serfsup – Marie's Fitness Blog

Serfo 2017 has come and gone. UWF Fencing brought 8 fencers to the tournament this year. Nik medaled in ringen, conventional rapier, and first blood rapier, and one of our students won the Franco-Belgian tournament. I’m proud of both of them.

Leading up to Serfo, we had to lift less because I was experiencing muscle fatofue when training, but we did still did both (just less intense lifting). In addition to all that, I got a sinus infection the Monday night before the event. I medicated it aggressively and felt better for the tournament – not 100% but better.

Believe it or not, I felt at my best when I was fencing. I never made it out of pools, but I did some good fencing, especially on Sunday (I don’t feel proud of my performance in the first blood tourney). I competed in Women’s Longsword, First Blood Rapier, Conventional Rapier, and Sword and Buckler. Women’s Longsword conflicted with Franco-Belgian Rapier, and I didn’t care to do the Open Longsword or Ringen. I’m pleased with my longsword and conventional rapier fights, and I feel like I absolutely crushed the buckler tourney in the last fight of my pool.

In addition to competing, I attended a Friday night class on rapier and observed part of a cutting class on Friday morning. I took a lot of notes on drills we can do in the club.

I also took notes on what needs to change about my own fight and my expectations for tournaments. I want to increase my muscular endurance, my cardio capacity, and my timing. I have the skills, but I got caught flat footed more than I’d like. We debriefed our students and have some feedback on things they want to improve as well. It’s never too late to start preparing for next year, right?

We drove back Sunday night, rested Monday day, and returned to fencing Monday night. Nik and I hit the weights again today. I intend to have a fitness assessment done in the next month or two so that I’ll have a direction for my physical training. As far as fencing in particular goes, I think I need more drills, more conditioning – all the tedious stuff that really makes a difference.

I’ve been busy with fencing every day leading up to Serfo. I had a rough night a couple practices ago, but I’m otherwise seeing improvement. I’m trying new things and re-covering fundamentals now in hopes that I’ll be able to turn off my conscious brain and rely on my lizard brain during the tournament’s.

In addition to all the fencing, I’m still lifting frequently. We’re adding more rest days since lifting and fencing together can be pretty taxing.

Everything else is kind of on the back burner for now.

I’m still around. I went to a couple tournaments but didn’t post about them. Basically I trained, I went, I fenced well enough but didn’t win… the usual. My mentor told me to lead less and focus on my fighting, so that’s what I’m doing now.

Right now I’m gearing up for a big tourney: the Southeast Renaissance Fencing Open. We’re about a week into our 30 days of fencing. I’m doing this on top of some pretty rigorous weight training.

Nik and I have been going to the gym pretty much every day since the summer. We do have rest days, and we miss when life gets in the way. When we go, we focus on arms or chest & shoulders (since fencing works the legs). In a month I gained a fair amount of weight but lost 3% body fat.

I’m still doing Krav but on a different schedule. Enrollment dropped enough that we cancelled that class. Now we’re doing seminars every couple of weeks. I took and passed my P4 test. We need to start studying P5, but I’m kind of focused on my tourney prep now. I don’t know if I will progress beyond P5. I have an opportunity to take CIC 2, but I’m apprehensive.

So for now it’s just a ton of fencing and weight lifting.