Tonight Michael and I taught our first Krav class on our own. I was nervous at first, but it went well.

After class, we talked about our plans for the class and our training, but we didn’t really work on anything. We’ll practice on Wednesday.

Last night’s trip to the gym went well. Nik was having chest & ab day, so I worked that circuit with him. I didn’t bench press partially because I wasn’t sure how my recently healed shoulder would like it and partially because I heard that the bench press can cause problems for healthy shoulders.

I tried to approach the workout like rehab, not like a workout: low weight, plenty of breaks, etc. It felt like someone was pinching my muscles – not enough to hurt, just enough to put pressure on. I iced the shoulder when I came home, and I feel pretty good today. I won’t be trying the chin-up bar anytime soon, but I definitely feel like I’m making progress.

I also worked on cardio. That will be a challenge for me at CIC. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical (with one bad earbud and more commercials than I’d like on my playlist). I’d like to try for 35 or 40 minutes in a week or so. I don’t have a particular goal or cap in mind. I just want to increase my endurance.

Tonight is fencing practice at UWF. Michael and I start teaching Krav next week, so this Wednesday will be my last one at fencing – I’ll be doing just Fridays again from now on.

I rested up and felt a bit better for the weekend.

First i assisted in a Krav seminar. The official instructors did the instructing, and I and some of my cohorts worked the room, helping people adjust form and answering questions. I committed to teaching P1 and P2 with my CIC partner. We start next week. I’m stoked and nervous – just like when I teach English.

After that I hit the road. Nik and I visited our friends in Castlemere/Jacksonville for fencing practice (shout out to Zhao for following my adventures!). I fenced a few rounds and made some new friends. I tried not to over-exert myself and had a great afternoon.

When we got back to Pensacola, we rested a bit and then went to UWF practice. I did much more fencing (but still took breaks). I’m still standing, so I feel pretty good and think I may finally be over this cold.

Tonight after work Nik and I are hitting the gym. I’m not sure what I’m going to try to do (light weightlifting? incorporating running? finally trying the rock wall?), but I’m definitely ready to get back to being active.

Welcome to the New Year!

I’m already sick. No joke.

I made it to a few Krav classes before our break for the holidays. Nik and I did some traveling, so most of our exercise consisted of walking around, but we did do a little fencing and spear throwing. We also spent a lot of time sitting in the car and eating rich foods. For the most part, there’s nothing to report here.

I didn’t feel too hot on New Year’s Day. I assumed that was a side effect from treating my body like an amusement park, but I stayed inside and chilled out nonetheless. On the second, Nik and I made it home from our vacation, and I felt really lousy, but there was a bad storm, so instead of going to the Minute Clinic, I took some cough syrup and slept for 10 hours. This plan didn’t help.

I had to miss my first day back at work, which isn’t nearly as much fun as it sounds. I’m on antibiotics (again) because the doctor thinks this is a secondary infection from the last illness I had. I swear, as soon as it felt like I was getting better (I had a cough long after I stopped the last course of antibiotics), I got worse. This can stop any time now.

Fencing starts up again this week, if I’m not mistaken. It would be wise of me to sit out tonight, but I won’t like it. My yogi moved, and I’m not sure if taking the employee class is best for my schedule, so I’m going to look into attending classes at a studio in town that my friend recommends. We have a Krav seminar coming up this month, and I’m going to help with that. We’ll have regular classes again after that. I’m glad we aren’t having class before the seminar – I’m hoping I’ll get better before it’s time to get back to work.

So I can’t work out, but I can manage my diet, so that’s what I’m doing for now. I’m using MyFitnessPal again, and I’m strongly considering getting a FitBit with my Christmas money.

Other than that, there really isn’t much to report.

My body has been trying to get sick for a couple of weeks now. Fortunately I made it through Magna Faire. I got to fence, and I did well enough that people were coming by and complimenting me, but I didn’t feel like I was fencing my fight. I assumed it was because I haven’t been practicing as much since I got hurt (remember that I’ve been to maybe two practices and Serfo since the shoulder sprain).

On Monday Krav was rained out. The weather was bad enough that we didn’t want our students out driving around. I welcomed the reprieve.

Tuesday was my last day of yoga, my first aid final, and my psych final. Toga was restful, and I aced my finals. Yay!

Apparently that took everything I had out of me because my body finally decided to be sick on Wednesday. I visited the MInute Clinic to make sure it wasn’t strep and was diagnosed with a cold. I’m taking some low dose steroids to deal with the symptoms. Now I’m full of energy but also not really up for doing anything. Of course, since I missed work Wednesday, I didn’t go to Krav. I probably will not go to fencing tonight.

This is frustrating because I want to get out and do stuff, but I also want to rest up and heal well so that I can enjoy my winter break. I have to keep reminding myself that there will be fencing practice and Krav, even though the school will be closed.

I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired (and hurt).

Since everyone in my Krav class has tested to one level or another and we have less than a month of classes ahead of us, the next six classes will be “play” classes.

Last night we did some relays involving carrying heavy punching bags (indoors) and then went into the alley to do some scenarios that were kind of a hybrid of flag football and capture the flag. It was a hell of a workout and generally a good time. I may have pushed a little harder than I should have, so I iced my shoulder when I came home.

I’m gearing up for Magna Faire this weekend. I’ve barely fenced since Serfo. I’ve been ill or in a slump so much since then, and I’m hoping that being around my friends will help me get some of my enthusiasm back. I want to want to fence. Does that make sense? I go to fencing, and I think I want to fence, but I get there, and I just can’t give my best fight. I’m hoping that a couple days of rest will get me back to myself on Saturday.

