june highlights: pentathlon #2, new Ironman watch, a new 3k PR, post-fall jumping, sub 6 mile, new swim digs, solstice parade, Bridle Trails run, Special Olympics breakfast, pentathlon nationals, first team relay pentathlon, new goggles...
Thursday, June 28. "The Triple Frown" training day: fence, run, ride.
It really wasn't all that bad, but today wasn't one of my best training days. It all started with the fencing lesson with Garik. My point control wasn't there at all, my feet were too active and my hand motions were more arm/shoulder motions. Yuck. Garik, being the good coach that he is, got things back under control and I actually ended on some good drills.
After fencing, Susan and I hooked up at the Salle and headed out to the barn to go for a run before my riding lesson. We finally found the trail system through the woods nearby and it turned out to be a great place for x-country running. I was feeling pretty tight and short from the race the day before, so I wasn't as fluid as I would have liked. Also, I must have been dehydrated or something because after a whole day of headrushes whenever I stood up, I also felt a little woozy during the run. I did feel better by the end of the run though.
The ride...the ride, the ride, the ride. I could tell that Diamond was a little persnickety while tacking him up, but little did I know how it would play out during the lesson. The jumping actually started well, the first set of jumps felt great. Then we did a bounce to an oxer and things started to go astray. The oxer was actually misplaced a bit, but I could tell even before going into the bounce, that Diamond was having some issues with it. Since Joan had some issues too, they ended up moving the oxer. After that, it all went down hill from there...for both Joan and I. Laura ended up having to ride Eli a bit for Joan to get him settled (Eli had a bad experience this last weekend at a competition). My problem with Diamond seemed to stem from me sitting too far back in my saddle. I actually ended up on Diamond's neck two times. Laura things the pentathlon horses in San Antonio have spoiled me since they go fast and jump easily. I can just point and shoot, leaning forward, tightening up and having to be strong to control the horse have created some bad habits. Diamond forces me to balance well and apply my aids correctly in order to get over the jump. Laura, being the good coach that she is, got us back on track and by the end of the night things were going much better. We're going to do some flat work next week to work on my two point.
Wednesday, June 27. Back to the old grind; a swim and a Wednesday race.
After a day of travel and a day of rest, it was back to the old training grind today. I broke in my fancy new View Liberator Diopter (prescription) Goggles during the swim today. They are SO much more comfortable than my old Speedo prescription goggles. I spent most of today's swim working on technique. I haven't really done any mid-speed stuff with my new form, so wanted to try that. Still not to good at integrating breathing into the new stuff I'm learning, but overall things are coming together. My first sprint 50 was a 34 then some 35s after that. I will hook back up with Swim Seattle next week and am all set for the TI workshop on July 7-8.
In the evening, Susan and I headed back up to the all-comers meet in Edmonds. This week it was the mile run for me, the mile and 800m for Susan. I ended up coming in about 4 seconds slower than my last mile race, but that's OK since I just ran two races on Saturday and Sunday and didn't really do a full warm up. Susan, kicked butt with a 5:24 mile and 2:18 800m.
Sunday, June 24. Pentathlon team relay.
This was the first time USMPA had organized a team relay in a long time, so all the athletes were pretty excited for several reasons. First, it allowed everyone some more competition experience. Second, the pressure was off so everyone could relax and have a good time. Third, it was a chance to compete as teams, get psyched up and get to know other athletes.
I actually offered to not compete if the number of athletes didn't work out for full teams. Since my run and swim aren't that great, I really didn't want to be a burden on a team. When they flipped the coin between Amy and I, I lost, but Amy decided to just do the shoot so she could head home to Ft. Worth afterwards.
When they announced the team of Eli Bremmer, Caitlin Harris and Kevin Montford, we all pretty much knew who would win the competition...2nd and 3rd place were up for grabs though. Two teams wouldn't do the ride. The other three riding teams were Scott Christie, Hannah Chilen and T Tiller; Mac McCall, Anita Allen and Manual Pradillo (Mexico); Mickey Kelly, Andres Garcia (Mexico) and myself (we called ourselves "TexMex"); Geremy Perry, Kitty Ganier and Will Brady.
Shooting. The format of the team relay shoot was each teammate would take 10 shots. Although the pressures of a full individual pentathlon were gone, the new pressure of performing as part of a team was very real. I had the lowest shooting score from the day before, so I was to go first. Now I had two athletes behind me watching to see how I did in order to get our first feel for where we would fall among the teams. I ended up with my best shoot ever! I shot an 88 which turned out to be the highest of our team. I was surprised, relieved and really psyched. TexMex ended up third in the shoot.
