Why "three to five"?

current training schedule

march plans
7...my first pentathlon
20...friday night epee tournamnet
25...jury duty

links
Callum in Henry IV
jane goodall
earth day

discoveries
-soy flour doesn't quite work like wheaat flour

bug counter
||||

other journals
paul, jenni rookie triathletes
merill, oarswoman

lingo/legend
TPR = training personal record
PB = Portage Bay (run)
PR = Personal record
GL = Greenlake (run)
SA = San Antionio, USMPA home
Random Andy = stray shot
Red = new personal record
= pentathlon competition entry

April highlights: Hands on a Hard Body inspiration, the bug counter is back, my first pentathlon, UW pow wow, power yoga, I like spikes, sacred spaces, Earth Day activities, Julia Butterfly Hill, the 'cleansing', going organic...

Monday, April 30. Hill time pays off.
No, not running hills. Reading Hill, Julia Butterfly Hill that is. Yep, I opted out of training today in favor of getting deep into The Legacy of Luna, Hills book about her two year redwood tree sit in CA. I didn't really feel guilty for not doing any training, I was still a bit sick and for some reason it just felt right taking the time out to read this book that is totally inspiring me.

Here's the interesting thing...I took a little reading break in the evening to find out what was on TV. The Weakest Link was on and even though I had no intention of watching it, I got stuck. The show TOTALLY energized me for some reason. Can't quite tell why, but it did. Every time the anouncer said "the weakest link" in her accerlated way, I got totally reved up. Anyway, I took it for what it was worth, an energizer and eagerly watched the rest of the show. Then, of all things, one of the contestants missed a question about what was the Olympic sport in which athletes ski and shoot. The guys said...PENTATHLON. Now how random is that! It was the wrong answer of course, but how many people even know pentathlon exists. Anyway, I took this as a sign that I need to get off my but and start training again. Once again, I didn't feel a bit guilty about taking time out for the reading, it was inspiring me, the TV show energized me and the missed question refocused my efforts on my training. Crazy.

Sunday, April 29. Catch up.
Yep, its been almost a week since I last updated. That would be because I haven't done anything...I've been sick with the cold, flu, something. Today is the first day I actually started feeling a a little better, so if all goes well, I'll do a run tomorrow and maybe a fence.

I did go shooting with Susan on Saturday. I forgot my pump so couldn't use my gun, but got to coach Susan a bit. She's doing really well, especially for only the second time on the gun.

On Monday I start my 'modified' cleansing routine. I'm getting ready to go more vegetarian so I thought it would be a good idea to clean out my system to get a good start. I started with a cleansing bath on Sunday, which was probably not a good idea since I was already sick. The cleansing bath and other processes usually release toxins from your tissues into your system so you tend to get sick when doing a cleansing. The water after my bath was a greenish color, like oxydized copper. Maybe from the chlorine in my skin from all that swmming? I plan on a organic fruit/vegetable diet this week and then doing a juice diet Fri, Sat and Sun to finish up. A short cleansing, but a much needed one. Stay tuned for how it goes. After the 'cleansaing' I will do my best to do all organic food going forward. Mostly vegetarian probably. I will eat meat, but none of the industrial farmed stuff. Its more of a political decision than anything else. If I eat meat, I want meat that's lived a good life not meat that's lived in a pin or been hormone induced all its life. Wish me luck.

Tuesday, April 24. Eastside stuff.
Today, I went and checked out the Eastside Runners club that meets at Lake Washington High School. Susan, another pentathlete in training practices there. Club Northwest at Husky Stadium on Tuesday nights has been great, but its always good to check out other clubs, especially if there's another pentathlete that I can train with. The bonus is that this puts me on the Eastside so that I can jump right over to Rain City Fencing for a lesson from Garik.

The run went well, I was actually running pretty fast...I did an 800 in 2:55 and my three 400s were 82s. Given that I didn't have much of a warm up, I'm more than pleased.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a lesson with Garik in. The schedule of events at Rain City just didn't lend themselved to me getting a lesson before 9:00pm or so and I didn't want to stick around that long (couldn't fence because I'm not a member yet).

Sunday, April 22. Earth Day. I think my Earth Day this year really started on Saturday. I completely changed my living space around in order to have a "sacred space" I guess you would call it. In this new space I can do yoga, meditation and other area-demanding training activites (sit ups, push ups, stretching, etc.). It will also functions as a great staging area for all my equipment when get ready for competitions. More importantly, now my bedroom has a large open area that I can start and finish my day. The area faces east, so that in the mornings my sun salutations can really be sun salutations. I love the room already, a much needed place of escape and relaxation. My rocking chair is in this room too, next to the plant-bathed window for peaceful reading in the afternoons.

