Why "three to five"?

december plans
28 - Jan 5...San Antonio camp

Monday, December 25. Long run, holiday style.
I did my long run for the week on today, Christmas Day. This is always a leisurely day anyway, so the run fit in well. I basically did a tour around Steilacoom, my home town. My favorite part was running through old Ft. Steilacoom. It used to be the farm and orchard for Western State Hospital (a mental institution) but now is a public park. There are lots of tall slender aldar trees along the trails and the hillside looks like a scene from Tuscany. Little lake Wahop is a nice little run, about 3/4 of a mile long. My shins did fatigue a little at first, but I loosened my laces and took a little stretch break about half way through my run and all was well. I also wonder if this happens when I'm not hydrated well, because it seems to be pretty random. I'll start keeping an eye on this.

Sunday, December 24. Low key 5K.
After sleeping in until almost 10:00am, I had a little breakfast, watched TV for about an hour and then went for a run on the 5K course I ran back in October for the Roman Meal Glove Run. I didn't feel like timing myself, so just had a nice low key run at around a 7 minute mile pace. It was nice running through Steilacoom again, the sites and smells familiar from my youth.

Saturday, December 23. Armory with Allen and sport shopping.
I took my weapons in to Salle for Allen to check out. I now have three weapons which makes me feel much more like an official fencer. Allen approved of my choices and showe me how to get the correct bend in my blade. Afterwards, I popped over to the Athletic Supply Co. store for a little shopping. I checked out the Adidas warmups that we may get for our NW pentathlon group and then picked up a wrist brace and a cold/hot compress.

Friday, December 22. Weapon repair and yoga leftovers.
With my new having arrived on Thursday, I wanted to get them all set up and running ASAP. Two arrived all ready to go, but the 3rd I would have to put together as the blade had broken on my original weapon and just needed to be replaced. I went out and bought some PVC pipes to cover the bladed of the epees and also picked up a little snap box to carry around small parts and tools, as well as a mini screwdriver set.

At the Salle workbench, it took me quite a while to get it all put together correctly as it was my first attempt at doing this, but I did finally get it in workin order...just in time to catch the last half hour of yoga. After yoga, it was margarita night with some of the foilists...good holiday cheer.

Thursday, December 21. Crazy eights, equestrian style.
Tonight Laura set up the fences in an elongated z shape so that we could do a jukps in a figure 8 pattern working our way up and down the fences. Although I was able to do all the fences and got some good practice at doing 12-15 jumps in a row, by techniques still needs a lot of help. I still tend to dip my shoulders into turns, like one does on motorcycle turns. This usually meant that I took turns very sharply, which is not such a great idea especially if there were to be fences straight ahead on a normal course. The problem was probably 60% me and 40% Pet Step though. He figured out that he could cut the corners and fell into the habit. But I let him fall into the habit. Felt good to get a lot of jumping in though. Still jumping 2'9 or so.

Wednesday, December 20. Hippy swim and centered shooting.
After some holiday errands I finally made it to the pool around 4:00pm. With no nap (and still feeling a little under the weather) I could tell in my first lap that this wasn't going to be a high intensity workout. So I set out to practice some skills that I recently read about in the Total Immersion book I've been reading...namely hip rotation. Whoa! With a little hip twist I was able to get my strokes across the pool down to 12 strokes (I even hit 10 on one length), 14 strokes at full speed. Not bad considering I was generally doing it in 16-18 strokes. My time didn' improve at all, but I did the same time with 4 fewer strokes. Nice!

I did another 4 rounds of shooting in the evening. Did pretty average on the first two targets on the third I tried on of Bill's drills in which you cut the center out of the target and try to get all your shots through the whole. I got all but 4 shots through, which was pretty good, but even better was my next target. I got all but two shots in the black target area. WOOO HOOO! So my hightest score is now 69. Still hoping to get into the 80's by the time I switch up to my Steyr.

Tuesday, December 19. Long nap, big dinner, squirly shooting, fencing parries, short run.
I was feeling a little cold coming on throughout the morning and was really tired from staying up late fencing the night before, so I decided to take a short nap. Well, it turned into a three hour nap. But boy did it feel good. I ended up missing both an option to ride and an option to swim in the afternoon, but I figured I must have needed the rest. To follow up on the nap I had a big dinner for once. Went down to the local pub, Grady's, for a guacamole burger. Taaasty! With the cold and amount of training I'm doing, a big meal is probably a good idea once in a while to keep my winter immune system hardy. During dinner, I read a little more of Pam's (Pam is another pentathlete training in the area) Total Immersion book. The current chapter was discussing how power really comes form the torso, especially the hips. The author used several metaphors from baseball and tennis, but I also noticed how much some of the sports I've been training in both have to offer and learn from what I'm learning from this book. Rowing, boxing, fencing, jumping, etc. all seem to have similar applications of how performing an action, muscle memory, etc. have much more to do with your performance than what one might think.

