Armory with Allen and sport shopping

I took my weapons in to Salle for Allen to check out. I now have three weapons which makes me feel much more like an official fencer. Allen approved of my choices and show me how to get the correct bend in my blade. Afterward, I popped over to the Athletic Supply Co. store for a little shopping. I checked out the Adidas warmups that we may get for our NW pentathlon group and then picked up a wrist brace and a cold/hot compress.

Weapon repair and yoga leftovers

With my new epees having arrived on Thursday, I wanted to get them all set up and running ASAP. Two arrived all ready to go, but the 3rd I would have to put together as the blade had broken on my original weapon and just needed to be replaced. I went out and bought some PVC pipes to cover the bladed of the epees and also picked up a little snap box to carry around small parts and tools, as well as a mini screwdriver set.

At the Salle workbench, it took me quite a while to get it all put together correctly as it was my first attempt at doing this, but I did finally get it in working order...just in time to catch the last half hour of yoga. After yoga, it was margarita night with some of the foilists...good holiday cheer.

Long nap, big dinner, squirly shooting, fencing parries, short run

I was feeling a little cold coming on throughout the morning and was really tired from staying up late fencing the night before, so I decided to take a short nap. Well, it turned into a three hour nap. But boy did it feel good. I ended up missing both an option to ride and an option to swim in the afternoon, but I figured I must have needed the rest. To follow up on the nap I had a big dinner for once. Went down to the local pub, Grady's, for a guacamole burger. Taaasty! With the cold and amount of training I'm doing, a big meal is probably a good idea once in a while to keep my winter immune system hardy. During dinner, I read a little more of Pam's (Pam is another pentathlete training in the area) Total Immersion book. The current chapter was discussing how power really comes form the torso, especially the hips. The author used several metaphors from baseball and tennis, but I also noticed how much some of the sports I've been training in both have to offer and learn from what I'm learning from this book. Rowing, boxing, fencing, jumping, etc. all seem to have similar applications of how performing an action, muscle memory, etc. have much more to do with your performance than what one might think.

After the big dinner I went down to my basement and started in on shooting. It was pretty cold down there, which I think made my eyes a bit watery (the excuse I'm using for poor shooting). I got a couple good shots in, but most were not all that good. Dropping to the lower right hand side again, which usually means I'm gripping the handle to hard or with too much of my hand. For the first time I wished I had the adjustable/molded grip that I will eventually get when I purchase my Steyr. Got 40 shots off, which is good enough to keep my shooting arm in practice.

Then it was off to my fencing lesson. Tonight we worked on parries: counter six, eight, eight with counter six and four. My problem is still that I am reacting rather than responding, although I'm getting much better at responding to what really is or isn't coming at me. Practice, practice, practice...although its really brain practice more than anything. Muscle memory certainly comes into play, but not like other sports. You have to think quickly between the muscle memory to get the right motion into gear. I will the Wednesday open fencing, but will plan on attending the Sunday session instead.

Long run, lots of fencing

I did my long run around Lake Union today since I wasn't able to fit it in over the weekend. I had a YMCA Board meeting so I got started later than I had hoped to in the afternoon. I did a bit of a warm up run over to Pocock Rowing Center, stopped in to say hello and then started on my way. I hadn't taken a nap, so I could feel that I was pretty tired. But the run went pretty well, just a nice slow, long run.

Fencing went long as well. I fenced seven bouts which is three more than I usually do. I did very well, winning 5 bouts...all except Greg and Nathaniel. Nathaniel Dirkson, an "A" level fencer who recently placed 66th in a national competition out of 160, was back home for the holidays and everybody wanted to fence him. I got nine touches on him and was pretty pleased since I missed several others that with my own weapon (I am still using a club weapon) I could have gotten. I noticed that Eli Bremer, the guy I stayed with in Sydney, got 52nd in the epee competition. I should be seeing both these guys in competition soon enough.

Full fencing

No swim or run today, I decided to take it easy on my back for a day since it was a little sore from pushing a little too hard on my run on Tuesday. That did give me the chance to go into fencing fresh though, which I haven't done in a long time...usually fencing follows two other workouts and I'm pretty tired out. I did really well beating two people that I've never beaten before. I tried out my flesch a couple times and had very good point control. The trick is going to be creating this feeling when I am tired out after other workouts. I certainly haven't done badly before, but if I could somehow reconstitute this kind of performance each time I'd do very well. I'm also doing very well with the strategy Allen set up for me.

