february highlights: ergging again, pentathlete in boots, Ivy League, pentathlon fan, Viktorisms...
Wednesday, February 27. Shaving the swim and stretch bands.
The sprint portion of my swim practice this morning was 2 x 100. For the first time ever, I came in at a 1:14 for both segments. NICE! This puts me at a sub 2:30 pace for a 200 yd for the first time. VERY NICE! In other news, upon Amy-the-Marine/pentathlete's suggestion I bought some stretch bands to do some 'weight' training...just without the weights. Since I have a tendancy to get huge when I do weights, these whould allow me to build specific power in the swim and/or run motions rather than simply bulking up. I'll start in on these tonight.
Tuesday, February 26. Swimin like a fish, baby!
Pulled in a :33 50 yd time today...in the 4th of a 4 x 50 even! Nice! I shall invoke my favorite phrase "gettin there". If you haven't visted my pentathlon fun page its a must, especially for the fishy.
Monday, February 25. Airport, nap, shoot, run, fence.
Yep, got off the plane, took the bus home, unpacked, took a nap and then went out for a run. Man, nothing like a national level pentathlon to get you psyced up and motivated to get training. The shoot was pretty good considering all the random thoughts I had going through my head (most of them haveing to do with dealing with roomates/tenants). I shot a 170 which is pretty respectable.
The run was just a slow, steady state run to get back into things since I haven't ran for a while either due to my poison oak induced swollen ankle or travelling. Felt pretty good, barely even broke a sweat.
Fencing felt good, but I didn't do very well point wise. That could be because my first bout was with Travis, who happens to be training for the 2004 Olympics in epee. The second one I just did a lot of stupid shots. But like I said, it felt good and I did get a lot of really good shots in too. I've decided its time to find a sponsor to bump up to two fencing lesson per week.
Finally, I have to relay some "Viktorisms" from Viktor Svatenko, national fencing coach for pentathlon. These came from lessons he was giving to Susan at before this last pentathlon. I just love them and they keep ringing through my head. You have to imagine them with a heavy Ukrainian accent though.
1. "Why you makh kartune movee" in response to a strange move on Susan's part.
2. "You make surprrice forr meekh" in recognition in a good move on Susan's part, but not the one Viktor was expecting. This is one of Will Brady's, a junior level penathlete, favorites too.
Saturday, February 23. Pentathlon fan.
As you may recall, I was unable to compete in today's pentathlon in San Antonio because I had to take cortisone for my bout of poison oak that I got clearing an ivy bed at my house. But...I had a great time watching, helping out and coaching Susan a bit. I hung a lot with Susan, Sloane and Amy during the competition. Amy had quite a spill on Jasmine during the ride that left here dazed for a while. She tried to make it seem like she was alright after the fall but gave herself away when she asked why I wasn't riding, knowing -in a normal state of mind - that I hadn't competed in anything all day. Sloan got a PR in the swim and the run. Susan ended up doing OK and kicked some butt in the run. She may have even gotten the fastest women's time. And of course, its always cool seeing the big boys and girls (the elite athletes) do their thing. I may end up going to a few penathlon mini-events in Canada since its so close, but I'm really looking forward to competing in the next pentathlon in San Antonio in May.
We all met back up for dinner at a TexMex place called Chuy's. A whole bunch of very thirsty, very hungry pentathletes. I think our table made it through four baskets of tortilla chips before we even ordered. Afterwards, a few of us went to Amy's Ice Cream fpr a bit of chocolate this and that. Susan got a free cup of Belgian chocolate/peanut butter cup just by being in the right place at the right time. And of course we got lots of Amy's stickers for our Amy friends.
Tuesday, February 19. Sean 0, ivy 1.
I've had a pretty good last couple days of training. No new PRs or anything, but respectable performance. Shot at 172 last night, so that was pretty satisfying.
But, since the end of last week, I've been noticing my legs and forearms were very itchy. I thought it might have been a new bout of a crazy skin thing that docs think started up when I was burned in 8th grade called lichen planus. I'm very proud of it since it once thrilled the University of Washington dermetology staff. Well, the itchy area kept getting bigger and bigger and my ankle and left leg started swelling up so I finally went in to check it out. Turns out, I somehow came across some poison ivy or poison oak. My guess is that the big ivy-removal project I've been doing in my front yard is the culprit. There wasn't supposed to be poison ivy or oak in the ivy bed, but apparently there was. Also turns out that its a pretty serious case, especially since I didn't get it treated right away. So now I'm on cortizone pills which means that I won't be able to compete in the upcoming pentathlon in San Antonio since cortizone is one of those no-no drugs for athletes...at least at the levels that I'll be taking it for the next ten days. Even if I put it off, it wouldn't be any fun swimming in this state or running with a swollen ankle and lymph nodes running up my leg. MAJOR BUMMER. On the bright side, I'll be able to help out with the competition, catch up with some friends and coach Susan in her first big US pentathlon.