After the big dinner I went down to my basement and started in on shooting. It was pretty cold down there, which I think made my eyes a bit watery (the excuse I'm using for poor shooting). I got a couple good shots in, but most were not all that good. Dropping to the lower right hand side again, which usually means I'm gripping the handle to hard or with too much of my hand. For the first time I wished I had the adjustable/molded grip that I will eventually get when I purchase my Steyr. Got 40 shots off, which is good enough to keep my shooting arm in practice.

Then it was off to my fencing lesson. Tonight we worked on parries: counter six, eight, eight with counter six and four. My problem is still that I am reacting rather than responding, although I'm getting much better at responding to what really is or isn't coming at me. Practice, practice, practice...although its really brain practice more than anything. Muscle memory certainly comes into play, but not like other sports. You have to think quickly between the muscle memory to get the right motion into gear. I will the Wednesday open fencing, but will plan on attending the Sunday session instead.

Monday, December 18. Long run, lots of fencing.
I did my long run around Lake Union today since I wasn't able to fit it in over the weekend. I had a YMCA Board meeting so I got started later than I had hoped to in the afternoon. I did a bit of a warm up run over to Pocock Rowing Center, stopped in to say hellow and then started on my way. I hadn't taken a nap, so I could feel that I was pretty tired. But the run went pretty well, just a nice slow, long run.

Fencing went long as well. I fenced seven bouts which is three more than I usually do. I did very well, winning 5 bouts...all except Greg and Nathaniel. Nathaniel Dirkson, an "A" level fencer who recently placed 66th in a national competition out of 160, was back home for the holidays and everybody wanted to fence him. I got nine touches on him and was pretty pleased since I missed several others that with my own weapon (I am still using a club weapon) I could have gotten. I noticed that Eli Bremer, the guy I stayed with in Sydney, got 52nd in the epee competition. I should be seeing both these guys in competition soon enough.

Sunday, December 17. The Salmon Bay Sunday swim.
I survived another Salmon Bay Sunday swim. These workouts are an hour and a half and I definitely feel it in my shoulders by the end of it. We had about a 20 minute workout followed by 10 minutes of on/off kicking that was pretty intense. The workout consisted of a series of 400s, 200s and 50 sprints. I do pretty well on the freestyle, but I still lag behind on the other strokes...a lot of room to improve here. Made tentative plans to meet up with Ed again this week for some coaching. Went home and took a long winter's nap.

Saturday, December 16. Quick swim between holiday hoopla.
Had a bunch of holiday shopping to do in the morning and the Tacoma Polo Club holiday party in the evening, so did a quick swim during the afternoon. The swim was OK, nothing all that great, but nothing bad either. My times were pretty consistent. I do need to bump up to a full hour soon though and switch my workout around, maybe add some more other strokes. We'll see what Ed has to say after my next private lesson. I also have to think about adding some time to my weekly schedule to do the small weights, biometrics and abb work that Ed wants me to do.

Friday, December 15. Yoga time and first Friday swim with Salmon Bay.
Did my Fiday night yoga class at the fencing salle again. I'm starting to get a little better at everything...breathing, strength and flexibility. Still can't do the head or hand stands yet though.

The swim tonight with Salmon Bay went pretty well. I got a dehydration headache at one point, but I just sat out during a 200 and everything seemed to be OK after that. I'm still in lane 5 for now and usually lead the group in the sets. Probably be bumped up another lane soon though. We did a long warm up, 600 followed by a couple 100 descending sets. The workout was a 400, 300, 200, 100 freestyle with a kick in between each set starting with a 50 then 100, 150 and 200. Afterwards, I went to a holiday party and had some tasty treats...swimming makes me even hungrier than rowing ever did.

Thursday, December 14. Bouncing in a grid on Pet.
Had my volunteer stint at UNICEF this afternoon so just had my jump lesson tonight. Laura set up a "grid" for us to jump through that consisted of two fences at "bounce" distance, a vertical a left turn and then another vertical. Pet and I did pretty well but I still have a lot of work to do. Watching Joan jump with Eli was probably the most useful thing for me. I finally got a good mental image on what was supposed to happen at the jump. My problem has been that I lean forward into the jumps rather than letting the horse come to me. I also had two great jumps doing all the right stuff, so with Joans image and my two good jumps I should start improving my form. I'm still jumping 2'9" or so, another foot to go before my pentathlon height.