The Monday blues

I was all pumped up for the swim session today and didn't do that poorly. But, it certainly wasn't the great times that I saw about two weeks ago. I've decided that I wasn't to go back to the workout I was doing on my own, at least once a week. I was seeing progress and even though its good to deconstruct and look at my stroke in detail, I also want to keep some progress going.

The run later in the evening didn't go as well as I would have like either, but I think I know why considering the variables involved. I had eaten only an hour before, didn't stretch beforehand and hadn't run in quite a few days. I actually had to stop at one point for a bit and stretch my lower back. I really need to make sure I do a full stretch and warm up, even before these short runs.

Fencing too was acceptable, but my point control just wasn't there. I won two bouts and lost two bouts. I got some amazing shots, but missed a lot more of them. I'll be glad when I finally get all my new uniform and other equipment so I can focus in on making progress.

Good swim, FAST run and fencing beats

Nothing too spectacular about the swim today, other than I felt really good the whole way through, I was able to get my number of strokes across the pool down to 13 once, but still usually get 14 or 15.

The run, on the other hand, went really well. I ran Portage Bay and came in at 9:08...my fastest time ever (beat my previous time vy 20 seconds). I did have to push pretty hard and my legs got a little lactic towards the end, but I'm just psyched that I not only finished it, but finished it with a great time.

In Fencing tonight, we worked a lot with beat attacks. I still have a long way to go to get my bad habit of 'guessing' opponents moves. I need to work better on making assumptions and responding to what they do rather than just guessing. Allen has me doing some great drills that make me focus on this.

Faster swim, slower run, shorter fence

My swim today felt really great. I decreased my 100yd time by two seconds on two consecutive attempts. My push turns are feeling great and my backstroke continues to improve (at on the times that I have a free lane to do it, I'm still a little too chicken to try it with someone else in the lane).

I ran Portage Bay this evening. I came in under 20 minutes - which is good - but came in 20 seconds behind my fastest time - which isn't so good. But I was pretty pleased overall. My shoes were a little tight which stopped my from completely relaxing my feet. I still feel like I'm coming back from a week ago when my back was sore.

Had a short fencing night tonight. Most of the fencers were getting ready for a tournament in Ontario, CA. Since my weapon broke a last week I've been fencing with a club weapon which started having some problems tonight. With few fencers and a bum weapon, I decided to head home a little early. I did get in four good bouts though, so had a respectable night.

Shooting setup, another long run and better fencing

This afternoon I spent sometime setting up a 'shooting range' at home in my basement. The range consists of a cardboard box filled with a stack of newspaper on end behind about 6 inches of crumpled up newspaper. I got the design from one of the pamphlets I got from Daisy. The home 'mini' range will be great because I can start doing a lot more practicing in the shooting event and be able to make mistakes in the comfort of my own garage.

After I set up I took 40 shots total (10 on each target). I was pleased that my are didn't fatigue at all this time and when I really visualized and focused I did pretty good. My best score is a 61 out of a 100, which is just fine for my first shooting. I'd like to get this up into the 80s before I by my next gun, a Steyr, in February.

I decided to go for a long run again this evening for a couple reasons: 1. for some reason, I felt that the Portage Bay was too short of a workout; 2. I wanted to see what running around Lake Union was like in the dark how well lit it is for example). I started again at the Pocock Rowing Center. The run felt really good and I did take some time off my last run, coming in at about 46 minutes this time. I think I will still keep the long runs down to one day a week. I have to keep in mind that I'm doing a sprint race and really need to work on this more than my long runs.

If I wasn't convinced that I only wanted to do long runs once a week, I was after fencing. Although I actually did very well in fencing tonight, my legs were pretty uncooperative for a while. I just put too much into the long run. Luckily, I was very relaxed and seemed to have good point control for once. I even got 9 touches on John Varney! I talked with Allen, my coach a little while after my bouts about ordering some new equipment. Looks like I'll have three weapons soon and a big bill to go with them.

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.

Fencing: new threads, new toy box

I slept through my swim time today...my alarm didn't go off. Whoops. But because I was home so late in the afternoon, I was around when my new fencing uniform arrived as well as the hard golf case in which I will put all my pentathlon stuff when I travel. My dentist, Dr. Cherberg, being an enthusiastic golfer and supporter, sponsored the golf case so a BIG thanks to him.

