january highlights: getting ready for Canadian Nationals, riding right, a new kick, cool new shoes, first fencing lesson, Ms. Emily, Canadian Nationals, flip turns.
Wednesday, January 30. First flip turns and four practices.
I started adding flip turns to my swim workouts this morning. Didn't do so bad either. Man, you really do get a lot of power out of them...especially when you come off the wall well. I also started adding in a little kicking, don't plan on doing a lot of this, but my kick could use some help.
I did a shoot when I got home from work. Shot a 174...I know I can do better though because there were several that I wasn't really focusing. It was really cold too.
Did a get-back-on-track run tonight around Portage Bay. I did my usual on/off intervals, just didn't time the whole piece which meant I wasn't racing against a time or anything. It felt pretty good. I definitely need to do some more sprint and track workouts though to get my time down again. Now that its starting to stay light longer, may be able to do it in the evenings.
Fencing went pretty well too. I fenced Amy, Travis and Tim and did better against all of them than I have in the past. They're all pretty good, Tim and Travis have won tournaments before, so I was pretty pleased. I need to get back on track with lessons though...my point control is still sloppy.
Susan came over and shot after fencing for a bit. She's been using my Steyr in competitions so its probably a good idea to start using it in practice too.
Saturday, January 26. Canadian Nationals.
Well, I've already accomplished one of my 2002 goals - I participated in an international pentathlon event - Canadian Winter Nationals in Chiliwack, Canada. "Winter" is the key word here since the trip up and the run competition were dominated by a lot of snow. I went up with Susan, a local pentathlete from Bellevue, and Ron, a new pentathlete from Vancouver, WA. Highlights of the trip up (its around a 3 hour drive from Seattle) included: driving snow, scrapping snow off of Susan's headlights so we could see the road and getting my gun through Canadian customs. Apparently, air pistols that are have over 500m/sec velocity are regulated and wouldn't you know it, I had no proof that my gun shot under that velocity. The whole thing took about 20 minutes, but I finally got through to them that I couldn't compete with a gun over that velocity so why would I bring such a gun.
Fun in the snow continued after the technical meeting and dinner. Several of us went over to the venue for a practice shoot. We got lost getting there...we got lost getting back. But we did get to see a lot of Chiliwack.
Now...for the details:
Shoot. I got my best score ever in a competition coming in 10th out of 47 with a shoot of 169. If I hadn't blown it with two random-Andy shots I would have done exceptionally well. I think it was the setting up of the gymnastics area next to us that got me the first time. The second was all my fault...several of the juniors hadn't filled their cylindars properly before the competition so we ended up stopping several times. I just plan lost focus and goofed on one of my shots.
Run. Ah, the run. I will preface by saying that I can at least claim a victory in the sense that this is now my personal best time for a 3k in snow. We had to do the run as the second event to guarantee daylight. It was quite cold and the snow was about 5-6" deep. The sun was out though so things were starting to melt...just in time for the race which meant that it was snowy in some places, muddy in others. My time...well my time is unimportant seeing that everyone ran 3-5 minutes slower than what they should have. Suffice it to say that I ended up with 48 points in the run. But remember...PB for a 3k in the snow.
Fence. I feel kind of guilty. My fencing is finally starting to improve and I ended up taking a LOT of touches/points away from Canadian athletes who really needed every last point they could get since they were all trying out for their national teams. I just missed getting 1000 points for the fence and ended up coming in 7th out of 41 in the event. The fencing did drag on forever, but it was a good endurance test. Note to self though...four hours of fencing after a 3k race in the snow leaves you quite exhausted...need more peanut M&Ms to keep energy up.
Swim. Skipped it. I was coming down with a whopper Canadian cold that started coming on the night before. So, couldn't breath all to well, nose was stuffed up and the 3k run in the cold didn't help my chest much. So...skipped it. This was frustrating since I probably would have gotten a PB by 10 seconds if I had been in the best conditions. Since I wasn't I probably would have had a miserable swim and come in with a slower time. I figured I can wait for the right time.
Ride. There was no ride for this event. It was too difficult logistically to get enough horses for everyone so they just decided to throw it out.
Overall, it was a really good time and a great experience. All of the Canadian pentathletes (most are juniors and former Pony Club tetrathletes) are great people. They really put on a great show. It was really cool to have Susan and Ron there too. Susan won the run and actually did pretty well overall too. Ron was our official photographer, so hopefully I'll have some picks up soon. The Victoria, BC club has shoot, swim, run events every month so we may start hooking up with them more often.
