FENCING SEASON 2007-2008

July 11, 2008

Summer Nationals WSDIA

I am happy with how I fenced in DIA.

I do not remember everyone in my pool. I do remember
Elena Tringa
Kirsten Hee

The other names are a little hazy. I remember faces, but not the names.

I lost all but one bout, but I am still happy with how I fenced.

I used the entire strip. I tried things that I'd been working upon in practice. I blew the bout with Hee because I fell back into doing simultaneous attacks but forced myself to stop doing that except occasionally, so the opponent could not be certain that I wasn't doing a simultaneous attack when I went forward and dropped back before going forward again.

I remember Tringa because that was my sole victory. We both moved forward in a simultaneous attack and without thinking, I felt myself take a parry and then riposte. It was perfect. If felt SOOOOOooooo right and with that one parry, I lost my fear of setting up a parry-riposte (because I was convinced I would always fail). Three and possibly four of the points I scored against her were parry-ripostes and part of this was because I was making her fall just a little short.

She was a good fencer and finished tied for 27th, but I just managed to pull off three good touches before she tried something different and then was able to catch her twice more.

I could have quit then and been happy but the line for 80% was immediately below my name and thus I fenced Rachel Rosenfeld from St. Louis.

Again, I didn't care and was determined to force myself to take risks and I think that's the reason I was ahead at the half. She was trying to make me fall short and I usually managed to avoid stepping into it but after the half, she caught me on that too many times and the bout ended 11-15.

I'm still happy with it because I fenced (imho) much, much better than I had in the WSV50 and thus regained some of my lost confidence. I wish I'd found that confidence before the WSV50 event.

I'm back home now and I have new knickers with the emblem on each side and everything else I would need if some great disaster occurred and three of our world team members could not participate. I certainly don't wish this because they are far better fencers than me and I want to see the US win big in France. However, I'm going to spend now until October preparing to compete just in case I need to compete because... well... part of my job is preparing for disaster recovery and I just do NOT not prepare. It's incredibly stupid not to be prepared.

Besides, I really, really, really want to go to Russia so I should start working towards that goal now.

No more M&Ms.
Slowly ramp up my conditioning exercises at the gym.
Pay careful attention to the knee and tennis elbow problems and don't aggravate them.
Increase the amount of private time spent on footwork.
Tape some of my footwork and play it back so I can see areas that need improvement.
Teach the new kids how to play rat on the wall with me being the rat. I need to work those parries until I am 100% confident in my ability to properly parry an attack.

My husband says everyone in the family is proud of me. I told him "Wait until you see the hotel bill."

July 10, 2008

Summer Nationals

I finally found the free internet computers, which means I have access to a full sized keyboard and I don't have to hit tiny alt keys to get a capital letter.

Oh, joy!

Today, I fence Div IA.

I am profoundly disappointed with how I fenced in WSV50. The results might have been the same had I fenced properly, but I just could not seem to do anything besides advance-lunge in the pools. I started moving better in the second half of my DE but by then it was too late.

I did, however, make third alternate so that softens the blow slightly. This is a year-long marathon with points, not a single event that determines placement.

I had an off day after a couple of bad weeks. I need to fall back, regroup, and attack next season. In the meantime, I'll be using the DIA competition today as an opportunity to focus upon raking risks. Expect me to finish last but be happy about it.

I WILL use both sides of the strip today.

One thing that hit me hard was that I took a nice walk Wednesday for the first time since arriving. About three blocks out, the head cleared and things started falling into place again. I no longer felt panicked, even though I knew work was stacking up at home and impossible deadlines were growing closer with no progress made and more things for me to resolve once I'm back in the office.

Things to work upon for next year:

Re-read that book that Peach suggested only this time move it to the reading shelf next to my bed so that I'm constantly reminded of the importance of the mental aspect of the game.

Diet and exercise. Toss the chocolate. Stick to the acid reflux diet. Take the medication daily. Stay with the pilate reformer and be aware of the tennis elbow and shoulder problem.

Cut hair. Yes. Again. When I feel that twinge in the right elbow, it's time to eliminate everything that can be eliminated except fencing.

Work on parries as much as possible.

Footwork shall now become part of my daily exercise plan. It was before the knee injury. I need to add it back in again. Print out the drills and go back to them again. Ice for ten minutes afterwards.

Go to more competitions to work on the mental aspects of fencing.

Hit on the teenagers more for practice.

Talk to coach about other possibilities.

Next year is Russia. It's my last chance (imho) to make it on the team if I can improve sufficiently. Otherwise, I need to just focus on the long term goal of being good enough by the time I'm 60.

The forty crop of fencers are (imho) simply too good for me to catch up to their skill level before I hit 60. Also, I have a practical matter of day job and finances. I cannot continue to operate at this level and save enough for my retirement to be able to travel overseas once I'm 60.

I'm in this for the duration. Long term planning sometimes requires some short term sacrifices.

July 3, 2008

I Need Prozac

Today, I cleaned the stables in half a day, putting Hercules' former record to shame and then... crash!

Well... that's sort of an analogy to what actually happened.

Before starting the three-day task that I wanted to finish in a single day, I'd gotten myself some Diet Coke, M&Ms, and jokingly told my co-workers that if a delivery guy showed up, it was my case of Prozac.

I managed to move lightning fast through my checklist and got past my major hurdles and reached not only the goal I'd set for myself, but the goal I'd set for Monday.

And then, as I looked at the clock ticking away with only one hour and five minutes left in the work day and started thinking about Summer Nationals, a mail message popped up telling me that an employee had a hard drive failure. On a new computer. In an office on the other side of town.

The dent in my forehead is caused from repeatedly hitting my head against the desk.

NOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I did call the employee and asked if he had a backup.

I...will...NOT...think...about...work...until...af ter...the...Summer...Nationals.

I need to shift gears. I am way behind on preparing for V50 and I feel like the student who spent all semester working hard to keep up with his assigned reading only to discover the night before the final exam that he had the wrong syllabus and he will be tested on entirely different material.

