Why "three to five"?

current training schedule

february plans
1-3...housesitting on lk. washington
9...SAS friday night epee tournament
17...yesc plant-a-thon
24...yesc plant-a-thon

links
jeffbridges.com

discoveries
Tom's gingermint toothpaste is gross
wear sleeveless shirts when boxing

lingo
TPB = training personal best
PB = Portage Bay (run)
PR = Personal record
GL = Greenlake (run)

I did make it to my riding lesson tonight though. I was on Merlin once again. According to the evening experts, he was going to be hot. So when he tried to bite me, I was not surprised. Once I was on him though, he was as smooth as butter. Probably the best ride I've had on him yet. The canter was fabulous. I did pretty well on our jumps, but am still leaning my shoulders forward too much and using my inside rein on the turns into fences. Other than than, it really was a great lesson.

Probably won't run or swim tomorrow either, which really bums me out. But I'd much rather make sure I'm healthy next weekend for my first pentathlon than push myself now. I may try to shoot though.

20 February, Tuesday. Second swim lesson and fabulous 400s.
I had my second swim lesson ever with Ed today. Ed coaches O'Dea highschool's team and the masters club, Salmon Bay. We worked first on a little stroke technique then starts, then flip turns. I improved on all three IMMENSELY!!! Wow, I didn't know flip turns could be that fast. I love it. My starts are still a little off, but they will come with practice I'm sure. Looking forward to putting it all into action my next swim workout.

Met up with the Club Northwest running group at Husky Stadium tonight. The workout was a mile at tempo, 4 x 400 at the pace you want your mile to be two months from now, and then another mile at tempo. I did the first mile in 6:47. Not my best time, but OK for what we were doing here. I jammed on the 400s though...at least for me. Here are the times: 87 seconds, 86, 85, 84. Although I'm sure I couldn't keep it up in straight laps, I'm pretty happy with these times. A 1:24 split would be 5:36 mile - 16 seconds off the mile time I would need for 1000 pentathlon points. I'm looking to do the 400s in 80 seconds or less.

19 February, Monday. A shoot and a fence.
I was REALLY tired today for some reason, so chose not to do a swim. I did pick up my gun after my nap though. Shot three 10s in a row on the second target and ended up getting an 84 and an 82 on the two sets of 10 shots. Not bad, my scores are steadily coming up, but not the best I've done either. Its still those oddball random shots that kill me (excuse the pun).

I was very pleased with my evening fence. I fenced three bouts and did very well in all of them - not winning - but coming much closer to doing so with some very challenging opponents. I need to do better in my distance mostly.

18 February. Week-end update...shart shooting, logn running.
Whoops. Its been a while since my last update. Even though I don't officially start my new job as sustainability coordinator at Nordstrom until March 1st, I seem to already be busy wearing the new hat. It hasn't really affected my training just my time getting online to update my journal.

So I'll go with some highlights...On Thurday I shot my first 172. This is pretty exciting for me as this is the score I will need to get 1000 pentathlon points in the shoot event. I may not be able to get it every time for a while, but at least I now I can and that my shooting is shifting upwards. On Saturday, I went to the Kenmore Range and shot a little with Pam and Sarah, I did very well. All but four out of my 40 shots made it in the black target area, with five 10s. Pam has just started up after a long break from shooting. Sarah, took her first shots, borrowing my Daisy to get her started. We went for a great lunch afterwards, which will very likely become a standard post-shooting lunch date for the Saturday morning shooters. On Sunday I pulled a triple. I started with...the WA State Air Pistol Championships at the Kenmore Range. Yes, the state championships. I planned on just stopping by to watch and get a feel for how these things go, but was talked into actually competing (since I had heard about it the day before I did bring my Steyr just in case there was room to get in). So, I hadn't spent any time preparing...mentally or with my equipment. But it actually went pretty well. I shot a 456 out of 600. Not all that great, but not bad either. I wasn't last anyway. If I can just get rid of my random shots to the outer edges of the target, I'd be doing great. I got five 10s, and lots of 8s and 9s. I was a little nervy in the beginning, but this soon went away. Its just those random thoughts that pop up and throw you off. Oh well...one down, many to go.

The swim afterwards went OK. It felt great, but my times weren't all that spectacular. Except for my last 100 at the end of the workout, the last little bit of my ladder. I got a 1:16 which is as fast as my usual times at the beginning of my workout. I'll take it.

Finally, in the evening I went for my weekly long run around Lake Union. Just a nice, easy, steady state run at about a 7 minute mile. My knees were a little sore for the last ten minutes or so, but that's usual when I haven't done a long run in a while. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

13 February. Running, Husky Style. I hooked up with the Club Northwest running group again tonight (I used to run with them last fall). They are now practicing at Husky Stadium. Although I've spent a lot of around the stadium during my rowing days, this was my first time working out in it. Wow! Pretty darn cool. The workout was 3 x 1200m at 5k pace, 10 minute tempo run, then 2 x 1200 at 5k pace. My best 1200 was my 4th one in which I did a 4:40 (about a 6:15 mile. OK, but it needs to get better, especially in a race and especially at 3k pace.

