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.

Bonked the swim, blew the run out of the water

I did a scaled down version of the Salmon Bay workout I tried on Sunday. It still seemed a little out of my reach. I did add more backstroke laps and even tried a couple lengths of butterfly kick. I've found that mixing up the workout does tire me out much more quickly than sticking to a regular routine. Since the club will be doing more mixing than regular, I'd better get used to the mixing. Similar to my fencing, my swim performance has slid backwards in response to the 'deconstruction' phase I'm going through. Taking everything apart and really focusing on the details. My swim times are way down from my best times...I just hope this phase doesn't last too long.

Unlike the swim, tonight's run went really well. I beat my Portage Bay time by around 30 seconds. More importantly, not only did I break the 20 minute time that I've been aiming for for so long, I beat it by a full 30 seconds. Nice! And, the whole run felt great no muscle or cardio fatigue at all. Next month I move my 'on' interval time up to 1 minute 30 seconds, so times should get a little faster again.

Watching Salmon Bay, then doing

Started the morning by watching Salmon Bay. They had a pretty intense workout today. I wrote down both the warm up and workout so that I could try it in the afternoon in my swim. Ed said it was the kind of workout I would be doing two months from now, so I knew it would be quite a challenge.

The swim this afternoon was everything I expected...a challenge. I did the first two parts of the warm up OK - a 200 pull and a 200 kick. But after that it became very clear that I wouldn't be swimming with the big boys and girls for quite a while. I may have been able to pull off some fast times before, but it was evident that I didn't have speed AND endurance. I ended up doing half to three quarters of the workout the club did. I also did some kicking on my back and even tried a length of backstroke. The backstroke was really slow and I'm sure it looked horrible, but you have to start somewhere. I stuck with the workout for the full hour and a half that the club had practiced for earlier today, a half an hour more that I usually swim for. I was tired and hungry, but felt great. Looking forward to Friday at Salmon Bay.

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.

Jump jive

On Thursdays I only have my jump lessons...and boy what a great jump lesson it was! Tonight I learned a lot more detail about where my feet should be in a jump, how to prepare for the jump, and most importantly what to do with my butt. I was riding Pet tonight, the horse I will be doing most of my jumping on for a while. I had some difficulty in the drill portion of the lesson doing the right thing with my butt and shoulders, but when it was time for jumps, it all came together. I really had some great jumps that felt great and boosted my confidence. I have a lot more technique work to do, but I will be slowly inching towards the 3'9" high fences I will need to jump too.

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.