July 2, 2008

Swollen Toe

My husband -- who doesn't put down toilet lids after opening them, close cabinet drawers after opening, or put away any gadgets that he is using after he finishes using them -- left the meat tenderizer on the countertop covered by the potholder. [He apparently used this to break up some ice from the icemaker.]

I am not particularly clear-headed at 0500 hours in the morning as I'm preparing for work. I have run into opened drawers, dropped stuff into open toilets, stubbed my toes on things left lying on the floor, hit my leg on flashlights plugged into electrical outlets, etc. No, all these accidents have not led me to be more alert. They have led me to contemplate the joys of singlehood and to try to educate the spouse about the dangers to other people which result when he fails to put things in their proper place but that is the equivalent of asking the wind to stop blowing.

So I try to be careful but... This morning, I was filling my ice bucket in preparation for OT and I brushed against the potholder, which caught on the HEAVY, METAL meat tenderizer, which fell off the countertop and onto my poor, unsuspecting foot.

I think my foot is swollen.

I did pick up the meat tenderizer but I did NOT run unstairs and demonstrate to my sleeping husband why he should put things away when he's finished using them.

There are times when I fantasize about living in a tiny apartment with very few belongings besides some artwork, my fencing equipment, and my computer. There are times I look through advertisements for apartments and dream of livinig in a clutter-free household with only MY things to worry about and MY carelessness to blame for the much fewer accidents that would occur. There are also times when I think about going postal and shoving my husband into open kitchen drawers, tenderizing HIS foot with metal hammers, and stuffing his head into an open toilet and flushing.

But this morning, I have the reality of trying to find a shoe that I can put onto my swollen foot without squishing it too badly and hoping that I can somehow manage to limp through the next few days without making the problem worse before the fencing competition.

Maybe I should move into a hotel for the next few days so I won't have to worry about additional injuries.

July 1, 2008

Swollen Knee

My knee is swelling again and I'm limping and I know exactly why. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind what has caused/is causing it to swell: moving equipment.

Expliticly, I've got an intense deadline to meet at work and I've been moving computer equipment (including printers) from here to there and then taking the old equipment and moving it from there to there2 and then it's usually in the way and someone wants it moved again and it goes to there3.

I feel much like I'm in a Dr. Seuss book and need a Thing1, Thing2, and Thing3.

My hands are black with newspaper print and I feel very, very much like I am doing a self-move.

And I'm not even one-third through the process yet.

Grumble and complain.

My tennis elbow has flared up again, too.

I am so not, not, not ready for San Jose.

Whimper.

June 29, 2008

Tired, Miserable, and Depressed

I am NOT looking forward to the Summer Nationals. I've worked hard all year in preparation for this and now I do not want to go.

My husband has suggested vitamins. I bought and ate a small bag of M&Ms yesterday. [That didn't help although I note that I did feel a little better temporarily.]

Part of the problem is work-related. Unless I'm given a time machine or a teleportation device, I am NOT going to be able to meet the July deadlines set at work by upper management.

I am thinking/obsessing about work while fencing and thinking about fencing while working and this is, imho, going to bite my arse at the Summer Nationals. Attitude is important.

If I were more experienced, less impatient, a more skilled fencer, etc., etc., my mental attitude heading out would not be as critical as it is at this stage.

I'm sunk. I normally have a strong work ethic but lately, I've dropped one hell of a lot of balls and I don't want to juggle any more. I just want to crawl into some dark cave with a nice, cozy spot, curl up, and sleep for a while.

Maybe I should try more M&Ms. It might not help, but at least I won't be as miserable while I'm feeling miserable.

June 27, 2008

Thursday Camp

Today, I arrived at work at 0600 hours, took care of some important things, and went to camp in time to walk around the track and do warm up exercises.

I note that I am STILL killing myself by reaching out to take a parry, which means it looks like a counter attack. I practice this manuever over and over and over again and when I'm practicing by myself, I'm fine. Put me into a bout and I reach OUT and the director awards parry and riposte to my opponent.

Every frigging time.

Sigh!

Grrrrrrr!

Never give up; never surrender!

June 26, 2008

Local Camp Mid Week

I'm attending fencing camp this week while trying to catch up at work. No, the camp is not after working hours. Originally, I was scheduled to be off 40 hours this week but then the schedule for the computer deployment was moved back to late May and early June with a requirement for an inventory to be completed for all three offices NLT July 31st and... well... if I don't get the trade-in stuff out of here (need to ship elsewhere), I have to cut open the boxes, pull the stuff out, scan the barcode, rebox it... etc.

Suffice to say I'm tired and I think -- oddly enough -- that I'm getting a rougher workout at work than at camp. This task is also playing hell with my focus because I'm thinking about fencing while working and work while fencing.

It's going to be a mad and crazy month and come August, I plan to insist upon some down time for my mind and body.

On the down side of camp: My knee is still swollen and the back of the knee HURTS. More, the tennis elbow problem still exists so I'm trying to be careful to train without overdoing it.

On the up side of camp: I am managing to improve despite everything else and the knee is no worse than it was before camp (probably due to frequent icing of the knee).

I'm still having problems with forward parries. I reach OUT for the parry and I know damn good and well that most referees are going to call that my counter attack and the other person's parry. I've got to STOP doing that.

Yes, I know forward parries are supposed to be valid but I don't seem to be doing this in a manner that the referee recognizes as a parry.

This is among the top 5 of my must fix list.

June 19, 2008

The Knee is Misfiring Again

Last night, I thought I was doing a little better on reading the opponent's actions and responding. Tonight, I had a lesson with the coach and it became immediately obvious that I was still lagging far behind everyone else.

I also have a minor setback: My knee is swollen and I feel shooting pains down the back of the leg.

I plan to spend time tomorrow at the gym, walking in the swimming pool.

For now, I'm sitting at my desk with the leg elevated and wearing the cryocuff sleeve.

May 31, 2008

Fencing Camp Recap Day One

It's traditional to have periodic fencing camps and they're usually held in the summer to prepare the younger athletes for the Summer National competitions. As some of us have noted, us older fencers aren't exactly well suited to the hours of physical conditioning exercises and other routines normally associated with fencing camps. More, most of us don't get the summer off to attend camps.