Fencing. Now I know how to be a teammate in the fencing event. This turned out to be so much fun. The format for the relay event is that each position on a team (teammate one, two or three) competes against their counterpart on the other team. I was the number two man so I fenced all of the number two people on the other teams. Each bout was three touches. Andres won almost all of his bouts, Mickey and I pretty much split our victories and defeats. I was surprised with the number of touches I did get, especially on the people that I lost to the day before. I was fencing really well. There was an awful lot of team building that went on in the fencing event, both amoung our three-person teams and all the pentathletes in general. Everyone was loud and cheering for everyone else, Laszlo was playing his drums and blowing whistles. A crazy, energetic event to be sure. When Elizabeth, a junior, got two touches on Scott Christie, the national champion from the day before, the place went wild...Scott just had his usual sneaky grin. TexMex ended up 3rd in the fence.
Swimming. The swim is where TexMex had its biggest challenge...namely me. This is my worst event. The format was a relay with each athlete swimming 100m. I ended up with a 1:19, my fastest time ever, but it was still 8 seconds behind the leaders. Mickey and Andres got some time back, but we ended up last in the swim event by four seconds.
Running. Normally, this would be one of my slow events too, but I turned on the Energizer Bunny and actually put in a good effort. The format was a 4500m race with each athlete running 1500m. The course was similar to yesterday, some track some x-country. Mickey and Andres were two of the fastest runners on the field, so it really was up to me to do my part so that they could make up some time and points. I ended up doing a 5:17 for my 1500m. That would be a 10:34 3k time (you get 1000 pentathlon points at 10:30...so close!). And I actually felt like I could have kept it up for the other 1500m. Yikes. Mickey and Andres smoked and we ended up coming in 2nd in the run as well. Our total run time was only 28 seconds behind the fastest team. But...we were still in 4th place overall. A perfect ride could move us into 3rd but considering I've never jumped a 3'6" course, it would be a longshot.
Riding. The format for the ride is truly CRAZY! The team draws their horse, the team gets 20 minutes and five jumps to warm up, the 1st rider does the six fence course, then you switch riders as fast as you can and the 2nd rider goes over the same six jumps, then the 3rd rider. Before the draw, Mickey made it clear that there was one horse that we didn't want to draw...Brit. Well, yeah, you guessed it...we drew Brit. Brit is primarily known for being a locamotive, as well as being hard to turn. Take a close look at the TexMex picture and notice the height difference. Mickey and Andres were a good 6-8 inches shorter than I am. You don't have time to change stirrup length so TexMex had to compromise, long stirrips for Mickey and Andres, short stirrups for Sean. Great! My first competition ride, the highest fences I've ver jumped (3'6"), my stirrups were way too short and I had to do this crazy transition thing. The team can use the warm up jumps and time in any way you want. Mickey took a jump, I took a jump that felt awful considering my stirrups were about 4" too short, Andres took a jump, then Mickey took the last two. Before I knew it, we were in the arena and Mickey was off. Thirty seconds later she trying to slow down Brit to bring him to the transition area, I got on, didn't get the reins right at all and took off. I actually did OK considering the variables at play. I had a 'refusal' at fence 5 because I needed some more time to calm Brit down before taking the jump. The time faults cost us a lot, but it was better than me ending up on my butt. I also had one knock down, or was it two? Other than that I finished the course and handed off to Andres who also did well enough, one knock down. But it was over, I survived and had finished my first competition course still on the horse. We were able to enjoy being in 1st place overall for about 3 minutes before Eli and Scott's teams rode.
Overall, we ended up coming in fourth. We missed third place by 208 points. We were all pretty happy though just to have finished. Except for the swim we were right in the competition the whole way. I'm really looking forward to next time. Afterwards, lots more food and drink. In the end, I have to say that I had a great weekend of competition. I got PRs in 4 out of 5 events and was more than pleased with my performance in the non-PR event (fencing). Since I hadn't planned on starting to compete until next spring, the goal for this year was just to get competition experience and achieve continual progress. I did it and am really satisfied. There are a couple fun pentathlons coming up in July and September, so I will continue to train for those and for the next season's competitions starting in December.
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Saturday, June 23. Pentathlon nationals.
Since the girls were shooting first, Amy arrived early to pick me up. This was OK by me since I like to get there extra early. Not to prepare or anything, just to get there early and have the 'getting there' thing out of the way.
