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!

Watching Salmon Bay swimmers, then doing

I went over to watch the Salmon Bay masters swim club this morning this morning at the Queen Anne pool. When I observed them a couple weeks ago it was at the Madison pool up north late on a Friday night, so there weren't many people. This time the pool was full so I could get a better feel for what to expect and where I would fit in. I talked with Ed, the coach for quite a while about swimming basics. I will be hooking up with him for the next month or so for some individual lessons.

I did my own swim in the afternoon to try out a few of the pointers Ed gave me. I did a different warm up for starts and then during 4 50yd sprints brought my time down to :36, which - if I could do the four laps contiguously - would mean I'm doing a 2:24 200yd. Not bad.

The Glove Run

I hadn't done any training for the two three days for various reasons: no riding on Thursday because I had to volunteer at a Nordstrom event, nothing on Friday as I was taking it easy for my first race since I started my pentathlon training...The Roman Meal Glove Run down in my hometown of Steilacoom. Our Steilacoom homecoming was the night before and since I am the alumni coordinator I was pretty busy for that. But the run would make this a special homecoming for me as this was the first race I ever ran, back when I was in middle school.

I was feeling pretty good the morning of the race, a little tight if anything. I can't say the race felt good or bad, but I definitely wasn't too pleased with my final time. For a 5k I ran a 22:42 which was about a 7:19 mile. Not my quickest time by far. I know I had some opportunities on the down hills, I slowed way down and several people passed me here. Not much else to say other than looking forward to my next 5k to see if I can better the time.

A good Greenlake and fencing - present and future

I had a good night at Greenlake. I didn't improve my time any but I could tell that wouldn't be the case during my warm up, my legs seem to still be a little out of it.

I started with a 5 minute erg piece on the rowing machine at the the GL rowing club. Not much, but I need to slowly build up my rowing again. It felt really good to be back in the rowing seat again though.

As I mentioned, I could tell in the warm up for the run that it wouldn't be my best time...and I was right. I felt like my body was wanting to go faster than my feet would take me. My lower legs, both shins and calves, fatigued about half way through the run, but by the end they were feeling a little better. My sprint at the end actually felt really good. I need to bring a bit of the finaly sprint into each of my sprint intervals.

Great night of fencing. I fenced five bouts and won 3, losing to Varney - by a lot - and to Brooks by only one point. Sometimes my point control was there, sometimes not, but I did get a lot of shots that I was really trying for which I'm pretty pleased with. Also talked to Alan about starting up my lessons. Can't wait!

An extra Greenlake run and late swim

I somehow missed the cross country group last night at Greenlake (GL). I think I joined up with the wrong group and then by the time I realized this the other group gathered at the track had already taken off. So, I just did my regular run around GL. I was doing it at about 80% mainly because I wasn't sure what to expect after my shins freaked out on me yesterday and it was dark and I had not run the lake in the dark before (you never know where the important dips and wholes might be). But I actually came in at the same time as my TPB so far. I was quite surprised and pleased.

So pleased that I decided to squeeze in a swim after my run since I had missed it in the afternoon due to a late nap. The swim actually felt pretty good as well. I didn't do any timed pieces, but could feel that I was swimming pretty efficiently.

A no-fun run and quiet fencing night.

I was looking forward to my track run today, even though it was very cold and pouring rain when it was time to do it. This hasn't been a problem in the past, but I'm hoping its at least part of the reason that I had a really bad run workout today. Timewise it wasn't so bad, it was only about 10 seconds slower than my last track run and considering how I felt, that's pretty good. For some reason, my shins just weren't in running mode today. They fatigued before I even finished the first lap and stayed really tight until the very end. No fun! I must have taken up some weird running technique in the rain or something. My feet were a little heavier since they were really wet, but this hasn't been a problem before. I couldn't figure out anything obvious with my technique but boy were my shins tight. I ran and walked a couple laps to settle them down afterwards, but hoped it wouldn't affect my fencing that night or happen again tomorrow when I join the cross country group for a run.

Fencing had a pretty rough start tonight. George and I were pretty equal during warm up, but he beat me in the actual bout, 5-4. Yeah, I was working on getting specific shots rather than going for whatever was open, but my point control was way and I missed some clear shots. I got some really good ones too, but not consistently. I then fenced a new fencer, did really well in our warm up and should have beat him in the bout, but didn't he was just way too big and out of control for me. Not please with that at all. I then fenced Helene who I did very well against then Craig Brooks, my fencing nemesis, who I also did well against. Finally, I fenced epee with one of the foilists in the club, Jan. Its always fun fencing foilists, they're much more active on their feet and just a lot more bravado with flicks and flesches and all that fancy stuff. Jan beet me 15-11 but I really had a good time fencing him and in the end it really showed where I needed to work on some things, especially that illusive foot touch.