Fencing gear came today!

High tops are a bit snug, but once I got them laced right they felt great. Actually, it's just great to be wearing a pair of shoes that stick the floor and don't yell at my achilles and ankles every time my heel strikes the ground. They are interestingly weighted: not to heavy, not too light.

When I lunged, my hips didn't hurt, like at all. I don't know if this means my hip is getting slightly better, or if I'm wearing the right shoes.

I complain a lot about my hip, but my back knee is something of a concern as well. Everything I've ever read is that it is important to strengthen the muscles around the knee in order to make the knee strong, and to beware of awkward postures and actions. Well fencing is very bizarre for the knees at times, so I must be careful.

From now on I will talk a little less about weight loss and more about my actual training regimen. I have a practice foil, glove and shoes now. So I can do any kind of solo practice work, and I can do footwork drills and exercises with a partner. I can also borrow a mask and jacket from my local club and practice bouting.

You will notice an absurd time on this entry--I stayed up way too late the other night, and now I'm peeling back my sleep schedule so that I'm not too exhausted to do this thing. Also, a lot of what I'm writing about is figuring out what this 'thing' is.

--I've been looking at some fencing tournaments. It's the last half of the season right now. A little less local tournaments, and an increasing amount of national caliber tourneys. To be perfectly honest while I have lost a good amount of weight, I am worried about throwing myself into one of these things because I hurt myself at the last practices I went to because I went at it too hard with little previous conditioning.

So here's my general plan. I find that if I get TOO specific, I fall off the truck and have a hell of a time getting it back, so here's what's on my mind:

Practice as much as possible with local fencers. Be assertive about what kind of work I want to do with them. Bladework, footwork drills. Also, be assertive especially if something is aerobically taxing. It will be very important to push myself to be in good condition, not necessarily push myself past the brink of my conditioning. I must admit I'm a bit older now. That means training smarter AND harder, but not forgetting the smarter part.

Financially it's just not viable to join the USFA in order to enter a lot of these tournaments. It's $50 to be in the organization, and usually about $15-$30 per event. At national-caliber tournaments it's about $30 for the entry fee and THEN $30 per event. I can understand why. The convention centers don't pay for themselves, but still...this is not a cheap hobby sometimes. I don't even have proper pants right now...

Lastly, on the bright side, looking at this year's national tourney schedule, most of the major tournaments are about 3 or 4 states away. They try to rotate them so that fencers all across the country can reasonably participate. I'll expect a tournament or two in St. Louis AND Chicago next year. I will also have a good excuse to go to Ohio to fence in a tournament or two. My brother walked in Desperado style and shot up the Todd Curn in Epee, and never returned. I also hear Byron is kicking names and taking ass. Next year I'll definitely be paying them a visit.

It's time to begin training in earnest. Here's what I want to do:

• Running/aerobic activity regularly. I'm sure Anna will try to rope me into some running with her. I don't know why I'm so resistant to that (accepting help thing? I dunno), but I will try not to be. She can help me with some footwork exercises, actually.
• Acquire free-weights and dyna-bands. Espeically for my knee and hip, I have to seriously condition my muscles in the right way. I can't just fence a bunch unfortunately. I think I'm being honest here. I don't really enjoy weight training. I enjoy tackling people and wrestling, but I don't really like weight training. Though I also don't enjoy running until after I begin doing it. I have run OR weight trained in about 20 lbs., so I wonder what that will be like?
• Take flexibility VERY seriously. I've been stretching haphazardly throughout the day, but I HAVE been stretching every day. The apartment is now spacious enough to throw some kicks and lunges out there, and if I do them slowly, I learn a little more about my body each time.
• Mental work--go through Orlick's stuff, continue being aware of what seems to work best motivationally. Sleep, meditation and work habits will require a lot of awareness.
• Nutrition. I feel like I've done a fairly good job in this area. Doing lots of little calorie burns like parking far away from the store or walking a lot rather than drive or take a ride has done a lot for my weight. I need to be sure that I'm continuing to eat well--I find it interesting that fast food, while delicious, does not seem to be so hard to resist anymore. I think I am seeing results just through minding my nutrition, and since I've become more used to eating decent food, harmful foods actually feel harmful. I had a killer burger today, but I didn't miss the mayo, didn't use a lot of ketchup, and was mindful of my day's nutrition. If I had this for lunch, I would not have done it again for dinner. I need to keep up the good work here.

I'll try to journal how I've worked to improve all of these. At least once a week I'll be entering how I did here. It actually does take awhile to write all this, so I don't want to take up too much time, as I'm working, trying to find a job, working out/fencing, and trying to do other stuff (like play D&D and for gosh-sakes spend some time with my lady-friend once she gets her hind-end back to Normal), but this blog actually has been a decent tool in at least making me consider how I'm treating myself.

This is not my recovery journal any more, it's my training log. Like I said I'm not sure of the logistics of my training regimen quite yet, but I do have some goals:

• Weigh less than 210
• Attain an E rating by November of 2010 (a flexible goal--if I smoke that E then a D will naturally be my next target)
• Compete in two National-level tournaments.
• Compete in the Todd Curn Memorial in foil
• Own a full set of electric and practice gear (technically a financial goal, I know)
• Learn to assemble electric gear.

Okay, it's officially "tomorrow" so I need to hit the hay. After all this, I actually have a very busy day tomorrow. Will probably update Saturday.

--peace, MCSM