Time to update the description. WSV50 fencer since 2005. Mostly recovered from two meniscus tears in 2006 (not fencing related) and other minor injuries. Focused on improving fencing skills and avoiding injuries. Goal is to qualify for the WSV60 team in 2012.
I find it rather ironic that I'm finally reaching a point where I can honestly feel that I've made/am making progress and yet at the same time, I feel like I've just learned most of the alphabet and now they're talking about learning how to put the letters together to make words and sentences and then paragraphs and then I have to learn something called grammar and man, have you noticed how long this sentence is and have you paused for a breath yet?
The tactical wheel is sort of a mythical beast within the world of fencing. Some fencers swear by it and others swear at it, claiming that it's little more than a fairy tale.
I have a page devoted to it because it does make some logical sense and put actions into an easy-to-follow progression, even if it's really not a wheel and it really doesn't exist in real life.
Think of it like a dragon... no one really believes in them but they make nice analogies for other real life things.
Where some people are self-starters who do not need any external motivation whatsoever to achieve, I need visible milestones. I need occasionally successes. I need REWARDS!
So I have this itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini that will probably never be worn outside the house. The goal is to keep the abs definition, improve the tightness of the lower abs, and work on buns of steel (or at least aluminum) by June. The bikini will allow me to judge (by way of photos) my rate of pro
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Saturday was a light practice followed by some relaxing exercises in the hot tub. Today was a return to the gym for a repeat of Friday's lower body exercises.
My butt is sore from the lunging-with-8-lb-weights.
Next weekend is the Purdue Open, which should be a C2.
Last week, I ate 5 apples in a short period of time because I was hungry for sugar. Given that there's more calories in 5 applies than in a single package of dark chocolate M&Ms, this was not a good solution. More, it didn't kill the craving and I eventually went to the snack area and grabbed a Bit O'Honey bar.
This technically kept me to my pledge to avoid M&Ms and cookie dough but it was still cheating.
So what did I do? I bought a LARGE bag of dark chocolate M&Ms and put it into the
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After work Friday, I hit the gym for a light upper body workout, 30 minutes on the ET, and cranked up the work on the lower body another notch.
In addition to the usual seated leg press, leg extension, reclining leg press at 120 lbs. and calf exercises, I added back what I haven't done in probably three years: walking lunges while holding 8-lb dumbbells.
If my hips don't hurt tomorrow, I'll try to do the same thing on Sunday and make it part of my regular routine.
When I fence the beginner students, I try to focus on particular types of actions or use the opportunity to practice a manuever that I'm just not able to accomplish with the advanced fencers and then when I fence the advanced fencers, they're basically doing the same thing with me. I'm little more than a moving target.
I suppose I should feel good that I've reached the point where the beginning students are moving targets but I keep looking over at the guys fe
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For the past three years, I've had to slide sideways, brace my left hand (or both hands) on the floor and then I could slide the rest of my body down to the ground. Today, I was thinking about how I couldn't even remember HOW to sit down from a standing position and then.... yes, I can fold my arms across my chest, cross my right foot with my left, and sit down into the old traditional Indian position that I used to do as a child. More... after a couple of aborted att
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Today, I'm off work so I cleaned up the house and took a carload of stuff to Goodwill (another load will go shortly) and went to the gym to work on better defining that small abs definition I've built thus far.
I started with stretching in the locker room and moved to
light upper body workouts that wouldn't stress the rotor cuff and then
30 minutes on the ET followed by
3 sets on the seated leg press
3 sets on the leg extension
4 sets of 100, 105, 110, and 115 on the reclining leg press
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I've had problems with lower back pain for decades and have generally kept it under control by keeping the weight low. Since I injured my knee, I've been icing it for ten minutes after exercising and -- when I'm at the gym -- I usually do crunches while it's icing. This has led to developing what I refer to as my four-pack (because it's not a six-pack). [I note that taking pilate reformer classes once a week have also contributed.]
The primary benefit of all this work is that I've reduced and darn near eliminated my back pain by strengthing my core.
01-30-2009 12:31 AM 