Thus, when Mr. Ma announced plans to include a Veteran component in his late June camp, some of us started talking in e-mail and the next thing I knew, a 3-day amp was scheduled over the Memorial Day weekend.

I flew out Friday morning, picked up a rental car, and checked into the hotel room before driving around to insure I could find the place on Saturday.

Saturday, I was the first person there and waiting when Jane arrived with Wang Yung. [I am a member of the Vince Lombardi school of timekeeping. If you are not ten minutes early, you're ten minutes late.]

Mr. Ma's Cherry Tree location is in a strip mall next to a Dunkin Donuts. As someone who is used to not having a permanent home, it looked wonderful. We checked in and worked out as other fencers began arriving and then we moved to the back strips as a class arrived and used the front strips. In the middle of the day, we took a break and went to a nice place whose name I've forgotten that appeared to be a large store with multiple self-service mini-restaurants and we purchased food and went upstairs to a nice seating area to eat and talk about fencing and USFA politics. Afterwards, we returned to Mr. Ma's, where we resumed fencing and working around other classes and thus fenced not only with each other but with whoever was available until about 5pm, when we went our separate ways to clean up with some of us making arrangements to meet for dinner.

We met at On The Border about 1830 hours and had a great dinner and nice discussion about fencing-related and non-fencing related topics. Wang and I discussed government outsourcing (having both been affected by it) and multiple other topics.

It was nice to have a chance to socialize with fencers I usually see only briefly at competitions. The usual conversations are something like: Hi, want to fence? Thanks. Good luck, but not against me. Congratulations. See you next time. it was nice to learn about what some of us did off the strip.

May 29, 2008

TWENTY-ONE!

There are twenty-one confirmed WSV50 entries for the Summer Nationals and I don't recognize many of the names on the list. This is going to make for a tough competition (imho) and I very much want to stay in the top 8 on National Points. Thus, I'm planning to crank up the training another notch and see if I can add Tues. to the already fencing Wed., Thurs., and Sat. I also plan to stay later Sat. and see if I can fence the kids. I figure I can do the footwork drills at the same time they do them and practice defense against the kids. [They're slow enough that I might actually succeed on some of the things I learned at the NJ camp.]

The fencing camp/get together in New Jersey was so well liked by the participants that it may be followed by others elsewhere.

There MIGHT be one in Washington in the fall. That's the state, not DC. If so, I will try to go to that one as well. Some of us are tossinig around ideas and dates of when people we know might be able to host a fencing session. One of the problems in my area is that veteran fencers are few in numbers here. Also, my local club rents space by the hour. There are, however, alternate possibilities and I plan to do as much as possible between now and 2009 because my major near term goal (before reaching 60) is to make it to the Masters or the World Championship in Moscow.

My near term plans from now through age 59 are:
Try to make it into the top 4 for 2009 (very much a long shot).
Try to be in the top 8 for 2010-2011.
Make the top 4 in the WSV60 age group in 2012.

The odds for me qualifying for the world team in 2009 are only slightly lower than the odds of Hillary Clinton winning the Democratic nomination on the first ballot. However, I'm one of the few, the proud, the foolish, who continue past the BINGO point. Thus, I'm fighting on. I even cut my hair and may get it dyed a Hillary fake blonde. I will stop short, however, of telling the referee that he should award the touch to me because I am the fencer with the support of the working class white people and thus the better representative to send to represent the US.

May 27, 2008

Veteran Fencing Camp Summary

I'm back home and the veteran camp was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and well worth the cost and even the airfare, the hotel bill, and the car rental. Next time, however, I'm going to try to find a roommate to cut costs.

I feel that I was probably at the bottom of the skill level of those there this weekend but I don't CARE. The purpose was to have an opportunity to fence with other veteran fencers and I got plenty of that. I also had considerable input and feedback concerning my weak areas and suggestions for improvements.

I have a long list of things to work upon.
1. Deb's footwork -- those small, halting steps and parries are something I'd like to be able to achieve and while I'm catching onto the footwork, I'm not yet able to put it all together yet.
2. Technique: I've been going hand-then-foot for a long time but the hand doesn't start soon enough and I tend to land the foot while still moving the arm forward. I have fixed this in practice, but not yet on the strip.
3. Varying footwork. Fixed in practice but not in competition.
4. Relaxing the shoulder -- a work in progress.
5. Blade control. Use the fingers, not a strong grip -- another WiP.
6. Keep the hand HERE. If the blade needs to go back, I probably need to move my LEGS back.
7. Distance -- I thought I had a good eye for distance but I missed multiple times and thus need to crank this up to the next level.
8. The defending fencer can control the bout. I need to learn how to do this properly.

Some of us got together for dinner both nights and it was great fun and entertaining. We are conspiring to promote veteran fencing.

I took my camera with me but didn't think to take any pictures until the last day. Thus, the photo shows those of us who were there at the end of the day Monday.

May 25, 2008

Veteran Fencing Camp Day Two

Another great day of fencing with other vets. The knee continues to NOT swell after a day of fencing from 10-4 with a break for lunch.

I'm becoming optomistic about the knee.

Regretfully, no one has sprinkled me with the pixie dust that makes me an excellent fencer, but I am learning and experimenting and I firmly believe that in the long run, this will be one more thing that helps me become a better and stronger fencer.

May 14, 2008

Sweet

I decided to eat a small bag of dark chocolate M&Ms today. I wasn't craving it; I was trying an experiment. What I discovered is that if I ate them very, very slowly, I did not really like M&Ms as much as I thought I did. What I liked was popping something into my mouth that I could chew upon while thinking.

And I'm not craving more M&Ms.

But that is NOT what's sweet tonight. What's sweet is that my knee feels better than it has in two years and for the first time in a long time, I'm beginning to think that maybe I will regain full functionality.