My official Earth Day started with a planting event at Jefferson Park on Beacon Hill in Seattle. Once again, Nordstrom partnered with the YMCA Earth Service Corps to do some good in the community. Student and adult volunteers galore, we planed over 500 native trees and plants. Mayor Paul Schell showed up along with many local activists. There were even free lawn bowling lessons afterwards at the Jefferson Park Lawnbowling Club.

Sunday afternoon was spent getting my rooms back together and livable...loving my "sacred space" room!

I ended the day at a lecture by Julia Butterfly Hill, the woman who tree sat for over two years to protest logging of old growth redwoods and author of Legacy of Luna. I knew the lecture would be great, but I had no idea her story and message would affect me so profoundly. Her message was to "simply love". By doing so, we can honor the biological and cultural diversity in the world and bring power, responsibility and love to our daily, community, and global lives. Having just finished Jane Goodall's Reason for Hope, I was really moved by Julia's passion and energy for doing something to change the world. I will type up my notes and post them on my site soon.

Friday, April 20. Fast swim, fast run, Friday fencing.
I got back to my quicker swim times today, finally. My splurge week was a little too extravagant I guess. I'm really focusing on technique going forward in hopes that it will bring my times down. Although lots of laps is good fitness wise, it doesn't seem to be making me any faster.

Same goes for my run...the fast times are back. I did one of my 400s in 78 seconds, my fastest time yet. There's no way I could keep it up over 7.5 laps, but its good to know my legs are going faster again.

The Friday night fencing tournament went OK. Considering there were 15 fencers, almost all of which were rated C or above, I was pleased with my 10th place. I lost some easy touches and gave up others, that combined would have placed me much higher. But, I know that when it all comes together, I'll be right up there with the best of them. Body discipline and intelligent fencing will pull me through.

Thursday, April 19. Jumping double.
The fact that I haven't jumped in two weeks seems to have done me good. My riding/jumping was in top form tonight. Merlin was in great mood to begin with (I think he was exited to jump) so I could tell it would be a good lesson. I got to set up the course so I stuck a double in to help push the envelope a bit. I had my usual issues of leaning forward and into the turns, but got past them quickly. The course ended up being seven obstacles with two doubles, with the double either being a descending or ascending line depending on which way you took the fence (one fence was higher than the other). I did very well, even with a pretty tight turn in one of the areas. The highest jump was about 2'9", so squeaking ever closer to 3' and the ultimate 4'.

Wednesday, April 18. Swim spins, weird running, and body discipline.
I seem to have plateaued in my swim speed wise, so for my solo workouts I'm going to continue my basic workout, but concentrate more on efficiency than speed. This includes working on my flip turns. Today, I spent about 10 minutes on them trying to get the flip down and then control my exit, coming out on my back on time, on my side the next, etc. By the end of the workout, I was doing pretty good. Now just need to see if I can keep up the quality when I'm tired.

I skipped the Greenlake run workout in favor of a slow, steady state run around Portage Bay. I'm still trying to get my legs back into the run. More strange aches and pains, this time it felt like my left foot went numb for a bit. I'm still feeling the sciatic nerve issue and notice the back of my knee is a little sore. I've had all these things happen before so I'm not too concerned since they are not consistent. My plantar fascitit seems to be OK, the new orthotics must be working. Looks like I'll be running the Nordstrom Beat the Bridge race in May, so more road workouts on the way.

I just took a lesson for fencing tonight, no open fencing...I was too pooped. What a great lesson though. Allen has me working a lot on body discipline. I have some good quick reactions, but I tend to do a lot of guessing and predicting that isn't necessary. I need to be responding more to what's really happening rather than letting my muscles do the thinking and reacting. For instance, this means that I shouldn't automatically advance in an attack if I don't have to. Filling space left by the opponent was also covered.

Tuesday, April 17. Swimming the same, from Saucony to spikes, power/"pressure" yoga.
I made it into the pool for the first time in over a week. It felt really good. My flip turns still suck, but at least I'm doing more of them. For my timed piece I did 4 x 50s and came in at about the same times that I was before my week rest...36, 34, 34, 35. Still way too slow. I did get down to 11 strokes across the pool in one of my drills though, so I know efficient swimming is in there somewhere.

