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.

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 Northwestt, 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.