I'm back and ready to throw the shot put

After the winter layoff, I started again throwing the shot put this evening in my backyard. The change to Daylight Savings Time made this possible after work. I'm into intense training for a Seniors meet at Stanford University on April 11.

That doesn't give me much time to train, but I figure I need to get accustomed to real competition in the 60-64 age group. I'm using this meet as a warmup for a June statewide meet in Pasadena. You don't really have to qualify. You pay your entry fees and you get three tosses in the preliminaries. And then on to the finals if you do well enough. We'll see.

I threw the shot about 24 feet in my makeshift pit in my backyard. Not bad for the first tosses of the year. My best last fall was about 27 feet. I need to hit about 32feet to have any chance of placing in my age group. I'm not sure I can add eight feet in 27 days. Maybe I should call Mark McGwire to see if I can get some artificial help since he's through with the steroids.

The backyard shot put pit was overgrown from all the weeds that sprouted from the heavy winter rains and the nurturing of the now sunny weather. I created a path to throw, and will have the backyard mowed tomorrow.

Funny thing. The 12-pound shot put ball that was silver last fall, is now a reddish brown. Yep. Rusted over the winter. But a few evenings of tossing it should bring back the luster. If not, I'll take some steel wool to it.