Hooked up with Club Northwest at the Husky track for running again. I had some OK times, but my shins tied up again about mid way through the workout. GRRR. I did my best to keep them relaxed and tried to work through it but I ended up only doing about 75% of the workout. I did try my spikes out for the first time though. Wow, what a difference. So light, so responsive. The few timed pieces that I did do came way down. More of this coming since the next pentathlon will also be on a track and spikes are the way to go.

Put in the Power Yoga DVD in the evening. I can see getting to a point in my yoga that this power yoga stuff will be valuable, but I'm not into it right now. It moves very quickly and you don't get a chance to really get into the poses/stretches. To that end, there's no way to get your mind relaxed, focused and connected to what you're doing physically. I also found a copy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Yoga at the used book store so I think I'll stick with it for a while. It has a lot of history and sanskrit terminology too which I really get into. Padma Shirshasana (lotus headstand) or bust!

Monday, April 16. Splurge week ends, training resumes.
Yes, penathlon fans...my post-pentathlon splurge week has come to an end. No more rest days, no more goodies after dinner. Its back to the full on training. But I must say, it was really nice having free time and enjoying some chocolate treats now and then. Mind you, I didn't go as far as having ice cream but I did loosen up on the diet thing quite a bit.

Along with the huge Easter dinner, I also did another thing over the weekend that involved both food in general as well as food for the soul. I went to the 30th annual pow-wow at UW. I've gone every year since I've been in Seattle. Good people, good food, good vibes.

And now back to training. I started up my run workouts again tonight at the Montlake track. I was feeling pretty good to start off but things quickly changed. I've never figured out why (it must some strange form I fall into now and then), but I my shins occasionally just do not want to participate in the run, they get really tight. Its not shin slints and it doesn't have anything to do with me not running for a while, I get it even when I've been running consistently. Anyway, I got it tonight, with a lot of stretching and relaxing I was able to run though it but its just no fun. There's no spring in my step and my overall form/technique is poor too when this happens. I pulled some 82 second laps, but I know I can do better.

No shoot or fence tonight. My sister Steph had another photography project to do and I was the lucky winner to be a subject. Should get some cool pentathlon pictures out of it though.

Wednesday, April 11. Fencing fizzle.
I'm still in rest mode after my pentathlon, so didn't run or swim today. I did go to fencing tonight though, to get a lesson from Allen and do a few bouts. The lesson went well, as well as the first few bouts. I somehow got talked into staying late to fence some people...I discovered that I pretty much turn into a pumpkin after 9:00pm, at least in fencing any way. Not point control, no speed, no nothin. I think my opponent discovered that its better to fence me early or not at all rather than have me hang around late. A penathlete with no punch just isn't any fun.

Tuesday, April 10. Rest day.
In accordance with my "I should take a rest" entry, I decided not to do anything tonight. To take a little rest from training. I would have done some shooting, but my airgun cilindars are empty from the flight and I left my pump at fencing. So, since it was my landlords birthday, I took him out to dinner. His favorite spot...the dreaded Old Counry Buffet. I admit, I more than a few trips back to fill up my plate.

Monday, April 9. OK, so maybe I should take a rest.
I tried to do a run tonight. Tried is the key here. Actually, I did finish my workout, which consisted of a pyramid at the Montlake track, but my legs just weren't working with me on it. I had some of my slowest times in a long while. Not bad times, just slower than what I have been running. The single lap at the beginning and end was 80 seconds for example. Apparently, I worked a little harder at the pentathlon over the weekend than I expected.

