voice your displeasure. Hey it won't do jack but it can't hurt to speak up.
Ride safely out there.
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