Why "three to five"?

june plans
welcome back coach Wendy
start shooting
running for real

found objects
little things I find along the way...
-mini pink plastic "creature from the black lagoon" on the university bridge. 6/12
-mini plastic Daffy Duck head (yep, just the head) on Boyer Ave riding home from work. 6/13

discoveries
-T-shirt sleeve cutoffs make good head sweat bands

bug counter
When I was at UW, the loggers called us wildlife students "bug counters". Now, I just swallow bugs (mostly those little sun flies) while I'm running...
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Friday, June 30. Long run and boxing: round 5.
Went for an endurance run today, 40 minutes, about twice as long of the other runs I've done so far. I plan on doing on endurance run a week building up to a half marathon and eventually a full marathon. Although this doesn't do a lot for my pentathlon run directly, it will give be a better base overall. I ran north along the Burke Gilman trail which runs from Ballard around Lake Washington, past places like Saint Michele Winery. Nice running environment, for sure. The run felt REALLY good, I was a little tired the last 10 minutes or so, but I was really pleased over all. I should be able to bump up to 60 minutes next week.

The long run left me a little tired for boxing, but I survived and did the full boxing workout. I took everything at about 75% effort and still did well compared to some of the other students in class. The punching bag felt really good, my techniques has improved a lot. The speed bag is getting better too, I can almost do it at the same speed as Qadir, our teacher. Quick hands, quick feet, strong upper body...all of this should help my fencing.

Thursday, June 29. Super swim and "show him the way".
Had a great swim this afternoon. Few people in the pool and just felt really good with lots of energy. I did adda another length to my pyramid so now I'm doing two full laps at top speed. I still need to take about 20-30 seconds off my time, but should at least be able to complete the full 200m at top speed soon without much problem. I think I will also add an endurance day where I just swim for an hour or so rather than doing drills.

Riding went really well too. Howie is such a great horse. I am still working with him to keep his head down, in the past he was allowed to hold his head too high. Laura's advice is to "show him the way to the ground" in other words use the reins to help keep his heed down and guide his head down towards the ground. This is accomplished by bringing the reins down whenever his head starts to pop up again. The trot and canter were great as usual, I could keep the Howie-the-speedster pretty much under control. For jumping we did a small cross rail, then changed up to a straight rail. I'm still working on keeping him straight after the jump, keeping my hands down, staying back in the saddle at the jump and allowing my hands to come up a little when Howie goes into the jump to give his neck room to stretch out.

I did let Laura know I am hoping to do my first pentathlons next spring. She said it would be challenging, but that I could do it if I put some more riding time in. So, I will be adding Tuesdays as a riding day going forward for sure. The other events are going well too...Athens 2004 or bust!

Wednesday, June 28. Run, fence...take 2.
I survived my second week of a running and fencing double! The Greenlake running group had a pretty intense workout planned, at least for me. They were going to do two sets of an interval workout. A set consisted of 1 min on/1 min of, 2 min on/1 min off, 3 min on/1 min off, 3 min on/1 min off...I decided to stick with my workout for know which is 2 min off/30 sec on. I will be moving that up to 1 min on next week, but I still have a long way to go to be able to do the Greenlake group workouts. The run felt pretty good, my feet fatigued a little at first, but soon settled into it. It was a hot day, but this didn't seem to bother me too much.

Had another great night of fencing. Fenced a new fencer, Amy, as well as one of my coaches, Greg. I did really well against several high level fencers, scoring 6-8 touches on them. Leave it to Greg, one of the Raincity Fencing(formerly Wallingford Fencing Club) coaches, to humble me though. The notes I take on fencers seems to really be coming in handy. I can go into a bought with some useful info. It also helps me internalize whats going on in the bought and where my opportunities are.

Tuesday, June 27. So-so swim.
Finally got in to swim this afternoon. The summer lap swim schedule is pretty tight at the YMCA where I work out. I only had an hour and a half slot this afternoon, which was plenty of time since my workouts are running about 45 minutes right now. The only problem is that there were lots of other people also trying to squeeze their laps in, so the pool was pretty crowded and I wasn't able to do the workout at the level I would have liked. But it was a pretty good swim. I plan on adding another length to my pyramid which will give me two full laps at full speed. I'm doing this in hopes of doing my first 200m sometime next week to get my initial time for the 200m. This will allow me to start working on bringing it down to a competitive time.