I had planned on shooting in the evening, but I ended up spending a lot of time trying to get my ticket for San Antonio. Seems I disabled my SkyMiles account online by using my old zip code. All ended well and I'll be off to San Antonio on Friday March 2nd for my first pentathlon.

12 February. Sean 0, goggles 1 and new job.
I got a new band for my goggles after it broke on Sunday. Actually, I purchased two new pairs of goggles since Warshals, a local sporting goods store, is going out of business. They are the prescription type goggles, help me see a bit better under water. I never thought they made that much difference, but after borrowing a pair from my coach on Sunday and not being able to see a thing, I'm a beleiver. Unfortunately, this swim was spent trying to tweak the goggles just right so that they would stay on.

I had planned to shoot and run in the evening, but I ended up doing homework type stuff for my new job at Nordstrom...Sustainable Business Coordinator. I have a meeting with my new manager and the Diversity Affairs group tomorrow. I've been trying to get the company to give me this position for over six years and have basically been doing it on a voluntary basis for that time. Its nice to be able to finally direct all my efforts and focus towards these issues. It will be an incredible growing experience for me and the company. I really don't see this affecting my pentathlon training all that much. Most of my workouts are outside of normal business hours. But then again, I can see digging pretty deep in the position for a while so there may be a few more workouts skipped along the way. Stay tuned...

11 February. Swimming blind, running hills.
The swim was going pretty well today...until the band on my goggles broke. They are the Speedo prescription type of goggles and I've gotten very used to seeing things clearly and in the right perspective. When I borrowed a pair from the coach, everything was wacked out. Weird perspective (my judged distances were way off), strange colors, etc. Surprisingly, this really effected my swim for a while, I was all over the place. I got used to the goggles after a while, but I REALLY look forward to getting mine up and running again. We did about a 2500yd workout today...whew!

Once again, after the swim I went for about a 45 minute run with Loren, a friend of Ruthies. Nothing too spectactular, a nice steady state run at about a seven minute mile. Except...there were 4 hills in the route we took this time. I did my best to use my forearms to get me up the hills and I could feel it helped, but I was still pretty tired at the top of the hills. Quite an opportunity here.

10 February. Susan's two mile race.
I met up with Susan last week at the Raincity Fencing class that I dropped in on. I actually had gone to meet Sarah, a possible new pentathlete, but also met Susan, a friend of Amy's (one of my fellow epeeists). Turns out Susan used to run 3ks for track and Xcountry in highschool and college and had some pretty good times. Today, I went to watch her run a two mile race put on by Club Northwest, one of the running clubs in the Seattle area. I probably could have run, but since I haven't really run a race like this yet I wanted to get a feel for it first...my usual habit.

Susan did a fantastic job, coming in at 11:17 for the two mile race. I even had my first try at being a pentathlon coach...I timed her for her splits. Susan, whether she chooses to try the full pentathlon thing, or just stick to running will be a great asset to us. She's got a great attitude and is really helpful. She runs on Tuesday nights on the east side, so I may try to drop in and run with them sometime.

I also hooked back up with Jessie, the fellow in charge of Club Northwest's programs. I ran with the group several times last fall. They are now meeting at Husky Stadium, so I'm planning on hooking back up with them. Running in Husky Stadium...cool! And, close to my old rowing turf.

9 February. Fast swim, top seed in fencing tournament.
I had my fastest 100yd time yet today during my swim workout a 1:16. If I could maintain this for the full 200yd (which I actually think I might be able to) this would put me at a 2:32. Still a long way to go, but I'm getting there. I'm still only doing flip turns for the first 2 or 3 turns, my open turns are just faster after that point.

So close! So close to getting my first rating tonight at the Salle Auriol Friday Night Epee Tournament. I did very well in my pool, winning all of my bouts. It was a tough pool too...Bernard, Bill, Doug, and Julie. I am pretty much equal with Bernard and Bill and a little more advanced than Julie. Doug was a complete wild card since he's actually a foilist. Once I got past Bernard and Bill, Doug was my biggest concern. He is very tall and quick. He was getting some amazing epee shots with his point control. So, I pulled out my pentathlon touches...all or nothing, baby! I got his blade and went for it. Luckily, it worked. With my four victories, I ended up going into the direct elmination (DE) round as the first seed. This didn't last long though, I was up against Bill again in the the 2nd DE. Bill usually wins in our bouts in practice, so I was a little concerned. We went to 15-14. Bill is a great fencer and was doing very well tonight. His point control was amazing. In the end, I was pretty happy that I went into the DEs as the first seed but I sure would have liked to come away with a rating. Next chance...the epee tournament after my first pentathlon in March.