Its time to take some major cold medicine.
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Wednesday, January 21. Woah...catch up.
Its been a LONG time since my last journal entry. Nothing too major to report. I've been pretty consistent with my swim times 1:15s to 1:17s which I'm very happy with. I haven't done any timed runs lately, although I've been doing my intervals for 30-40 minutes each practice. Still feeling pretty good with that too although I'm still not to where I was before my ankle surgery. Shooting has been pretty consistently in the high 160s - mid 170s. Horsejumping has been going pretty well, my last lesson actually went great so I'm getting back up to speed here too. I finally got in some fencing tonight and didn't do so badly. I got my last weapon working again too so that's a relief. I seem to be over the nasty cold I had for the last couple days too...well almost over it. Still got the runny nose, but when I'm running in the snow up in Canada this weekend, who will notice?
I did get to see the Olympic torch on its way through Seattle tonight...not once but twice! So that's pretty motivating.
I also finally found a white fitted cap with USA stuff on it (flag on front, USA on back) that I can wear while fencing. REALLY psyched about that.
Tuesday, January 15. Catch up.
Wow...its been a while since I've last updated. Lots has happened. I got my fastest time around Portage Bay on Monday (21:02), beating my previous time by about 11 seconds. I also got my fastest swim time for a 100yd on Sunday coming in at a 1:15.
I got some new fencing stuff, as well as a fancy new case for my Steyr pistol. Its always fun to get new toys.
Tonight I did a long run (about 40 minutes) with my 2:00-off/30sec-on intervals. The idea is to start working on my endurance. At most I'll probably build up to an hour and a half which would be a half marathon distance wise. I then went over to Rain City Fencing to get my epees up and running again. After that, Susan and I headed up to the barn for riding lessons. More shoulder in for both of us, more working on a good post for me.
Thursday, January 10. First fencing lesson in a LONG time and a visit from Ms. Emily.
Had my first fencing lesson with Garik at Rain City Fencing since probably two months ago. It actually went pretty well. My point control is a little off still, but that's just getting strength back in my fingers mostly. Thursday nights will be my regular lesson from here on out. I may add Tuesday's at some point, but can't really afford it right now.
Ms. Emily (Emily deRiel, the Sydney pentathlon silver medalist) was in town again so we hung out a bit. She stopped by the fencing salle and met some folks. Lots of pentathlon talk, which is always cool because there really aren't many folks around that understand all that goes into being a pentathlete and training for this crazy sport.
Wednesday, January 9. All run.
Had another really great run tonight. It didn't feel all that great at the start but I was surprised to find at the end that I beat my last time by 51 seconds. Very nice, especially since I haven't upped my "on" segment of the intervals that I do for these Portage Bay runs. At 21:13, I'm doing just over a seven minute mile at this point. Not too bad considering I'm still working back up from my ankle surgery. The plan is to lengthen the "on" segment of my intervals by 15 seconds each week. Times will definitely go down from this so its the the faster times during the same intervals that really count and feel extra good.
Tuesday, January 8. Smooth run and ride.
I think my run tonight was my best ever. I know I say that a lot, but it really was, I was light, smooth and ended up coming in 48 seconds faster than my last time around Portage Bay. I'm still loving my new running shoes. I also got these really cool sport clog things from a local store. Turns out you can design your own shoe on their website customatix.com cool stuff.
The ride tonight went well too. I worked more on getting the correct posting motion going on and both Susan and I worked on leg in drills towards the end of the lesson. We started with me on Pet and Susan on Merlin and ended up switching at the end to get a different feel for the leg ins.
Monday, January 7. Morning swim, evening fence.
Finally got my butt out of bed to do a morning swim. I'm pretty much a morning person...once I get out of bed. Its that getting out of bed thing that is hard. I did it for five years while rowing - at 4:30am nonetheless - but haven't been able to make it happen since...until today. For whatever reason, I had the dance version (faster than the regular version) "Lady Marmelade" stuck in my head. Strange but a great motivator song energy level-wise.
The fencing went really well tonight...until my epee stopped working. I fenced John and Anna and knew that should have at least gotten some doubles against John. Well, it became obvious fencing with Anna that my epee didn't want to play. Oh well, I'll get it fixed up and head back on Wednesday.