After pilate class tonight, I iced my knee, stopped home to grab a quick meal, and headed to fencing. Before practice, I noticed the knee was feeling good and the more I walked, the better it felt. I no longer have that rusty hinge sensation and I can put the back of my knee firmly against the floor and lift my heel well off the floor at the same time.

I don't know how much of my feeling of euphoria is the knee and how much is the chocolate, and I don't care. Tonight, I feel really, really wonderful.

May 10, 2008

Saturday Practice

got up early enough to go to the gym and walk in the pool and do my shoulder and elbow workout before going to fencing practice, where we had a very good footwork drill that lasted much longer than usual because Coach was encouraging us to work on a particular type of counter-attack.

Afterwards, I fenced A and worked on a few tricks that mostly didn't work, before fencing L and seeing just how difficult it is to get past one particular stance that I hadn't worked with as much as I should. When A2 arrived and asked me to fence, I practicde that stance to see how it worked for me. A2 is a young fencer who I expect will do very well. He has been with us about 6 months and already parries very, very well. If I weren't a good foot taller than him, I'd be in trouble.

May 9, 2008

Second Intentions

After all almost four years, I finally feel like I'm on the cusp of being able to plan a successful second intention attack. Almost.

I was physically at practice last night but not mentally there and was fooling around, just trying different things (and failing 90% of the time). Towards the end, it occurred to me that anyone who fences me can see that I'm an impatient, aggressive fencer so why not play on that? PLAN to throw the arm out there like I'm going to make an attack and then pull back.

I succeeded in tricking my opponents, but I failed miserably in taking advantage of it.

I see this as one more tiny step forward.

I am a slow learner but once I learn something, it usually sticks.

My goal is not to finish first in competitions. My goal is to become the best possible fencer I can become. Competitions are merely how I measure my progress towards that goal.

May 8, 2008

Getting the Basics

Wednesday night is Pilate Reformer Class night which means my knee is usually a little sore the next day, even though I always ice it thoroughly before fencing practice that night. Yes, I ice it after fencing practice as well. I note that the knee is finally regaining some muscle definition and thus I think pilates is working well for giving me a once-a-week good, overall workout without overstressing this older body.

The fencing lesson for the night reinforced just how much I need to work on the basics. My fingers are NOT controlling the blade properly and I don't know how much of that is lack of practice due to tennis elbow paranoia and how much is just "old dog, new trick" problems. Coach had me work on hitting the bag and directed my hand and I was still having issues with this so we moved on to slowly building to a move he was trying to teach me which I had difficulty executing.

My instinctive reaction to a certain move is for my wrist to circle clockwise and this is a counter-clockwise move (which may explain why my gut reaction works better with left-handed fencers, where a clockwise move would be the best response). The action then is to hit the lower part of the arm or to go past the arm and hit the chest. My primary problem here was that I was extending too soon, which means the opponent takes my blade and I've lost the point.

I'm going to need to do more work on this.

I also need to do some more research on airfare, hotels, and rental cars for San Jose. I have a reservation that I need to change at the Hilton and I might be able to get a better deal by moving to a different hotel and getting a rental car. OTOH, I really prefer to stay within walking distance of everything.

May 5, 2008

Great Lakes Sectional

I qualified for the DIAWS by virtue of the fact that I showed up and fenced. Fifth out of sixth is not great but I note there were 2 C-rated fencers, I was one of 2 E-rated fencers, and those 2 U-rated fencers were much better than most U fencers I've fenced.

I was up first against my clubmate, India. Since she knew how I fenced and she's a C rated fencer. I scored only two points.

Sims, the other C-rated fencer, moved slowly but skillfully and liked setting you up. She took me down 5-3.

Dawn and I have fenced before and we're fairly evenly matched. I'd realized by this time one of the mistakes I was making and saw how the director was calling attacks so I focused on extending very, very slowly while taking a big step, followed by a medium step while the arm is still not fully extended, and hitting AFTER the opponent's foot has hit the strip. I managed to get away with this twice. The important note is that the score was 4-4 the second time I did this and thus I won.

McLemore was my toughest opponent as I'd move in and she'd feint a counter-attack, leading me to circle under her blade and hit. I don't know how many times my coach has warned me against this. Each time I did this, it was McLemore's point and I just couldn't stop myself from falling for this one.

Wooten was unrated but fencing very meticulously. She was unrated and finished 2nd in the event, which says much for her skill level.

My DE was against McLemore, who was my most difficult opponent. I had joked to Dawn that she was luckier in having finished lower because Sims was a rough opponent, but of the two, we both would have preferred her due to the fencing style.

I was still figuring out McLemore by the one-minute break and I don't remember if I had one point or two. While she won 15-5, I was doing a better job in the second period and starting to see what needed to be done, even if I wasn't succeding in executing it.

Overall, it was a good, educational experience. I focused far too much upon the attack, rather than the defense, but there was one point where I was attacking (I forget against which fencer during the pools) and she parried and riposted and I parried and riposted without hesitation or thought. It was an automatic response. Alas, it didn't help because she also parried and riposted and it was her single light that displayed. I DID parry that ripost but it was a malparry. Still, I'm rather pleased that I managed to respond so quickly and that I'm building some good responses. Now if I could just let go of that need to attack and allow myself to try defensive actions in competition, I might go a little further. It's all mental at that point. I know how to do it and I can do it, I'm just afraid to do it.

April 28, 2008

I am a Chocolate Addict and it's Impacting My Performance

For a while, chocolate was giving me that creative buzz and high energy level that I wanted but like any other drug, it started taking a higher and higher dose to get the same affect. And I find myself growing quicker to anger and doing stupid little things that seem funny at the time but not so funny the next morning.

The bottom line is that it's time to go off chocolate again, at least temporarily.

I hereby declare myself abstaining from chocolate for the next 5 days.

April 24, 2008

Aches and Pains

My right elbow does not hurt but it has that tingling sensation that I've learned to recognize as the early warning of tennis elbow syndrome.

After last week's fun and excitement with the plumbing, followed by the need to rebury the access to the septic tank before someone fell into it, followed by moving some mulch, followed by cleaning stuff, moving stuff, and fencing on Saturday, I'm not at all surprised that my arm is tingling.