Wednesday, December 13. Faster swim, first treadmill.
I did my 200yd about 10 seconds faster today which shows how much time I really have to make up...if you can take a full 10 seconds off your time, you've got a long way to go. The swim felt pretty good considering that I had just had a much of Mint Milano cookies after lunch.

The true test would come after swimming though. I did my first workout on a treadmill. It was really cold outside and I had wanted to try a treadmill for pace purposes anyway for a while now. The run itself went OK. I ran 20 minutes at a 7.5 mile pace. The treadmill control panel was pretty wet by the time I was done...I was sweating pretty hard. When I stepped off, I was a little dizzy, more from the end of the new motion than working too hard. My legs felt like they were 'buzzing' too, kind of like after you've used a power tool. I plan on doing a treadmill workout once a week, mainly to work on pace.

Tuesday, December 12. Good swim, FAST run and fencing beats.
Nothing too spectacular about the swim today, other than I felt really good the whole way through, I was able to get my number of strokes across the pool down to 13 once, but still usually get 14 or 15.

The run, on the other hand, wen't really well. I ran Portage Bay and came in at 9:08...my fastest time ever (beat my previous time vy 20 seconds). I did have to push pretty hard and my legs got a little lactic towards the end, but I'm just psyched that I not only finished it, but finished it with a great time.

In Fencing tonight, we worked a lot with beat attacks. I still have a long way to go to get my bad habit of 'guessing' opponents moves. I need to work better on making assumptions and responding to what they do rather than just guessing. Allen has me doing some great drills that make me focus on this.

Sunday, December 10. My first Salmon Bay Sunday swim.
I did it! I finally made it to a Salmon Bay workout. I chose to start out in lane 2, the second slowest. In time I'm sure I'll move up a lane or two, but for now this was just right. I ended up being pretty fast for the lane in the freestyle, but behind on everything else so it worked out well. The warm up was 600yds freestyle with every fourth length being a stroke of your choice besides freestyle. The workout was a ladder fast up, slow down: 2 x 200yd swim, 3 x 100 yd swim, 4 x 50 kick then 4 x 50 swim, 3 x 100 swim 2 x 200 swim. After this we did 4 x 75 descending on the 2nd and 4th (descending refers to time, so faster...I kept messing up on this since in rowing it is the opposite, descending is slower). The whole workout lasted an hour and a half but seemed to go by very quickly. It actually reminded a lot of rowing, you just get in, do what your coach tells you to do and go. Kind of brainless compared to my YMCA workouts in which I'm always wondering what I'll do next. Overall, a good swim experience. I'll enjoy it for now, becuase I'm sure coach Ed will be pushing me up some lanes soon.

Saturday, December 9. Saturday shoot, a super swim and a long slow run.
After sleeping in until 11:00am (felt great!), I made my way to the Kenmore Range for my second shooting session at the range. I felt much more confident this time. My arm was a little stronger so my sights weren't moving all over the place and I felt more relaxed. Best of all, it showed in my shooting. My shots were more centered around the black area and I even got a 10 along with 2 nines. Going forward, I will be practicing shooting twice a week at home and shooting at the range on Saturdays. The air pistol league starts in April, so after a few months shooting with my Daisy, I hope to be up and running with Steyr by then.

I had a great swim this afternoon. I took another second off my 2 x 100yd times. I still haven't come close tomy fastes time since I started getting coaching, but I'm happy to see the times comign down again. Once again, I kept my energy level up through the end of the workout. I'm feeling much more comfortable with the backstroke finally, which is good since I'm sure I'll need it for the practice tomorrow with Salmon Bay.

I did my long run around Lake Union this evening. It was a clear, cool night...perfect for a nice long, slow run. No problems at at all to report, my legs and feet felt great the whole time and I felt like I could go for another spin around the lake.

Friday, December 8. Fast swim, fast run, not so slow yoga.
I had another great swim this afternoon. My times for the 100yd were pertty much the same, but my energy level stayed with me the whole workout. My pushoffs continue to improve as well.

In the run around Portage Bay, I bettered my time by 15 seconds. Still not my fastest time around Portage Bay, but I'm only 15 seconds away. Since my legs were a bit sore form riding which I hadn't done in a week and I had just finished swimming, I was pretty pleased with this time.

Finally, I went to the yoga for athletes class again tonight. I was much tighter starting off tonight that I usually am and many of my motions were faster than I would have liked. I seemed to be wanting to do the postions too much rather than just focusing on doing what I could do. But by the end of the class I did feel a little looser and more able to control my muscles.

