Wow, another unreasonably long gap in my on-line journal. Training time has been very hard to find all year. Work has been a pressure-cooker with waves of lay-offs, colleagues, and some I might even call friends for the work we've done together while at the bank for 15 years all disappearing. Very low morale. Probably all the more reason to fence and train, but swinging the family budget toward eldest daughter, who is getting better and better, facing the pressures of competition and demonstrating her ability to cope and improve her results with each outing. So that is invaluable to her. Just don't wish to let my work in the sport to whither from lack of use. Anyway, got an early jump on free ticket to C.S.'s, and with two weeks to go, decided to take the plunge knowing that I haven't found the time to bout and practice the way I would prefer. Net, net, knowing that any chance to just show up and compete at a NAC is valuable, took the decision to push ahead, and went. While the raw results look middling, in fact, I fenced well all considering. Messed up my pool bouts, but got a bye anyway into second round of the DEs. Conclusively beat my first round DE opponent (10-6), who is a top ranked Vet, and then faced tough left-handed opponent, top Vet too. Short story for that bout, and a theme of the whole NAC for me was falling a touch short, even with odds in favor. Went out in the 32 loosing with priority in OT. Funny outcome was 3-4 on the day, but +7 indicators. My wins were wide margin; my losses, each and every one, by one touch. Came in and went out seeded 30th of 72. But while my tactics to win by a touch are clearly lacking, my fight was good, and the tougher the the opponent, the better I did; went 2-1 against the 3 guys who are either to 5 in Vet 40 or top 5 Vet 50. So second theme is I still gear up to fence better fencers and don't focus to win against lessor opponents. If anything worked that day, it was the several footwork classes we had at the Club, which revitalized my lunge, which generally unfolded cleanly, quickly and accurately.

Wondering if I can ramp up my training, and recapture conditioning of a couple of years ago. The tues/thurs practices are as good as ever in terms of numbers and quality at the Club. So avenue still exists. Will keeping my job keep me from fencing. Another compromise, alas!