And yesterday was visit-with-Mother day so I feel snarly. Very little was accomplished today. I am backsliding.

April 18, 2008

Reservations Made for New Jersey

I now have non-refundable airfare, a hotel reservation, and a rental car for the Memorial Day weekend in New Jersey, fencing with other veteran fencers.

Once upon a time, I would sit at home, alone, in the dark, to save money and I would never, ever, have even considered taking trips simply for the fun of it. The only good thing to come out of Mother's illness (if you consider it a good thing) is the determination to live for the moment and squeeze every drop of enjoyment possible out of life.

I love fencing. I love setting realistic goals and striving to reach them.

April 10, 2008

Click

Something has CLICKED.

I don't know how else to explain it. I'm no smarter, younger, faster, or stronger than I was last week, but...

Something has CLICKED.

I had a lesson last night and sometimes, esp. near the end of a lesson, Coach will do something unexpected and the proper response to that will be the next part of the lesson. I'm almost always caught completely unprepared. This time, he put out a PIL and I responded without thinking, scoring a touch. I don't know who was more surprised.

Coach then showed me a better, more effective response and we worked on that for a while. I'm still impressed with myself.

Yes, I have a long, long way to go, but I'm going in the right direction and it feels so sweet when those rare moments occur.

This Saturday is the division qualifier for DII and DIII. Sunday, I plan to clean out what is designated as the living room/dining room of our house according to the blueprints and I'm going to tape or otherwise designate the dimensions of a strip on the floor. This is going to lead to territorial wars with my husband (who has "stuff" and a telescope in this area and is going to cause some annoyance to the cats, whose litter boxes are nearby.

My only real concern is about the stability of things that may fall to the floor with a resounding crash when I start practing footwork in there again.

April 01, 2008

A Light Day At the Gym

Monday was a light day at the gym... only 1.5 hours... and that's not a joke.

30 minutes on the ET followed by icing the knee and then some time in the hot tub followed by about 20 minutes of walking in the swimming pool (about 720 feet). Afterwards, I did the elbow therapy in the hot tub and then the shoulder therapy in the locker room followed by icing the elbow.

March 31, 2008

Exercising Update

Sunday morning, I felt lazy but finally made it to the gym before noon and left a little after two.

I put in a half hour of ET followed by the leg ET and then a lower body workout. I've decided to keep the reclining leg extension at 90 lbs since my primary objective is knee recovery, not bodybuilding. When it feels too easy, I'll increase the weights. I have also set 90 lbs. as being the correct weight for calf workouts as it's just enough weight to take it to exhaustion but not so much that I worry about overdoing it. I'm using the same standard for this: When it feels easy, I'll increase the weights.

I also lunged the hallway and as this is becoming easier, I'll probably begin adding more steps in the near future.

I soaked in the hot tub for 5 minutes until a sufficient number of people cleared out of the pool that I could walk 1000 feet (about 15 minutes) in the pool and then back to the hot tub for 10 minutes and the elbow exercises. 5 minutes in the dry heat room. 10 minutes of shoulder exercises.

March 30, 2008

Reclaiming My Old Life

Sometime in the past 10 days, my knee swelling went down to the point where I can actually feel my knee again. I can bend it. I can straighten it. I even got out of bed normally this morning and walked a couple of steps before it reminded me that it wasn't a normal left knee.

Finally! Words cannot express how good it feels to reclaim part of my old self.

Friday night, after spending time in the gym's swimming pool as part of the knee recovery effort, I sat down and tried to write again. The result is a 1600 word short story that actually works (for the first time in MONTHS). It got through the first reader with complaints only about misspellings and grammatical errors.

Woot!

At yesterday's practice, I fell back into some stupid mistakes, but it didn't matter much to me because I noticed some of the old things that hadn't worked physically in a while were functional again. More woot!

Maybe I shouldn't give up M&Ms after all. Maybe they're a miracle drug.

Or maybe it's just the placebo effect.

Whatever it is, I'll take it and can it be made permanent, please?

March 27, 2008

I Love Fencing

Of course I do... this is a fencing log, after all..

But sometimes I love fencing even more than usual and tonight is one of those nights.

No, nothing extraordinary. I didn't even make it into the lame, but spent most of the evening working with a newer adult fencer and botching most of what I was trying to do.

However, I spent 30 minutes in water at the local gym before going to practice and my left knee felt usable. It will never be what it was before but I was able to move a little more than usual tonight and it felt so damn good to be out there.

I had a lesson tonight as well and I feel that I'm making slow but steady progress. I'm finally starting to see and understand some things that are probably obvious to most fencers but which have taken an incredibly long time for me to recognize.

March 25, 2008

The Failed Chocolate Experiment

I'm declaring the dark chocolate experiment a failure. I have no willpower.

If I could stop at one small bag of chocolate, this might be beneficial but I've progressed to two and then three bags (telling myself it was a special occasion (late hours, etc.) and then I bought a FAMILY SIZED bag of dark chocolate M&Ms over the weekend.

No willpower. None.

March 23, 2008

Practice

Since my daughter had a roller derby bout Saturday and I'd decided to do something dramatic, I stood in the shower and sprayed my hair with a bright red -will-wash-out dye before going to practice. Only one person commented on this. Obviously, doing nutty things is normal for me and thus unquestioned.

While at practice, I noticed a trend (for me). I started off fencing S, who immediately took a 5 point lead and then I caught up, he took the lead again and then I caught up, and he eventually won. The same pattern repeated itself and I realized that what I was doing was looking to see how a person was fencing and trying to find a way to respond to this.

For practice, this is not a bad thing as the objective of practice is to learn. However, I did the same thing during parts of my DEs in Rosemont and this is NOT the time to leaern.

OTOH, I am glad that I'm finally fencing smarter. It wasn't that long ago that I'd keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again, without figuring out how to respond to a different fencing style.

No if I could just figure this out faster...

March 17, 2008

Snap, Crackle, Pop

The knee is shrinking back to normal and it's making some horrendous noises in the process. The cracking and popping sounds startle the people around me but I've been through this before and know it's normal for me.