8 February. Merlin magic.
Tonight I rode Merlin for my riding lesson, quite a change from Pet Step. Where Pet requires a lot of muscle, Merlin takes a slight stroke. He's very sensitive to both hand and leg aids. Laura had me working in great detail on getting a precise canter rythem, something that I could never have done with Pet...he's just too strong and doesn't have the finesse. I did really well, Laura was pleased and I learned some thing that will be very useful when riding new horses.

7 February. Best of times, the not so best of times...swim, run, fence. The swim felt really good today. I did very well in my 50yd sprints at the beginning of my workout...well, except for the first one in which I attempted a flip turn and ended up taking more time than my push turns. Oh well, they will come soon enough. My backstroke continues to feel better and better too.

Tonight, I finally ran with the Greenlake group proper. I had been doing my own thing around Greenlake for almost a year now. I decided, now that I've done a few six minute miles, that I could fit into the group. Not only did I fit in, I ended up leading group six and getting bumped up to group five. This is the group that Mike Jones, a former pentathlete, runs in. We did two 2000m pieces at about a 6:40 mile. I felt pretty good and could have definitely pushed a little harder.

It was definitely the best of times, the worst of times in fencing. I felt like I was doing my best fencing ever, but ended up losing most of my bouts. I had pretty good point control at the start, but lost it as the night went on. I did well against Varney though, who got 2nd in our recent tournament in Seattle That felt pretty good. As usual, I cut out a little early (8:45pm or so) to watch Voyager. A pentathlete gets few vices, one of mine is watching the last episodes of Voyager.

6 February. From boxing to fencing.
Had the second installment of my box fit class tonight. I felt a little more with it than last time. Still not able to do all the jump rope drills, but I'm getting better. I do have to admit, I'm lovin the bag and the hand paddles, a great release and workout.

I took my first lesson with Garik at Raincity tonight. Garik is originally from Azerbaidzan and used to coach their national team. We worked mainly on attacks to the hand...he was able to clean things up quite a bit. Not sure if I'll be able to take lessons every week, he's pretty pricy, but at least every other week to be sure.

5 February. As the flip turns, new pentathletes.
The swim this afternoon felt really sluggish, like the water was heavy almost. I was able to do my usual workout, but the sprints didn't really make to full sprint spead. I think its a response to yesterday's big swim. Instead of dwelling on a slow swim, I focused on doing flipturns in all my laps. They aren't pretty, but I'm getting better and better each time.

In the evening I payed a visit to Raincity Fencing to meet up with Sarah, a new pentathlete. She's taking her first fencing lessons which will bring her into the full pentathlon training. Also met a friend of Amy's, Susan, who may be intersted in starting up pentathlon in the class. I also made plans to start taking lessons with Garik, starting on Tuesday already! It was a good pentathlon night!

4 February. Sunday swim and run.
For some reason, the big Sunday swim (1.5 hours) seemed a lot bigger today than it has in the past. Maybe I was tired, maybe I was just lazy from housesitting all week on Lk. Washington, but it seemed to drag on and on. Then again, it could have also been that I was eager to meet up with Loren Hill, a friend of Ruthie's, who I will be starting to run with in order to get my run times down. Regardless, the swim went well. I ended up being the second person in the lane...if I get much faster I'll find myself in lane 4 soon. Yikes.

The Loren meeting/run came soon enough and the run, which took about a half hour, felt pretty good considering I had just been swimming for an hour and a half. It was pretty slow, but I was pleased that I felt like I could have done it a little faster.

2 February. Friday night swim.
After long last (due to a major cold) I finally made it back to the Salmon Bay Friday night swim. It felt so good to get back in the water. I jumped down a lane for this workout, just so that I wouldn't stop other swimmers up if I swam too slow. Boom...before I knew it, I was right back leading the group. Guess its back up to lane 3 on Sunday.

1 February. Boxing feet fallout, smooth jumping.
I had planned on running today since I wasn't able to last night, but my feet were really sore from my boxing on Tuesday...the same feeling I get when I don't wear my orthotics when I run. So I decided to give them a little rest. I took a day off from the swim too. I was really sleepy so wanted to take a nap but unfortunately, the open swim at the pool is over at 2:00 and there isn't one at 4:00 on Thursdays.

The ride went well on Pet tonight. It was the smoothest ride I've had yet I think and the jumps felt awesome...smooth, conrolled and confident. Laura's pretty close to buying a new barn that is a major step up from this one. More horses, larger, nicer facilities, etc. Pretty exciting...she may even be able to house pentathlon horses!