Why "three to five"?

october plans
1-4...watching pentathlon at Olympics, Sydney

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

Tuesday, October 31. Very good Vesty, fist X-country mile and deconstructing fencing.
Had a very good ride on Vesty this afternoon. His trot was the best I've ever felt and the canter transitions were really smooth. Hopefully, we're finally getting into a groove.

I ran my first cross country mile tonight at Greenlake. The workout was 5 x 1 mile on a course that went on grass, asphalt and trail. I only did three of the runs because 1. I had to save a little for fencing lesson later and 2. I went out on the first one a little too fast and was really tired after the 3rd one. I think I could have finished all 5, but my time would have dropped by quite a bit and fencing would have been no fun at all. I was pretty pleased with how I did though. Its the fastest consistent miles so far.

I was humbled once again at fencing lessons tonight. I seem to be trying way to hard, holding to strong and going too fast. But Allan is great with keeping me focused on the right things. This deconstruction phase, which will eventually replace my bad habits with good ones, is pretty humbling. You feel like you've lost all the skills that you've used up until now. Leeps backward for a small step forward. The same thing is happening in my swimming right now. I've survived it in my riding, so I'm sure I will make it through here.

Monday, October 30. Bonked the swim, blew the run out of the water.
I did a scaled down version of the Salmon Bay workout I tried on Sunday. It still seemed a little out of my reach. I did add more backstroke laps and even tried a couple lengths of butterfly kick. I've found that mixing up the workout does tire me out much more quickly than sticking to a regular routine. Since the club will be doing more mixing than regular, I'd better get used to the mixing. Similar to my fencing, my swim performance has slid backwards in response to the 'deconstruction' phase I'm going through. Taking everything apart and really focusing on the details. My swim times are way down from my best times...I just hope this phase doesn't last too long.

Unlike the swim, tonights run went really well. I beat my Portage Bay time by around 30 seconds. More importantly, not only did I break the 20 minute time that I've been aiming for for so long, I beat it by a full 30 seconds. Nice! And, the whole run felt great no muscle or cardio fatigue at all. Next month I move my 'on' interval time up to 1 minute 30 seconds, so times should get a little faster again.

Sunday, October 29. Watching Salmon Bay, then doing.
Started the morning by watching Salmon Bay. They had a pretty intense workout today. I wrote down both the warm up and workout so that I could try it in the afternoon in my swim. Ed said it was the kind of workout I would be doing two months from now, so I knew it would be quite a challenge.

The swim this afternoon was everything I expected...a challenge. I did the first two parts of the warm up OK - a 200 pull and a 200 kick. But after that it became very clear that I wouldn't be swimming with the big boys and girls for quite a while. I may have been able to pull off some fast times before, but it was evident that I didn't have speed AND endurance. I ended up doing half to three quarters of the workout the club did. I also did some kicking on my back and even tried a length of backstroke. The backstroke was really slow and I'm sure it looked horrible, but you have to start somewhere. I stuck with the workout for the full hour and a half that the club had practiced for earlier today, a half an hour more that I usually swim for. I was tired and hungry, but felt great. Looking forward to Friday at Salmon Bay.

Friday, October 27. Doing yoga, watching Salmon Bay.
I helped my little sister, Steph, move in to a new place today nearer to the Art Institute, so didn't do my long run today. I did make it to a 'Yoga for Athletes' class tonight at Salle Auriol though. I was really looking forward to starting yoga back up, both for the mental and physical aspects, and was really interested in the 'for athletes' part. The class was great! Once again, I left a yoga class shaking. The positions, twists and yes even an attempted head stand, left me pretty tuckered out, but feeling great. I think the twists especially will be great for swimming.

Then it was off to watch Salmon Bay Swim Club again. Got a lot more pointers from Ed this time, including several drills to start working on. I should start swimming with them next Friday, November 3rd.

Thursday, October 26. Jump jive.
On Thursdays I only have my jump lessons...and boy what a great jump lesson it was! Tonight I learned a lot more detail about where my feet should be in a jump, how to prepare for the jump, and most importantly what to do with my butt. I was riding Pet tonight, the horse I will be doing most of my jumping on for a while. I had some difficulty in the drill portion of the lesson doing the right thing with my butt and shoulders, but when it was time for jumps, it all came together. I really had some great jumps that felt great and boosted my confidence. I have a lot more technique work to do, but I will be slowly inching towards the 3'9" high fences I will need to jump too.

