Training with the best

As most of you know, pentathlon is not a particularly popular sport in the US. Unlike some European countries, we dont have the sport culture for pentathlon here in the States. But we do have a phenomenal training facility and fantastic weather here in Colorado. So we have put our location to good use and invited two top international teams out to train with us this fall.

The Egyptian pentathlon team arrived here a few weeks ago and left today. They have two of the top women in the world and their men are also solid. It was a bit of the fire hose treatment to get back in shape with these guys here. We really only fence together, but it makes a big difference to have other athletes to bout in fencing.

The Russian team is the deepest and most decorated team in the world, and they came out here last weekend to train with us as well. The top six Russian athletes are here. To put the quality of this team in perspective, the 6th Russian athlete would easily make the World Team for almost any other country in the world. Currently Russia has the reigning Olympic Gold Medalist, the World Silver Medalist, a World Cup Final Champion, and a Junior World Champion. The Russian team will be here for the next few weeks, but I am thoroughly enjoying the chance to bout with these guys. I took three years of Russian in college, but my speaking skills are at best shaky and so communication is a bit tough. None of the Russians are proficient in English.

So the next couple weeks will be filled with as much fencing as possible as we try to hone our skills on the Russian team. Once the Russians go home, I'll start focusing more on my swim and run as we head into the winter.

Here is a picture of me fencing Andree Mosiev, the 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist, at a fencing practice this weekend. I actually got the touch on this one by hitting Mosiev right under his hand.

A Weekend with Champions

Last weekend the USOC hosted the "Reach the Peak" seminar for about 30 potential and current Olympians. We started on Friday and had sessions on Saturday and Sunday. In a nutshell, the purpose of the program was to learn how to improve our performance and to achieve your personal peak in sports.


One of the high points of the weekend was seeing two athletes whom I have tremendous respect for. The first was Brandon Slay, a gold medalist wrestler from the 2000 Olympics. The other was Dan O'Brien, the 1996 decathlon gold medalist but better known for the Reebok "Dave and Dan" commercials.


Brandon and I go back a ways. In the summer of 2000, my aunt and uncle decided to buy me a ticket to watch the Sydney Olympics because they believed it would be motivating for me in my own Olympic pursuit. My brother Justin did not want to be left out so he joined me on my way to Sydney. After a spectacular 10 day trip which culminated with an American woman winning the silver medal in pentathlon, we boarded the Sydney to LA flight for the 15 hour trip. Like good frequent fliers, Justin and I had made sure that we had window and aisle bulkhead seats to stretch our legs. When we boarded the plane, there was a girl sitting in the seat between ours who introduced herself as Tiffany. Over the course of the flight, she told us that she had been down in Sydney watching her brother wrestle. We asked how he had done and she told us he won the silver medal. Tiffany and I exchanged contact information because I was going to be in Dallas where she lived a few weeks later. When I went to Dallas, my friend Wendel and I took Tiffany and one of her friends out to eat one night.


A couple days after returning home I saw in the news that Tiffany's brother had been awarded the gold medal following a doping violation of the wrestler who defeated him. Brandon had been a resident athlete in Colorado Springs, but had taken a hiatus from wrestling following his win and came back about a year later. A number of months later I met Brandon for the first time at the OTC. I had a lot of respect for him and got to know him over the next year or so. Somewhere around 2002, Brandon decided to retire and I had not seen him since until this weekend.


So to culminate a long story, I was surprised to see Brandon on the bus to the conference this weekend. As we were getting off the bus, he said hi, I said hi, and I asked how his sister was doing. This turned several heads as a number of the other athletes questioned the wisdom of asking an Olympic gold medalist wrestler about his sister! Anyway, Brandon worked with us all weekend and here is a picture from the last day of the conference.





Growing up, I was a huge Olympic fan. I remember watching the Olympics as early as 1984 when I was only 6. By 1992, I was glued to my parents 13 inch black and white TV for the two weeks of the Games. In the lead up, Reebok decided to run a series of ads on Dave Johnson and Dan O'Brien, the top two decathletes in the US. They were expected to finish 1-2 at the Olympics and the marketing campaign was about which one would win. Dan failed to qualify for the Olympics after not clearing a single jump in the pole vault. Dave went on to win. I have read Dave Johnson's book and I met him a number of years ago. Dan's story is also very interesting. It was obviously devastating for a medal favorite to fail to qualify for the Olympics, and it was interesting to hear how he dealt with it. Dan also had a lot of tips on how to get your mind ready for competing at the Olympics. He really has the mindset of a champion and it was an honor to be able to pick his brain for a few hours. His advice was especially pertinent because pentathlon and decathlon have similar complexities. So here is a picture of me with Dan.
All in all, it was a very inspiring weekend. It is such a privilege to have two of the greatest athletes in the world take the time to mentor me and the other athletes as we strive to follow in their footsteps. Thanks a bunch guys and I hope we all make you proud some day!