Monday, June 26. Fantastic fencing night.
Had a great night of fencing tonight. Not sure why, but everything seemed to be right on. I had great point control, my hands were fast, my feet were active and I landed touch after touch. I even got six points on an A-B level fencer. Woo Hoo! I can only think that my boxing is helping out. The boxing footwork has me bouncing and moving all over the place, the speed bag and jump rope have helped my coordination and the punching bag improved my upper body strength and hand speed. Soon, I'll start back up with lessons and then watch out, Sean's packing a mean touch!

Saturday and Sunday, June 24-25. Polo, run, polo.
Had a great day playing polo. My riding is better than ever and I'm finally able to work on being a better player.

On Sunday, I went for a quick run before heading back down for more polo. The run felt REALLY good, the best so far, both cardio and physical. My feet and lower legs weren't fatiqued at all. I did my interval workout again, two minutes off, one minute on and it felt GREAT. I will start building up my 'on' times in the coming weeks, as well as doing the Greenlake run on Wednesdays. I also plan on doing a long run once a week to work on endurance.

Friday, June 23. Boxing: rowing 4.
I had a lazy day on Thursday and did some vounteering on Friday afternoon, so boxing was my first workout after some down time. The usual footwork and drill ciruit. The bag and hand pads were really rough this time, Qadir asks a lot of us but boy does it feel good. I'm also getting better at at the speed bag, one of the fastest so far in the class. I'm sure I lost 3 pounds just from sweating so much, but as I said...boy does it feel good.

Wednesday, June 21. Run x Ride = Greenlake Gusto and down Sean, down.
I went to run with the Greenlake group, but showed up and hour early and decided to run around the lake myself. Its a little over 3 miles and I decided to start my intervals...2 minutes off, 30 seconds on = 2 minutes at about 7.5 minute/mile pace then a 30 sprint, then back to the 2 minutes off and so on. I will slowly build to where my on times are longer. The workout felt pretty good, but I'm still a long way from where I was last fall. I'll continue to do the intervals from here on out and plan on running with the group next week. I'm housesitting on Lake Washington this week, so the lakefront run should inspire me. The Greenlake group will be a great motivator: 1. Mike Jones, a former pentathlete works out with them, 2. several people from the group placed in the top 10 of some recent local races, 3. Coach Wendy's husband works out with the group so I'll be able to get some coaching in with her without any scheduling challenges and 4. there just a great group of people.

All went well with riding tonight, with the exception of my hand height. Laura's still not satisfied with where I carry my hands out of the jumps. Joan was riding Eli and it was Howie again for me. Its always a little scary when jumping a new horse for the first time, but this is what I'll need to do in the pentathlon, so the more new horses the better. I've been riding Howie for three weeks now, but his was my first time jumping him. We did a three fence mini-course several times each direction. Jumping went really well overall, Howie rushes the fences a little, but I was able to keep him under control. The biggest challenge was keeping my hands down coming out of the jumps, but was able to correct this too. Looking forward to higher and/or more complex fences next week.

Monday, June 19. Run x Fence = ?.
The run this afternoon wasn't stellar...perhaps it was the pint of Ben and Jerry's I had after lunch. But it wasn't that bad either. Its just that my feet and lower legs are still fatigueing quickly. I'll be glad when there are back in shape and I can start concentrating on times. I did pretty well, my time was the same as two days ago, including the two times I had to stop and retie my shoes. The last stretch, in which I do a sprint, felt really good. I think I'm ready to start intervals again. Coach Wendyis back in town, so I'm planning on joining the Greenlake running crowd on Wednesday.

Went back to fencing tonight for the first time in over a month, maybe even two months. YIKES! It actually went really well though. I fenced 5 other fencers and held my own pretty well...even got 8 touches on a b level epeeist. My plan is to continue open fencing with a lesson once a week. Once the Olympics are over I'll start going full tilt on the fencing with two or more lessons a week as the plan is that I will try my first pentathlon in the spring.

This is also the first time I've done two events in a day. We'll see how my legs feel...a run followed by a heavy fencing day should leave them pretty wobbly.

