Tag: weight lifting

Tuesday was not a rock wall night. I came home from work and sacked out on the couch, and Nik let me rest a bit. I appreciated that.

We lifted weights and did cardio. I noticed that when Nik bench presses, he doesn’t quite hold his arms the same way, so I helped him keep an even posture on both sides. Then Tiny Nick! met us at the gym for an extra fencing practice. I fenced a little bit, but I mostly watched the fellas fence. I took videos so that they could see themselves, and I think that helped. I was definitely Coach Marie on Tuesday.

Yesterday I had LASIK done, so I didn’t work out at all. I didn’t even get my steps in. I’ve worn glasses since I was 10 and contacts since I was 15, so this is a huge change for me. The procedure was scary because I was awake, and when they cut that flap out, you can’t see for a few seconds, but my doctor was fantastic. He and his assistant had a great manner. I was allowed to hold Lord Mousington during the surgery (sometimes quite tightly), and I was allowed to talk. My fencing for yesterday consisted of babbling at the doctor about swords to distract myself from any discomfort I felt during the procedure. We’ll count that as theory.

I know this is my fight blog, not my eye surgery blog, but because of the surgery, I can’t get any sweat or tap water in my eyes for about two weeks. I’m allowed to fence, but I’m not allowed to sweat. I’m thinking that today will be another theory day, or it’ll be a drill day. I don’t intend to dress out. I’m excited, however, to see how this procedure has affected my depth perception and reaction time. I’ve been assuming I’ll be in the same boat as I was when I was wearing my contact lenses, but I’m not sure. Only time will tell, so expect occasional eye updates. 

I’d like to do some light sparring tomorrow, but I’m not making any promises to myself that I can’t keep.

I did not fence last Thursday, but I felt my time was well spent with my friend.

I ran UWF fencing practice on Friday since Nik was out of town. I spent some time working with some newer students, and Tiny Nick! stepped in to introduce the new students to some drills. He’s shaping up into a good instructor.

On Saturday I had informal practice at my house with my students from UWF. We fenced until the sun went down and then had some “mus’ go soup” (made when you have a bunch of ingredients that “mus ‘go” in the soup)..

Nik came back Saturday night, and we had an SCA demo on Sunday. We had an informal tournament, and I feel like I did some good fighting even though I didn’t win the tournament. I saw good sportsmanship and good fencing from my students, and our bouts ran well even though people were sharing gear and trading weapons between rounds.

Last night Michael and I were back at it at Krav. I think we’re building our new core group. We have some people from before the break and a couple of new faces. I’m hopeful that we can keep the momentum going.

My biggest challenge right now is that one of my students has some trouble with coordination because of other medical issues. I’m working on figuring out the best way to adapt what we’re teaching to suit his needs.

After class, Michael and I ran through some ground work and a kick defense for P3 and worked on figuring out a schedule for ourselves. I think we’ll probably look at techniques after class and then work on conditioning at other times (either together or reporting back to each other). Last night I came home and used the medicine ball for some core work while I was watching TV. I did sit ups (wihout the ball), twists (with the ball), and ball drops (obviously with the ball). I need to inflate my yoga ball a bit more so that I can get off the floor and do some more dynamic stuff during TV time.

Tonight Nik and I are hitting the gym and then meeting up with some of our students to do some fencing (speaking of momentum). I’ll probably do some light weight lifting, but i need to do more cardio to get ready for CIC.

Last night Nik and I went to the gym and climbed the rock wall. I made it about halfway up, got stuck, got nervous, and bailed out. Then I watched him climb to the top. I tried one more time and made it almost to the top (four panels shy) before I got stuck and bailed (I didn’t really give myself time to be scared the second time). I had a really good time, and I think I climbed pretty high, even though I didn’t ring the bell. We’re going to try that again for sure!

After the rock wall, we did some weight lifting. Then we met up with Marco and Tiny NIck! for some fencing. We planned to fence 8-9, maybe 9:15. We closed the gym at 10. I’d say that was a good practice.

We did some sword and dagger work and made the boys practice sword and dagger against case (or brace – two swords). We also played with the dussacks. I showed some “hand sniping” techniques as well.

Tonight will be my and Michael’s second day of teaching Krav unassisted. I came up with my lesson plan yesterday and feel pretty good about it.

UWF Fencing practice was cancelled on Friday, and I spent Thursday resting up. I was still kind of recovering from the migraine I had after the test Wednesday night. After two days of rest, I finally made it to the beach, but the weather was lousy, so I didn’t make my walk to the pier and back. I did splash around in the surf a bit.

Fortunately my weekend wasn’t entirely inactive. I went to the gym with Nik on Saturday, and he helped me with some weight lifting. I discovered that I can bench press 95 lbs, which I think is pretty good for a first time (it’s more than half my weight)!

On Sunday I went to SCA fencing, but I didn’t get to do a lot of fighting – instead I mostly talked to new fighters and got some advice on another project. I did get to do a little dussack.

Tonight is my first night back at Krav since the test. I think I might be more nervous now than I was when I actually took the test. I’ll let you all know tonight or tomorrow. I don’t want to keep you in suspense, but I’m about to burst if I don’t find out!