And there I was, my first year of competing in the sport of pentathlon about to enter my first nationals competition. Since San Antonio pentathlons are so informal, I wasn't extra nervous or anything. But I did feel the weight of wanting to do my best, imagining the possibilities.
Shooting. I made EXTRA sure that my cylindars were full this time since I ran out of air last time. I did a bit of yoga to get myself focuses but after that did my best to just watch everything going on. I find that the looking around and watching everybody else, instead of getting too introspective, helps keeps my nerves under control. I'm thinking and doing things rather than obsessing on what my shoot will be. The shoot ended up going pretty well. I shot a 162. Not my best by far, but certainly acceptable at this point in my pentathlon training. I had a 4 and a 6 that brought me down, but lots of 8s and 9s and a center 10. This is what I should have shot last time. I was a happy camper.
Fencing. I am actually fencing better than ever before but, due to the number of touches in this competition, ended up getting my lowest fencing score thus far. I actually had one more victory than last time, but ended up about 200 points below the last time. I got a lot of unexpected touches - good touches - on high level fencers. I also missed a lot of touches on what should have been easy fencers. Such is life. With only three lessons from Garik under my belt I'm pretty happy. I can at least see the opportunities and put make some strategies work for me, so that's good enough for now.
Swimming. I am totally psyched that I got my fastest swim time ever...a 2:56. Given this, I am still pretty darn humble because I have at least 26 seconds to take off of this time but really more like 45-50 seconds to take off to be competitive. Mrs. Bremmer's lessons over the last two days really helped and the Swim Seattle lessons played a big role too. Better starts, flip turns and better technique...it just gets better from here.
Running. I didn't have my best 3k time for this run, a 12:38...four seconds slower than my last time, but considering how hot it was and the fact that it was my first cross country run, I'm pretty pleased. I ended up not wearing my spikes, which I regret because rocky sections were doable with spikes. Several other folks ended up chucking or collapsing at the end so once again, I was just happy to finish. I actually felt I could have gone a little harder, but once again, I still don't know my thresholds in running, or how to push past them.
Overall, I'm really happy with how things went. I'm getting better bit by bit and, more importantly, getting a lot of competition experience that will be useful next spring which is when I originally planned to start competing. By then, both my swim and run should be competitive and I should be able to handle the ride when I start qualifying for it.
Team relay tomorrow...this should be really fun!
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Friday, June 22. More sunny swimming, lessons from Eli's Mom, athlete meeting and a big dinner.
We started the day once again with a swim at the outdoor pool on Ft. Sam. Eli Bremer's Mom, Michele, came along and ended up giving Amy and I some lessons on kicking and our stroke (Eli is the pentathlete that I roomed with in Sydney). She's a great coach and teacher and I really got a lot out of it. Kicking from your back and pausing your stroke, a lot of Total Immersion kind of stuff, she just didn't realize it. I did a did a 50m in 40 seconds. If I can do this in the 200m I would come out with a 2:40. Not much chance of that, but its encouraging to know that I am getting a little faster. If I can get my sub 3:00 in the swim, I'll be more than happy. Amy is sold on the fist gloves now.
Didn't get any nap time in the afternoon again. Bummer. The athlete's meeting was at 6:00pm. Nothing too spectacular, they just go over the rules and start time. They informed us that the riders would have to wear a shirt and tie this time and they went over the team relay event that would be held on Sunday. The jumps would be lowered to 3'6", still way higher than I've jumped so I volunteered to be on a non-riding team. After the meeting, we all went back to Jon Hes's for dinner. Eli's mom cooked spaghetti and a pesto dish for all. Really good garlic bread too.
Thursday, June 21. Sunny swim, shooting, a wee bit o' fencing, stuffing ourselves and magnet magic.
Started today with a swim at noon. SUNNY! And probably hot too, but I didn't feel that so much since I was in the pool. I just did a technique type workout, not much speed work; lasted about 30 minutes. I did try out my fist gloves finally. One of the things that I founds was that they make you feel how the rest of your body is involved in your stroke. When your hands are involved, you tend to balance a lot on them...can't do that with the fist gloves so you really get to know your body position is involved. Also...when you take the fistgloves off and just swim regularly, your stroke feels amazing...strong and efficient. Whether or not I actually was is questionable, but it certainly felt good. I did a little sunning afterwards so that my front would have some color along with my back.
