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.

All Evergreen and pentathlon karma

Spent most of the weekend at the Evergreen Hunter/Jumper Classic at Marymoor Park...big horses, going fast, jumping high. Although I have been to 3-Day Eventing events, it was pretty valuable to see how the whole hunter/jumper world works. I think I could easily compete in some of the smaller fence events as the fences were 2.5 to 3 feet. Eventually, I need to get up to four feet though. I spent a lot of time watching riders warm up and get instruction from their trainers. Laura, as an eventing coach, is an awesome all around coach but both she and the national coach said it would be a good idea to get some training from a jumper now and then. In addition, since as opposed to other equestrian events, in the pentathlon I compete against other men only (in most equestrian events, men and women compete against each other), I've also been told that it would be good to find a male coach for training every now an then as well to work on some of the sports psychology aspect of the pentathlon.

So this is where the good pentathlon karma started. On Saturday I met Shelley and Jeff Campf of Canby, OR. They seemed to have a really good report with their riders and a great 'vibe' overall. Turns out that Jeff has trained a couple pentathletes and is interested in multi-sport training as well. Since there is a great fencing club down in Portland as well as a couple pentathletes, taking some occasional trips down to Oregon will be nice training opportunity.

On Sunday, the $25,000 grand prix was held. Lots of big names and lots of spectators. The course was all dolled up with flowers and fancy fences...and they were petty high five plus feet or so. The course designer did a walk through and explained some of the technical aspects of the jumps, as well as how the riders will respond to them.

More pentathlon karma...When the jumping started, I went into the VIP tent to get a few pictures of the riders over a red, white and blue fence (thought it would look good on my pentathlon page). I asked a group of people at table near the jump if I could sit for a moment to take pictures. When I explained that I was training for a pentathlon they said that a pentathlete used to train at their barn...turns out it was Mike Jones, the former pentathlete I run with on Wednesdays. Pretty crazy!

Back on the track and a fast fence

After over a week of lounging in steamy Nebraska, I got back in to training today. I went to the Greenlake running group and made my first steps towards working out with the group...I did a warm up quarter mile with them. After, their planned workout was still a little above me so I did my interval run around Greenlake again. My legs didn't fatigue like they had previous Greenlake run, but I didn't feel my best either. The last 10 minutes or so felt pretty good, but it will take a few runs to get back into things. Mike Jones, a former pentathlete and current Greenlake runner, pointed out that Mary Beth Larsen was on the cover of Esquire this month as one of the "Women of Summer". Pentathlon goes mainstream...I love it.

Greenlake Gusto and down Sean, down

I went to run with the Greenlake group, but showed up and hour early and decided to run around the lake myself. Its a little over 3 miles and I decided to start my intervals...2 minutes off, 30 seconds on = 2 minutes at about 7.5 minute/mile pace then a 30 sprint, then back to the 2 minutes off and so on. I will slowly build to where my on times are longer. The workout felt pretty good, but I'm still a long way from where I was last fall. I'll continue to do the intervals from here on out and plan on running with the group next week. I'm housesitting on Lake Washington this week, so the lakefront run should inspire me. The Greenlake group will be a great motivator: 1. Mike Jones, a former pentathlete works out with them, 2. several people from the group placed in the top 10 of some recent local races, 3. Coach Wendy's husband works out with the group so I'll be able to get some coaching in with her without any scheduling challenges and 4. there just a great group of people.

All went well with riding tonight, with the exception of my hand height. Laura's still not satisfied with where I carry my hands out of the jumps. Joan was riding Eli and it was Howie again for me. Its always a little scary when jumping a new horse for the first time, but this is what I'll need to do in the pentathlon, so the more new horses the better. I've been riding Howie for three weeks now, but his was my first time jumping him. We did a three fence mini-course several times each direction. Jumping went really well overall, Howie rushes the fences a little, but I was able to keep him under control. The biggest challenge was keeping my hands down coming out of the jumps, but was able to correct this too. Looking forward to higher and/or more complex fences next week.

Greenlake Gusto and down Sean, down

I went to run with the Greenlake group, but showed up and hour early and decided to run around the lake myself. Its a little over 3 miles and I decided to start my intervals...2 minutes off, 30 seconds on = 2 minutes at about 7.5 minute/mile pace then a 30 sprint, then back to the 2 minutes off and so on. I will slowly build to where my on times are longer. The workout felt pretty good, but I'm still a long way from where I was last fall. I'll continue to do the intervals from here on out and plan on running with the group next week. I'm housesitting on Lake Washington this week, so the lakefront run should inspire me. The Greenlake group will be a great motivator: 1. Mike Jones, a former pentathlete works out with them, 2. several people from the group placed in the top 10 of some recent local races, 3. Coach Wendy's husband works out with the group so I'll be able to get some coaching in with her without any scheduling challenges and 4. there just a great group of people.

All went well with riding tonight, with the exception of my hand height. Laura's still not satisfied with where I carry my hands out of the jumps. Joan was riding Eli and it was Howie again for me. Its always a little scary when jumping a new horse for the first time, but this is what I'll need to do in the pentathlon, so the more new horses the better. I've been riding Howie for three weeks now, but his was my first time jumping him. We did a three fence mini-course several times each direction. Jumping went really well overall, Howie rushes the fences a little, but I was able to keep him under control. The biggest challenge was keeping my hands down coming out of the jumps, but was able to correct this too. Looking forward to higher and/or more complex fences next week.

Hey Mikie

I came down with another cold so I've been out of it for a while. But started back in tonight by going to Greenlake to observe their runners. I've switched around my riding so that I'll be able to train with the Greenlake gang as soon as I have orthotics for running. This will be great as Mike Jones runs there on Wednesdays and as he's the only person around thats done the full pentathlon event, he'll be a great resource. I did talk to him for a while after his run and we made plans to have a longer talk in the future. The two messages that I took away from our talk were to not overtrain and to really spend time working on my endurance. For this reason, I may pick up rowing a little here and there again to cross train for endurance.

To run or to ride...that is the question

Tonight I went to watch some competitive runners, including some Olympic contenders, train at Greenlake with Wendy. I did get some pointers on form from Wendy on a few of the runners, but most of the group had decided to run around the lake rather than the track so I didn't get to see a whole lot of styles. BUT...I did run into Mike Jones, a fellow that Allen at Salle Auriol had suggested I get in contact with regarding pentathlon since Mike had competed in the event in the past, is in the area and might be willing to be a resource/mentor. What a great surprise to run into Mike here. I plan on getting together with him to get some his wisdom about the event and hopefully a little coaching here and there. Since the runners meet on Wednesday, I may look into changing my riding schedule around a bit to accommodate doing some training with the group...and Mike.