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.

Get off your butt and train

CROWN PREP

The off season officially ended the day after my birthday, which happened to be the day after Birka. Now it is the training season. My season, as is most Easterners, is divided into Spring (May Crown Prep), Summer/Pennsic season, Fall (November Crown Prep), and Winter/Off/Birka season. It is now exactly eleven weeks till crown, 77 days, and I am pretty happy with where my off season prep went. My shield arm is a bit tired and my targeting is a bit off, and I am concerned about my endurance at this weight (222 yesterday  about nine pounds heavier than last crown, twelve over my ideal weight, though more of that is muscle than before), but my strength is pretty good.

So it's time to start training for crown. It would be hubris to say I plan to win crown, but that is certainly my goal. It's been 19 years since I was king of the West, and I need to step up my game again to what it once was (though I am no longer 30, so that's not entirely possible).

So here are my training goals for Crown:

Armor up and fight sixteen times.
Include in that 15 fighter practices, with four of those at Nutley and two in Iron Bog, plus one tournament.
log 55 workouts (that is only 5 per week and includes fighting, so that should not be hard).
Include 10 resistance workouts, 10 classes, 10 crossfit style WODs.
Hit the pell 5,000 times.

Some of those goals are lighter than I set for last crown, some are heavier. Last time I accomplished about half my training goals. This time I am shooting for all of them. Pell work is once again the hardest one to get through.

It is 77 days until crown. The next time I will be in armor will be at Iron Bog practice tomorrow.

A cold muddy day at Grants Tomb.

It was a cold muddy day at Grants Tomb on Saturday. We moved practice to Saturday because of the Super Bowl. As a 49ers fan I now consider that an empty gesture, but what the Hell. It was still good because Duchess Eilis, my SCA mom, was visiting from the West Kingdom and she came along to hang out with us. Afterward we went to Hill Country, possibly the best Barbecue north of the Mason Dixon.

R3EHAB
Yesterday I started doing rehab exercises again for my shoulders and elbows. Partially it was because of how tired my shoudlers were after single-sword work on Saturday, but mostly because I've now developed tendonitis in my shield elbow. It does not affect my fighting, it pops up other times.

WORKOUTS
I am having a bit of trouble (read slugishness) getting into a workout pattern now that the semester has started. I am a lot busier right now and more tired, plus I was planning to change my workouts to more of a fitness based rather than strength based workout at the same time. However, counting practice I managed to work out every day last week. I got in my regular arm workout on Sunday, yoga class on Monday, WODs and yoga on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then walking around the Lower East Side with Eilis on Thursday and Friday--a total of 6.75 miles in two days. Then I fought, and while I have skipped the last three days (other than some physical therapy) today I did a monster workout, with 20 minutes yoga and tabata sets of dumbbell exercises. Intense! (I ache!) I do need to go back to logging my food.

FIGHTING
Fight practice at Grant's Tomb was pretty small. There were two knights--me and Gui, and two newer fighters, Damien and Tycho. Gui and Tycho are both left handed. I started out doing sets with Gui and I won two and lost two. They were, as usual, long fights. He is using a center-grip heater, which for a lefty like him is almost cheating because it is such a good match, but he hadn't figured out his leg defense with it yet and I took advantage of that. There was nothing special in any of the fights I won. I simply caught him slightly out of position in between attacks. Against Tycho the best thing I was doing was the closing attack I started working on at Beau Geste. I flashed my thrusting tip at him and he focused on that, then I stepped around it and was suddenly in position. I also killed him with Lucky's move off line to the left combo: throw a snap, pass off line to the left with your right foot, stepping between your right foot and your opponent  exposing your head but guarding it with your sword recovery, then passing with your left foot, squaring up and striking at the head. It's like Lucan's passing shot but it starts closer and with the shield foot forward. It's effective against both right and left handed fighters. Damien has an unfortunate habit of using a downward chop, which we need to train him out of. A couple of times I took advantage of it by moving offline and deflecting it, so that his momentum exposed his offside to me, which I hit, but mostly I was defending and giving him targets to strike.

Next we did a bear pit exercise, where each of us fought the others in turn. Wounds were not retained. This was good endurance as we were rotating through quickly. Then we broke up for some single-sword training. To make it interesting, I took Tycho and Gui took Damien, so were were working with opposite handed opponents.

Most of the work involved footing. It had snowed the day before and the ground was muddy and slippery. Balance and footwork under those conditions was the hardest thing. Each of use slipped around a bit. i mostly worked on lifting my feet up and putting them down instead of letting my momentum carry me forward. This is good practice when it is dry.