Monday night when I was getting ready for Krav, I felt really warm and looked flushed. I took my temperature and saw that I had a fever. I called Kita, told her what was up, and we agreed I should rest, so I settled in on the couch with my cat, some water, and a couple ibuprofen. I did some homework and took a nap. Apparently that did the trick because I was back at work the next day. It stinks that I missed a practice night, but I guess my body needed it.

Tuesday was wild. After working a normal day, I enjoyed yoga class. Then I went to my night class, and from there I went straight to Krav for my P3 test. I felt pretty good walking into it.

I felt FREAKING AWESOME walking out of it. I had to correct some things here and there, and I always have room for improvement (plus I got punched in the face – I don’t like this new tradition), but I think I passed. We get our results tonight. I’ll let you know when I remember to update.

If I don’t update, it’s because I’m frantically getting ready for Magna Faire this weekend. Nik and I are taking some of our fencing students up to Birmingham with us. They are so stoked – I hope it’s contagious.

Let’s see where we stand…

I managed to get in a week of Krav (Monday and Wednesday). Then we took a week off for Thanksgiving.

I tried to fence in the interim. I went to practice Friday but didn’t fight. I realized on the drive over that I really didn’t want to go. I was in a negative head space and was worried about injuring myself or someone else since frustrated fencing is generally unsafe fencing.

I slept through practice on Monday because I felt completely lousy. I had some kind of dry head cold that messed with me all week but didn’t keep me down too hard. We cancelled yoga on Tuesday because it was the day before Thanksgiving Break at work. I went to practice on Wednesday, fenced a few rounds, and geared down. I kept getting overheated and felt like I was moving through JELL-O. Friday practice was cancelled. I stayed home Sunday and graded papers while Nik ran practice.

As far as fencing is concerned, I’m in one hell of a slump. I have an event this weekend, and I don’t really want to go, but I need to go.

Tonight is my last night of review until my P3 test. We were going to test tonight, but some dates got mixed up. The test is tomorrow. Wish me luck, folks.

I have use of my shoulder, but I’m still not 100%. I can test safely, and I can fence a little bit, but it still hurts to put pressure on it when it’s extended upward (like laying on my right side).

I’m back, baby!

I’m finally out of the sling, and I even got to fight!

Let’s rewind. I didn’t see much point in updating during my recovery. Mostly my life consisted of being uncomfortable in the sling, occasionally taking it off and doing light stretching, and icing it regularly. I had a few opportunities to go watch other people fence, which wasn’t quite as terrible as it could have been. I enjoyed little victories like being able to wash my own hair.

Then came Thursday. I wore my sling religiously, even the entire ride up to Atlanta. I was so very careful that I felt comfortable leaving the sling off all day on Friday. I attended a discussion about destreza that morning and then a practical lesson that night. To play things safe, I went through the drills left handed and avoided doing ringen afterward. I didn’t even do both halves of the class, partially because I wanted to keep some energy in reserve and partially because my friends had arrived in town.

On Saturday, I fenced for the first time since the injury. I rigged together a shoulder guard and fought in my pool in the women’s long sword competition. I met my goal of not embarrassing myself.

After that, I competed in the dussack tournament. I fought left handed and wore extra padding but didn’t deal with any hard blows to that side. Unfortunately I did smash my fingers and need to sit out the rest of the day, so I missed the first blood rapier tournament.

On Sunday I elected not to participate in the open long sword tournament, and based on some of the fighting I saw, I made the right call. I was able to compete in the conventional long sword tournament, and I made it out of my pools but washed out in elims (fencing right handed since the tournament was thrust only).

I went back to Krav on Monday without the sling. This time I got to participate since I need to catch up on my P3 skills. My Krav buddies marveled at my bruises, and I worked out three weeks’ worth of pent up energy.

Now I’m experiencing a delayed event hangover, so I’ll take it easy tonight. I’m looking forward to Krav practice tomorrow. I’ll let you know when I get to test.

The ortho says I have a Level 1 sprain (so not too bad). I’m supposed to stay in the sling, keep icing it, and generally resting up. I’ve been abiding by those instructions pretty carefully.

I told him about SERFO and what I wanted to do. He said that if I really truly rest, I should be able to compete, BUT (and I can’t emphasize how big this but is), if I’m not feeling 100%, I could cause further injury. A hard fall or blow could cause an AC separation, which would require surgery.

If I were going to SERFO today, I’d do rapier but probably not dussack and definitely not long sword. We’ll see how I feel in two weeks. I’m going to talk to the people in charge of the tournament, evaluate my armor situation, and otherwise figure out what I’m going to do.

In the meantime, my life is super sedentary and boring. I’m getting frustrated, and I don’t have much of an outlet. I am still doing yoga, but class doesn’t meet next week or the week after, so I’ll have to do gentle movement stretching on my own. I’m thinking I need to go for a walk or something to get moving around without straining the shoulder any more.

Last weekend Nik and I took a bunch of our UWF fencing students to Gatalop. I couldn’t fight, of course, but I marshaled, and I had a great time watching our students have a great time. This weekend is Panhandle Skirmishes. I’m considering gearing up so that I can be on the field giving orders, but again, I’m not fighting. It may be better to leave my stuff at home to remove all temptation.

Krav was canceled on Monday since people in my class have kids to take trick or treating. We’re back at it today. I have no idea how class will go since Michael (the other “TA” as I call us) is also hurt – from doing the same move. He’s hurt way worse than I am, so I don’t know if he’ll come in or not. I know we’re mostly doing review, though, so class should be manageable.