It's been awhile since I posted here. I'm kind of losing the drive to keep posting. I also took some time off from fighting for a medical issue. That issue has been corrected.
TRAINING
Is limited to my normal workout of pushups, squats, and pell work daily. I've run a couple of times on the treadmill, and once outside, but walking and stairs is most of my cardio (12,000 steps yesterday=6 miles).
TECHNIQUE
I've not been working on anything specifically. I've been using Count Gemeni's wards, for the most part-- at extreme range fighting a strong high open form (bellatrix), at medium range a weak high closed form (Von Drachenklau), and at close range a strong high closed form (almost everybody else). I still mix in a few A-frame.
FIGHTING
My health issues were three fold. The first issue was the possibility of a blood clot having developed at Pennsic from wrapping my knee too tight after I was injured (see earlier post). My D-Demer test was positive, and my leg was swollen, but two ultrasounds revealed nothing.
The second issue was a concussion suffered at the Cloisters. I developed concussion issues after I hit myself in the head with a sword while doing pell work years ago (no, really), and suffered my first recognizable fighting concussion a year or so later, (i'd probably had at least one before, but this was the first one with classic symptoms), when Gui accidentally face punched me at Acheron, resulting in a concussion that I felt as a pain at the back of my head from my brain bouncing off the back of my skull. I took time off from fighting, told my doctor, and retired that helmet. I changed my helmet and padded it with anti-concussion padding from Windrose. It worked, but my new helmet did not allow for any padding beyond that. I stopped getting my bell wrung, but at Pennsic I did have a couple of headaches. Then, at Cloisters, I got hammered literally, with a big hammer-headed polearm. The next day I had a migraine that was pretty bad. It went away so I fought that Thursday at Hawethorne, and had another migraine the next day. I had concussion symptoms for a couple of weeks, and ended up taking a lot of time off for reason three.
The third issue was a spell of really high blood pressure. This was result of a lot of things -- pain from the concussion, fatigue, work stress, general politics stress, producing a show stress, and--especially--SCA stress brought on by the arrest of Louis Rondon/Lousi de Castillo, whom long-time readers of this blog will know from mention of our bouts over the last few years, particularly the drown that he won last May. At the same time, my doctor changed my medication. I'd been really dehydrated at Pennsic, and I asked her to take me off the hydrochlorothiazide, a diurettic. My blood pressure started going up, and so she switched me from Lisinopril to Nephedipine. It this time I was suffering from fatigue and headaches. The neephedipine had a lot of side effects, including chest pains and shortness of breath. The first or second day I was on it, I went to the ER with blood pressure of 198/154, which is very bad. Eventually, I was switched back to my old regimen of hydrochlorothiazide and lisinopril, which had worked before. I just need to hydrate a LOT (as I type this I had another bout of fatigue and headache, which is dehydration). I missed Crown Tourney for the first time in years as a result -- doctor's orders -- and ended up taking about three months off from fighting.
My health is good. I had a great stress test and echo. My BP is 110/70. Both my GP and my cardiologist have cleared me to fight.
I'm back to fighting, but in my Crusader helmet, which is big and heavy and has a lot more padding in it, but has lousy visibility. I've got a big heavy bascinet I'm going to pad up, but it's not the period I like to fight in, and it doesn't have an aventail yet, which is an aesthetic that I think is necessary for bascinets. But it it will do for the moment. Long term I am going to go to an open faced helmet with a suspension liner. I've considered for some time going to a late period rig with a shoulder mounted helm (Icefalcom makes one I really like) but I would not want to fight in crown in that helmet, for a lot of reasons.
Meanwhile, I have been fighting a bit lately. I had a great time at Aedult Swim this year. I was only there for one day, but I fought 18 opponents, which works out to right around 100 fights (I fought at least five fights with al of them, and more with some). I ended my day with fights with Duke Rangvaldr, in my book one of the top ten fighters in the SCA. I killed him twice (he killed me five times). Any time I lay stick on Rangvaldr I count as a great day. I also had a great set with Duke Christoph from Atlantia. The only Easterner I fought was Pelandreas, but he's from Quebec, so I never see him anyway. He will likely be a tough out at Crown. I did get him once with a good face thrust, and fought him pretty well over all. got to fight a couple of those Ansteoran two sword fighters too. At first I was totally dominated by that style, which I'd never fought, but after four or five bouts I started winning most of my fights. It mostly requires attacks down the middle. After that I fought a knight using a more standard two-sword style, and I did well.
Here is some video of one fight from SCA tally, starting a bit out of focus. I'm so slow! I also wonder why I didn't take that backhand. The rest of the video is cool too.
It is exactly 60 days until Crown. My next time in armor will be Nutley next week, and my tournament with be IceDragon in Aethelmarc on March 15.
