Oscad and I were going to Nutley last week. I was napping at home, having finished my final day at Paragon. Oscad was getting his armor together at BAT. about 6:30 we talked as he was leaving, and just before I hung up I asked "did either of us check to see OS Nutley is in this week?" The answer was no, so I checked and, sure enough, it doesn't resume till tomorrow. Then Irene came to town and the subway was taken offline. No BAT Sunday. So I have lost two practices already that I was planning to go to. Have to make those up somehow. Anyway, I will be at Nutley tomorrow.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Crown prep
There are 77 days until Crown Tourney.
I have begun my new training regimen in ernest. I will not be able, due to circumstances like living in NYC and not owning a car, to practice twice a week as I would like. I have worked out what I consider to be the ultimate SCA training regimen, (next post) but it requires a midweek practice, and I can't get to Nutley every week.
Today I want to talk about two things: tracking workouts and scheduling.
I've started using the imapmyride app to keep track of my workouts and my nutrition (which can always use some help). Up until now I've just been playing with it, but from now on I intend to use it every day to record what I am eating and how I am training. The workouts show up on www.mapmyfitness.com and on facebook. It is a well designed app that will also track my runs and bike rides via gps (the main reason I got it). It is how I know, for instance, that it is 13.9 miles from my house to City College, where I teach Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was making that ride once a week (twice for one week) in July. Biking will be nearly all my cardio. I will also be lifiting, mostly kettle bells, doing yoga, and using my indian clubs. Fighting will show up as "miscelaneous martial arts". In this way I hope to keep myself honest as to how much work I am putting in this year.
It is important to make a schedule when you are training. I will be travelling a bit between now and Crown, and I'll hit the field once or twice for the early hunting season, so I won't get to as many fight practices or events as I would like. Currently my plan is as follows:
Fight at Barleycorn
BAT (or another sunday practice) every week but October 9 and October 30 (that's 9 practices). At least one of those should be at Andre's practice in South Jersey and two at Iron Bog.
Nutley on 8/24 (or 31), 9/7 & 21, and 10/12, 19, & 26.
I won't make King's and Queen's Champion at arms. I will try to make at least one more fighting event before Crown.
Crown is on November 5.
So between now and Crown I plan to be in armor 16 times. If I can stretch that to 20 I should be in good shape.
My goal in every crown is, of course, to make my lade queen. But my personal goal remains making it to the round of 4. Under the format for this crown that will be really hard, because it will likely take 26 to 31 fights to get there. That's a lot of fights for a crown tourney. So my wind better be up.
Next post I will talk abut the ultimate SCA Training Regimen TM.
I have begun my new training regimen in ernest. I will not be able, due to circumstances like living in NYC and not owning a car, to practice twice a week as I would like. I have worked out what I consider to be the ultimate SCA training regimen, (next post) but it requires a midweek practice, and I can't get to Nutley every week.
Today I want to talk about two things: tracking workouts and scheduling.
I've started using the imapmyride app to keep track of my workouts and my nutrition (which can always use some help). Up until now I've just been playing with it, but from now on I intend to use it every day to record what I am eating and how I am training. The workouts show up on www.mapmyfitness.com and on facebook. It is a well designed app that will also track my runs and bike rides via gps (the main reason I got it). It is how I know, for instance, that it is 13.9 miles from my house to City College, where I teach Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was making that ride once a week (twice for one week) in July. Biking will be nearly all my cardio. I will also be lifiting, mostly kettle bells, doing yoga, and using my indian clubs. Fighting will show up as "miscelaneous martial arts". In this way I hope to keep myself honest as to how much work I am putting in this year.
It is important to make a schedule when you are training. I will be travelling a bit between now and Crown, and I'll hit the field once or twice for the early hunting season, so I won't get to as many fight practices or events as I would like. Currently my plan is as follows:
Fight at Barleycorn
BAT (or another sunday practice) every week but October 9 and October 30 (that's 9 practices). At least one of those should be at Andre's practice in South Jersey and two at Iron Bog.
Nutley on 8/24 (or 31), 9/7 & 21, and 10/12, 19, & 26.
I won't make King's and Queen's Champion at arms. I will try to make at least one more fighting event before Crown.
Crown is on November 5.
So between now and Crown I plan to be in armor 16 times. If I can stretch that to 20 I should be in good shape.
My goal in every crown is, of course, to make my lade queen. But my personal goal remains making it to the round of 4. Under the format for this crown that will be really hard, because it will likely take 26 to 31 fights to get there. That's a lot of fights for a crown tourney. So my wind better be up.
Next post I will talk abut the ultimate SCA Training Regimen TM.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
Last Day of Pennsic
This has been a great war. I haven't fought as much as I'd like, but I fought a lot and partied a bit and great things happened.