I'll try to get better about posting blog updates. The Russian and Egyptian teams are here training with us right now and I'll post some updates on that over the weekend. Until next time...

Back to work

A lot of people have been asking how training is going. Here is a quick look into how I structure my season and how I will prepare for the Olympics next summer.

First, I took a long needed break from pentathlon. In the last two years, I have taken less than two weeks off. While I love to train and find practice and competition fun and rewarding, eventually it takes a toll on your mind and body. After finding out that I would not go to Beijing for the World Cup Final, I immediately put up my equipment and started my first real break of this Olympic cycle.

The term "break" can be a bit misleading though. During my break, my coaches had me stay in shape with biking and strength training. While it is important to get away from your sport during a break, it is also important to not let yourself get too out of shape.

So faced with the choice of sitting around playing on Niul's X-Box or doing something productive, I decided to go with the more responsible rout. A realtor approached me with a great deal on a fixer upper house and my dad teamed up to buy it. That gave me something to do with my time that was both productive and rewarding. I hired a couple of my teammates to come over and help and we knocked out a complete rehab of a 1700 sqft house within 3 weeks.

So now it's back to work to get ready for the World Cup season. Though still 5 months out, training starts now to be ready for those competitions. To begin, I am doing a lot of work on technique. For instance, today Alan and Genadijus (both of whom have PhDs in sports science) will be working with me in the pool. We are using cameras and some high tech testing devices to find out where I am losing speed in the water due to increased drag or decreased power. We have a 60 inch TV set up on the side of the pool so that I can immediately see the test results, watch my stroke, and make instantaneous corrections. This is a bit of an iterative process as we work to determine the optimal body position and stroke for my swimming. The reason you do this at the beginning of the season is that I have a few hundred thousands strokes between now and the Olympics so any change will feel natural by next summer. We think we can shave a couple seconds off my 200 time without much effort by doing this sort of high tech feedback.

I am starting up running also. Last season I was plagued with a strained abdominal muscle for most of the season. Through some outstanding medical care by Dr. Gary Wood and some cross training, we think that this problem will be a distant memory shortly. Taking a break has helped, but we wont know how effective the treatment has been until I get back into running. Alan Arata will probably also work on my running stride technique using video analysis on a treadmill to determine how efficient my stride is. Again, you make your changes early so that by the time of the competition it seems very natural.

Shooting will start up next week. I was finally able to procure a computerized training aid that I can use at my house to supplement my training. This program gives immediate feedback to how much pressure is on the trigger, how much the gun moves, and how steady the gun is at the point the shot breaks. All this information is displayed in real time on my laptop and helps identify problems and train correct habits.

The Egyptian pentathlon team will arrive on Monday and I expect we will have great fencing with them. Also, the New York Athletic Club recently extended me an invitation to join their team which gives me access to some of the best fencers in the country. My coaches want me to do a lot of fencing this fall when my run/swim volumes are low so that I can lay off a bit later on.

And that leaves riding. I intend to head out to Michael Cintas' place in California for an elite riding clinic in December. I have discovered that it is better for me to train riding in spurts, riding twice a day for about a week, then to train once or twice a week. I will probably visit Michael's place a couple times a year to make sure that my riding is set for Beijing next year.

So that is what my training looks like. Sorry for those of you who have been checking for an update on my blog. I'll try to do a little better now that I am back into a training regiment.

Jet lag

I've lost track, but I think I have flown over to Europe and back around 40 times. That includes the 5 times that I bounced back and forth in the past 6 months. So you would think that after so much travel, I would be used to the 8 hour time zone change. Not so much!

My wife Cami, who went over to watch Worlds last week, seems to have no problem with jet lag. When she arrived in Berlin, she adjusted within a day. When we came home, she was able to sleep in until 7am. I, on the other hand, have been waking up between 4:30 and 5 every morning and unable to get back to sleep. Among frequent travelers it is well known that some people adjust well to jet lag and others dont. Unfortunately for me, I have never seemed to adjust well; but at a certain point you just cope with it anyway.