This is the least swelling I've had after a competition and the fastest recovery thus far so icing it immediately after exercise seems to be the key factor in reducing swelling and recovering quickly.

My husband has been joking about surgically implanting a refrigeration unit on my knee so it will be constantly chilled.

March 15, 2008

Defense

I am an impatient fencer who tends to be aggressive and I've been working on forcing myself to retreat. One of the problems I'm having with this is my own impatience sabotaging me. I see the blade coming and I REACH OUT TO PARRY to blade. This is not a parry; this is a counter-attack. Also, I'll be retreating and try to do a beat-attack and that's also usually called a parry for my opponent. Why? Because I keep hitting the blade too low.

So at today's practice, I was retreating over and over and over again and it's a really miserable feeling to consistently fail so darn many times.

After practice, I went home, iced my knee, and went to the gym. I spent 5 minutes in the hot tub and then 10-15 minutes in the pool, walking, lunging, and advancing and retreating.

Tomorrow's plan is to get back into the water again and continue working that back leg.

March 14, 2008

Back to the Gym

Does it make you feel big and strong
to flex your muscles in between songs?
well,this one... don't sing along
because this show will go on without you...

Work was interesting today in the "Chinese curse" kind of interesting way. After escaping, I headed to the gym and put in about two hours.

First, I did about 20 minutes of upper body weight training, being careful to keep the weights relatively light. I used 5, 8, and 10 lbs and stopped when I realized my right elbow and shoulder just couldn't handle the 12 lb weights.

The good news is that the tendonitis isn't as bad as it was. The bad news is that I'm not cured yet and never will be if I overdo it.

Next, I proceeded to the ET to put in 30 minutes there. The original plan was to do less, since my knee has been so swollen that I cannot sit back on my heels but the ET was going well so I put in the full 30 minutes.

I iced my knee AND my elbow for 10 minutes before proceeding to the hot tub, where I indulged myself for about 5 minutes.

Next, I moved to the lap pool and walked back and forth 8 times then lunged my way back and forth twice. Back in the hot tub, I did my elbow exercises, finishing in the dry heat room. Feeling somewhat better, I changed clothes in the locker room, finished my shoulder and arm exercises, and iced the elbow and knee again before going to Subway.

The good news is that the swelling IS going down and the knee felt a lot better after I'd walked back and forth in the swimming pool. The bad news is that it IS still swollen. I suspect it's going to take at least a couple of weeks to get it back to normal and that's if I'm careful to ice it frequently.

I plan to spend as much time in the swimming pool as possible between now and SN.

The RNP put me in 7th place and my goal for LAST year was to be an alternate. To reach that goal this year, I'm going to need to finish in the finals at the SN.

March 11, 2008

NAC E

Friday, WSV50:

I managed to defeat a fencer I'd never defeated before in my pool and then lost to someone I'd always defeated before because I stupidly forgot to parry correctly. [I have a bad habit of extending my arm to take a parry, which then becomes my attack, her parry. Ack! I MUST stop that.]

I did, however, managed to finish 6th so all I had to do (yeah, right) was defeat the #11 seeded fencer in the direct elimination bout of 10 touches.

Susan immediately took the lead and held it at the half. I was feeling fairly frustrated and stupid but was able to regain focus and come back to win the bout.

Whew!

Shiny medal for me.

The next bout was against Delia. I did not win.

Saturday:

Thirty-eight fencers competing. I forget how I did in the pool but I was seeded 18th. I lost that bout and dropped to 19th place.

Sunday, DII WS:
My knee wasn't swollen any more than it had been but I just couldn't seem to move and I didn't win a single bout on the strip. I then went on to fence #48 seed in the DE, was down badly at the half, and then started figuring it out and working around the knee. I can't say if the knee finally loosened up or if it just didn't matter any more, but I came from behind and won that one.

I was delighted largely because I'd won on old age and treachery. IOW, it was a victory of tactics.

My next DE was against Runyan. While I lost, I wasn't terribly unhappy with the loss since I managed to score a decent number of touches against her and was fencing better than I had at Richmond.

Unfortunately, I had started near the bottom of seeding so I finished 64th.

Monday:

I had a reasonable pool with two victories and while my knee was obviously giving me problems and I made some stupid bladework mistakes, I could see and feel areas where I'd improved so I was relatively happy about that. Once again, I was seeded against a higher fencer but I took the lead in our DE and held it until the half, at 8-5. At this point, the other fencer began making a comeback. I adjusted but I couldn't adjust fast enough and well enough and I lost 13-15.

I'm still happy because I was fencing more with my head than my body and I could feel the skill improvement.

Although my knee bothered me during the long weekend, I didn't really feel tired until this morning, when I woke up feeling like all the energy had been drained from my body.

March 4, 2008

Eating Again

After about 30 hours without food (except for Ensure) I went to the gym for a light workout and... well... I'm now eating a tuna salad sandwich.

I need the swelling to go down in my knee but I also need to be able to breathe and then I need enough energy to compete.

I lasted 12 days on Ensure two years ago, but I wasn't working out during that time and there wasn't a NAC E on the horizon.

The revised plan is to fast during the daylight hours and eat at night while being careful not to eat for two hours before bedtime. [Due to the acid reflux problem.]

March 3, 2008

No Food For Me

I've been desperate to reduce the swelling in my knee and thus have taken some Aleve the last few days with the expected and dreaded result: My throat is swollen and I'm having trouble swallowing. I'm also losing my voice. Thus, I'm on a liquid diet for the duration and hope to avoid heartburn.

My knee swelling HAS gone down slightly and I can sit back on my heels after about fifteen seconds of easing into it very, very slowly.

I'm relying upon Ensure for nutrition and yes, I've stopped taking Aleve.

I look very unprofessional at work wearing my sweat pants with the zipper in the side, but this allows me to continuously ice my knee during the day when I'm not up and running around, moving or fixing things.

I've GOT to get that swelling down.

