Littlebeast??????

[Triathlete]

Haven't seen you around here in a while. Hope all is well. How is the Olympic training going? What events do you have coming up...would like to follow the Chase!:yesy:

[Bob Barker]

What's he doing in the Olympics?

[VX crazy]

Ryan is a decathelete

[Triathlete]

2or3 time national champion!

[tom4bren]

& a helluva nice guy.

[vt_maverick]

I heard he ran off with a supermodel or something... ;)

[VXjunky]

been there........ done that

[LittleBeast]

Aw, thanks VX family :-) I appreciate the mutual respect and inquiry on my whereabouts.

Training is going great! I have been going at it 6 days a week 2-4 hours a day since April 27th, so 9 months of full time training after a little time off, and things are better than ever for the most part. I have had some of my best pole vault practices of my career in the last couple of weeks, and I am definitely faster than ever. Hurdles are close to faster ever for me and shot put is close to the best in my life.

I have had 2 indoor track meets here in Houston the last month or so and they went great. I am just now deciding with my coach if I am going to go to the USA track and field Indoor national combined events championships in Indiana in early March or just start focusing on outdoor season asap (after all indoor is just practice for outdoor really).

The VX is ok, but I am having lots of random problems that I don't have the time or money to deal with right now, oh well, I will keep driving the LittleBeast until the wheels fall of anyway. Thanks again for all the nice comments everybody, I really appreciate it. This is a great community to be a part of :-)
-Ryan

[Triathlete]

2-4 hours a day? Is that a conservative guesstimation? I figured getting to the elite level at 10 sports would require more training time than that.

Ryan do you have a blog or anything cronicling your training "adventures"?

[LittleBeast]

2-4 hours a day? Is that a conservative guesstimation? I figured getting to the elite level at 10 sports would require more training time than that.

Ryan do you have a blog or anything cronicling your training "adventures"?
Yes conservative estimate. In college I was starting 6 events from scratch and needed a lot of repetition and coaching so typical practices at Rice were from 1:30 to 7:30 everyday, with a little variance based upon the focus of each practice.

Now I have quite a bit of experience in each of the events so I do not need quite as much technique work but more polishing and base work. Training for the Decathlon you look for commonalities that can be trained which cross over to various different events. So I might have a very explosive fast sprinting workout combined with shot put and weights and have a lot of carry over to the discus, javelin, and even high jump based upon the dynamic nature and blocking action involved in each event.

When working on the pole vault my rhythm down the runway is very similar to the long jump, so no need to do both in one session or multiple times in a week. Body position at take off in the vault and long jump is also very similar so there are many running technique drills that cross over for both. Training and writing workouts for multi-events athletes is all about recognizing and utilizing these "commonalities" throughout the events.

So yeah I am averaging 2 hours in the morning (sprint development, field event technique, running workout) and then 2 hours at night (medicine ball routines, weight-room workout, sometimes running workout).

About 2 weeks ago I had one of the best high jump workouts ever. I was just going from a short approach (6 steps) and was easy over 6'7" or so. Not bad, I have gone over 6'8" from 4 step before, but not often. My best in the middle of a Decathlon was 7'1/2", I love the High Jump one of my favorite events, it just feels awesome when you do it correctly, like you are flying. Much like in the pole vault but in the vault you have a little help with the pole so it is not quite the same, but still quite a rush when you do it correctly. Something about throwing your body 17' or more in the air and free falling on the other side. When it works out right it is SWEET, but can be pretty freaky when something goes wrong.....

Anyways, after that High Jump session a few weeks ago I went over to work on the Javelin and pulled my right groin. So I have been taking ice baths daily and rehabing while working out as much as possible to get ready for my first Decathlon of the outdoor season this wed and thurs at Rice Track. I am hoping to be healthy enough to use this as a qualifier for USA Outdoor National Championships.

As far as a training log not really. But my whole career and all my personal bests in each event are all kept up to date here:
http://www.decathlon2000.com/eng/627/jon-ryan-harlan
All distances in track and field are in Meters, sorry :-) so 2.15 meters in the high jump equals 7'1/2"


An impressive record indeed!

* 2006 USA Outdoor runner-up
* 2007 NACAC Champion; Two-time USA Indoor champion (’05, ’06)
* 2004 NCAA champion
* 2000 National Junior champion

Mark
Mark, thanks :-)
Haha, yeah I have been blessed with some good competitions, and am humbled by the talents that were entrusted to me, I am just trying to make the most of them, and honor the One who blessed me with these gifts in the first place. But really I think the one I am most proud of is the Reveal Hotels Cup. It was an international indoor Heptathlon competition against the best in the world. The world record holder was there and everything, and I came out on top in the end. Doing the interviews and signing autographs and stuff for that was very nice, a lot different than the track and field world here in the US. People actually know who you are in Europe sometimes, haha. But once again all this just humbles me more at what I feel has been granted me and I seek to just use my abilities to best give honor back to my Creator and not waste my talents. I think we each have been specifically and uniquely blessed and entrusted with qualities and talents that we are responsible to recognize, develop, and use these talents, and not only to simply use, but to best use them in a way that does not seek to bring glory to ourselves, but humbly points to something or someone greater than ourselves. For some people this something or someone greater than themselves is mother Earth, for others this is some echo of randomness in eternity that sparked all that we know, for others this is all the people they have known and loved, for others this is their family, for others this is a greater cause that might change through out their lives. For me I desire to use my talents to best Glorify the God who spoke into nothingness and it responded with an ordered and designed Universe, and who slowly revealed Himself to our forefathers through many many many years, and who did not leave it up to us to get to Him but provided a way for us to know Him and make Him known, to me this is the most freeing, most enlightening revelation the world will ever know: Creation has a design (DNA, etc), and it has order (gravity, heat, light, space, matter, antimatter, neutrinos, etc) and randomness has never been shown to produce any of this, design points to designer, designer points to purpose, purpose leads to relationship, relationship requires sacrifice, and to stand before a Creator great enough to speak the Universe into existence I do not believe any of us would ever stand a chance to be good enough to do this, so we need God to do something on our behalf to allow this purpose, this relationship to be able to exist, we need a mediator, someone to pay a price for us, some debt that we could never pay even with our entire lives, and this is the Gospel, that we could never do enough, but God came and did it for us through the one person who changed the world more than any other man in history, Jesus who was the Christ promised to the Jews. This is the main difference between Christianity and every other religion, most other religions believe you must have a moment of enlightenment or something of the sort and then it is in your hands to do enough good to outweigh the bad in your life and gain your way into heaven. Christianity believes that this is not possible and that each person is not Holy so we cannot stand before a Creator great enough to design all that we see, so God had to gain our way into heaven Himself and open the door that we could never open ourselves in our own power. This is what I run for. But I think at some point in everyones life they should stop and think about how they are uniquely gifted and for what purpose and who is getting the glory in this gift or talent being used.