Ok, back on the horse!!

I have recovered from Pennsic and a really hard (too hard) clubs and bells workout last week. All I’m doing right now is biking and stretching. I skipped Yoga on Monday but, like Woody Allen in “Love and Death” I practice a lot when I’m alone. It is now, however, time to get back on that horse. My achiles has healed to the point where I can fight. My elbow has healed to the point that it really didn’t bother me at Pennsic. Yes I need to rebuild confidence in my body as well as rebuilding my body. But it is time to train.

TRAINING SCHEDULE

Crown is on October 27^th (early) which doesn’t leave much time. I will say up front that I am considering skipping it, something I rarely do. It is in Maine, near Bangor, which is either a long drive or another expensive flight. Plus I’m not so keen on the format. There will be eight pools instead of four, with only two people advancing from each pool. That doesn’t bode well for me, because I usually have at least two brain farts in the early rounds of tourneys and loose fights I should win, hence the reason I like pool play. On the other hand, the pools have no weapons restrictions on them. The later rounds have some pretty complicated ones, and I am only a barely adequate great weapons fighter, so it doesn’t favor me. On the other hand, I live to fight in Crown, and if it wasn’t so far into Maine I wouldn’t think twice.

All that being said I am training as though I plan to win the thing. My training goals are:

• ·         There are just over nine weeks until crown tourney. In that time I want to be in armor twelve times. That works out to a minimum of seven Thursday night practices, three Nutley practices, the Cloisters demo, and Barleycorn. Ideally I will be in armor more than that.

• ·         Counting Yoga on Mondays, I need to get at least three resistance/endurance workouts per week. That equals 27. Of those at least 9 should be WODs, 9 yoga classes, and 9 other workouts (these can be weights, cables, bells and clubs, triple threats, or more WODs).

• ·         There is a long unused pell in the courtyard downstairs. One of my neighbors always complained when I used it. I should be on the pell five days a week, which would equal 45 days. That means I should strike the pell at least 4,500 times between now and then, but lets set the goal at an even 5,000 strikes (not more—when I was hitting the pell 1,000 times a day was when I developed bursitis).

• ·         This one is actually the toughest: if I make 50 miles a week on my bike (which is not easy for me) that will be 450 miles between now and Crown. That is a lot. I will include miles in the gym on stationary equipment (the weather is going to change after all).

This is a tough schedule. Remember, the last week I will be training down, and not doing as much in the way of workouts or riding, so I will need to pack a bit extra into the earlier weeks. The other part of this is that I need to have a couple of fights each week with long sword, with glaive, with two-weapon, and with dane ax. Since Gui is great with the dane ax and the long sword, those will be easy to come by. I’m hoping to get a a couple of workouts with Ron and a couple with Andre (probably down in Philly) as part of my totals. I would love to get up to the Knights Hall, but that is probably out of the question unless it is on  a weekend, and some of my weekends will be taken up with hunting.  Oh yeah, there is one more thing: I’m going to Bermuda for four days. I can do my weight workouts while I am there but not much else. Pell work is probably right out.

Speaking of training, Sir Alexander de Hautville holds fighter practices after which he leads a power lifting session for an hour. That is very hard core. I’m a spindly little weakling next to him, so this is a bit intimidating. Being out of the Belatrix school, I don’t actually believe lifting is necessary to make someone a good fighter. I do it mostly for the endurance not for strength or speed, but I admit that it helps me if my technique is poor or I want to do something unorthodox. But what  do you think? Paul is very clear on this: if you are using proper technique, a 120 pound 5’ tall fighter should be able to kill anybody. Technique renders strength moot. Do you agree?

There are sixty-six days until Crown Tourney.