We had three new fighters in our group, Duncan, Deklin, and Shandar, plus Thormundr, a midrealm transplant, to go with Me, Cian and Gui. Amalric fought with us a bit too. We fought well.
There were three knightings and two of them were the guys I have been pushing, Gui Avec Cheval du Guise and Oscad de Segovia. They are the two guys who basically run the Brooklyn practice. Gui is also about to become Viceroy of Ostgardr. They are both great fighters and I have seen them as knights for a long time.
Gui's vigil was particularly cool. He got called out of Scotch and Cigar party and we marched him to a pavilion on the side of the field, striped him naked and poured ice water over him. Cian was in charge of setting it up. The new guys formed his guard. It was awesome.
The third knight was Roger Stockton. That was a controversial knighting but in the end I'm happy with it.
I just finished my sixth day in armor. I did pickups every day and fought in every battle save the bridge (I had to take Hanna to the airport). I also fought in the Atlantian speed tourney. I went five round and lost to Duke Edmund and Douglas Henry, who eventually won. Not a bad showing really.
My pickups were fantastic. I fought a lot of easterners but, today at least, they were form Tir Mara so I had never seen them before. The two pickup opponents who stand out for me were a lady knight from North Shield, I thing her name was Roshamund, and Dongal a knight from Atenveldt. In both cases the key to winning the fights that I won was patience. As I figured, I am losing my leg more with the heater than I did with the center grip kite. I successfully used an upsilon leg shot, a hook thrust, a hesitation wrap, and a wavy-rising snap. But the real trick was a wrap that basically threw itself when my opponent closed on me. That was awesome.
Camp was also fantastic. We have a great bunch of people this year. I even made it to the Bardici party last night, which is truly up to all the hype. It was the most magnificent thing I'd ever seen at Pennsic.
We had three new fighters in our group, Duncan, Deklin, and Shandar, plus Thormundr, a midrealm transplant, to go with Me, Cian and Gui. Amalric fought with us a bit too. We fought well.
There were three knightings and two of them were the guys I have been pushing, Gui Avec Cheval du Guise and Oscad de Segovia. They are the two guys who basically run the Brooklyn practice. Gui is also about to become Viceroy of Ostgardr. They are both great fighters and I have seen them as knights for a long time.
Gui's vigil was particularly cool. He got called out of Scotch and Cigar party and we marched him to a pavilion on the side of the field, striped him naked and poured ice water over him. Cian was in charge of setting it up. The new guys formed his guard. It was awesome.
The third knight was Roger Stockton. That was a controversial knighting but in the end I'm happy with it.
I just finished my sixth day in armor. I did pickups every day and fought in every battle save the bridge (I had to take Hanna to the airport). I also fought in the Atlantian speed tourney. I went five round and lost to Duke Edmund and Douglas Henry, who eventually won. Not a bad showing really.
My pickups were fantastic. I fought a lot of easterners but, today at least, they were form Tir Mara so I had never seen them before. The two pickup opponents who stand out for me were a lady knight from North Shield, I thing her name was Roshamund, and Dongal a knight from Atenveldt. In both cases the key to winning the fights that I won was patience. As I figured, I am losing my leg more with the heater than I did with the center grip kite. I successfully used an upsilon leg shot, a hook thrust, a hesitation wrap, and a wavy-rising snap. But the real trick was a wrap that basically threw itself when my opponent closed on me. That was awesome.
Camp was also fantastic. We have a great bunch of people this year. I even made it to the Bardici party last night, which is truly up to all the hype. It was the most magnificent thing I'd ever seen at Pennsic.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
pennsic prep
Well I leave for war this Saturday. My shoulder is healed, my ribs are mending and my back is fine so long as I don't work retail. My armor is repaired and I have a tent. I've been biking, including a 32 mile day yesterday. Feel ready.
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Thursday, July 28, 2011
Grumble
Decided not to ride the bike today. Can't really lift either. Ribs feel better but still hurt from crash the other day. Supposed to be training for Pennsic (though since I can ride 32 miles in a day right now, I don't think my wind is a problem for Pennsic). But no training today.
It gives me a bit of time to talk philosophy. I never try to hide the fact that my main goal in fighting is to win my second crown. I've done some stupid things in that pursuit, like going to a bunny round for three years, but I still think I've got a shot. While spring crown wasn't too good, with sword and shield since I went to the 24x36 heater I am fighting great. Pennsic will be a real test. I've also given notice at Paragon which will free up a lot more Saturdays. So here is the philosophy part.