Saturday, February 16. Weights and a run.
I did my second round of weights today. My upper and lower body stuff is really focused on stuff that will benefit my run/swim. I'm also doing a lot of ab work right now to get build up strength in my core. I ended up doing my run right after the weights, probably would have been better to do it before but I got stuck watching TV all day since we just got digital cable. The run actually turned out pretty good though, I got a PR by 15 seconds with a time of 20:39 around Portage Bay.
Thursday, February 14. Man, I'm way behind...
Behind in journal updates at least. I've actually had some good training days recently, I've gotten PRs in both my Portage Bay run and in my swim. Nice. My flip turns seem to be deteriorating though, not sure whats up with that but I can't seem to do my flip without ending up at a 90 degree angle after the flip. Fun, but not very productive...my open turns are still much faster. I had an awesome fencing night on Wednesday and lessons with Garik continue to go really well. Jumping last night wasn't all that great, but I pulled some good jumps off by the end so felt better. Laura actually said that my soft hands in the warm up made it the best she's ever seen though. Another exciting accomplishment...I'm now able to wear my riding boots again. I haven't been able to wear them since my ankle surgery because I didn't have the full range of motion in my ankle. Yee haw! In other news, Susan, another local pentathlete (who happens to have a killer run) has started jumping. She'll be caught up to me in no time.
Thursday, February 7. A five star day.
Somehow, I pulled off a practice in all five sports today. I started with a swim in the morning. Nothing spectacular, I did the standard workout, but didn't even do any timed stuff. In the evening I came home and did a shoot...scored a 180...nice! Afterwards I watched TV a bit (yes, even pentathletes have some time to watch TV from time to time) and then headed out for my fencing lesson at Rain City. The lesson took about 1/2 an hour and then I went for a 20+ minute run (app 3 miles for me). It was cold and rainy, but the run felt pretty good once I got into it. After that it was off to the barn for my riding lesson which went really well. I was on Pet again and seemed to fall right back into the groove even though its been three weeks since my last ride. All in all, a great day for pentathlon Sean.
Wednesday, February 4. At least a run.
Didn't do the swim thing in the morning because I was up really late the night before. Didn't do the fencing thing because I got home too late from work. Didn't do the shooting thing because my roomates car was under repair in the basement and blocked the targets. But...I at least got a run in. Susan came over after fencing to do some shooting practice Her epee tip broke so she was having a bad pentathlon day too. Since the shoot wasn't gong to happen we decided to do a run. If it hadn't been for Susan, I probably wouldn't have gotten a run in either. It went pretty well. We just did my interval workout around Portage Bay. No surprise, Susan blasted out in front of me during the "on" section of the interval. But this was good since I had to work harder to keep up with her. Again...at least a run.
Tuesday, February 5. Row and a Run.
Started out the evening with another erg, just another short one to get my legs and back into the rowing motions again. Boy...do I miss rowing, especially since spring is just around the cornner.
After a run to Lowes to get some stuff for my house I went for a late night run around Portage Bay. I've upped my interval "on" time to 45 seconds so I'm starting to stretch out the sprint period of the interval. The run felt pretty lousy at first, but by the end I was feeling pretty good.
Monday, February 4. Lots more flips.
I pulled off a lot more flip turns this morning in the swim. They weren't very pretty, but at least I'm starting to build a lot more of them in to my practice. I'm starting to feel the catch a little more like I was several weeks ago...feels good. Still need to get started on some weights though.
Nothing too spectacular about the run tonight, just did a steady state around Portage Bay. My back and legs were a little fatigued from my erg workout, but I worked through it pretty quickly.
Sunday, February 3. Ergging again and moving the sidewalk.
Not sure what I was thinking but a new friend talked me into doing an erg (rowing machine) workout with him this morning. I just did a 15 minute steady state. It felt pretty good at the time, but we'll see how it feels tomorrow. My back and legs are going to protest I'm sure. In the afternoon my workout consisted of moving the sidewalk in front of the house I recently bought so that it goes around the huge cherry tree root that has pushed up the sidewalk enough to make it a hazard...at least according to the folks that are going to give me my homeowner's insurance. I think my back will protest this one tomorrow too.
Saturday, February 2. Sean the swim coach.
I coached my first private lesson today with one of the students of the TI workshop. Unlike coaching riding, I think I can handle the swim thing. The lesson was actually a follow up to the TI workshop, so my job was really to refresh the technique with the student. The lesson went well and the student was pretty psyched with the progress.