Wednesday, October 25. Swim, run, fence...third triple.
I took the swim a little easy today as my body was still recovering from the ride/run/fence combination yesterday. My inner thights were pretty tight (I hadn't ridden in over a week) and my right thigh especially was tight (from the fencing lessons I took). And then of course my legs were recovering from the fast runs I did at the first running practice I did. My upper body seemed a little stiff too, not sure from what, maybe the fencing lessons. But the swim went OK. My 50yd times were :35, which isn't bad considering my state. Technique felt pretty good too.

The run tonight at Greenlake felt awesome, the best I felt in a long time. But the time wasn't all that great...five seconds slower than my last time. I'm hoping that its the heavy workouts that I've had over the past two days that explain this one because like I said, the run felt great.

Nothing spectacular out of fencing tonight. I beat a couple people and lost to others. Did five bouts all together. I did fair in most of them scoring up into the teens against my opponents, but they seemed to beat me in the end. But once again, after two days of heavy workouts, I was pretty pooped and so was pleased that I could put for the energy that I did.

Tuesday, October 24. Vesty and running and fencing firsts.
I had my afternoon ride today on Vesty. Had the usual issues at the start, he likes to over-react to little things I do. But we soon got into it and kept a pretty good trot going. Had some great canter transitions though. Vesty did have a few good trips though, both in the front and back end. Its just something I've come to accept...Vesty trips a lot. He got a little fast towards the end of our session, but I think that he's not doing a lot of work right now. I'm going to look into joing a lesson Laura has at 4:00 on Tuesdays to see if I can start a second jump lesson a week.

I made it to the Club Northwest (CNW) run tonight. I thought I had missed it last week as I arrived at about 6:40pm. Turns out that they meet between 6:30 and 7:00 to warm up then do their workout at 7:00. So I was early last week, not late!

Training with CNW will no doubt push me in the run event. CNW is made up many of the areas elite cross-country runners. And boy do I have a long way to go. The workout was 4x1000m at 5K pace with a 1:30sec break in between, then a five minute rest, then 3x800m at 3k pace with 1:30sec rest. I did the last two 1000m and one of the 300m. I got a 4:03 and a 4:16 on my two 1000m and then a 3:07 on my 800. The 3:07 800m would equate to a 6:14 mile. Wow! Not bad. And I felt pretty good. This time is a minute faster than I ran in the 5k Glove Run on Saturday. I discoverd that my legs actually feel better when I run faster. I'm really looking forward to working with CNW, my runs should improve dramatically.

I had my first fencing lesson with Alan tonight. As I expected, I have a lot of things to work on. I was too fast, my positions were sloppy, I predicted his moves rather than waiting for the correct clues, etc. Alan slowed me way down and made me really focus on correct fencing. He also is in contact with Mike Jones, a former pentathlete in Seattle, a lot and is getting some good training plan advice from him.

Monday, October 23. Swim, run, fence
It my swim today, I got my 50 yd time down to :34. Actually I had done two laps at :35 and then did two at :34. I like. If I could do these as a 200yd, it would mean that I'm doing a 2:16, which I would be pretty happy with at this point in my training. I am taking about a minute and a half rest in between laps right now though, so I have a long way to go be actually do a 200 in 2:16. But I will slowly take my rest time down until I can do it all in a row.

I ran the track today for my running training. My legs felt a little wobbly from the hard swim, but in the end I did a 6:58 mile. Not my best time, but better than I've done lately.

Fencing was Ok tonight. I won some bouts, I lost some bouts, but for having already done a big swim and a run, I was pretty happy with my performance. I fizzled towards the end of my last bout, losing a little off my point contral and missing a few shots. Thats OK, they will come back with more experiences with tripple workouts. I did confirm with Allan to start my fencing lessons on Tuesday. Yes!

Sunday, October 22. Watching Salmon Bay swimmers, then doing.
I went over to watch the Salmon Bay masters swim club this morning this morning at the Queene Anne pool. When I observed them a couple weeks ago it was at the Madison pool up north late on a Friday night, so there weren't many people. This time the pool was full so I could get a better feel for what to expect and where I would fit in. I talked with Ed, the coach for quite a while about swimming basics. I will be hooking up with him for the next month or so for some individual lessons.

I did my own swim in the afternoon to try out a few of the pointers Ed gave me. I did a different warm up for starts and then during 4 50yd sprints brought my time down to :36, which - if I could do the four laps contiguously - would mean I'm doing a 2:24 200yd. Not bad.