It was an excellent practice for what it was, but I need to do some work at Nutley.

It is 80 days until Crown Tourney. My next time in armor will be at the Iron Bog practice this Sunday.

Beau Geste!

Ok, so the off season is about over and preseason is beginning, Asa indicated by the fact that we had a tournament yesterday. It was a reboot of our Beau Geste tournament, a monthly tournament inspired by the Crapaud tourney in the West. I picked up my sword and shield for the first time since crown. That I won was cool, but it was beastly hard, and I was the only knight in the list. We fought at Grant's Tomb, and it was a lot of fun.

REHAB
Ip have not been doing specific rehab exercises on my elbow or Achilles lately. They both seem to have healed.

WORKOUTS
my workouts are the same as last post. I have been concentrating on strength training lately doing a tradition free weights workout. Y weekly goal is to be in the gym three times a week lifting weights, doing arms and shoulders one day, chest and back another, and legs and abs a third. I have not missed an arm day, I have only missed couple of chest and back days. I have missed a few legs days, but I make up for that with all the walking I do. Other days I walk, run, ride, or take classes. I still post all of this on FaceBook and at www.mapmyfitness.com. My workouts have been good. I press and curl 80 pounds in my workouts, and I have hit personal records in squats, bench press, and deadlifts. Soon however I will change over to more of a fitness versus strength workout, with cross fit ( even though I can't do a single pull up) and aerobics classes dominating, plus Yoga class at least once a week. Feeling good. Definitely stronger.

FIGHTING
yesterday I won the Beau Geste tournament, which was a blast. I get a spiffy medallion to wear around for a month. There were seven fighters and the format was round robin, best two of three for each round. I advanced to finals without a loss, meaning I four twelve fights in the round robin. There were three lefties in the tourney and some really good unbelts. Because it was a tourney and I wanted some practice for Mudthaw, I fought with my regular sword and shield instead of buckler or greatsword.

I honestly can't remember exactly what I did in each fight. They all kind of ran together, but there were a few specific things I worked on that went well, and some at didn't, and there are some general observations. First, as I knew would be the case my blows are strong and my sword arm really didn't tire, but my shield arm did because nothing at the gym replicates holding and moving a shield. I definitely felt rusty and sloppy. Third, I still need to re hang shield, which I will do before I use it next. Fourth, although I am in good shape, I have been neglecting aerobics lately and need to get back to it.

Specifically, I worked on the technique I talked about in the last post, flashing the thrusting tip and then circling around it to close distance. It worked sometimes, not because people focused on it and not on me, but because people defended themselves and blinded themselves with their shield. Most of the time however they just backed away (a lot of people run away in this kingdom).

I had some trouble mentally staying in sword forward guard, which is how I had been wining tournaments the last few years. I kept going back to old school Bellatrix form reflexively. Need to stop that.

Need a lot more helmet time with sword and shield.

Twice I followed the fake thrust and hit took the leg.

There is a very good young filter named Zach who has a great counter to a face thrust or a snap. It just come behind at an angle, but he times it very well. He killed three people with it and it nearly worked on me. I caught a bit with my basket hilt and the angle changed as a result.

Tormundr is taller than me, and he throws that high off side and the high snap really well. He killed me with snap in warm ups. I should remember the thumb lead offside against lefties, like Duke Anton throws.

Even though I went through cleanly, the finals were a real chore. Agrippa/Landon, who is still the hardest hitter around here, made it to the finals against me and we had some drag out brawls. The first was a single sword fight where we double killed, and that one hurt (as did the two times he hit me in the leg but he is why I wear Kydex). Our second fight I won but I don't really know how. Our third fight I lost. After a long break for a single sword meat grinder, I had my best fight of the day. It took three, maybe it was four blows. I faked high and he tilted his shield out and I took his leg. I through an off side, sword blocked, and threw a molinee at his head that killed him. That was that.

It was a good day and I get a cool medallion, but I have a lot of work to do.

It is six days until Birka, but I will not be going.

The Art of Deception

What makes Duke Radnor the best fighter I have ever seen was not just the speed, the flexibility, the technique, or the number of fights we won. What separates Radnor from other people who were fast and strong and flexible is that, even now, he has all those qualities together. But he has something else: he has perception that leads to deception. He can read an opponent better than anybody. As he put it "we wait for our opponent to tell how how he wants to be killed." He is more than just a counter-puncher, however. At the height of his game, in the 80s and 90s when he was putting together his streak, SCA combat was transitioning from an active offense that built opening to a counter punching offense that waited for them, and while Radnor was the master of the misdirection fake, there was a mental component to his game that is harder to explain. He could get you to look away from his sword and then hit you. Some of the things he told me over time were.