Sunday, June 18. Run, run, run.
I'm becoming a running freak! Did I mention that I loved running? Snuck another run in this morning before heading back down to Steilacoom to pick up my Mom to take her back to the airport. Nothing spectacular about the run, other than its the third day in a row that I've been running. Feels great!

Saturday, June 17. Sun Run.
I was able to sneak a run in before heading down to Roy for polo. It was one of the most beautiful mornings I'd seen in a long while. The run went well and I took a full minute off my time so I was pretty pleased. My feet and lower legs still fatigue quickly, but this should go away as I get back into shape.

Friday, June 16. Fun run.
For trying to get my legs and feet back into running shape, recovering from my plantar wart procedures and getting used to my new orthotics, todays run was a really fun one. I feel that I'm up to about 70% of my old running self with both my physical and cardio aspects of the run feeling much better. It was also a beautiful morning to run...scents of spring flowers in the air, lots of people along the way smiling and saying hi and some beautiful scenery as I ran around Portage Bay and a small portion of Lk. Washington. The only bummer about running around Portage Bay is the traffic exhaust, especially at busy times of the day. Time to look for some cleaner-air runs I think.

Another great night of boxing. This time we added the right uppercut to our list of hits. I have the jabs down, my left hook looks a little goofy, but the right uppercut feels great. Any grace I thought I had when I first started the boxing class has quickly dwindled and I'm sure I look more than a little awkward as a boxer. I need to become much quicker and much more agile. But...its still one of the best workouts I've had, so I'll be sticking to it for a while. My jumproping and speed bag are getting a lot better too

Thursday, June 15. Down Howie, down.
My Mom is visiting from Arizona this week, so I won't be able to fit all my workouts in (I love having excuses like this). But, here's what I am up to...

...it was Howie time again this week. Laura had ridden him earlier in the day, so he wasn't Mr. speedy this time. Well, at least not as speedy as last time...his walk and trot were almost at regular pace. Laura had me working on positioning my hands correctly and we worked primarily on getting Howies neck turned correctly to the inside. This meant holding him with my outside rein while pulling down and in with my inside hand. This went pretty well at the walk, trot and canter. The next objective is to keep Howie's head down towards the ground and tucked as he is used to keeping it pretty hight up. A really great ride though.

Monday, June 12. Up to a run.
Well, I'm up to a run now from the jog last week. This time it was my feet that fatigued first, cardio felt fine. Not surprised on the foot thing at all since I am running with the new orthotics and its been so long since I was running regularly. I'll spend a couple weeks getting back up to speed, but should be back to where I left off six months agao soon enough.

Friday, June 9. Rough run jog and boxing: round 2.
Went and got some new running shoes...New Balance. I was pretty excited to get out there and try them out so went for a run as soon as I got home. I could tell that it had been a long time since I ran last because, for the first ten minutes, I felt like I was running through molasses. The whole run was much more like a jog than a run. The last 20-15 minutes felt really good though. I have a long way to go to get back on track, but at least I'm running again.

I also spoke to Laszlo Beres, one of the coaches at the US Modern Pentathlon Association. He gave me some suggestions for beginning workouts, as well as advise on sponsorship and such. I'll be keeping in touch as I get farther along in my training. One thing was clear, more training! The pentathletes are doing each event 3 or more times a week...I do each 2 or so. Laslo also made it clear that speed endurance was the name of the game in pentathlon.

Had my second boxing class tonight...we did the usual footwork section, learned the left hook, did our station workouts and ended with footwork again. I'm sure I lost a gallon of water again and my hook technique was pretty awkward at first, but I survived round 2 of the lessons. I really enjoy the boxing and Laszlo agreed that it is great cross-training for my epee work, I just have to make sure the the tight/close boxing arm positions don't interfere with my epee. Shouldn't be a problem though, if anything it will make me notice more when I'm being too tight in epee.

Thursday, June 8. Tough times ahead and high speed Howie.
The swim today was so-so. I felt a little off on technique and a little sluggish at first, but soon got into the groove. I did note my lap times for the first time ever. Looks like I have about 20-30 seconds to take off my time to be at the competitive level for the swim in pentathlon...doable but still a goal that is going to be a challenge.

Had a great ride tonight. Sheila was on pet and Vesty had already been ridden, so I rode Marya's Howie tonight. Howie is a big chestnut...BIG. A couple inches taller than Pet. Howie has the attitude of a lab, you best buddy, ready to go and wanting to please. Howie is also the one that told Joan, the horse communicator, that he liked being outdoors...another nature boy like myself.

