august highlights: Grey Poupon moment, riding in the dark, new swimming...
Friday, August 9. It was a dark and dusty night...
That pretty much describes the riding conditions last night at my riding lesson. We were outside with five people in our lesson slot and by the time we all had a chance to go throught the course twice, it was pretty dark. The dust didn't help much either. But bring it on baby, I'm a pentathlete. Susan wasn't too pleased with the conditions until I mentioned that the horses can actually see pretty well in the dark. My friend Scott came by to watch and be entertained as well. I think he even got a few pictures so maybe I'll have some new pics to post here soon. We got him up on Merlin after my lesson too. Always fun to start a new rider.
I do have to relate a very "Grey Poupon" moment I had on Ru, my scooter recently. I was zipping down Pine Street on my way to work, in full suit of course. A van had been behind me for several blocks. At Bellevue the van pulled up beside me. An older couple, was inside and the gentleman rolled down his window and very gracefully informed me that my left pant cuff was folded down. He then went on to say that he also used to go to work on a Vespa, in a suit and knew how important it was to look good on a Vespa. What a great story.
For the swim this morning I decided to change things up a bit. There was a workout posted on the wall from June 20th for the Holy Names high school swim team I believe. No, I didn't jump in to a full on swim team workout, but I set out to do half of everything. It ended up being about a 1500yd workout which is about what I am doing now. I'll keep working up to the full workout and then start looking for other hour long practices I can do. One thing new/different workouts do for you is they don't allow you to settle into a routine. In a regular workout you know what's coming and you fell tired about the same place every time. With a different workout everytime you stay a lot fresher and are able to do things, like sprints at the end of your workout, that you probably wouldn't be able/want to pull off in a 'routine' workout. I dig it.
Finally, I went and bought me a liter of kefir at Madison Market. I've been feeling run down lately and almost fell asleep at work the other day so figured I needed to get back into good nutrition. Kefir is something I ran across on my first vist it the then Soviet Union in 1988. I was on a high school exchange and one morning we had this small glass of thick white stuff on our table. Tasted like bad yogurt. We quickly figured out that we could put jelly in it to make it taste better. I've been a kefir fan ever since. Basically, is a probiotic drink that contains 'friendly' bacteria to help your digestive system work better. It also has lots of protein and other good vitamins and minerals. Don't know what it is but I always feel a lot better when I drink it and have a lot more energy. Woo hoo!
Thursday, August 8. New running and swimming plans.
Based on my performance in running and swimming. I think it's time to change things up a bit. I did a track workout that was both slow and miserable and my swims these last couple days have been acceptable, but not spectacular. So...running. I'm going to a three day cycle of running with a day off in between cycles. The plan is to start with a long run (either road or x-country) then a timed run the next day and finally finish the cycle with a track workout. This should get me up and moving a little sooner than what I have been doing. Swimming needs a bump up too. I'm going to start a full hour workout and mix up the workout a bit more, looking for good freestyle workouts on the internet. Riding tonight, with a possible shoot and run beforehand.
Monday, August 5. Weekend report: three swims and a run.
I did an AM swim and PM run on Friday. Neither felt particularly great, but generally much better than they have been. The swim on Saturday was awesome, I felt like the Energizer Bunny, at least until BOTH of my quads cramped up at the end while I was doing my kicking. No fun on that one. The swim this morning felt pretty good again and my times for the 4x50s weren't so bad either: :34, :35, :35, :36. Still looking for that fist :33 though. I'm also going to start building up to a 300 in my sprint mode. Oh, and have to start back in on flip turns again. Woo hoo. Shooting, running and fencing tonight if all goes well.
Friday, August 2. Quick swim.
Quick swim workoutwise that is, not so much sprintwise. Actually, the sprint section of the workout was pretty slow. It was my first time doing a straight 150 in a long time though, so this is expected. Next up in my sprint cycle is a full 200...can't wait. The arms and ab session after the swim is still going well, I'll be upping the weights a bit, adding some more upper body work and doubling the ab workout next week. There's definitely a psychological edge to get back in the cycle of mutlisport training. You certainly have to get passed a wall of not wanting to do a particular workout sometimes, but I find that each sport tends to get you motivated for the next. My run last night, even though it felt horrible, gave me more incentive for the swim this morning and I think made it feel better than it would had since my legs had just finished a good workout the night before.
Thursday, August 1. Pounding the pavement.
That's pretty much what my run felt like today. I had meant to make two laps of Portage Bay but after one lap, which took way to long in itself, I knew I wouldn't make it two. Bad, bad, bad. Part of the reason was that I started in on my intervals again. They didn't go so bad, but I think I pushed myself a little too hard during the "on" segments. I was pretty wasted by the end of the run. Came in at a 24:48 which is a good four minutes slower than my PR for the course. Oh well, I am just getting back into things, can't expect too much I guess.