Saturday, October 21. The Glove Run.
I hadn't done any training for the two three days for various reasons: no riding on Thursday because I had to volunteer at a Nordstrom event, nothing on Friday as I was taking it easy for my first race since I started my penathlon training...The Roman Meal Glove Run down in my hometown of Steilacoom. Our Steilacoom homecoming was the night before and since I am the alumni coordinator I was pretty busy for that. But the run would make this a special homecoming for me as this was the first race I ever ran, back when I was in middle school.

I was feeling pretty good the morning of the race, a little tight if anything. I can't say the race felt good or bad, but I definitely wasn't too pleased with my final time. For a 5k I ran a 22:42 which was about a 7:19 mile. Not my quickest time by far. I know I had some opportunities on the down hills, I slowed way down and several people passed me here. Not much else to say other than looking forward to my next 5k to see if I can better the time.

Wednesday, October 18. A good Greenlake and fencing - present and future.
I had a good night at Greenlake. I didn't improve my time any but I could tell that wouldn't be the case during my warm up, my legs seem to still be a little out of it.

I started with a 5 minute erg piece on the rowing machine at the the GL rowing club. Not much, but I need to slowly build up my rowing again. It felt really good to be back in the rowing seat again though.

As I mentioned, I could tell in the warm up for the run that it wouldn't be my best time...and I was right. I felt like my body was wanting to go faster than my feet would take me. My lower legs, both shins and calves, fatigued about half way through the run, but by the end they were feeling a little better. My sprint at the end actually felt really good. I need to bring a bit of the finaly sprint into each of my sprint intervals.

Great night of fencing. I fenced five bouts and won 3, losing to Varney - by a lot - and to Brooks by only one point. Sometimes my point control was there, sometimes not, but I did get a lot of shots that I was really trying for which I'm pretty pleased with. Also talked to Alan about starting up my lessons. Can't wait!

Tuesday, October 17. An extra Greenlake run and late swim.
I somehow missed the cross country group last night at Greenlake (GL). I think I joined up with the wrong group and then by the time I realized this the other group gathered at the track had already taken off. So, I just did my regular run around GL. I was doing it at about 80% mainly because I wasn't sure what to expect after my shins freaked out on me yesterday and it was dark and I had not run the lake in the dark before (you never know where the important dips and wholes might be). But I actually came in at the same time as my TPB so far. I was quite surprised and pleased.

So pleased that I decided to squeeze in a swim after my run since I had missed it in the afternoon due to a late nap. The swim actually felt pretty good as well. I didn't do any timed pieces, but could feel that I was swimming pretty efficiently.

Monday, October 16. A no-fun run and quiet fencing night.
I was looking forward to my track run today, even though it was very cold and pouring rain when it was time to do it. This hasn't been a problem in the past, but I'm hoping its at least part of the reason that I had a really bad run workout today. Timewise it wasn't so bad, it was only about 10 seconds slower than my last track run and considering how I felt, that's pretty good. For some reason, my shins just weren't in running mode today. They fatigued before I even finished the first lap and stayed really tight until the very end. No fun! I must have taken up some weird running technique in the rain or something. My feet were a little heavier since they were really wet, but this hasn't been a problem before. I couldn't figure out anything obvious with my technique but boy were my shins tight. I ran and walked a couple laps to settle them down afterwards, but hoped it wouldn't affect my fencing that night or happen again tomorrow when I join the cross country group for a run.

Fencing had a pretty rough start tonight. George and I were pretty equal during waarm up, but he beat me in the actual bout, 5-4. Yeah, I was working on getting specific shots rather than going for whatever was open, but my point control was way and I missed some clear shots. I got some really good ones too, but not consistently. I then fenced a new fencer, did really well in our warm up and should have beat him in the bout, but didn't he was just way too big and out of control for me. Not please with that at all. I then fenced Helene who I did very well against then Brooks, my fencing nemesis, who I also did well against. Finally, I fenced epee with one of the foilists in the club, Jan. Its always fun fencing foilists, they're much more active on their feet and just a lot more bravado with flicks and flesches and all that fancy stuff. Jan beet me 15-11 but I really had a good time fencing him and in the end it really showed where I needed to work on some things, especially that illusive foot touch.

Sunday, October 15. A new run workout.
Eventually, I will be swimming with Salmon Bay on Sunday mornings, but since that doesn't start until November, and I had major cabin fever, I decided to add a new running workout to my run training.