After lunch and some running shoe shopping we headed for the salle for Amy to get a fencing lesson and me to get some shooting practice in. The shoot went well, I had a lot of 9s and 10s (along with a few 7s and 6s). I did a bit of fencing, but my ankle was still bothering me a bit so I didn't want to over do it. Afterwards, a bunch of us went to Zopas for dinner, a buffet style place. Great...a bunch of hungry, anxious pentathletes at a all-you-can-eat buffet. Much food was eaten and we all got caught up on the latest pentathlon gossip.
When we got back to Jon's, Amy offered me her magnets to put on my ankle to see if they would do any good. I felt I should give them a try since it was Amy - a Marine and all - that was suggesting this alternative medicine, not some quack (actually I've had several athletes tell me to try magnets). Check back in tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 20. Flying, reading, eating, shopping, running, eating, sleeping.
The flight to San Antonio went pretty fast it seemed. The Denver-San Antonio leg was a little bit of a bummer because we left at 11:00am and arrived at 1:45pm and no lunch was served...what's up with that? Had a great breakfast, but nothing for lunch. I finished Susan's "Once a Runner" book as we landed in SA. The last chapters in which Cassidy is doing his mile race were the perfect way to initiate my forthcoming SA-pentathlon nationals experience for sure.
Once arrived, Amy, the penathlete/Marine, picked me up and we went to lunch at Chesters for big greasy hamburgers and onion rings. Then a little shopping at a sports shop where I found that hat I hoped and dreamed existed...a fitted white mesh running cap that I can use for both hot running days and fencing. I also found a pair of gray mesh shorts for running, something else I've been looking for since all my current shorts are navy blue...its nice to have a little choice now and then. Regular running shorts don't work for me for some reason, so I stick to the mesh basketball type shorts.
After the shopping spree we went over to Ft. Sam for a run on the large grass field. My left ankle is still being uncooperative sometimes, not sure what's up with that. I did a couple sprints around the 1/2 mile track at the end. Felt OK, but slow. My ankle wasn't troubling me at this point as much. We'll see how it feels tomorrow. Then we met up with Jon Hess (a pentathlon supporter), Micky (a pentathlete) and her boyfriend at Mama's for dinner. Finally, back to Jon's to sleep, sleep, sleep.
Tuesday, June 19. More swim golf, Special Olympics breakfast and...
I got another great swim lesson this morning, and more swim golf. Although I had to leave early to get to a Special Olympics breakfast, I had a great warm up and spent some quality time focusing on technique drills. Jeff had me working on getting my hands up front in the same quadrant during my stroke again and emphasizing the pause at the end of the stroke to get a good glide. During the golf phase I got down I got a couple 65s and 66 (I lost the stroke count on the first one). This is pretty good since I was doing 66-68s last Friday. I think two-three months of really focusing on getting the technique right will improve my times a lot.
The "slowing things down thing to conentrate on technique thing" reminds me of rowing...when you start the season you do a lot of slow stroke-per-minute workouts. These can be miserable if things aren't going well, but absolute bliss if everything comes together. The point is to get the muscle memory back and work towards the muscle precision required for setting the boat and pulling together.
Jeff also mentioned how quickly I was able to correct/make physical changes in my stroke. I think this comes from the rowing, but also from training for several sports in which muscle precision is really key. All of the pentathlon events have their fine points, but some stand out. In shooting, even the smallest hand, arm or shoulder movement can affect your shot, for better or worse...even your breath motions. In fencing, balance and point control are key - matching your actions against your competitors and resonding quickly even more vital. Horsejumping is the same. The smallest balance change or leg pressure tells your horse to do something, if its at all off, your horse won't want to jump. The challenge will be: can I re-teach my body some new muscle motions, precise movements for the swim, which has so far been the toughest sport for me to transition to.
Tonight: fencing lesson and maybe some shooting...
Monday, June 18. Those flippin turns! and running Bridle Trails.
Once again, I am humbled by flip turns. I'd been doing pretty well with them recently so was pretty excited to get some detailed lessons from Charlie, one of the swim coaches at Swim Seattle. Well, I have these new goggles, the fancy Swedish kind. They are great in general really small and comfortable. But in terms of vision, they are quite different than my prescription goggles. Little did I know how different. I hadn't done any flip turn in them yet and discovered that they, in fact, give me a very different perception than my old goggles. My distance was completely off throughout the whole flip-turn lesson...I kept missing the wall. Then, I completely lost confidence and started dwelling on looking to see if my feet would hit the wall, which completely ruined my flip turn. Basically, I think my prescription goggles made me feel like I was more forward than I was so that when I do my flip with these new goggles, I'm actually too far from the wall. Grrr. Just takes more time in these goggles and more practice. More regular swimming drills tomorrow.
