Long run and boxing: round 5

Went for an endurance run today, 40 minutes, about twice as long of the other runs I've done so far. I plan on doing on endurance run a week building up to a half marathon and eventually a full marathon. Although this doesn't do a lot for my pentathlon run directly, it will give be a better base overall. I ran north along the Burke Gilman trail which runs from Ballard around Lake Washington, past places like Saint Michele Winery. Nice running environment, for sure. The run felt REALLY good, I was a little tired the last 10 minutes or so, but I was really pleased over all. I should be able to bump up to 60 minutes next week.

The long run left me a little tired for boxing, but I survived and did the full boxing workout. I took everything at about 75% effort and still did well compared to some of the other students in class. The punching bag felt really good, my techniques has improved a lot. The speed bag is getting better too, I can almost do it at the same speed as Qadir, our teacher. Quick hands, quick feet, strong upper body...all of this should help my fencing.

Super swim and "show him the way"

Had a great swim this afternoon. Few people in the pool and just felt really good with lots of energy. I did add another length to my pyramid so now I'm doing two full laps at top speed. I still need to take about 20-30 seconds off my time, but should at least be able to complete the full 200m at top speed soon without much problem. I think I will also add an endurance day where I just swim for an hour or so rather than doing drills.

Riding went really well too. Howie is such a great horse. I am still working with him to keep his head down, in the past he was allowed to hold his head too high. Laura's advice is to "show him the way to the ground" in other words use the reins to help keep his heed down and guide his head down towards the ground. This is accomplished by bringing the reins down whenever his head starts to pop up again. The trot and canter were great as usual, I could keep the Howie-the-speedster pretty much under control. For jumping we did a small cross rail, then changed up to a straight rail. I'm still working on keeping him straight after the jump, keeping my hands down, staying back in the saddle at the jump and allowing my hands to come up a little when Howie goes into the jump to give his neck room to stretch out.

I did let Laura know I am hoping to do my first pentathlons next spring. She said it would be challenging, but that I could do it if I put some more riding time in. So, I will be adding Tuesdays as a riding day going forward for sure. The other events are going well too...Athens 2004 or bust!

Run, fence...take 2

I survived my second week of a running and fencing double! The Greenlake running group had a pretty intense workout planned, at least for me. They were going to do two sets of an interval workout. A set consisted of 1 min on/1 min of, 2 min on/1 min off, 3 min on/1 min off, 3 min on/1 min off...I decided to stick with my workout for know which is 2 min off/30 sec on. I will be moving that up to 1 min on next week, but I still have a long way to go to be able to do the Greenlake group workouts. The run felt pretty good, my feet fatigued a little at first, but soon settled into it. It was a hot day, but this didn't seem to bother me too much.

Had another great night of fencing. Fenced a new fencer, Amy, as well as one of my coaches, Greg. I did really well against several high level fencers, scoring 6-8 touches on them. Leave it to Greg, one of the Raincity Fencing(formerly Wallingford Fencing Club) coaches, to humble me though. The notes I take on fencers seems to really be coming in handy. I can go into a bought with some useful info. It also helps me internalize whats going on in the bought and where my opportunities are.

So-so swim

Finally got in to swim this afternoon. The summer lap swim schedule is pretty tight at the YMCA where I work out. I only had an hour and a half slot this afternoon, which was plenty of time since my workouts are running about 45 minutes right now. The only problem is that there were lots of other people also trying to squeeze their laps in, so the pool was pretty crowded and I wasn't able to do the workout at the level I would have liked. But it was a pretty good swim. I plan on adding another length to my pyramid which will give me two full laps at full speed. I'm doing this in hopes of doing my first 200m sometime next week to get my initial time for the 200m. This will allow me to start working on bringing it down to a competitive time.

Fantastic fencing night

Had a great night of fencing tonight. Not sure why, but everything seemed to be right on. I had great point control, my hands were fast, my feet were active and I landed touch after touch. I even got six points on an A-B level fencer. Woo Hoo! I can only think that my boxing is helping out. The boxing footwork has me bouncing and moving all over the place, the speed bag and jump rope have helped my coordination and the punching bag improved my upper body strength and hand speed. Soon, I'll start back up with lessons and then watch out, Sean's packing a mean touch!

Polo, run, polo

Had a great day playing polo. My riding is better than ever and I'm finally able to work on being a better player.

On Sunday, I went for a quick run before heading back down for more polo. The run felt REALLY good, the best so far, both cardio and physical. My feet and lower legs weren't fatigued at all. I did my interval workout again, two minutes off, one minute on and it felt GREAT. I will start building up my 'on' times in the coming weeks, as well as doing the Greenlake run on Wednesdays. I also plan on doing a long run once a week to work on endurance.

Tacoma polo

Great weekend of polo at the Tacoma Polo Club. The weather was crazy Saturday morning, so we all thought we would be rained out, but the field didn't get any rain and it actually turned into a beautiful day by the time the players hit the field.

I was on Jason's Aticus again, in the 3rd and 5th chuckers. Aticus was pretty happy with himself and tried to go full gallop whenever possible. The play went very well, I even hit another milestone...I committed my first foul. With the help of some great polo players, I finally felt like I was able to be an asset in the game. I played the 4 position, which allowed my to hang in back and watch to see what was going on. As the 4 player, I also got to hit in a lot of the balls when they went out.

Afterward, a bunch of us went back up to Seattle to send off Randy's son Trevor back to NY. Hit Daniels Broiler, Larry's for cigars (I took the ice cream route instead) and then Floyds.

Sunday was an even better day for me. I playe in the 5th and 7th chucker this time. I had a couple great runs with multiple hits and got closer to where I should be playing positionally. I almost got a couple good hooks, but I'm still to cautious I guess to charge in for the hook. I did do a couple good runoffs though.

Next week is a big tournament, so I'll be watching from the sidelines. Should be some great polo though and now that I've played a little I'll be able to observe more knowledgeable.