Fencing went pretty well tonight, I did very well against several people, not so well against others. Interestingly, I did better against the higher level people. I had great point control and did well with complex attacks too.

I just need get two new weapons (you have to have at least two working weapons for tournaments) and my name on my uniform and I'm ready to start competing!

Running in circles and the best fencing lesson ever

Didn't do any horse riding today, with fall/winter upon us it was time to clip the horses so I spent the afternoon helping out with this.

I met up with a friend for dinner so didn't go to the Club Northwest training practice tonight. Instead, I wanted to try to run Portage Bay (PB) again since my run yesterday wasn't all that great. Had the same issue tonight though, my lower back fatigued very quickly. So rather than do intervals, I just did a steady state run around PB. I felt pretty good by the end of the run, but am still wondering why my back is giving me problems all of a sudden. Could it be new shoe time already?

Had a really great fencing lesson tonight. We worked on flesches, which is a skill I've been too chicken to try, always get hit with from my opponents and have always wanted to learn. Basically, its a pretty aggressive attack in which you jump/strike at your opponent and then run by them. I had to do a lot of slow motion attempts, but did get it eventually. Can't wait to try it in a real bout. Now I just need to learn how to defend against the crazy things.

The Vesty challenge, more cross country and busy feet fencing

I had the usual problems riding Vesty this afternoon. He's a stinker at the start...he likes to over react to my commands and balance and just is an all around pill for the first 5-10 minutes or our ride. But with some confidence and a whip I think Vesty and I are starting to come to a better understanding. Generally, a tap with the whip will give him a little surge and get him out of his lazy funk. This time, I gave him a little more whip and from that point on he was perfect and I didn't have to use the whip again. Not only did the canter feel awesome, the canter transitions were the best I've had on Vesty.

I did pretty well at the cross country tonight. My times weren't all that incredible (my fastest mile being a 6:16) but I was pleased that I did do almost all of the workout that the full group did. That practice was 4 x 800 at tempo pace, 2 x 800 at 5k race pace and then 4 x 200 'strides' (building up to a full sprint over the distance). I did all but the two 800s at the 5k pace. Watching the other runners in the group fly by is inspiration for me to try harder and gives me constant visuals for where I need to get to.

Humbled again at fencing lessons. My main problem in these lessons continue to be that I'm doing too much. I want to keep moving my feet and arms and shoulders when it is not required of me. These things are great in bouts, but in the lessons, they are baggage. Its kind of like a horse doing dressage, you only need and should do what the coach asks of you. It took me a while to really focus enough to get rid of the extraneous motions, but I eventually did and seemed to break through a wall as far as finding, giving and taking openings. Alan's doing a great job of breaking down my bad habits and really making me focus at the task at hand.

Pam, another prospective pentathlete in training was there taking here fist foil lessons. We chatted a bit and made plans to meet up on Saturday to shoot new Daisy air pistols that will hopefully arrive in time.

Picking Daisies, PB pb stands and fencing zen

I ordered up my first gun today. No, not the fancy Steyr LP5 that I eventually want to get, rather a Daisy 747 air pistol. Yes Daisy, very likely the same company that made your first BB gun back when you were a kid. Although all of the pros have told me to go straight to the Steyr, I've noticed they all started with Daisies. Since the Daisy is about a tenth of the cost to get started, I decided to start just like everybody else. The Daisy will allow me to get the basics down, then move up to the Steyr in a few months when I will need and appreciate the fine tuning the Steyr offers. The Daisy has also won several competitions, so it won't be all that bad. And I figure it won't hurt having some extra airguns around for potential pentathletes that may just want to try it out. The gun should arrive on Thursday or Friday.

I hit the same time as last time for my Portage Bay run today. I'm happy with the time because I really wasn't warmed up all that well compared to last time when I had just come off a swim. I've bumped my 'on' interval up to a minute thirty seconds so should see times come down a little for the next month again.

At fencing tonight I really concentrated on stating relaxed and in the position Alan wants me to stay at, which is basically the en guarde or six position. I won two and lost two bouts. I did do very well against Clarke though when I stayed very relaxed and just let him come into me. I decided that I do want to get different uniform material though, my current Uhlmann doesn't have much stretch to it.

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.

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.

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 thighs 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.

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.

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 control and missing a few shots. That's OK, they will come back with more experiences with triple workouts. I did confirm with Allan to start my fencing lessons on Tuesday. Yes!