My plan for a shooting practice was foiled by my overwhelming urge for a nap before meeting up with Susan to do a run through Bridle Trails in Kirkland. The nap felt good, the run even better. The run took a little over 40 minutes...lots of mud, some hills and a good scouting tour of Bridle Trails for future pentathlons. There were a couple great areas for the horsejumping and many many options for a cross country run, Susan and I are already conspiring. Better yet...there is a Dairy Queen near by for post-run festivities.
On another note, a friend turned me on to a book she saw, Awaken the Olympian Within. Sounds pretty pretentious, but its basically a collection of Olympic medalists talking about their trials and tribulations during their journey to the Olympics. Lots of good stuff in it to keep yourself motivated. I'll make sure to throw in a couple quotes now and then.
Sunday, June 17. Sunday swim and run.
I did a Sunday morning swim today, around 10:00. Didn't do a major workout since I wanted to do some more drills to work on the new muscles motions I need to develop. I also wanted to test out my new Tyr compression shorts. After my warmup, I did a 4 x 50 just to get a little sprint action in . I did 36, 35, 35, 36. Not my fastest, but not bad for me either considering I'm changing my technique all around. I am feeling when I hit the right technique now and then, I can feel myself glide forward at a much faster rate. My breathing is a little off, but that will come with time.
I saved the long run for after my nap. Just a slow, steady pace for 60 minutes along the Burke Gilman...30 minutes out, 30 minutes back. I ended up running about 3 minutes faster on the return. The whole thing felt pretty good. Susan and I are planning to do these long runs regularly now (she was hanging out at Stanford this weekend though).
Saturday, June 16. Solstice parade = nude bicyclists.
Today was another slacker day for me, at least in training. I did get some more things organized at home in the morning, but spent most of the afternoon at the Fremont Solstice Fair and Parade. Lots of large moving puppets, some alternative marching bands, several goddess floats and yes...even some naked bicyclists (although fewer than previous years).
After that, I made a deal with myself. If my new swim trunks and/or fist gloves arrived when I got home, I would do a swim workout. If they didn't, I would take a nap. Nap time won :-)
Friday, June 15. First early swim, smaller shoot and Theater Sports.
After getting home at 11:30pm last night from the ride, my body was a long way from wanting to wake up at 5:30am to do a swim workout. It was well worth it though. This was my first practice with Swim Seattle. The drills Jeff had me do were perfect for getting me on the path of rethinking my stroke. Its all the classic stuff, stretching out, gliding, timing, hip rotation, etc., but Jeff made it work visually for me, especially the correct turnover. My times weren't great at all, but I could feel correct strokes now and then. When I can do them constently, after more drills and practice to get the correct muscle memory, I think I will finally start chipping away at my current time plateau.
I shot a 169 tonight. Not great, but not so bad either. One thing I did do after my 20 shots was try a little drill. Since I seem to be reacting to the shot release, I did five shots in which I pointed to the target but didn't focus on aim so much as getting the shot off with no movement after the shot. Didn't do so bad, got a 9 and four 8s.
In the evening, we had our first pentathlon social event...Theater Sports. Theater Sports is an improvisation theater game of sorts. Two teams compete against each other to improvise short plays on topics the audience chooses. This night happened to be 'international night' since there were several foreign guests among the teams. The whole thing really is a hoot. Susan did get to provide one of the topics at one point. The genre had to involve movement so Susan gave them the word "fish". What followed was a hilarious ballet. We thought for sure Susan would win the audience contest for best suggestion - since the prize was a rubber fish and all - but some guy named "Rip" got it because he made sure that we all knew his last name wasn't "VanWinkle".
Thursday, June 14. New swim digs, firm fencing and "Diamond" cutting.
I hooked up with a new swim club this morning, Swim Seattle. I haven't been able to make the Queen Anne club practices for a while and I think its going to be really important for me to be consistent about the swim, both in practices and in coahcing, for me to improve. I'm going to try and still do the Sunday swim with Queen Anne, but I think Swim Seattle will become the staple. The coach, Jeff Taylor, is a trainer and does triathlons himself, so I look forward to getting some multi-sport coaching perspectives from him. He also matches up well with the techniques I've learned from Ed Artis at Queen Anne and from the pentathlon coaches. I'll start in with them tomorrow.
I had, I think, one of the best fencing lessons ever tonight with Garik. Everything was right on...footwork, point control, focus, strategy. Garik has a great way of drilling down to the essence of what I need to do to get a certain concept or mover right. The complex attacks we worked on were easy yet effective. One more lesson with him on Tuesday before Nationals.