The swim felt AWESOME and I think I finally have the kick speed thing down. LOVIN the two stroke kick! I'm also going to start doing a crew type workout in which you practice quarters of the race. In swimming, that means I'll practice the first 50, the second, the third and the final 50 all seperately. This helps get my head in the right place. Now if I can just sneak some flip turns in there.
Sunday, January 6. Shoot and swim, part II.
Did the same workout as yesterday, a shoot and a swim. I should have done a run too according to my practice schedule, somehow it eluded me :-)
The shoot was far from spectacular. My come-back charm must be waring off because I had several random-Andy shots off the black target area. On the flip side, I did get quite a few in the 9 and 10 circles - even three 10s in a row once.
The swim is really starting to come together, technique-wise anyway. Still feeling really strong and smooth. I've figured out a warm up that I like as well as some good TI/swim drill stuff. Still working on getting my kick speed down.
On a side note here, I finally made it back to Red Sky Poetry Theater at the Globe Cafe. It happened to be the night when the staff does their annual performance. A lot of food for the soul to be sure.
Saturday, January 5. Shoot and swim, part II.
Got up bright and early for a shoot this morning. Well not that early, around 9:00am or so. The shoot went pretty well, I got a lot fo 9s and 10s. Didn't count my score up though, I'm on my three-practices-before-it-counts trip again. I have one more practice to go and then I have do start doing it for real.
The swim went really well this afternoon. Still feeling strong and smooth although my times are far from spectacular. I did try to start working on different kick speeds though. The two kicks per stroke is pretty darn nice. I'm going to start varying my kick speed to see what happens over the course of the race. Kind of like my rowing days...different strokes speeds at different parts of the race.
On a side note...saw Lord of the Rings this afternoon. Very good, but the special affects were a little over the top for me. I still prefer the cartoon version.
Friday, January 4. Soggy sprints.
I did my first set of sprints tonight arount the Montlake track. Its always been pretty soggy when its raining and this afternoon was no different. I also got a chance to break in my new running shoes, Adidas this time. They have a nice layer of mud on them now. I didn't time myself on any of the sprints. I'm going to stick with my usual practice of not timing the first three attempts at a certain practice. Gives me a little chance to build up. Hopefully the sprints will help get my regualar times down a little as I gear up for the Canadian Nationals.
Thursday, January 3. Strong swim and kneeling on a horse.
I had a really good swim this evening. I don't think I'm swimming all that fast yet, but my strokes are feeling strong, big and smooth and I think my balance - especially while breathing - is much better post coaching the TI workshop. I started practicing some flip turns too, they went pretty well so hopefully I can get use them at Canadian Nationals.
At riding tonight, Laura had me work on my posting motion. She's never really liked it, but couldn't figure out why...until tonight that is. She saw my hamstrings working overdrive during the post and pointed out that it should be my quads doing most of the work. She gave me a metaphor of kneeling to the ground to engage the right muscles and voila...posting correctly. I did a little of this at the canter too. For whatever reason, this gave me a lot more leg control and balance. As Laura put it "a major breakthrough".
Wednesday, January 2. Shooting not so straight and the return to intervals.
Finally got my gun out to start shooting again tonight. After my warm up my first three shots fell about 4 inches below the target. Whoops, out of air I guess. With a fresh cylindar, my shooting soon returned to normal. I didn't keep score this time and only took 15 shots, but over half fell in the 9-10 range. Nice. I'll be practicing the shoot 3-4 times per week from now on.
Did my first intervals tonight. Yuck, yuck, yuck. For some strange reason, my feet felt really heavy...accordingly my legs didn't feel like they wanted to carry my feet. I finished though and actually felt pretty good by the end. The intervals were two minutes off, 30 seconds on to start. I'll decrease the off and increase the on in the coming weeks.
Finally, please not my fancy new bracelet above. Ricky Martin's "Cup of Life" that starts "do you really want it" has been my motivation motto/song for a while now so now I'll have it around my rist at all times...especially in those week moments when I truly have to ask myself "do you really want it" when I'm standing in front of the Ben & Jerry's...I'm referring to the Olympics of course, not the ice cream :-)
Tuesday, January 1. First night, first run.
Got a quick run around Portage Bay in tonight before heading off to a movie with friends. I did a slow steady run with a little sprint action at the end. Turns out a friend saw me during my last sprint and was pretty impressed since it was New Year's, cold, rainy and I happened to be hauling when he saw me. Good start to the new year for sure.