I'm using a compression knee "thing" at night and I bought a knee brace for support/compression to use while I'm on my feet for long periods of time.

Edited to add: It's now been 24 hours since I last ate anything. I've had two bottles of Ensure.

February 27, 2008

Chocolate Experiments

I had eliminated all sugar and caffeine from my diet and while overall, I improved, I had this BLAH, LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING feeling. After reading some articles on chocolate, I decided to experiment with M&Ms.

Hey! If I'm going to sin, I going to pick a sin that I enjoy and while I dislike most chocolate, I LOVE M&Ms [and Snickers and chocolate ice cream roll].

Day 1 showed a decided bump in my annoyance level. Any little thing set me off. I'd compare it to PMS. I hated everyone.
Day 2 was leveling off and I was just plain a bad little troll. Somewhere in the afternoon of Day 2, something kicked in and all of a sudden, I felt the old competitive edge coming back.
Today is Day 3 and I've indulged once more in a small bag of M&Ms (75cents). I am seriously considering filling out the job application for Kuwait. I'm certain that feeling will pass but the bottom line is that I feel COMPETENT again.

I don't know how much of my feeling down was depression over the SYC and an acknowledgement that I am not capable of refereeing at a level higher than local. I just crumble under pressure there, which annoys me to no end since I handle pressure fine from other areas of my life.

So between now and Chicago, I'm on a ration of one bag of M&Ms a day NOT right before a competition. The quick high does leave me shakey and not at my best and I need some time for it to level off again before competing.

The problem here, of course, is that once I have a couple of M&Ms, I could eat a 10 gallon bowl of M&Ms. I'd be sick afterwards, but I could eat that many. I think.

February 24, 2008

Boring Exercise Log

Today, I went to the gym after lunch and put in the usual 30 minutes on the ET followed by:

• 3 sets of sitting leg press at 25
• 3 sets of leg extensions at 25, 25, and 30
• 3 sets of reclining leg press at 90
• 3 sets of calves at 90

followed by 30 lunges back to the locker room where I iced the knee for ten minutes and then moved to the hot tub for my shoulder warmup and my elbow exercises. This was followed by the usual shoulder workout before heading home to ice the shoulder, knee, and elbow.

February 16, 2008

I wasn't in the mood, but I went to a local (NR) competition anyway partially because the coaches were gone and I doubted there would be many people at practice today.

I was miserable in the open. I just wasn't ready to fence and I didn't care. I lost my only DE because I couldn't figure out what the referee wanted (these are people who are still learning), but it was close.

The 4-women event started off a little better. I won all three of my pool bouts, but the DE against fencer #4 was incredibly close partially because the referee based SA on who he thought started first, couldn't recognize the beat attack (it went to my opponent) and gave my parry-riposte (a parry 5, no less) to the opponent. I had a heck of a time working around those constraints and he asked me if I wanted to contest the calls, but I declined. I knew what this was when I signed up for it and I was trying to work on mental aspects of the game more than fencing skills. Okay, I confess that there were a few times when I stood there and said, That was a parry-riposte.

On the DE, there was no one available to referee except a beginner who warned us that she couldn't figure out how to call a double-light action and thus we needed to get single lights. I was ahead 8-1 at the half but my opponent made a good comeback (she's a teenager, I'm a veteran, and I just didn't have her energy level). I lost that one and thus finished second in the women's event.

For the 3-fencer veteran event, we had a good referee available and decided that since it was unrated and it was the end of the day, we'd eliminate the pools and go straight to DEs. I was seeded first so I had a bye and I spent the time icing my knee.

Oddly enough, I managed to get mostly one-lighters on my opponent and won 10-8. I figure the one-lighters were a result of trying to fence for one-lighters during the WS event.

It wasn't a great event, but I think it did help get my head back together. What I really need, however, is a week off work, a hot tub in the house, a cleaning service to come in and clean my house, and a masseur.

February 3, 2008

The knee is still swollen but not so much that I can't kneel and thus I decided to return to the last good workout setting.

I started with biceps curls at 5, 8, and 10 lbs., which I thought shouldn't be too hard on the shoulder and tennis elbow. [Yes, I wore my brace.]
3 sets of 5lb. weights for the LEFT only triceps.
Stretching before the lower body workout.
30 minutes of ET
25 lb. sitting leg press - 3 sets on ea. leg
25 lb. leg extensions.
Walking lunge to the weight room. (14 steps)
3 sets at 90 lbs. on the reclining leg press
3 sets at 90 lbs. on the calves.
10 minutes of icing the legs while doing crunches and watching the stupid television show in the room
15 minutes in the hot tub doing my OT for the arm
a couple of minutes in the sauna finishing the exercises for the arm.
the full set of OT with 2 lb. weights for the shoulder problem. 2 sets ea. When I can manage 3 sets ea. at 2 lbs., I get to go up to a whole, whopping 3 lbs. Oh, joy!

In the bad news department, I've gained three pounds and I'm certain it's not muscle weight.

In the good news department, I've stopped feeling lightheaded and about to faint when I stand up. I do NOT believe the two are related. I think I've just been a little too stressed lately.

February 2, 2008

The Road To Hell

Is paved with good intentions.

I really, really, really want to get back to at least 19% body fat (where I was a year ago). However, my knee is swollen so badly that it looks pregnant with twins and thus I went to the gym today and did a light routine, iced the knee for ten minutes, and returned home to ice it again.

I'm still icing it and I'm wondering if I should take a chance with Advil again.

January 29, 2008

Body Comp

I had a body comp at the gym Monday and was shocked to see my body fat ratio is STILL climbing slowly and I'm still losing muscle mass. I am NOT pleased to have lost 2 inches around the thigh because it was muscle, not fat, that was lost.

Thus, I've decided to revert back to some of my pre-injury exercises, modified to accommodate the changed circumstances.

I'm not supposed to do exercises which require my arms to be over my head (except on the left side) but that means I can still do biceps curls.