I am still waiting to find out if I will be flying out to Beijing in two weeks. The World Cup Final is in Beijing on the 15th of September. It is the "test event" for the Olympics, meaning that they will use the same venues and staff for the event as for the Olympics. (I think that all sports are required to have a test event prior to the Olympics). If I get the invitation to go, the Olympic Committee will expedite my visa and put me on the same flight as Dennis. If I dont get the invitation to go, I am done for the season and will start my break and preparation for next season.

So back to jet lag. If I fly out to Beijing, it will be the 7th major flight of the past 6 months. Because it takes about a week to adjust each way, I will have spent around 14 of 25 weeks since March jet lagged. (By the way, at about 24 hours per flight, I have spent 2 weeks on airplanes since March as well). It's part of the job as an athlete. And while I can't say I enjoy throwing away 2 weeks of my life to sitting on an airplane, I love what I do and I would not trade it for anything!

Better Late than Never

So I have been pretty bad about keeping new content on my blog lately. In Berlin, the only place we had internet was at "Easy Internet" upstairs from a Dunkin Donuts. Although it was near the hotel, it was still a pain to get there, find a working computer, and suffer through a slow internet connection. Furthermore, we could not connect our computers online so there was no way to upload video or pictures. Enough of my whining though, now for the updates from the competition!

Making the final at Worlds is always a big accomplishment. As I have mentioned before, there are always a few great athletes who are knocked out in the semi-final and you always breath a big sigh of relief when the semis are over.

The final itself was probably the toughest competition in the history of pentathlon. My score of around 5250 on a long course swim and a difficult run would normally have put me well into the top 15. This year, it was good for 29th. I was hoping for a top 20, but I cant complain too much about my place. At the end of the day, you only control how you compete and I was pretty happy with my overall score.

The women's final went very well for Sheila. She finished 9th overall, the first time a US women has finished in the top 10 at Worlds in 8 years. Mickey had a rough time in fencing and finished 29th.

At Worlds, we also compete in the relay event. This is not an event in the Olympics yet, but it is possible that it will be added by 2012 as a second pentathlon event at the London Games. The relay consists of 3 athletes. Shooting is 3x10 shots, fencing is 3x3 touches, swimming is 3x100 meters, riding is 3x9 jumps (on 3 different horses), and running is 3x1500 meters. Our team was me, Dennis, and Sam Sacksen. We knew ahead of time that we did not have a realistic chance at a medal, but it is always fun to compete in the relay anyway. We held our own in shooting (apparently I saved up my best shoot for the relay!), but got pretty well schwacked in fencing. Swimming we were also middle of the pack. In riding, we drew a really bad set of horses and that cost us a top 8 finish. (My horse was completely blind in the left eye). We rode the horses we drew pretty well, but sometimes you just have to realize that it't not your day. In running I think we also held our own, but finished a disappointing 12th overall.

After the competition at Worlds, there is always a party. This year, DKB, a German bank and major sponsor of the competition, hosted the party at the riding venue. It was amazing with demonstrations in martial arts, a live band, and an awesome private fireworks display. It was great that Cami was able to be there for that and we were able to enjoy it together.

After a late night, we had a 7am bus to the airport. Cami came along with me, but her flight was a couple hours later. I was flying with Dennis, Mickey, and Emily; but Cami was on a different airline and had a different itinerary. We all had breakfast together in the Berlin airport, then went our separate ways.

22 hours later, we were back in Colorado Springs. When you fly, it does not bother you very much if the airline is delayed on a connecting flight because it only effects your layover. When your last flight is delayed, it really stinks because you get home that much later (and after 20 hours of travel, every extra minute grits on your nerves). United always seems to have problems getting out of Chicago on time, and yesterday was no exception. After an hour delay prior to boarding, we sat on the runway for another hour waiting to take off. Fortunately, I slept from the time we boarded until we landed in Colorado Springs; but the delay cost us getting dinner at the OTC that night.

I had just enough time to pick up my truck from the OTC and get back to the airport when Cami landed. Cami made it on time, but her luggage decided to stay on vacation for a little longer. We think her bags will arrive today at some point.

I might be flying to Beijing in a couple weeks. Right now, I am the first reserve for the World Cup Final. I promise better pictures from Beijing if we have internet!

For now, it's unpack and get back to training. If I am in World Cup Final, I will have to train pretty hard for the next two weeks that I am home to get back in shape.