6-8 April. My first pentathlon... Yes, indeed...I survived my first pentathlon. I've been training for a year and a half and Saturday, April 7 was my very first full pentathlon competition (well, almost full...I didn't do the ride). Actually, it was the first time I competed in most of the individual events too. Given that fact, I'm pleased with my performance. I can say that I am VERY GLAD I just observed the last pentathlon, it put me much more at ease for this on this one. My goals going into this competition were: get the first competition out of the way/get past first competition jitters finish the event (the heat and humidity had me concerned) have a good time learn where I need to concentrate my training for the next competition I'm happy to say that I accomplished all of these goals. Overall, I didn't do as well as I know I could have, in training I've had much better scores in all of the events, but on the bright side...this leaves LOTS of room for opportunity. I ended up coming in 11th out of 13. Now, for the details... The shoot. I got to the competition nice and early for the shoot so had lots of time for some upper body warm ups, some mental focus drills and paid close attention to how others were warming up and preparing for the competition. The women shot first, so I got another chance to watch others going through the event too. When it came time for me to shoot, I was more than a little nervous. I don't think it was competition nerves as much as it was first-time nerves. I did well in the warm up, but as soon as the first shots came, things changed. I could barely get the first five pellots loaded into the gun I was so nervous. I ended up getting a 10, several 9s, a lot of 7s of several 'lower' scores...a 2 and a 4. My total score was 148 out of 200. I should have easity been able to get into the high 160s if not the 172 for the 1000 pentathlon points. The fence. The fence went a little better. I won 8 of my bouts, lost 16. One of my victories was against the guy who won the whole pentathlon event. That makes me happy. Although I've done two fencing tournaments, this is my first pentathlon tournament in which we use the one-touch style. Pentathletes are much more agressive and a lot quicker than most fencers I've met in regular tournaments. My next goal is to get 50% victories. With some pentathlon style coaching and some more pentathlon style practice I should get this in the next competition. The swim. I had two beautiful starts before the race. But...when it came time for the real thing I was only about 3/4 down to my marks when the ref called the start...I reached down and started, almost a full second after the other athletes. Yuck. With panic hormones going wild I did my first length of a 50 meter pool. The long-course format should have been a good thing for me since I'm not doing flip turns yet. But the panic hormones did their damage and my muscles were pretty freaked out by the third length. I ended with a 3:05 time. Quite a bit slower than I expected, I should have gotten a 2:50 or so. I should be able to pick up a lot more points in the swim next time. The run. My stomach was a little tied up after the panic swim, but after some nice slow warm up, I was actually feeling pretty good. Once again, the women went first, so I got to see them in action and make some mental notes for myself. Luckily, it wasn't as hot as I expected...but it was humid and I could definitely feel it after the first lap. All in all, the run felt good though. I didn't run in my spikes since I hadn't been training much in them. I came in at 12:08, about 20 slower than I've been doing in practice. I did find out that the next couple pentathlon will also be on a track, so with spikes and more track speed workouts, I should bring this time down a lot too. The ride. Its going to be a while before I do a ride in these pentathlon competitions, for two reasons: 1. you have to score a minimum number of points to qualify for the ride and 2. I haven't jumped the four foot jumps yet. Usually, the run is the last event, but the thinking in these development pentathlons is that if an athlete hasn't scored enough points to contend for placement its best to not have them jump, even though the athlete could very well get the full points possible on the ride. Since horsejumping can be dangerous, this philosophy saves the athlete and the horse from uneccesary injury. My hope is that by next spring I will both be scoring enough points to qualify for the ride and be ready to jump the big fences. With all of my goals met and recognizing my areas of opportunities, I did my best to get the most out of the post-pentathlon activities...Hungarian pick-nic at the riding venue and party at Scott Christie's house. Let me just say that with so many east-european coaches in pentathlon...the vodka and good times flowed. To wrap up, I really am pleased with my performance and my decision to stick with pentathlon. In my 'life philosphy' of continuing to develop my mind, body and spirit, the pentathlon fits in well. I generally consider academic endeavors when thinking of developing my mind, but I've found pentathlon has made me learn a lot about myself mentally - even more than rowing - how to be centered and focused. Body...obviously, this is a major physical endeavor, but I learning how to push my physical limits in new ways, as well as the mind's role in performance. Like everyone says...it really is all mental. Spiritually...hmm...there are so many ways I've grown spirtually from pentathlon. The many diverse people and athletes I meet a long the way, accomplishing major goals, motivation and inspiration aspects of not only succeeding myself but also wathching others excel and succeed. Finally, many thanks to friends, family and sponsors who have played a role in getting me this far. I would not be doing any of this and wanting to push myself harder without all of you behind me. Training for the June pentathlons starts TODAY.

Wednesday, April 4. Munchkin run, swim starts and a combat lesson.
I started my training to day with a run in the afternoon at the Montlake track. Little did I know, it would be munchkin land as one of the local private schools was having their track and field day. It was actually kind of fun watching the little one race their their hearts out. Once they were done, I set out on my 3k. It felt OK, but my time wasn't the best I've had. I came in at 11:59. My best 3k time so far, but much slower than I've been doing in workouts...at least workouts before I was sick for two weeks. Depending on whether the heat in SA affects me or not, I could pull off an 11:30 if I really try.

