Finally an Update!

I know, I'm not terribly good at doing regular updates here. But, here's the news so far:

I went to Sunday practice yesterday. It was kingdom rapier practice, but Jeff from pell nights and another knight (Max I think. Sorry bad with names.) showed up for heavy. Will was there too, but he was all about fencing. Mittion showed up later and fenced most of the day. By the time he was strapping on his armor I was done.

Yes I got into armor and stepped onto the field for a live bout for the first time in 10 years. I'm still woefully out of shape, but I played until I literally could not hold my stick in guard position any more.

I was so scared at first. Not only had it been so long, but I knew I was going to be slow and weak, plus my armor had been reconfigured... And I'd never fought with these people before. Max just went full-defense to start with so I could get comfortable throwing at a real person again. He was super nice the whole day, and so was Jeff. Jeff used to fight too, and was out for about as long as I was, but he's picking things up again much faster. He fought for longer before dropping out and is definitely in better shape, so I it's to be expected. Go Jeff!

I almost had a bout of weepy, which I HATE so much... But really it was just the fear releasing as well as the idea of not doing well enough to be taken seriously rearing it's ugly head. Now I know they would probably tell me that I did OK for the first day in ten years, but I know I did so bad. I kept rising up on my front foot. I kept holding my breath. I closed my eyes when I thought I was going to get hit. My arms being so weak today is proof that I was doing it wrong.

I got Weight-Training for Dummies the other day at the store. I know the basics, but I really wanted a guide so I have actual facts in front of that tell me what I need to do to build not just power, but speed and more importantly, endurance.

If they have Endurance Training or Cardio for Dummies, I think I'm going to get that too.

Oh yeah. Tuedays will now be Double Practice Tuesday. Mittion suggested that I attend fencing practice to improve my footwork and flexability. So it'll be work, school, fencing, pell, SLEEP.

Last thing - I need to restrap the shield. The one that's on there now is about half cut. I meant to do it before, but forgot about it and now I can't find the leather strap I cut. Which isn't a big deal to me now, since I realize I want a smaller, more flexable strap on it still or else I'll really have to fight to get my arm in the loop. I'll just drop an extra washer on when I re-bolt it.

The other note I'm making here is that I have to do something about the elbow strap on the my left arm. Either I have to let it out a notch, or replace the strap with something thinner. I had a patch of skin on my forearm go partially numb last night. I was told that inflammation could be slightly pinching the nerves which would cause that. As soon as she said that I knew exactly what had caused it. I could feel the strap digging in as I brought my shield corner up and later in the evening the crease of my elbow felt sore.

So that's my big update. I'll really try to update more often. :)

PS. Going to school for tutoring, new school ID, and joining the fitness center.

I feel kinda bad

I went to the Knight's house on Saturday so he could help fix my arms so they'd finally stop chocking me and falling off. They work really good now, well as far as I can tell since I haven't fought in them yet.

What I feel kinda bad about is that I had to finish up so work on them at home before I could wear them out on the field. I didn't do it Saturday night because I wanted to just hang out at home and goof off. I figured I'd take care of it in the morning before practice since I'm usually up early anyway.

Then I couldn't sleep, so I ended up not going to bed until like 20 till 3. Which means I woke up late, which means I didn't have all the time I thought I would have to complete things... All this ended up with me finishing it up about 2:40... Practice "officially" starts at 2, and they were trying to start early this week too. I didn't call or anything, I just didn't go. It's a bad habit... I feel bad for not going, so I don't talk to anyone about it. It's not like I've made a bunch of commitments or anything to anyone but myself, however I felt like I was kind of a jerk for taking up the guys time helping me get my stuff together and then don't go use it.

Ok I went and dropped an email.

I will be going to pell practice, but the other thing I realized this morning was that there won't be any Sunday practices for the next two weeks because of events (Winter Art/Sci & Scots-Welsh). *sigh* Still pell practice is where I'll learn the tools to be good, so I think that if I could only make one practice in a given week, I'd try to make that one. At least for now.

Now I'm off to try and shoehorn a college class into my schedule. Hooray!

A New Year

And so far I've been to one Sunday practice, where I just did meet & greet, and one pell practice which oddly made my left shoulder sore the next day. My back was stiff when I woke up, but was OK by the time I had walked to the kitchen and back. Almost two solid hours of swinging a stick. I haven't done that much physical activity in ages. I don't think I ever did that much when I went to practice years ago when I first was doing this.

Did I mention that I found out how woefully undertrained I was before? I'm quite sure the guys I trained with before always did the best they could (hugs), but when you find out that the knight who runs the practices is not only a knight but has been King FOUR times, it becomes obvious.

Now I just need to build my pell and dig those hand weights that my roommates left in there for two years out of the car. Pell building is going to be an adventure. I live in a condo, and therefore have no yard, so it will be freestanding and mobile. Nifty eh? I'll post pics when I do it.