• Always break a pattern on the third (or fourth) pass. 
• Strike through the transition window, when your opponent's mind has cycled off of defense
• All fights are won in between beats (on the upbeat)
• You can win a fight before you swing a bow, before the lay on, before you take the field
• You can think a guy to death
• Hit him when he's not looking

This last one was the trickiest (not the Jedi mind trick of thinking someone to death, which simply involved visualizing hitting him in the leg and then not doing so, hitting him in the head instead. It is shocking how often that will work on newer fighters). It involved the art of deception, a kind of slight-of-hand that is baffling even to people in the gallery. 

This very cool article in the New Yorker about Master Pickpocket Apollo Robbins helps explain why.  Pickpockets are slight of hand artists who use many of the same techniques as other magicians. They attract your attention to a spot and then do something elsewhere. You miss it because you have focused on where the action is not. Radnor had a few techniques that worked this way. He would shimmy his hips and then throw a blow (once we were fighting on a children's playground plank bridge, and what he was doing to us all was comical. His shimmy would shake the whole bridge, and as we looked to our feet he'd hit us). My foot stomp, where I begin an exaggerated rising snap, lift my foot high, and throw the blow as I stomp on the ground, comes from Radnor by way of Rolf. It was an edge technique in the pre-low-profile days, but Duke Edric from CAID has turned that into a wicked thrust. I learned from Radnor a trick to play on a guy who has been legged: float the tip of your sword in a downward arc in front of his face and then tap the ground and shoot up for his helm with the edge. Maybe thirty percent of all fighters will watch that tip as it heads for the ground, and the direction change will catch them off guard. I also use several techniques to lull my opponent into a rhythm and then changing it, from switching from fast counter hip returns to slower teardrop returns, to striking as I inhale instead of as I exhale (usually accompanied by an in-time movement of my sword that I break out of). My favorite of these techniques I have described here before: Radnor was King of the West and went to West/CAID war (this was in that two decade period when he won every tournament he entered). He hadn't brought his shield because it was a war, but it turned out that there was a prize tourney, so he entered fighting with two swords. He ended up in the finals against a really good short-sword fighter from the Outlands who had taken out Guy of Castle Kirk in the semi finals. At the lay on Radnor threw his regular three direction change leg shot that he used as a sword and shield technique. The guy went to his knees and Radnor stood there in a left foot lead. He drew himself up to his full height and raised both his swords up to a cocked position above his shoulders, a la Bellatrix (What we used to call his incredible inflating Duke trick). When he reached his locked and loaded position he wiggled his left heel, just an inch either way, and the poor guy on his knees stared right at Radnor's toe. Boom. 

All of this is just an elaborate version of Duke Rolf saying to Robert Kynslayer "Rob, your cuise is unbuckled."

This is the kind of thing Apollo Robbins is talking about. Read his description of closing distance on someone without making them nervous: 

“'If I come at you head-on, like this,' he said, stepping forward, 'I’m going to run into that bubble of your personal space very quickly, and that’s going to make you uncomfortable.' He took a step back. 'So, what I do is I give you a point of focus, say a coin. Then I break eye contact by looking down, and I pivot around the point of focus, stepping forward in an arc, or a semicircle, till I’m in your space.'” 

Now imagine that the point of focus, instead of a coin, is a thrusting tip. He talks about hiding an action behind a newspaper, when you can also hide one behind a shield. Most importantly, he talks about making someone believe they are in control when you are controlling them (watch the video). Neuroscientists have started working with Robbins on studying how attention works. Radnor could teach them a thing or two. 

Read the article, and then read some of the stuff on attention and cognition (and pick-pocketing).  According to Sir Artos, Radnor's transition windows technique was based on something he'd once read about cognition, as was his rule of three. I still don't know why the Jedi mind trick worked. 

So, who *is* buried in Grant's Tomb?

We have been planning to start up a practice at Grants Tomb in Riverside Park, Manhattan for a while now. It is across the street from the former Viceroy's apartment and close to most of our people who live in Manhattan (north of 96 street is much more affordable). Gui decided that we should do a trial run on Sunday. He went up and scouted the location, and then we advertised it and pushed it hard. The result was the best practice we've had since BAT closed, and maybe for a while before that. It was well attended, there was parking, and both Alail, who came from Jersey, and Tycho, who came from Suffolk County, said it was easy to get to.


