Taking Stock

I just hope I didn’t peak at Coronation….

The last week before a big event you should slow your training down. You want to give your body time to recover from all that training. All I have done this week is yoga and walking. I haven’t even been doing push ups. Unfortunately, this has been going on for awhile. First with my back injury two weeks ago, and then with the cold I had last week, I have had to slow my training down. I’ve also been getting sloppy with my food. I have tried to keep my dairy consumption down since Lent ended, and I’ve succeeded. While I’ve had some chees once or twice, it is nothing like eating it every day the way I always have.  Nonetheless, according to my scale I gained 5 pounds over night last night (went from 215 to 220). That is pretty distressing to see two days before a tournament. But that also comes from taking it easy. I had three solid meals yesterday for the first time in a long time, and ate some form of bread with every meal. I’m obviously retaining water.  My back is killing me the past couple of days, and I still have some residual chest congestion (that is probably allergies).   

Since my birthday on January 26^th, when I started training for Crown, I have had some form of organized workout on 75 out of 88 days. This includes home workouts, classes, yoga, fighting, bike rides, hikes, WODs, weight training--everything. The stats break down like this:

Total workouts (since I did multiples on some days): 87.  

Total calories: 40,630.

Total hours working out: 65

Total miles covered hiking, running, or riding: 93.6

Total resistance workouts: 15

Total Classes (this includes yoga and WODs):  23 (this number is deceptive)

Total bike rides: 12 (this counts some legs as separate rides)

Total walks: 18

Misc: 8 (runs, calisthenics, etc).

Days in armor: 11, including Mudthaw, Coronation, and three Beau Gestes.

I’m happy with all of this.

I wanted to be in armor 16 times, including 4 times at Nutley and 2 at Iron Bog (I did not make Iron Bog once). I fell short of that goal.  I wanted to hit the pell 5,000 times. I fell short of that goal. I wanted to have 10 resistance workouts, 10 WODs, and 10 classes. I exceeded that goal, but only technically.  I wanted to log 55 workouts. With the idea that it is better to log days worked out than individual workouts (since on some days I logged three workouts in one gym session due to the nature of my training ap) I still exceeded that goal by 9 (after subtracting the 11 times I was in armor). 

On the whole I feel good about my training going into crown.

I would feel a whole lot better if I had hit those four Nutley and 2 Iron Bog practices. Those are the only times, other than tourneys, that I get to practice against other royal peers. I managed some helmet time against Gregor, Tim, Omega, and Conrad (at coronation) but I need a lot more than that to be ready for that deep pool. As Mudthaw showed, I am fighting much better. I don’t expect to be the fighter I was 20 years ago, when I was great, but I can be almost that good, and I am not yet there. 

Still, I have a good shot to do well in this crown. It is top-heavy, as always (the list of combatants is here: http://seneschal.eastkingdom.org/springcrown2013.html) There are three Dukes, two counts (including myself), eight other knights, and a number of very tough unblets, many of whom have kicked my ass in one tourney or another. On the other hand, the only fighter in this list whom I have not beaten in a tournament is Omega. I might just have an awesome day. 

Or I might not make it out of the round robin. That is the beauty of it. I love this game!

It is two days until Crown Tourney, which will be my next time in armor.