Same goes for riding, one of the best lessons I've had in a long time. I was on a new horse, Diamond, that felt great. He's smaller than Merlin and has a slower take off infront of jumps, but the ride felt great, like he had shock absorbers almost. Laura had us all working on technique this time, shooting our butts out the saddle and throwing our hands forward for all the jumps. She even had us get off the horse and do the motion on the ground...VERY effective. Diamond had more refusals than I'm used to with Merlin, but in the end the level of balance and technique that I need to jump Diamond will really do me a lot of good. In addition, the seven jump course had quite a few challenging jumps, a fan, a bounce, a double and several angled jumps. I had to work hard on it the first time, making seveal attempts at a few of the jumps. The second round went much better though.
Wednesday, June 13. Good times.
The shoot is back. I shot a 172 this evening. Not my best, but I'm more than happy because this would get me my 1000 pentathlon points in the shoot. I'm starting to be able to know exactly where my shots will land on the target...after I fire of course, but this is a step towards being able to land the shots where I want them. I think when I start doing drills and am consistent with my shooting practice, I'll improve even more dramatically. Especially follow-through drills.
I guess my unplanned rest day paid off in the race tonight. Not only did I break the six minute mile during the mile race at the all-comers meet, I hit a 5:40...a PR by 24 seconds. Yee haw! Susan also kicked butt with a new PR of 4:57 as well. More importantly, I realized that my run is being held back more by my mental state than my physical. I really don't know what pain is in running (I know it all too well in rowing), so I'm still not sure how far I can push myself. I ran a 76 second first lap, then an 84 the next lap (didn't keep track after that, but I know my last lap was probably around an 80 or so). I had planned on running a 87, 85, 85, 83 which also would have given me a 5:40. So...I have a lot to learn about getting the right pace and how far to push myself. I think a 5:30 is pretty feasible right now, but is the 5:20 just around the corner. I also expect to get faster when I start running correctly at the higher speeds...on my toes. I'm still coming down probably 90% on my heels. With Coach Susan around, I'm sure I'll improve both in form and time soon enough.
Tuesday, June 12. Hmm.
Today turned out to be another 'rest' day. I certainly didn't plan it that way, it just happened. The pool was closed, I forgot my checkbook to get fencing lessons and after organizing myself at home and updating my website I realized it was 9:30pm...at which point I didn't feel like doing a run. I could feel pretty lame about not doing anything today, but I don't...I actually feel pretty good. I feel organized for the first time in a while (domestic affairs like doing bills, watering plants, doing laundry and putting away all my stuff from the last pentathlon, have suffered since I've been so busy running around and housesitting. I could have shot while I was at home, but I could tell I wasn't into it.
I did do some yoga though. I actually tried out the shooting vinyasa I developed. It includes a headstand...needs a lot of work. Once I've finalized the routine, I'll be sure to post it here.
Monday, June 11. Sloppy shoot, rainy run and free Wooly.
Yes indeed, I shot today for the first time in a week...and it showed. Although I got five 10s, I also got two 6s and a 5 for a final score of 160. I'm not too concerned though, because this is the first time I've shot in a while and my hand-arm was a little out of training. Should get back up in the 170s easily enough.
The run today with Susan turned out to be a cold and rainy one. Very cold and very rainy...the very essence of running in Seattle. We had planned on running the Fremont 5k course, but couldn't seem to find in anywere online or from any of the experts. So, we made our own course starting in Freemont and heading out to the Ballard Locks. The locks are quite nice, even when its gray, cold and raining...still very green. Gotta love Seattle water everywhere, mountains everywhere and almost always green. I'd forgotten how fun it can be running in the rain or rowing in the rain for that matter. Guess I'm a true Seattlite. Susan's got me gunning for a 5:40 mile for the mile race on Wednesday. That would be quite a PR so check back for the results on this one.
I'm pleased to say that I was so cold after the run that I put on my new 'wooly' sweater that I got at Value Village last weekend. I'd always wanted one of these sweaters, its the kind that is made of really thick yarn and is brown, cream and ivory colored. With its orange tag, it also happened to be 75% off the day I bought it so it was a whopping 3.99...practically free. Yes, there are little yarn balls all over it AND I LIKE IT ANYWAY. Its warm, cozy and has a lot of character. Its actually kind of sad, the San Antonio pentathletes will never know the great joy that comes from wearing a warm, wooly sweater after a cold run....true northwest bliss.
Sunday, June 10. Rest day.