There may be a problem with how I approach practice. Normally, I will start with a technique I have a lot of faith in and try to win the fight as though it were in a tourney. As soon as I get one technique to work I try something else, both because I don't want to pattern myself and because I want to try several things. But if you look at the great fighters--Jade, Torgul, Lucan, Paul--they tend to have one technique that they practice over and over again and, particularly Jade and Paul, they repeat it constantly in armored practice as well as at the pell. My best techniques are the hook-thrust and the downward slot out of a weak high closed form (described below). Id practicing other techniques a waste of time? Does it make it harder for me to succeed in tourneys? Maybe I should just do one or two things -but then people will always know what I am going to do. That doesn't seem to hurt Jade much--though I have seen it work to Paul's disadvantage against Radnor.(Radnor has the deepest bag of tricks in the world, and he is the fighter I always wanted to grow up to be).

REHAB
My elbow feels great. My Achilles feels great. My left elbow hurts a bit, which is odd, but that is not my sword arm and it doesn't affect my fighting.

WORKOUTS
I had some troubles last week getting everything in. The week of the second I was able to get all three of my weight workouts in (Arms and Shoulders on Sunday, Chest and Back on Tuesday, and legs and abs on Saturday), plus Yoga, a three mile walk, and Nutley Practice. Last week Christmas started to get  in the way in a couple of different ways. I managed my arm workout on Sunday but did a simple aerobics and yoga workout on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday I skipped because one day I had a party to go to and the second I was recovering from said party. Plus something was making me queasy most of the week. I got in an amazing 1 hour 45 minute class on Thursday--weights, kickboxing, abs and stretching, but nothing on Friday and just a two mile walk on Saturday. This week is starting out pretty good, though.

FIGHTING
Awesome!

There were nine fighters total at practice and I was in armor from 12:30 to 3:30. I fought sword and buckler and fought sets with everybody else who armored up. I used all my sword and buckler techniques. By the time I got to fighters 7 and 8 I was a step slow and making some mistakes. I also did some unarmored training (more on that in a sec).

As mentioned last time, I fight three primary wards when using sword and buckler. I use a high-open form, a la Bellatrix, a weak high closed form, a la Hauoc, and the first ward from I:33. My primary style is the weak high closed form: "high" because the shield is held high, right in front of my right cheek bone; "closed" because my sword is forward to close off the off side; "weak" because I stand with my sword foot forward. This opens up pretty much everything from my elbow down on the on-side. The idea is to invite a shot to the on-side leg which, because you are goofy footed, your opponent has to reach for. The block is a rotation block with the buckler and the sword coming over to protect against a rising snap. Most people when reaching for that leg come out from behind their shields. As soon as anything is struck, you throw a shot at the space just to the inside of your opponent's shield. This blow comes in half time--extremely fast--(Radnor said all fights are won in between beats, or on the up beat), and when done right it is almost a continuous motion. It is not block/strike. The blow is a molinee that, if it happens to end up blocking a blow, merely deflects it incidentally. The timing, though not the technique, is like the deflection block in Fiore's long sword  Usually you will either his shoulder, helm, or bar-grill as they lean into their shot.

Occasionally I have trouble with this shot. As I detailed after the Spring Crown in 2010 Artos found a problem in my delivery of this shot, my hand traveling straight down instead of punching toward the belt-line. Lately I think I have been bailing out while I throw it, afraid of a second shot (which makes no sense, as there is very little chance of one). I need to stand in and move forward as I throw it. This is what Hauoc does.

I probably lost more of my fights with Landon, Lou, and Alail than I won. The newer fighters I was mostly training instead of fighting. Because he is up in An Tir where they fight that Torgul inspired weak low closed form (which is supposed to be Viking but is really a renaissance Spanish style) he is now a sucker for a rising snap.  I managed to get Lou out of the Iron Gate. I like to knock the tip of his blocking ax away and thrust his belly. That didn't work, but as he parried my thrust I cut out and took his sword arm. We fought single sword with me using the Fiore sword in one hand technique until I took his other arm. Best moment, however, was when I killed him with a lazy over-hand thrust from the hip, shield down, as I closed--a technique I learned from Jade. Stabbed him right in the throat.

It is 37 days until Birka. I don't know when my next time in armor will be.

Back in armor!

Ah! The soft sting of rattan!

