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.

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.

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.

First triple: ride, swim, run

I had my first triple workout today starting with an afternoon ride, then a swim in the evening, followed by a run. I not only survived, I performed pretty well getting a training personal best (TPB) in swimming and very close to one in running. They are not competitive times yet, but getting closer.

I rode Vesty today for riding. Looks like I'll be riding Vesty for flat work and Pet for jumping for a while which is great because both will allow me to progress in the respective skills. I had the usual issues/games with Vesty starting up, had to get a whip even to really get him going well...didn't have to use it, just make sure he knew that I had it. We had some struggles when it came to getting his head down and keeping the rythem, but once we got past these issues and into the canter all was well. The canter transitions are still a little messy, but there getting there. Vesty is very good a predicting my moves so he's usually a little ahead of the actual commands which is why he wants to rush in to the transitions. By the end of the session though, we were as smooth as butta.

The swim went really well. I got my 50m time down to 36 seconds, etching ever closer to the target 30 seconds. My 100m was once again a 1:20 which needs to get down to a 1:00 or so. The rest of the swim felt great as well both in strength and technique. I'm looking forward to starting up with Salmon Bay...hopefully this Friday.

With two sports down, I went into the run not expecting much. My legs were sore from my first day back fencing on Monday, and riding and swimming certainly took their told as well. BUT...it felt great! I didn't fatigue at all ended up coming in at 20:04 which was 5 seconds faster than my last Portage Bay time! It is still not the sub 20 I was looking for, but closer.

Pretty pleased for my first triple. I should be able to do three events in the same order as the actual pentathlon...swim, ride, run. On Saturdays, I may even be able to pull off a full pentathlon practice.

Down for the count and a little more Vesty

Looks like my website was down for a couple days...that's OK because I was too. Seems I got a two day flu or something. Certainly didn't feel like doing any training so there wouldn't have been much to say even if the sight had been up. But, I noticed there were a LOT of hits yesterday when the site finally came back up, so I know there area few fans out there.

Didn't have much energy yesterday to swim due to the quick flu thing, but I did go to riding in the evening. I was also starting to feel a little better by then, getting more of my energy back. I rode Vesty again tonight. We're still working on things, but we're doing much better. I do have a couple bad habits that I bring from polo that aren't helping. First, I tend to lean into the canter transition...helps in polo but not a good habit to develop for my jumping. In addition, in polo I'm used to pushing forward in a canter transition until I get a canter...no big deal on the polo field, but in my riding this shows up in during that transitions as well. When I don't get the canter and Vesty goes into a fast trot I keep asking for the canter rather than bringing him back and getting a good trot for a good canter. I also seem to be squeezing my thighs a little too much, which to Vesty means a half halt. Vesty stops or slows down, I fall forward and our balance gets way off. By the end of the lesson, we had things working well though, Laura was pretty pleased.

Early swim, Vesty games and talking to animals

Because of the animal communication class I was taking in the evening, I had to switch my schedule around a little today. I did my swim at noon. Last time I tried this, I didn't have the best swim...I was just really tired. This time, however, it felt pretty good. I beat my 100m time by another 3 seconds. The pool was really full for some reason and I had to swim circles. This didn't really affect me much though as I was pretty much even with the two women in my lane. I didn't get a chance to practice flip turns.

Since the woman teaching the animal communication class is a friend of Laura's, Laura was more than willing to let me switch up my riding lesson to 4:00pm. Today, I started back on Vesty. Vesty, Vesty, Vesty. Vesty is one of the few horses in the barn big enough for me and that can make it over the fences I will need to jump. He's also very sensitive to balance and looks for any excuse to over-respond to you. My problem was my muscles. I was strong on my aids so he enjoyed doing things to try to rile me up. He'd start going at a trot that was way too fast so when I put a small mouth aid on left and right to slow him down...he'd come to a complete stop. When I wanted to make a nice wide circle at the end of the arena, he'd avoid my leg aid until I put it on stronger...then he'd turn on a dime. If I let him walk for a bit with no aids, he wouldn't follow the arena walls around, he'd walk straight at a wall, turn at the last minute and make sure to scrape my feet on the wall. Some of these little games were certainly my fault due to balance issues, but Vesty is very known for playing little psychological games with new riders and he was definitely trying them with me. Laura was snickering. I've actually jumped Vesty before, but its been a long time so I think he was trying to establish where I was in my riding. By the end of the lesson all was well though. Laura was really impressed with how I did eventually get back on track, particularly she was impressed with the canter I got with him, but Vesty and I still have some more bonding to do.

The animal communication class with Joan Ranquet was fascinating...a skill that will definitely come in handy in dealing with unfamiliar horses in the pentathlon.

Horse Jumping 102...Vesty, very Vesty

Tonight it was back to Vesty as Sheila would be riding pet and Joan was on Eli and...it was another jumping night! Thankfully, there were only 4 fences tonight as opposed to the eight last week. I Had the same issues I experienced last time I rode Vesty. He's much more sensitive to pretty much any command/aid so he forces me to really concentrate on riding correctly. The trot and canter felt pretty good, although he still has a little wobble at the trot. When it came time for the first fence, we had some problems though. Although I had jumped higher fences with Pet, Vesty wasn't too keen on me jumping with him yet and he ended up refusing four or five times. Laura then took the fence down and we did several laps around the arena just going over the poles on the ground. We would go into the obstacle at a trot and then come out at a canter. It certainly wasn't pretty, and there were several other refusals during the night, but now I've established that I can jump more than horse.

"Patience in your brain"

I was a humbled rider again. Tonight, because Sheila was jumping Pet the lesson before me, I rode "Vesty", a bay a bit smaller than Pet. Vesty was a notch up from Pet in skill and experience, but it proved a major challenge for me. Vesty was very responsive to my balance issues and I spent most of the workout just getting a feel for Vesty...and vice-versa. He would stop on a dime and relied much more on reigning than Pet ever did for aids so I found myself way off balance many times when trying to figure him out. Once we got in the groove, things went pretty well. The canter with Vesty had challenges too. There was a delicate balance between slowing down and complete stop with Vesty, but with some work I was able to get things to work. It was hard keeping him at a walk between drills, but one of the neat things about Vesty - once again a very experienced horse compared to Pet - was that he will go into a canter right from the walk. I felt like I was back at lesson one with Vesty, but since I ride unfamiliar horses in the pentathlon, this is a good piece of humble pie. Its times like this, as in polo, that I feel I'm letting down the horses. But, in a way, this makes me work harder. Laura sensed my frustration and reminded me "it takes patience in your brain" several times.