october highlights...
Tuesday, October 30. A swim, a Susan lesson.
Finally! I got back in the pool tonight after over a month and a half off. It felt really good...for a while. My ankle, post operation, was not feeling so great for the first 15 minutes or so. It soon let up, but by then, my muscles were pretty pooped out. I drilled for about 45 mintues overall...most TI swim/drills. At least I'm on the road to recovery.
Lessons from coaching...After swimming, I headed up to the barn to co-coach Susan's riding lesson with Laura. I can't read Susan's mind, but my feeling is that she's hitting the wall that I hit in my riding. We both came from athletic backgrounds in which we were pretty accomplished in our sports...crew for me, running for Susan. I learned a lot of the riding stuff pretty quickly, especially since I had some riding background from my youth. After a while though, my quick learning was no longer so quick. This is where I hit a wall. For 2-3 months I felt like I wasn't learning much and/or performing well in my lessons. I also wasn't used to verbalizing what I was feeling while I was being coached...this almost never happens in crew. The coach just tells you what to do and you do it. Laura has a very different style of coaching, she's very good at letting you self-discover solutions to problems. I think Susan is at this point. She's was doing really awesome at the canter, but I could tell she wasn't all that pleased with how things were going. Oh, I how I remember that well. Actually, I remember being very unhappy with my lessons for quite a while after a lesson. Sometimes it wasn't until the next day that I could look back and realize that it actually had gone well and I did learn a lot. Hopefully I can help get Susan over the 'wall'.
Monday, October 29. Still with me?
Yes, it has once agian bee a long time since my last entry. My ankle recovery has taken longer than expected. I was all set to start back up this week on several sports, but tweaked my back while being a camp counselor this weekend. Its starting to feel a little better so I didn't want to push it with a run tonight. If its still feeling pretty good my plan is to start swimming tomorrow. Plan to start running soon thereafter. As far as riding and fencing go, I have to see how my budget shapes up. Turns out I'll be buying the house I'm living on December 1st. YIKES! I'm soon to be a homeowner. I don't this will affect training in the long run, but until I get finances settles I'm a little scared to spend on much of anything. Fencing is only $25/month (plus an additional $80 if you include lessons), riding around $150/month so these costs aren't really that much in the big picture of things...still I'm a little more attention to all spending. Should be able to start shooting right away since I can do that in my basement for now.
Friday, October 19. Hurry up and wait.
Still not much going on on the pentathlon front these days. I go in for a physical therapy appointment next Tuesday and will hopefully be given the OK to start full-on running and swimming again. I've snuck some little runs in here and there and may try a swim on Saturday. Lots of stuff in e-musing for this last week though.
Friday, October 5. Two weeks and counting.
Met up with my doctor today to discuss my foot. All is going well but it looks like it will be another week before I start swimming and at least another two weeks before I start running. Two weeks for the horsejumping too. I'm out of town through the 14th, but as soon as I return I'll be picking up my shooting and fencing again. I am SO ready to get back into training again.
Monday, October 1. Deep breath.
OK...our local pentathlon over, stuff almost back to normal at work (tomorrow they announce who will be laid off) and ankle doing much better after surgery last Tuesday. Won't be running, swimming, fencing or riding for another week or so, maybe sneak some shooting in, but probably not before I head off to Minneapolis on Saturday. If doc says its OK, may be able to run in Minne too.