As soon as my foot was in the stirrup, Howie was off like a bullet...the fastest walk I've ever experienced. Per Laura's instructions, I let him do his fast walk thing until he took a big deep breath and slowed down the walk. Then we went up to the trot...WHOA Howie. It took a lot of talking to his mouth to get him under control, but we did settle into a pretty good rythem. Howie is very sensitive to a riders balance and aids, so I really had to do my best to sit and give commands correctly. The trot felt great, the canter felt even better! Didn't have any problem keeping him under control at the canter, which was a surprise to me and Laura since he was so strong. Laura brought out the poles and we did a little pre-jumping workout...come into the poles at a trot, come out of them in a canter. Howie wanted to make the poles on the ground into jumps, but with a little communication, we were able to get into the groove here as well.

I had a great time riding Howie, we get along well. Since Marya moved to CA and won't be bringing Howie down for another couple months, Laura asked me if I wouldn't mind riding him more both to keep him excersized and to get me some more riding time...looking forward to it.

Tuesday, June 6. Slow swim start.
I was the victim of a large and very rich lunch, so my swimming was a little lethargic at first. After my pyramid though, everything kicked in. I did the usual swim workout and added back in the legs portion now that my feet are doing better. Coach Wendy is back in town, so should be upping my swim workout soon.

Sunday, June 4. Pure polo weekend
It was a pure polo weekend at the Tacoma Polo Club and my riding felt better than ever. Something dramatically improved, both in my riding and my overall understanding, of the game. It must be my progress in jumping that has given me the confidence to really feel comfortable in the saddle and the ability to concentrate on my game rather than worry about just staying on the horse. I rode Jason's "Aticus" again, so had to work really hard on not balancing off my hands and thus putting pressure on his mouth. All went well though. A good day for riding, a good day for polo. Click here for more details.

Friday, June 2. Boxing Sean.
Had my first night of boxing lessons tonight. Yeah, its pretty crazy, by I was told by Callum a while back that it would probably be really good for my epee (since I told him epee reminded me a lot of boxing) and for my overall fitness. Whoa! Was he right. I was pretty excited already when we wrapped our hands. I still have a long way to go with polo horse wraps, but I have the boxing hand wraps down. After the first 3 minute interval, in which our instructor - Qadir - simply had us doing some footwork, I was sweating buckets. Then we added pivots, then left jab, then the one-two...all at three minute intervals. My jabs started pretty slow, but once I got the hang of it, it started looking and feeling much better. I think we did 10 of these intervals or so.

Next, we had some cardio exercises. Gloves with punching bag, gloves with hand paddles, jump rope and the fast bag. I was first up at the punching bag...sweating barrels this time, but man...did it feel good to jump around and hit that bag. Did even better when Qadir held the hand paddles for me to hit. Felt GREAT! Jump rope...is jump rope, did pretty well compared to the rest of the class, guess pentathlon training paid off. Then it was the fast bag...the bag - about the size of a balloon - the image we all think of when someone practices boxing. We kept at a pretty slow rythem, but I picked it up pretty quickly. It was definitely all about rythem though, lose that and the bag flies all over the place.

There is no doubt in my mind that boxing will get me fit pretty quick, the physical and cardio stamina is beyond other sports that I've done...even rowing, just in a different way. I'm VERY sure that it will help my epee.

Thursday, June 1. Horse Jumping 102...Vesty, very Vesty.
Tonight it was back to Vesty as Sheila would be riding pet and Joan was on Eli and...it was another jumping night! Thankfully, there were only 4 fences tonight as opposed to the eight last week. I Had the same issues I eperienced last time I rode Vesty. He's much more sensitive to pretty much any command/aid so he forces me to really concentrate on riding correctly. The trot and canter felt pretty good, although he still has a little wobble at the trot. When it came time for the first fence, we had some problems though. Although I had jumped higher fences with Pet, Vesty wasn't too keen on me jumping with him yet and he ended up refusing four or five times. Laura then took the fence down and we did several laps around the arena just going over the poles on the ground. We would go into the obstacle at a trot and then come out at a canter. It certainly wasn't pretty, and there were several other refusals during the night, but now I've established that I can jump more than horse.