Saturday, June 9. Back to Greenlake.
Hooked up with Susan to do a Club Northwest workout around Greenlake. They usually meet over at Husky Stadium, but UW graduation foiled today's workout. It was nice being back over at Greenlake though. It sounded like the group was going to do workouts for some long races that were coming up so I decided to do my old Greenlake run: 2 minutes off, 1 minute on. It felt really good. I didn't time myself since I wasn't doing this for speed. But I can tell it was faster and more fluid than my other Greenlake runs. I wasn't tired at the end at all, could still push out about a 400m sprint at the end.
The rest of the group did 400s along one of the trails. Had I known this, I probably would have joined them. Pretty happy doing the Greenlake run though, for old times sake.
Friday, June 8. Sun run.
Today was another low-key day. I'm still feeling a little lightheaded now and then so didn't want to do too much. I think it still a nutritional thing. I'm going to try going back to the vegetarian/juice diet I tried a while back that had me feeling pretty good. May even get back into the kefir thing since that usually gets me feeling better too.
I hooked up with a buddy, Pete Blunk, to do a slow, steady run around the Montlake track, about 20 minutes or so. It was around 70, warm enough to feel a little heat. Just a nice, casual run to catch up with Pete. I actually felt really good afterwards which is usually the case. My lightheadedness goes away when I'm working out. I'm going to get my annual checkup soon, so I'll asked my doc what she thinks.
Thursday, June 7. Over the top and over the jump.
OK, so I may have been a little too crazy today...I did four workouts today.
I woke up really early this morning and decided to go for a swim since I was going to a conference that started at 8:30 instead of doing the usual work at 7:00 thing. The swim went OK, nothing spectacular. It did feel a little different than swimming in the afternoon, but I think that's mostly becuase I didn't fuel myself well. With a little more time, I could get used to the morning thing. There were way more poeple in the pool though, which was annoying since they all swam at different speeds.
After work, I went for a short run around Portage Bay that lasted about 20 minutes. I was running pretty slow, just to get a post-race workout in. My ankle is still bugging me a bit, just the kick part gets to me. Seems to be better than before though.
The fencing lesson with Garik went well. I think I will switch handles on my practice epee though as I don't seem to have much finger control with my big clunker.
The ride was the big bummer of the day. It was my first post-fall jumping and apparently, the fall affected me more than I realized. Everyone was having a challenging night though, so I don't think it was just me. Basically, Laura things that the fall cured my of the leaning forward thing, but it created a new problem, I was pulling back on the reins just before the jump which was basically asking the horse to stop. I had several refusals and a couple new fall misses. The biggest problem seemed to the the first fence, it seemed to be a problem for everybody though. I just had to sit up and be determined to make the jump. It all came together and I left on a good note, but what a challenging night. I also think, that I'm a little under the weather because I was yawning the whole lesson and just didn't feel like I had much energy. Fatigue, poor eating, lack of sleep all played a part I'm sure. Then there was the fact tha Merlin's back right leg was a little less than 100% too. Didn't seem to manifest itself in the jumping, but we had several strange trips while at the trot. Looking forward to the next lesson to see if I was, in fact, haveing post-fall issues or if it really was just a bad night for us all.
On a side note, I ordered new swim trunks (Tyr compression shorts) and fist gloves. New toys, yeah!
Wednesday, June 6. Slow swim, fast run.
The swim today was pretty uneventful. I felt pretty slow overall even though my times were pretty much the usual. Luckily, I could let myself take it pretty easy since I had a 3k race coming up in the evening.
For the race, a 3k that was part of Club Northwest's "All-comers" track and field events on Wednesdays through the summer, I had Susan to help push me. She's been doing these all-comers meets but this time decided to oblige me by being my pacer for this race. I even got to try out my spikes finally (seeing has how I forgot to take them to the last pentathlon). The race went pretty well, I ended up getting an 11:42, a PR by 20 seconds. Nice! I probably could have pulled off an 11:30 by running a little quicker during the first laps, but I think it was good Susan kept me down since I was fairly spent at the end of the race. I'd like to get an 11:30 at the next pentathlon and then try for a sub 11 for the Canadian nationals in August.
Tuesday, June 5. Back to the old grind.
Got back into my old routines with a swim and run today. Since I didn't have a watch, there wasn't any need to worry about times. This was good, because I wasn't feeling all that perky. I felt generally pretty good, just not my fastest. It looks like I will be attending the Total Immersion workshop in July, so this will help get my motivated for better swimming.