Boyer avenue that runs in front of my house has a very slow slop downhill. I've been told by many runners, that such a hill is great for speed training. The run is about 800m so its perfect for a sprint then walk/jog recovery. My time for the sprint was about 2:45. According to my calculations, I need to get this down to a 2:24. Doable, very doable, especially with some better shoes. I only did three sets this time, decreasing my time each set. I eventually will do 5 and maybe even 10 at some point.

I start training with a cross country group, Club Northwest, on Tuesday. Really looking forward to it as I've never done cross country, yet this is what I will have to do for the pentathlon. I've also decided to run in the Roman Meal Glove Run back in my hometown, Steilacoom, on October 21st. This was the first run I entered...way back in elementary so it will be a great milestone for me to go back and do this race. Its also the day after our homecoming at Steilacoom. Since I'm the alumni coordinator for our high school, the race will make it quite a homecoming for me to be sure.

Saturday, October 14. Slow, sore swim.
I eventually will swim with Salmon Bay Swim Club on Fridays after boxing, but since I don't start it up until November I saved my swim for Saturday. It was a slow, sore swim for sure. The boxing left me with a lot of little sore muscles in my upper body. You know, the muscles you didn't know you had. Swimming seemed to hit all of them too. Overall, the swim felt good though.

Friday, October 13. The long run and back to boxing.
I did an hour long run today to get back into the long run mode. My longest run has been an hour and a half, but I decided to go for an hour this time. Should have gone for the hour and a half! It felt like a walk in the park. I was going at a pretty slow pace, 7.5 minute mile or so. My legs felt awesome the whole way and my breathing barely increased at all. Next time I may throw in some intervals or do it at faster pace.

Turned out, I was glad I just did the hour run after all. I started up my boxing (its actually a "Boxfit" class...no realy boxing) class again tonight and I needed every bit of energy I could muster. Boxing has helped a lot in my fencing, particularly with upper body speed and better footwork. It definitely gets you in shape too though. I sweat more in boxing than any other workout I do. I'll be doing the class once a week as crosstraining.

Thursday, October 12. Riding young Dundee.
My new trainng schedule has me doing just a ride on Thursdays, kind of a day off or at least a 'low-key' day in the middle of the week. I found it was pretty hard NOT to do something to fill my time, I almost did a swim but decided to stick to the schedule I've set up. I'm sure I'll come to really appreciate the down day later.

Tonight I rode a new horse, Dundee, who belongs to Julia. Dundee is a pretty young horse off the racetrack. According to Julia he can either be a little slow or quite rascal. The ride actually went really well though. Laura had just spread a shoe turf bail on the barn, so we weren't doing any jumping...we wanted to let the horses get used to the new feel for a while. But the flatwork on Dundee went really well. The trot was inredibly smooth, I felt really relaxed and in control. I didn't have to fight Dundee as much as I did with Pet, Howie and Vesty who were just strong horses that wanted to go fast. We did some staight line work, which Laura was really pleased with and then went into some canter work. The canter was fast to start but it soon settled and we had some great transitions as well. Laura and several other commented that I had a really good ride. Hopefully I can bring this into my rides with Pet and Vesty.

Wednesday, October 11. OK run, great fence and plans for escalating both.
Did my Greenlake (GL) run tonight. Although it felt great as I was running, I was about 30 seconds behind my last GL time. This may have been because my right leg was still really sore from fencing on Monday. Regardless, I will be working on bringing this back down. I did get a chance to talk with Jesse, one of the Greenlake runners who coordinates the cross-country group which meets on Tuesday night. There are also a couple of cross-country events coming up that I can drop in to watch and get a feel for. I may even enter the second one on the 28th. We'll see. In any case, with structured coaching in both general running and cross-country, I should see my times start to drop more.

Fencing went really well tonight. I won 3 out of 4 bouts that I fenced, losing 15-14 to a visiting fencer who is a B level fencer from the east coast. My point control seems to be getting a lot better and I am much more relaxed and diverse with my attacks. After my bouts, I spoke a while with Alan Evans about starting a training plan. Alan is a great coach and is really into what he does. He also knows Mike, one of the former pentathletes in the Seattle area and knows a few of the other pentathletes from the fencing circuit. I'm really looking forward to starting up with him.

Tuesday, October 10. First triple: ride, swim, run.
I had my first triple workout today starting with an afternoon ride, then a swim in the evening, followed by a run. I not only survived, I performed pretty well getting a training personal best (TPB) in swimming and very close to one in running. They are not competitive times yet, but getting closer.

