Catch up and first triple in a while

Whoops, its been a while since I updated my journal. With housesitting and all, I've been pretty busy.

I've had some OK workouts here and there over the past week or so, nothing spectacular. I just started back up running and swimming since my back had been giving me some problems for a while. Both fencing and swimming have been down a notch since I started in on lessons, but that was to be expected. Still not Daisy airgun yet. Finally, didn't do any riding during the Thanksgiving week. But now I'm back on track and focused as ever to try and get ready for the pentathlon clinic/camp I'll be attending in late December in San Antonio.

I did have my first triple in a while today. The swim actually felt pretty good...finally. I'm getting better at the turns Ed had me work on, just push turns for now. Getting a little better at the butterfly and back stroke too, but nothing to brag about yet. I hope to hook up with Ed once a week or so.

I did a little better in fencing tonight compared to most of last week. I do think it is mostly due to the club epee I'm using since my blade snapped last week. The club epee doesn't record my touches very well and the tip is bent in a weird way. I also discovered tonight that the blade is a lot more flexible than what I'm used to which is probably why my point control is not what it used to be.

Finally, I did a half hour interval run on the shores of Lk. Washington where I'm housesitting for the Robbins. Its has been a week or so since I did a full on run, so it will take a few runs to get back up to where I was before. But my new shoes feel pretty good so far.

First coached swim, new running shoes and fencing push

I finally hooked up with Ed from Salmon Bay swim club this afternoon. He liked my stroke overall - especially my hip motion - but started the long path of working on the details of my stroke and strategy. He corrected a small issue with my hand entry right away then we started work on my turns. We did push-offs at this point with the intent of getting the push right, then we'll start the flip turn later. By the end of the lesson I added about four feet to my push off and probably took about 4 seconds off my time. I still need to streamline a little better off the wall, but that's just a flexibility issue more than anything...getting my big rower's body to do really squeeze in off the wall. It will happen though.

After the swim I went up to the The Foot Zone to get my next running shoe. I think my eight month old shoes were part of the back and foot problems I've been having. The Foot Zone is one of the best places in Seattle to find outdoor and athletic shoes and clothing. I was really impressed with their video setup...they video tape you running on a machine to figure out which shoe is best for you depending on your running style. I got the Saucony Grid Web and some new active orthotics. It felt great, I can't wait to really put the new shoes to the test. Dick and Bonnie Robbins are sponsoring my running shoes, so a BIG thanks to them.

Finally, another fencing lesson. This time Allen had me work on pushing the blade. I still am trying to muscle the blade more than finesse it. By the end of the lesson I was doning OK, not overdoing it both in strength and motion, but it took a while to get there.

What a week!

Wow...I've had quite a busy week. So busy I didn't even have time to make any entries into this journal! I was housesitting for the Robbins through Thursday, so it took a little more planning to get everything done. Had the usual schedule, fencing at Salle Ariol on Monday, riding on Wednesday and Wallingford Fencing on Thursday. I took Tuesday and Friday off, just to catch up with myself a little. Tuesday was especially nice as I was able to enjoy the Robbins' house which is situated along Lake Washington. Nothing spectacularly different about my training during the week. I had some fun doing obstacles with Pet on Wednesday...he got a little excited several times and was ready to go up to gallop rather than a mere canter after going over the obstacles.

I did attend the Western Washington Division Winter Open fencing tournament here in Seattle. I got close to competing, but since this was my first time attending a fencing tournament of any kind, I decided not to compete so that I could learn about how the whole thing proceeds, watch how others warm up, learn about scoring...just soak it all in basically so that next time I can focus on my fencing. I scored for the mixed epee event, which was a great opportunity to watch others fence, including my coach, Greg. On Sunday, I scored a little for the women's epee event and also learned a lot.

The Sunset Girls

Bonnie Robbins invited me to an event after work with the Sunset Club. The Sunset club is made up of ‘established’ women shall I say? Basically a group of society women that hold a variety of social events. Bonnie is a member, Mari Jalbing, a fellow SYC rower, is a member too.

Tonight’s talk was on Global Partnerships, a group that does village banking in South America based on the Gramin Bank in India. I hoped this would be a soul development opportunity since the late dinner meant I wouldn’t able to do any training. Boy did it turn out to be just that. Started with cocktails with the Claps, the couple that started Global Partnerships. These conversations, about what you do, what I do, etc. always seem surreal at first, probably because I don’t have them often. I sometimes feel like people my age are trying to be intellectuals and fake these kind of conversations. But it quickly became apparent how passionate Mrs. Clapp felt about Global Partnerships and was sincerely interested in learning more about me as well. Same thing with Bart Fite and then the Nollans and Blacks. Mrs. Nolan was from Little Rock, AR and obviously came from a cultured background. What a fascinating person. The conversation was so stimulating, intellectually and spiritually. As we dined in this grand room we all talked about how much we take for granted here and what it was like to really live life. Mrs. Black’s daughter happened to be traveling in Nepal as we spoke so we had lots to talk about. She had just went to a symposium on mind, body and spirit so was really intrigued in my ‘motto’: developing my mind, body and soul to its fullest extent. The lecture on Global Partnerships was wonderful too, but is was certainly the incredibly rich (in spirit) company that made my evening.