Thursday, December 7. Relax, ape arms and eyes on the shoulder.
Tongiht I rode attempted a seven jump course with Pet step. Although I finished the course several times, I never really got to the point of satisfying Laura...I still have a lot of detail work to do. In particular, I need to hold my hands/knuckles right - almost in an ape like position, hold my body right (not lean forward) and keep my shoulders back and up as if I had eyes on my shoulder looking over the jump. I also need to get used to keeping the horse under control in a two-point (butt off the saddle) by staying relaxed and trying to get 'responses' rather than 'reactions'. All that said, I felt pretty good about the whole thing. The jumping really highlights what I need to work on in my flat work. I also had a long talk with Laura after the lesson about pentathlon stuff. After the San Antonio camp, I would be able to come back with a training plan of the jumping...something I really need to put in place.

Wednesday, December 6. Faster swim, slower run, shorter fence.
My swim today felt really great. I decreased my 100yd time by two seconds on two consecutive attempts. My push turns are feeling great and my backstroke continues to improve (at on the times that I have a free lane to do it, I'm still a little too chicken to try it with someone else in the lane).

I ran Portage Bay this evening. I came in under 20 minutes - which is good - but came in 20 seconds behind my fastest time - which isn't so good. But I was pretty pleased overall. My shoes were a little tight which stopped my from completely relaxing my feet. I still feel like I'm coming back from a week ago when my back was sore.

Had a short fencing night tonight. Most of the fencers were getting ready for a tournament in Ontario, CA. Since my weapon broke a last week I've been fencing with a club weapon which started having some problems tonight. With few fencers and a bum weapon, I decided to head home a little early. I did get in four good bouts though, so had a respectable night.

Tuesday, December 5. A swim, only a swim, but a faster swim.
My legs were still a little tweaked from my long run yesterday and my fencing coach took the night off, so I only did a swim today. But it was a good swim. I was a little faster on my 100yd than my last couple efforts. I'm starting to get my turns down finally too. I even did two full laps of backstroke that actually felt pretty good.

Monday, December 4. Shooting setup, another long run and better fencing.
This afternoon I spent sometime setting up a 'shooting range' at home in my basement. The rance consists of a cardboard box filled with a stack of newspaper on end behind about 6 inces of crumpled up newspaper. I got the design from one of the pamphlets I got from Daisy. The home 'mini' range will be great because I can start doing a lot more practicing in the shooting event and be able to make mistakes in the comfort of my own garage.

After I set up I took 40 shots total (10 on each target). I was pleased that my are didn't fatigue at all this time and when I really visualized and focused I did pretty good. My best score is a 61 out of a 100, which is just fine for my first shooting. I'd like to get this up into the 80s before I by my next gun, a Steyr, in February.

I decided to go for a long run again this evening for a couple reasons: 1. for some reason, I felt that the Portage Bay was too short of a workout; 2. I wanted to see what running around Lake Union was like in the dark how well lit it is for example). I started again at the Pocock Rowing Center. The run felt really good and I did take some time off my last run, coming in at about 46 minutes this time. I think I will still keep the long runs down to one day a week. I have to keep in mind that I'm doing a sprint race and really need to work on this more than my long runs.

If I wasn't convinced that I only wanted to do long runs once a week, I was after fencing. Although I actually did very well in fencing tonight, my legs were pretty uncooperative for a while. I just put too much into the long run. Luckily, I was very relaxed and seemed to have good point control for once. I even got 9 touches on John Varney! I talked with Allen, my coach a little while after my bouts about ordering some new equipment. Looks like I'll have three weapons soon and a big bill to go with them.

Sunday, December 3. Long run, quicker swim.
I got my long run in for the week today, I ran around Lake Union which took about 45 minutes. It is about a 6 mile run, but I did about a 1.5 mile warm up running over to Pocock Rowing Center, my starting point for the run (and my old shell house). I did my 2 min off 1:30 on intervals. The run felt pretty good the whole way, my new shoes feel great. This will be a good bump up from my Portage Bay run and good training for running 5Ks. I had another good swim this afternoon. I still feel pretty tired out by the end of the workout, but at least my sprint times at the beginning of the workout are a little quicker. Not as quick as they need to be, but quicker. My backstroke is getting a little better, butterfly is still a mess though.

Saturday, December 2. First shooting session and a good swim.
With my new Daisy in hand I did my first full on shooting training session up at the Kenmore range. Bill, the range master that day, gave me a few pointers and I was on my way. I got about 15 of 40 shots in black area. Not very good at all, but not so bad for my first time either. My arm got tired pretty quickly, which was very evident in my last targets. But I has some really good shots as well. I made a couple corrections along the way, but really need to get some private lessons soon...probably after my San Antonio trip. The swim this afternoon went pretty well. I did my old workout, so it was nice to get back to something I was familiar and comfortable with. I did really try hard to do the push turns correctly though, which took a little time off my sprints. I'm still not back to my fastest times yet, but feeling much better about getting closer...at least until my next lesson when we do some more stroke deconstruction.