Last night was my first time in armor since crown.  It was painful, fun, and even a bit exciting and new. Every once in awhile you have to make it new. I decided after crown that I was breaking up the time between now and next Spring crown (which I may not even be able to fight in, which would suck!) into clear blocks with clear moments and goals. I tell my students that the life of an athlete, from the time they start playing pop-warner or little league till they finally retire, even if they retire as a professional, never really changes. It revolves around the seasons: off-season, pre-season, season, post-season, and the end of the year banquet (this is all my lead in for discussing professional speakers on tour). This is one way to look at fighting. Right now we are in the off season. Birka (Or Estrella) begins the pre-season. Mudthaw or White Shield begins the regular season. We don’t really have a post season in the SCA. Meanwhile I have great things to report.

REHAB

Rehab is going great. As detailed below, my Achilles has improved greatly. It is better than I had thought it would be by now.  I need to concentrate more on shoulders at this point.

WORKOUTS

First order of business is my workouts. In the off season, also known as the fat season, I decided to radically change up my workout regimen and do something I have avoided for a long time in fighting, go on an actual body building spree. I don’t expect to gain a lot of muscle, and I actually don’t want to gain any weight, but I do want to get stronger.  It is a big change in philosophy for me.

The cornerstone of the Bellatrix style is that it should require no upper body strength. Paul is one of the strongest human beings I have ever met, but he intentionally de-emphasized his strength. Every one of his techniques I designed to be just as effective when used by someone who weighs 120 pounds as by someone who weighs 250 pounds.  William the Lucky, another of my Avatars, used to say people who are extremely strong will have poor technique because they never had to learn it. I am still not someone who believes in being super-big and strong like Omega or Wolfhier of Stonemarch, but the simple fact of the matter is that all of the dukes around here are stronger than I am, and if I want to join their ranks I probably need to beef up a bit. Plus I had people blowing off some shots at crown, so there is obviously something wrong with how I am throwing them, and maybe it’s that I just need to be stronger. There has been some variation: at thanks giving I didn’t have a gym, so I ran, did Yoga, and improvised a WOD with a cinder block.

As a result, for the off-season, I have gone to a good old-fashioned weight workout and pushed myself in several areas. I break it down to three days in the gym: one for arms and shoulders, one for chest and back, one for legs and abs. I break each of those down into groups of exercises: warm-ups, tone, and strength. Usually (I play around with the first two) I will warm up with dumbbells, tone with machines, and then build strength with barbells. For instance, Monday’s workout included hammer curls, triceps extensions, and dumbbell presses, graduated weight on the spider curl machine, the triceps machine and the shoulder press machine. Then I went for bulk, and built up weight on the straight bar with curls and military press, and a straight-bar cable push. I ended with the fighter dumbbell combos, but sometimes I will do a feat of strength, like dead lifts or a Turkish lift or a clean and jerk.

The results have been pretty good. My max weight on presses and curls is up to 80 pounds. My deadlift weight is now 235. I still haven’t made 135 on the clean and jerk, but that is coming.


FIGHTING

Last night was Nutley Practice. It was the first time since Crown in October that I have put on armor. For the off season I have decided not to worry about my primary form, sword and shield, and, when I get into armor, fight with other stuff. I may pick up the heater between now and Birka, and I will very likely fight with the bunny round at 12^th Night, but mostly I ma just having fun right now. Last night I fought sword and buckler.  I used the Hauc style, pure Bellatrix, Squared up a la Connor or Gemeni, and a little I:33. I had a good time. I don’t know if I was hitting any harder, but I felt stronger. I fought four opponents—Alail (visiting from An Tir), Douglas, Vasilli, and John the Breeder. I killed each of them a couple of times, each of them killed me more. Alail I killed with old-school Westie stuff like a wavy-rising snap. Against Doulas, a two stick fighter, I just tried to stay alive. I did keep him at bay using the iron gate, but it didn’t rally set me up to kill him. My best shot on him was a simple off-side body shot. On Vasili I got a good cut when we were both on our knees and he squared up too much. I did a falling shot to his ribs, which kind of shocked him. Against B reeder I slipped in a face thrust, a body thrust, and I got him with a really old-school technique, what used to be my bread-and-butter shot, Radnor’s wavy-low molinee-slot shot. He over blocked and I hit him in the face. That will never happen again!

I have a great bruise Breeder gave me on the shoulder from a shot he swore was not good

I feel awesome!

It is 50 days until Birka. I don’t know when my next day in armor will be.