Today I woke up a little later than I meant to. I skipped cardio but fenced. I haven’t practiced cut & thrust fencing much in my element yet, so fencing I.33 was a welcome change of pace. It felt really good to just fight my fight.
Tag: fencingeverydamnday
My bane mask came in!
First I wore it around the house for about half an hour trying it out. Then I wore it to the gym and did 30 minutes on the elliptical (plus a cooldown, but I took it off for that part). I even bumped the setting up on one side (it has switches 1-5 on the right and left) for the last five minutes of my run. I felt pretty good. It took me a long time to get my heart rate up to 140 bpm, and my average heart rate was 136.
Since that was a success, I tried wearing it for warm-ups at fencing. I did my two laps but had to take it off and rest a second before doing the rest of the warm-up (high knees, etc.).
Fencing practice was okay. We warmed up and did a couple drills. Then I fenced with a new person, and a couple more people wanted to fence with me. My hands weren’t so tired that I couldn’t hold my sword, so that was nice.
In other news, I’ve lost 3lbs. I missed Body Fat Tuesday last week, so that stinks. I’d like to know how the body recomposition is going now that I’m primarily doing cardio. However, I’m seeing progress with my fitness in other ways, so I don’t mind not getting a fat percentage documented this month.
Today I did my 30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical. I can keep my heart rate in the neighborhood of 145 bpm comfortably. My mask comes in tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes once I try it out.
I noticed that I lunged a hole in my sneaker. Awesome. I’ll fix it with tape for now. Everything else about the show is fine.
Tonight I did Krav with Mike and Eddie. We practiced defense against hair pulls, so at the end of practice I looked like this.
When I got home, I showed Nik my lunge based on his suggestions. I still feel like it looks more like a big step than a proper lunge, but he says it’s an improvement, so I’m going to roll with it.
My elevation mask should be here tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
Today I took my cardio in the form of a walk on the beach. The weather was stormy but not ugly.
After that I went to fencing practice. I missed the warm up, but I was there for drills, and I got to bout with four people (usually I’m lucky if I bout with one person). Today was a good day.
Tomorrow my mask should be here. I’m looking forward to trying it out. I’ll let you know how that goes!
Yesterday I did 30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical before fencing practice. At fencing practice I worked with a new person, and then I fenced with the modern fencing guy. I haven’t done modern foil before, and it’s completely different from classical foil and rapier. I’m glad I tried it even if it isn’t my thing.
Today I did 30 more minutes on a different elliptical. I did some lunges today, this time focusing on making them explosive. I feel like my “explosive lunge” is really more like a big step forward. I’ll ask for feedback at our next practice.
In other news, I realized that CIC 2 will happen at a much higher elevation than I’ve ever experienced outside of an airplane. I’ve spent my entire life at sea level, so I bought an oxygen deprivation mask to wear at the gym. I’ll let you know how things go with the #baneofmyexistence mask.
Today instead of going to the park, I worked on some things I needed to do at home. If we’re being honest, I may have been avoiding practice, but I also made some money working on a dissertation and helped a friend with a sewing project. I think I’m better at actually helping (instead of steam rolling) when I’m busy, so it worked out well.
Nik just indulged me with some fencing games. We did the bean bag drop (timing & judgment), the rope & bean bag (timing), and the glove game (timing and distance). I also showed him some lunges, and he have gave me some feedback on placement of my back foot. My front knee is looking better.
Yesterday I hit the gym. Here’s the set list.
In addition to what I wrote down, I did 30 minutes on the elliptical-stair climber hellspawn. I have no idea what that was supposed to be. Shoulder & chest day maybe?
Fencing was fencing. I worked with some new people, didn’t spar much. I keep tiring really quickly. I think I need to work out less during the 30 days.
Today I worked on projects around the house. I was really drowsy despite drinking more coffee than I probably should have. I didn’t leave my house except to check the mail.
I did 50 lunges. Nik heard me in the studio and did some timing and judgment games with me. They’re fun and challenging.
I still feel really down and unmotivated today. I was doing better, but now I’m not. Let’s see if tomorrow holds something better for me… If I can make something better of it.
Today was leg day. Here’s the set list.
I’m still using BodySpace to figure out which exercises to do, but I’m back to logging with pencil and paper. I did the prone leg curl because my gym doesn’t have a seated leg curl (that I could see), and I’m doing bent knee leg raises on the ground instead of hanging knee raises. I absolutely hate dumbbell lunges.
Nik and I fenced a few passes in the parking lot. I found myself getting frustrated because I’m learning all these technical skills that aren’t doing me any good in actual fights. I’m in a weird place where I would benefit from getting back to basics (so I need drills), but I also would benefit from bouting more (so more open floor time).
I met up with Mike and Eddie tonight for Krav. We came up with a plan to get ready for CIC. I felt like it was a good use of my time, and I’m really getting excited about going (even though I’m still apprehensive).
This morning I tried to wake up at 7 but couldn’t. Tried again at 8 and 9 to no avail. I thought I succeeded around 10, but i just went downstairs and napped on the couch until almost 11. My body is spent.
I gave myself the day off from the gym. I did go to fencing, but I only warmed up and helped some newbies with a few skills. I left an hour early to go edit a dissertation.
My plan is to get back in the gym tomorrow after office hours instead of trying to go in the morning.
This morning I woke up with a splitting headache, so I was glad I hadn’t planned to work out at 7 like usual. I hit the gym in the afternoon instead. I didn’t have a lot of time, so all my sets were power sets with very short breaks.
I’ve decided that I like looking up exercises in the BodySpace app, but I don’t like tracking on it. I had to modify some exercises today, and there isn’t room for that in the app. For example, I had one set of alternating dips and push ups. I can’t do dips unassisted, and there isn’t room near that machine to do push ups. I had to modify two things – dips became dips with an assist, and push ups on the ground became standing push ups. I couldn’t indicate any of that in the app. I may not be using it correctly, and I may be a total luddite, but I prefer my pencil and paper.
After that I grabbed lunch with Tiny Nick and rested before extra fencing practice. I fought at least one pass with everyone there, but I was fairly tired, so I felt like I was moving through Jello. I don’t know if the fatigue came from adjusting my sleep schedule or from hitting it hard at the gym today. It may even be from the nights I did lunges to stay in the challenge (my thighs certainly feel that). I hope to be back to myself tomorrow.
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