I hit the Salmon Bay swim practice tonight in order to practice some starts. They are actually feeling pretty good, at least I won't be making a fool out ofo myself. The 45 minutes of the swim practice that I did hit felt good too. Post-pentathlon, I'm going to focus on getting my flip turns fast enought to use in the June pentathlon (my open turns are still faster than my flip turns at this point).

My fencing lesson with Allen tonight was a combat lesson. Just pure hits...to the arm, then the body, then the thigh. It was awesome and my point contral felt really good. We'll see if I can put it into action in my competition.

At this point, I don't plan on doing my Thursday riding lesson. I'd rather slow down, gather my equipment - and my thoughts - for the competion on Saturday. I leave early Friday for SA.

Tuesday, April 3. A small swim.
Net Impact (formerly Students for Social Responsibility) had an event tonight, so I was only able to sneak in a quick swim for training today. I'm supposed to be tapering my workouts off anyway, so a small workout was in order. The swim actually went well. I did a 2:43 200 with a start...an ugly start, but a start. I probably could have pushed a little harder, but I'll save this for the actualy competition. If I can somehow get that down to a 2:30 I would be SO HAPPY because I could get the 1000 pentathlon points. If not in this first pentathlon, then maybe by June.

I have a last run, swim and fencing practice on Wednesday; riding lesson on Thrusday. Stay tuned...

Monday, April 2. PM report.
The YMCA switched their lap swim times around on me so no swim this afternoon. I was bummed because I really want to practice some more starts before the big pentathlon on Saturday. I do plan on hitting the Salmon Bay club on Wednesday, so that Ed can be there to give me pointers, so hopefully this will suffice.

Fencing went very well tonight, my point contral was right on and I felt really good and relaxed. I'm going to sneak in a lesson with Garik at Raincity on Tuesday and then get another 'review' lesson from Allen on Wednesday to prepare for Saturday.

To finish it all off I went for a slow, steady state run around Portage Bay just to stretch my legs out and get some cardio in (to make up for the bag of cheetos I had at lunch too). Felt great, at about a 6.5 minute mile pace barely broke a sweat and actually got closer to a 6 minute mile towards the end. It was about a 25 minute run. I'm still a little worried about the heat in San Antonio...I'm just not used to it and considering I had to wear gloves for last nights run, I won't get any heat to train in for quite a while.

Monday, April 2. Catch up.
OK...I'm way behind on my journal. This is partly due to the fact that I was sick for about a week and didn't really have anything new to report. I did get some good training in this last weekend though...

Friday...finally got back into the swim thing with the Salmon Bay club. Looks like I will finally be able to join too. Nothing too spectacular about the practice. It was just nice to get back in the water. I did try out some new goggles, some little competition goggles. They were pretty comfortable but all of the ones that I tried had a lot of visual 'noise' that I wasn't used to...I think its just the angles and corners of the goggle surfaces. I guess I just need to get used to it. The goggles I have now are the prescription type, I can see well, but they are big clodd hoppers.

Saturday...not workout, but I helped Jessamyn move. I had some the vegetarian buffet at Flowers for lunch and then some awesome Chicken Kashmiri for dinner. Afterwards, we all went to see the movie Hands on a Hard Body at the Grand Illusion. Its a documentary about a contest in which participants can win a Nissan truck if they keep their hands on the truck for the longest. It was a great motiviational film for me to see just before my first pentathlon...its all about mental fitness.

Sunday...pulled a triple today. An hour swim workout in the morning, two hours of fencing in the afternoon followed a repeat workout on the track.

The swim felt great. I didn't do any timed stuff, but I was keeping up with people that I know are pretty fast. If I can get a PR out of this first pentathlon I'll be happy...probably around 2:40. I should be able to make it below 2:30 by the June penathlon once I add a good start and flip turns.

The fence went pretty well. My point control was right on, but my strategy is a little slow since its been about two weeks since I last fenced. I went 5-4 with one of the coaches after warm up, then got skunked by John Varney, 15-3. I have Monday and Wednesday to fence this week so should get it back.

The track workout went REALLY well. I continue to bring down my times. I did 7.5 440 repeats which equals a 3k. My times were 78, 83, 81, 82, 82, 83, 2:13. All the times were lower than my last repeats workout. Now...I'm quite sure I won't be able to hold these times in a straght 3k, but I should be able to keep an under-six- minute mile. And who know how the heat will affect me if its hot in San Antonio.

Ended the day with a little dancing with friends at the Tea-Dance and then hooking up with Angela and Marc to watch X-Files.