Fitness Catchup and Riding Wins

Last Thursday, did my second day of skills testing at the box. Was definitely not as demanding as the first day, but still tough.

Was as follows:

500m row- completed in 1:50
Back squat- did 185lbs, could have probably done 200 if I really pushed it but its okay...
HSPU- 25 sec hold. Pathetic.
Toes to Bar-28. Hip flexors gave out before my abs did!
Max PU in 1 min- 30. Fairly happy with this. No girly pushups either, all CTD.

WOD "Helen":
 3 rds

400m run
21 swings (rx'd 35 lb kettlebell. Done)
12 pull ups (used the blue band. I suck at pull ups. Truly.)

Did it in 13:30 something I think? I can't remember, but it wasn't horrible. First time doing "Helen".

Felt kind of crummy going in and really unmotivated. DH pretty much had to drag me there. But, I'm glad I went its nice to have those benchmarks that I can now work off of. Overall between the two days, I think I pretty much fell in the middle of the pack for the women. At the higher end for the weighted movements, definitely in the middle for the rest, and maybe low middle for the WOD's. Retesting in 6 months. Yipee?

Riding was AWESOME on all fronts last week though. Oh man. I don't think Arwen and I have had a consistently good week like that in...ever. Usually there is always some day where something goes wrong, or we have a bad last fence, or something. I mean, I guess my first lesson Tuesday night could have gone better but it really wasn't horrible. She was getting a little quick, I was a little out of tune with her, but she was coming back when I asked her to. Which was weird. And it only got better from there. I did another lesson the next day, and she was great. I then stayed and watched a little mini clinic trainer was hosting, which I'll have to write about sometime soon. Super informative and I bowed out of doing it because of the $100 price tage, but also a little out of fear. I'm always apprehensive about riding with new people, mainly because OMG they can pick up on my weaknesses SO.FAST. Am I really that obvious? Its sad. But, I definitely think everytime I've ridden with someone new I've always gotten some totally fantastic to take away...so I think I just need to get overmyself.

The kicker was Friday, when we did the super fun grid I wrote about in my last entry. And then Saturday, we took is easy since I had already jumped three days but she was so great. We did bending lines, in both her bad and good direction, as well as some tight u-shaped turns. Listening well, coming back to me, not getting all crazy through the lines. Then on Sunday, our hack day, I took her through a serpentine (trot) and canter circle exercise (probalby 10m circles) that the clinician did on Wednesday and she was excellent. A little harder on the left bed, but thats pretty normal. I took some short video of myself, and I think I'm leaning my outside shoulder in when asking her for the left bend. Maybe because I'm trying so hard for that left bedn, I'm shifting my hips? I dunno. Either way, I'm going to make sure I'm keeping that shoulder back tonight when I ride.

The main things I was working on was keeping my boobs to the sky, having a soft, but steady feel, keeping leg on, and approaching the jumps with a little more pace. I think all those things helped, plus Arwen has been in a really good mood lately. I rode her in her bridle (the running gag) for the first time in awhile, and she was so soft in it. I barely had to touch the reins at all. We'll see how she is tonight...hoping last week wasn't just a fluke and we can FINALLY start progressing to some more complicated/higher stuff!