We fight for ourselves. We fight for our consorts. We fight for our kings. A lot of people try to say that you shouldn't want to win, or that you should fight for the pure joy off fighting or to make you consort happy or to support your king, but that fighting to win is bad. I fight to win. I have enjoyed fights I've lost, but I usually enjoy winning more. People also say you shouldn't want the crown. That's bull. Why would you fight for something if you didn't want it? I realize there are a lot of reasons to fight in crown that have nothing to do with reigning, and people who have little chance of winning still fight. And they should--I've got that old school Western attitude that Crown is what this game is all about and so everybody should fight in crown. But for me, if I didn't want to win I would feel bad about fighting. I've struggled with this the last few times I've fought in Western crown. Do I really want to try to be king of the West while living in the East. I can afford the travel, that's not the issue. I've got the savings and would spend it happily. So far, every year, the answer has been yes. I still love the West, I'm still active there, and I'd enjoy being king. If ever I felt that I couldn't do it, or that I didn't want it, I'd stop fighting in June Crown. But the alrger point is that I want to be king.
Shouldn't people want to be king if they are fighting in crown? And, in a larger sense, shouldn't people want to be king or queen period, since that is the foundation of our game?
It gives me a bit of time to talk philosophy. I never try to hide the fact that my main goal in fighting is to win my second crown. I've done some stupid things in that pursuit, like going to a bunny round for three years, but I still think I've got a shot. While spring crown wasn't too good, with sword and shield since I went to the 24x36 heater I am fighting great. Pennsic will be a real test. I've also given notice at Paragon which will free up a lot more Saturdays. So here is the philosophy part.
We fight for ourselves. We fight for our consorts. We fight for our kings. A lot of people try to say that you shouldn't want to win, or that you should fight for the pure joy off fighting or to make you consort happy or to support your king, but that fighting to win is bad. I fight to win. I have enjoyed fights I've lost, but I usually enjoy winning more. People also say you shouldn't want the crown. That's bull. Why would you fight for something if you didn't want it? I realize there are a lot of reasons to fight in crown that have nothing to do with reigning, and people who have little chance of winning still fight. And they should--I've got that old school Western attitude that Crown is what this game is all about and so everybody should fight in crown. But for me, if I didn't want to win I would feel bad about fighting. I've struggled with this the last few times I've fought in Western crown. Do I really want to try to be king of the West while living in the East. I can afford the travel, that's not the issue. I've got the savings and would spend it happily. So far, every year, the answer has been yes. I still love the West, I'm still active there, and I'd enjoy being king. If ever I felt that I couldn't do it, or that I didn't want it, I'd stop fighting in June Crown. But the alrger point is that I want to be king.
Shouldn't people want to be king if they are fighting in crown? And, in a larger sense, shouldn't people want to be king or queen period, since that is the foundation of our game?
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Workouts
So I succumbed to the advertising on the Tour de France and downloaded the mapmyride app. I am using it to keep track of my workout progress and, while I don't like the website, and there are some kins in the nutrition section, I do like the mapping feature, the calorie calculator, and the workout log. I wasn't able to find kettle bells on the drop down menu though. That needs a fix. It uploads my workouts automatically to Facebook and, in theory, to www.mapmyride.com, though I haven't figured out how that part works yet. But my workouts can be seen on facebook now, which will show everybody how much I'm slacking off.
My first experiment with it yesterday included some road rash. I rode my bike to work at City College (16 miles) and on the way hit a pothole on the West Side Highway and went over my handle bars, Well, actually, one of them hit me in the ribs, which still hurts. After class I rode down to Soho for late lunch with my sister and her family (about nine miles) and then home, though I didn't start the gps right away, so it only showed that as a bit over six miles. It was, for all intents and purposes, a 32 mile day. The app records my distance, elevation changes, average speed and total time. Pretty cool.
The day before that I did my kettle bell workout, but didn't upload that one. That log is pretty general though.
Today, though I had planned to ride to school again, I took the subway. My ribs needed the recovery time. Hopefully I won't have to wear the body armor at Pennsic.
And speaking of Pennsic, it starts on Saturday. I won't be there till second Saturday, but am already antsy.
My first experiment with it yesterday included some road rash. I rode my bike to work at City College (16 miles) and on the way hit a pothole on the West Side Highway and went over my handle bars, Well, actually, one of them hit me in the ribs, which still hurts. After class I rode down to Soho for late lunch with my sister and her family (about nine miles) and then home, though I didn't start the gps right away, so it only showed that as a bit over six miles. It was, for all intents and purposes, a 32 mile day. The app records my distance, elevation changes, average speed and total time. Pretty cool.
The day before that I did my kettle bell workout, but didn't upload that one. That log is pretty general though.
Today, though I had planned to ride to school again, I took the subway. My ribs needed the recovery time. Hopefully I won't have to wear the body armor at Pennsic.
And speaking of Pennsic, it starts on Saturday. I won't be there till second Saturday, but am already antsy.
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