|
Niul Manske first heard about pentathlon while researching a high school speech on obscure Olympic sports.
Little did he know it'd become such a big part of his life.
How big? As one of about 150 resident athletes at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, Manske spends most of his day training for pentathlon, a combination of shooting, fencing, swimming, horse jumping and running.
Manske's interest in the sport came a few years after that speech when the tales of his track coach, a pentathlete himself, piqued his interest. He called USA Pentathlon to see what the requirements were and was accepted into the governing body's developmental team in 1996.
Manske trained with the developmental team while attending Trinity College in San Antonio until last year, when he was accepted into the Army's World Class Athlete Program.
Now a first lieutenant, Manske fulfills his military duties every Friday morning and spends the rest of his time at the Olympic Training Center. There, he has access to state-of-the-art facilities, a cafeteria, Olympic coaches and trainers, a sports science department and the rest of the more than 300 members of the U.S. Olympic Committee's staff on campus.
asap got to tag along with Manske during a typical day of training and breaks it down in this timeline.
___
6:30 a.m. — Wake up.
___
7 a.m. — Shooting practice.
Manske spends the first hour competing in a shooting relay — taking turns shooting at a circuit of targets — against teams from the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Latvia and Lithuania.
After that, he works on perfect sight alignment with the shooting coach for about 30 minutes.
During competition, pentathletes have to shoot within a certain amount of time, so they're not always going to get lined up just right. Manske spends his entire lesson getting the feel of perfect alignment, making sure his gun sight is aimed directly at the center of the target before firing.
___
8:30 a.m. — Breakfast.
Most people would want to have some food in their stomach before getting started, but not Manske.
"It's actually an Army thing I incorporate into the training," the 30-year-old says. "One of the big Army things is 'train like you fight, fight like you train.' A lot of times at competitions we don't have time to eat, so it's not good to get used to shooting on a full stomach if you're not going to always have a a full stomach."
___
9:05 a.m. — Sports medicine.
Manske sprained his wrist in a fencing competition earlier in the year and still likes to get taped up before workouts. He also puts heat on his legs to get warmed up.
"I'm getting old and I can't just jump up like I used to," he says.
___
9:30 a.m — Fencing practice.
After getting loose, Manske has a fencing lesson, working on hand touches.
A finesse-style fencer, Manske avoids full frontal attacks, instead waiting for an opportunity to get touches on the hands and arms. He works on looking for openings and getting quick touches during the lesson.
Manske then spends the last 30-45 minutes sparring with U.S. Olympian Cody Mattern (Manske boasts that he won the bout) and a Dominican athlete.
___
11:15 a.m. — Swim practice.
After a quick snack, Manske heads over to the pool, where he starts off with a 1,000-meter warmup, then does some oxygen training.
Colorado Springs is at about 6,000 feet above sea level, which is great for the athletes' aerobic capabilities. But since the muscles aren't getting as much oxygen, the athletes can't swim as fast as they can at sea level.
To mimic the conditions at sea level, the swimmers don masks to breathe oxygen from a tank brought in by the USOC sports science department for two minutes to saturate their blood oxygen level to what it would be at sea level. They take oxygen eight times, taking off on a 50-meter sprint after each session.
Manske follows the oxygen training with an 800-meter swim using fins, does 400 meters of drill work, then closes with another 1,000 meters using a paddles and a taped-up snorkel that limits his oxygen intake.
___
2 p.m. — Lunch.
Manske lives in a house off campus, but eats about 90 percent of his meals at the USOC's cafeteria.
"There's no need to go anywhere else — they have everything you could ever want here and all I have to do is show up and eat," he says as he rifles through some pasta. "But the thing is, I'm going to be in trouble when my time here ends. I'm going to be lost having to make everything myself."
___
3:15 p.m. — Horseback riding.
Manske prefers to do his horseback riding in intensive weeklong training sessions, then hop on a horse once a week to keep sharp. Without the camps, he rides two or three times a week for an hour to two hours to keep the feel.
"Riding is a lot like the bicycle theory — once you've been on a bike, you can always do it," Manske says. "Once you get to a certain level in riding, it's mostly mental and mostly balance, so all you really need to do is make sure the muscles are ready for it."
___
6 p.m. — Running.
It's a frigid day, so instead of running in the park near the stables, Manske heads back to the training center to get in 45 minutes on a treadmill. It'd be much easier on Manske's body if he were to run early in the day instead of late, but training for the Olympics isn't about taking the easy route.
"It's kind of silly to switch it around and run at the beginning of the day so I'll be fresher when I'm not going to be fresh in competition," says Manske, who narrowly missed qualifying at the past two summer Olympics.
___
7 p.m. — Dinner.
After a shower, Manske grabs some dinner at the training center, then heads home to do some homework. Yes, homework. Along with all the training and his duties with the Army, Manske is going to film school, taking two classes this semester.
___
9:30-10 p.m. — Bedtime.
Manske tries to hit the rack early, but it doesn't always work out.
"A lot of athletes have this, but I think it's more prevalent in pentathlon because we do so many things that a lot of us have on and off insomnia," Manske says. "Doing all those sports, your body takes a while to settle down. I might try to go to sleep around 9 or 10, but I might not actually fall asleep until midnight or so."
___
It's a long day, to be sure, but it's the only way Manske can make sure he's ready for a competition schedule that lasts 11 months and takes him all across the country, throughout Europe, into Egypt and to Guatemala, where the world championships will be held next weekend.
"It's a lot of work, but it's worth it," Manske says. "Few people get the opportunities that I have."
__
John Marshall is asap's sports writer, based in Denver.
| 
