Hello, my name is Martin and I’m addicted to the hammer throw. It may have been obvious from my obsessively regular posts about the hammer throw on this website and others. But that’s just the addiction you see on the surface. It is much deeper than that.

This weekend I am preparing to head down to Lake Como for a four-day weekend escape with my visiting girlfriend, my friend Andrea and her brother at their house their. I know the chance to relax and have fun in Italy will be well worth it, but I must be honest, I’m having a little anxiety about taking the time off of throwing. In fact, I’m even going to squeeze in a little throwing session Thursday morning before we catch the train. Still, my three day break from throwing will be my longest since September of 2007.

I’ve been pretty incommunicado the past week. That’s because I’ve been settling into life in Zürich. I arrived this week and will be staying here throughout the rest of the season. Through the support of my club, LC Zürich, and my job at UBS, I am able to train, earn some money, and have time to travel to some great competitions across the continent.

The first week, however, was a bit hectic. I spent a lot of time learning the ropes at my new job. I was also staying the week at a friend’s house before moving into my own room this afternoon. And then there was adjusting to the new time zone (although I think work affected my training the most this week). On top of that, I missed being around for my girlfriend’s birthday today.

The week ahead, however, looks great. I’m heading up to Germany on Saturday to visit my sister and compete at perhaps the world’s coolest hammer competition on Sunday. I mean, seriously, how many hammer meets have their own beer garden right next to the ring? Based on how my legs feel, my results might not be the highlight of the weekend, but it will be fun nevertheless. Monday is a holiday and the rest of my work week should be less rigorous than this week. My new place looks to be great too. My club helped me find a great room with an Olympic bronze medalist in curling and his friend. For those of you that know me, I’m a closet curling fan and even drove down to Vancouver just to watch the Olympic curling tournament in February. Among the highlights at the place are a thrower-sized shower (which is nearly impossible to find in Europe), American television (including ESPN), a full kitchen and BBQ patio, and a great internet connection.

Earlier this month I announced that I left my job at Univar Inc. I enjoyed the work, the people, and the flexibility, but the job required me to be in Seattle. As a result, I had to leave my coach any time I wanted a paycheck. This was not conducive to throwing far. With a lot on the line this year, I decided to leave the job and spend more time with my coach.

There are three things I look for in a job: (1) flexibility; (2) a valuable experience; and (3) the amount of time I’ll be able to spend with my coach. My job at Univar had two of those three elements. Today, I accepted a position that will give me all three elements. Starting in May, I will be working at UBS in Zurich.

The indoor track season is heating up, and it’s is making me anxious to start my season too. Yet again this year I’ve had the pleasure of providing news and commentary for the Evergreen Athletic Fund’s CollegeHammer.com and HSHammer.com.  This season has already produced some great results that have been fun to write about.  I’ve spent more time recently working on both sites and our traffic has doubled thanks in part to some great features we’ve posted on my training parter Kibwé Johson, world junior champion Walter Henning of LSU, my friend Brian Richotte, D3 record holder Kevin Becker, Norwegian champion Steffen Nerdal of Memphis, as well as emerging coaches Dave Hahn and Scott Block.

As anxious as I am to compete, however, I’m still willing to wait another until another month or two.  While the results are fun to watch, the indoor weight throw is not very helpful to the hammer throw.  That leaves me counting down the days until the outdoor season starts.  The past few years I’ve opened up just before the Mt. SAC Relays in mid-April.  This year, I can’t wait that long.  My results from last year left a bad taste in my mouth and I am eager to get back in the ring and show others that I am still on track to reach the 2012 Olympics.  My first meet will likely be at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma on March 13th.  Assuming all goes well, I will then be traveling the Arles, France (near Marseille) to represent Switzerland in the European Cup Winter Throwing on March 21st.  A tentative schedule for my season can be found here.

I apologize for the lack of updates this month, but January has been quite busy.  While the rest of the Kamloops training group has spent the month in Arizona, I have spent the month in Seattle with my family.  While the training facilities are inconvenient in Seattle, I have managed to maintain my training regime [...]