I rode Vesty today for riding. Looks like I'll be riding Vesty for flat work and Pet for jumping for a while which is great because both will allow me to progress in the respective skills. I had the usual issues/games with Vesty starting up, had to get a whip even to really get him going well...didn't have to use it, just make sure he knew that I had it. We had some struggles when it came to getting his head down and keeping the rythem, but once we got past these issues and into the canter all was well. The canter transitions are still a little messy, but there getting there. Vesty is very good a predicting my moves so he's usually a little ahead of the actual commands which is why he wants to rush in to the transitions. By the end of the session though, we were as smooth as butta.

The swim went really well. I got my 50m time down to 36 seconds, etching ever closer to the target 30 seconds. My 100m was once again a 1:20 which needs to get down to a 1:00 or so. The rest of the swim felt great as well both in strength and technique. I'm looking forward to starting up with Salmon Bay...hopefully this Friday.

With two sports down, I went into the run not expecting much. My legs were sore from my first day back fencing on Monday, and riding and swimming certainly took their told as well. BUT...it felt great! I didn't fatigue at all ended up coming in at 20:04 which was 5 seconds faster than my last Portage Bay time! It is still not the sub 20 I was looking for, but closer.

Pretty pleased for my first triple. I should be able to do three events in the same order as the actual pentathlon...swim, ride, run. On Saturdays, I may even be able to pull off a full pentathlon practice.

Monday, October 9. The fast track and first fencing in a while.
The pool was closed today due to heating/electrical problems so I went right to my track workout this afternoon. I took 20 seconds off my mile time and actually felt pretty good after the mile. I'll be keeping track of my 1/4 mile, mile and 3K times from now on to track my progress. I'll be starting to do some cross-country running soon too to get more experience in that. Should be able to do this with the Greenlake group on Wednesdays, but I will also enter some races as well.

Fencing tonight went well considering it was my first time fencing in about a month. I did the half hour footwork drills and then fenced three bouts, winning all three. I fenced one of the young wippersnapper foilists right off the bat. Foilists, especially very good young ones, have a very different style...they hop around a lot and like to wip a lot and this guy was a classic case. But I beat him in the end. Did pretty well against the the other fencers, but once again, George - one of our senior fencers - kept me humble. I beat him, but just barely at 13-15. Since I didn't want to push my lunging legs and arm too much on my first night back I just watched others fence for the rest of the night. We'll see how my legs feel tomorrow.

Sunday, October 8. The good swim.
Had a great swim today, it felt really good both in strength and technique. I'll be noting my 50m, 100m and 200m times now to see how I'm doing in the shorter sprints as well as the full 200m. I'll have my first swim with the Salmon Bay Club (SBC) on Friday but will try to get in some lessons with Ed, the SBC coach sometime soon.

Saturday, October 7. Jump coach, jump!
Today I went down to watch my riding coach, Laura, compete in the show jumping portion of a three-day eventing competition. I still want to get as many visuals of riding as possible as I start to get into higher fences myself and technique gets more important. Laura did great and with a very low dressage score from the day before, she is in a good position going into the cross-country tomorrow.

Friday, October 6. Jet lag and Bay watching...Salmon Bay that is.
I was feeling very jet lagged today so didn't get a run or swim in. I did make it to the master's swim club that I will be swimming with though, Salmon Bay Aquatics, just to check it out. There are several national level swimmers so should be able to improve my swim times just in our club competitions. I think I'll fit in pretty well. I need to get some lessons on some of the other strokes, backstroke, butterfly, etc., but I don't think I'll have any problems keeping up. I will be swimming with them twice a week...Fridays and Sundays.

Thursday, October 5. First track run and Pet jumping.
I planned on a swim this afternoon, but the fall schedule went into effect while I was in Australia so the time that I normally swim was now a family swim. So I decided to start my track runs, which I will do once a week, to see how I'm doing for both my mile time and my 3k time. There is a cinder track at a community center/park very near my house so it will be a perfect place to train for the 3k cross country that I will run in pentathlon. Both my mile time and my 3k time were longer than I expected, but this may be due to the fact that its been a while since my last run and I am still VERY jet lagged. Lots of room for improvement here but since I was taking about 30 seconds off each run before I left, it shouldn't be long before I'm getting times that I like.

At riding tonight, I was back on Pet...and back to jumping. I was really excited to start jumping again. For the jumping, we worked quite a bit on moving my hands up Pets neck and shooting my rear out of the saddle at the jumps. All went pretty well, I haven't lost too much since my last training session. I just need to remember to get into two point at the right time before the jump and to keep my knees bent. We got to about 2' tonight on the highest jump. I have another 2 to go for pentathlon height.