Cold Cold Cold!

(this was accidentally posted onto the Beau Geste Blog on Monday) 

It was 29 degrees with a windchill of 15 today at the Besu Geste Tournament. I'm pretty sure my right buttocks hit a bit if frost bite. I dis not fight in the tournament itself, as i was the current Beau Geste, but I did get some fighting in, which was good. I had missed my planned practice in Iron Bog on Sunday.

REHAB

My left elbow still feel inflamed, and while it doesn't seem to matter when I am fighting, it is annoying. I am doing Indian clubs and we will see how that helps.

WORKOUTS

my transition to a more fitness based workout feels weird. I work myself to a different feeling of fatigue. I don't feel the same burn any more. If course, that was the idea. Last week I hiked in deep snow, did a push up workout, yoga class, pell work, kickboxing class, and worked out with kettle bells. I am also on a liquid only crash diet coinciding with the start of lent and am back down to 216.

FIGHTING

As I was Beau Geste I could not fight in the tournament, so I just got pickups before and after. I fought sets with the four fighters who were there: Tycho, Gui, Dougal, and Garrett. That was three lefties and a Florentine fighter. Joy.

I fought Tycho first with mace and shield. I was using the new rubber mace that Ice Falcon sells. A couple of times I found that it did not stick, that it bounced or rolled without a good impact. It is hard to say if it was due to my grip or the weird construction of the head or what. It was certainly not as bad as the rubber ax heads, which I find impossible to use. But it was not as effective as a softball mace or a rattan and foam based mace that is weighted. My best shot against Tycho was an off side head shot preceded by a stutter fake.

I also took the mace against Gui, a recipe for pain. Again, I hit him a few times, all near the top of the helm, to no effect. At that point I was trying so hard to target his face plate that I was loosing focus on my defense. I won two fights against him, one by taking his leg and then hitting him in the head, and one to his shoulder.y worse moment was when I was concentrating so much on footwork to get behind his shield and throw a weird angled face shot that, when he ducked my shot and moved, my momentum carried me beyond him and I ended up with my back to him.

After I fought Garrett, who placed second in the tournament. He is fast and hits hard. He killed me once or twice and I killed him three or four times. I tried Lucky's passing shot again but to no avail this time. I worked a lot on sword blocks in a high 3 and 4 (add up as opposed to a hanging guard, but guarding the face. Twice I beat him by taking his leg and once with an off side head strike. A few things worth noting are that when I killed him the first time i took his leg and then thrust him on the inside of his right thigh, where i was not aiming. I was aiming for his low belly. He assures me i did not hit him in the cup. The second time it was just a trigger shot to his off side head. He closed and the target opened and I took it. The final time I had taken his leg. I through a hard thrust at his face that he blocked but that pushed his shield back. Next I cheated my right foot out and fringed a thrust to the same place. He blocked it, blinding himself, and I passed through on my left foot than stepped out, squaring up, with my right. And wrapped him. This was good execution of a plane that just came to me in the moment.

Dougal is a very good unbelted fighter who is a bit of a thug. He was fighting with two short thrusting swords, which plays to his skills as a boxer. The one right cross he hit me with was the hardest shot I took all day. Our first fight I had a plan and executed it perfectly. I used Martin's hidden leg shot to take his leg, then hid my tip behind my boot and then thrust him in the belly. After that I went away from those shots.

It was a good day, but I need to fight more dukes.

It is 69 days until Crown Tourney. The next time I will be in armor will be Wednesday at Nutley.