For the run, I followed coach Susan's day-before-a-race plan, low key run with a few striders to get my legs ready for tomorrow's 3k run at Club Northwest's all-comers meet. Can't wait.
My intention to get a fencing lesson too this evening was foiled by my watch-buying effort. I headed over to Bellevue Square and found a great watch shop. I tried on all the training watches, Nike, G-Shock, Casio, etc. but ended up with the the Times Ironman Flix, the same watch that Susan and Eli have. I did make it to Rain City for the fencing lesson, but since it was a post-tournament weekend, nothing was going on. Lesson for sure on Thursday.
Monday, June 4. From rowing to swim, and swiming to rowing.
No training today since it is my post-pentathlon rest day (and my neck is still pretty soar from either the fall off the horse or the new swim start I tried). But...I did have a great email exchange with Terry Laughlin who started the whole Total Immersion/Swim like a fish thing. I'm going to try and take his clinic in July. Several pentathletes spoke really highly of the clinic. Amy, the Marine/pentathlete would kick my butt if I didn't do it she thinks so highly of it. Turns out he's now starting to row and actually use rowing in one of his swimming analogies in a article he wrote. Cool.
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Saturday, June 3. Pentathlon #2: many lessons learned.
Shooting
My frickin pistol ran out of air. It was, of course, my own fault for not switching to a new cylinder before the competition, but man...what a bummer. My first shot was a 10. Around shot # 8 something seemed to be going wrong. My shots were lower than usual. So, I widened my stance. They were still low. By the 12th shot, they were way low. By 15, I was aiming at the top of the target and they were hitting the bottom of the target. I know I can shoot in the 170s so not all that worried, just bummed. Anyway, important lesson learned: always start with a fresh cylinder.
Fencing
OK, but not all that great. My problem is I've gotten good enough that they can figure me out. I also made a lot of stupid mistakes, lessons should help that. I'm going to try and get two lessons a week leading up to nationals. Pricey (welcome to dept Sean), but worth it.
Running
Yep, the running was before the swim this time due to pool schedule. Lets see...it was 98 on the track with heat index of 115. Not joking, it was hot. I actually did OK though, I could have pushed a little harder but wasn't sure how the heat would affect me. I ran a 12:30 but could have easily pulled off a 12:00 or under, should be able to next time. Also forgot my spikes. Doah! (<-- that would be the Homer Simpson exclamation).
Swimming
I was a little tuckered from the run but did OK. I came in at 3:08, faster than last time, but not my fastest. I had a better start this time and probably could have pushed a little harder but I'm more than satisfied for now.
Ride
I didn't qualify for the real ride, but here the scoop: I had a beautiful practice on Thursday. I actually did some 3 foot or higher fences, the same as the other regular pentathletes. Had my first bending line, my first double, triple and grot (a ditch kind of setup). I did however, decide to do the lower tier ride on Sunday. They lowered the fenced to 3'3"-3'6" or so. I drew Onyx, a pretty good horse and did just fine in the warm up. Onyx seemed to want to pull to the right all the time so I had frequent 'debates' while on the course regarding keeping a straight line to the jumps. Well, he won the debate on jump #6 and I ended up on the ground. I wasn't hurt or anything (although my neck is a bit stiff this morning - that could be from the new start I tried in the swim though). My first fall on English saddle. They say good riders have to fall at least 7 times. 1 down, 6 to go. :-)
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Friday, June 1. Swimming and shooting.
We started bright and early today with a swim at Blossom Aquatic Center. I was pretty intimidated when the facility filled up with obviousely way-too-fast highschool swimmers. Luckily, the we pentathletes had our own lane and only six of us showed up. Micky, T, and Amy are pretty fast, but Kate, Emily, Sloan and I are definitely in the next tier down. The swim went well. It was a 25m pool which was a little different but doable. I had hoped to be able to practice starts, but there weren't any blocks in the warm up pool that we did our workout in. Oh well. I did get to try some of those fancy Swedish goggles though. I like! And they are a lot more comfortable. I'll just have to get used to the different visual as opposed to my prescription goggles. Because of the way the Swedish goggles are shaped, I see all kinds of weird shapes and reflections.
Next it was off to shooting. Did another practice competition. I did well enough, better than yesterday. I didn't keep score but all but two shots were in the black target area. Probably about 20% were 10s. When I get back to Seattle, I'm going to try putting a weight on the end of my gun to see if that steadies my post-trigger flick that seems to through my shots a little bit off.
A bunch of us are headed downtown today to check out the Alamo and do the river walk. More later...