Thus, yesterday I did one set of bicep curls and modified bicep curls @ 5 lbs. and 2 @ 8 lbs. followed by one on the left @ 10 and one on the right @8. Today, I noticed no soreness so I'll continue with this twice a week if all goes well and see if I can stop the loss of muscle and possibly begin regaining muscle tone.

Tonight was leg night so I did 30 minutes on the ET followed by 3 sets per leg at 25 lbs. on the sitting leg press and 3 sets at 25 on the leg extension. Calves and reclining leg presses were 90 lbs.

The left knee is still swollen from overdoing it two weeks ago and I'm being careful to lock the barn door after the horse escaped...er...um... I mean I'm being careful to ice the knee after exercising.

I also did my every-other-day shoulder exercises. 2# weights. Another couple of weeks and maybe I can move up to a whole 3# weight.

January 22, 2008

85 lbs.

I'm now up to 85 lbs. on the reclining leg press AND the calf exercise. The left leg is still noticeably smaller than the right and doesn't yet have the muscle definition of the right but I'm making progress.

I note that I can now squat and stand up without as much pain as I had previously. I still cannot lunge from a squat but just how many WSVets (1) can and (2) do this in competition?

I'm delighted to get this far back to where I was before.

Now if the darn arm and shoulder would just start healing, I wouldn't have an excuse for poor fencing.

January 20, 2008

More notes from the gym

Normally, I'd be delighted that I managed to drop down to my preferred weight and keep it there for the last few weeks. However... I strongly suspect that the weight loss is muscle loss due to my inability to do upper body workouts and I am NOT pleased about that loss.

Today, I put in the usual lower body workout after 30 minutes on the ET except that someone in the weight room before me had failed to put away his or her weights. Given that the weights were 45 lb. ones, I rather suspect it was a young man or older man who expected his mother to come through later and put his toys away. Or perhaps it was just someone who had such an easy time setting up the weights that it didn't occur to him that some 50+ woman with a bad arm might have some difficulty.

I managed not to smash my foot but I did drop one of those weights trying to remove it so I could use the reclying leg press and left the last 45 lb weight in place. I decided I could do 80 lbs this week and that went fairly well. What didn't go fairly well was the discovery that this same person... or someone with similiar problems putting away his toys... had left the calf exerciser with two 45 pound weights on it.

This one was too low for me to remove the weights by squatting a little and bracing my body against them so I decided to do my calf workout with 90 lb. weights and that is higher than I've gone since the knee injury.

It was a bad idea. I did manage to get through three sets of 12 (versus my usual 4 sets of 16) but I nearly hurt myself through my own stupidity a couple of times.

Next time, I will hunt down one of the employees and ask if someone can remove the weights for me.

We need a large sign in that weight room.

Your mother does not live here. Please put your weights away when you are finished using them.

My left knee is is giving out the usual warning signs that it gives before swelling so I'm elevating and icing it while I'm doing the usual heat/ice treatment on the shoulder and elbow.

If I found a genie in a bottle, my first wish would be for good health and a properly functioning body.

January 1, 2008

75 Lbs.

No, I have not become aneroxic. This is what I can finally leg press. It's not much, compared to where I was before the knee injury, but it's progress.

Last night I moved the weights up to 75 pounds for both the reclining leg press and the calf exercise and iced down the left knee for 10 minutes afterwards. No swelling this morning. Woot!

I can also do walking lunges again without much more difficulty than I had before the knee injury and while squats HURT, I promised myself to do ten of them and I made it through all ten.

I think I've sabotaged myself on the elbow and shoulder recovery. The elbow had stopped hurting and then I did some knitting for Christmas presents and had to ununbox and move equipment and cut apart some bundled wires at work. I also ripped out a glued-down outlet strip.

Yes. I know. I work really, really hard in the gym and then I turn around and destroy everything I've been working to re-build. It's a long-standing problem and I'm trying to figure out why I keep doing this to myself.

I've just gone this one scarf I want to finish and then I'll put away the knitting needles. Maybe for YEARS, like I did the last time I injured my shoulder.

December 19, 2007

All I want for Christmas...

All I want for Christmas is my old, 2006 health back. I don't care about the appearance, I just want the functionality and lack of pain restored.

I've been icing the knee as much as possible and I am freezing cold alll the way through.

On the plus side, I can now sit back on my heels. I make *justkillmenow* faces while trying to do this but I can touch my heels to my butt if I work at it.

The tennis elbow is slowly improving and the right shoulder still aches.

My husband wants me to let my hair grow long again and I'm seriously considering having it cut even shorter. I don't like the way it looks but super short hair reduces the amount of "looks" maintainence, allowing me to have more time for the "functionality" maintenance.

I've got a refresher visit scheduled for OT at the hospital for Friday.

December 9, 2007

Richmond

As you can see from the last two entries, my attempt to post from a handheld device with tiny keys and a stuck "f" key did not work well.

For my next trick, I'm going to try to post a link to three pictures from Richmond:

WSV50 finalists
WSV50 finalists
WSV50 finalists

Oddly enough, I seem to have begun fencing better about the time my left knee became unusable due to swelling. Apparently, this forced me to slow down and THINK.

I've been icing my knee since yesterday evening (I took my cyrocuff with me) and I suspect it's just a matter of time before I can bend and straighten the knee again.

November 21, 2007

Where Did I Leave My Memory?

How does everyone else remember the details of their fencing lessons?

Whether I'm the last lesson before the place closes or the first lesson with an opportunity to work on the manuevers learned in the lesson, I STILL wake up the next morning unable to effectively remember what was covered.

I SWEAR someone's wiping a giant magnet across my forehead while I sleep, thus wiping my short term memory.

Sometimes I've asked the coach at the next practice to please remind me again how to make a particular action. A few times I've even taken my camcorder and recorded others doing what I need to focus upon and then burned a DVD so I could go over it again and again and again. I've also tried scribbling notes to myself and find that it's difficult to convey a lesson in a written description. I've even -- on a few rare occasions -- put my husband into a fencing jacket and said, "Stand here, move your arm like that. Okay. Good. Don't move." And then I spend some time hitting him. Oddly enough, my husband does not enjoy being greeted this way. I cannot imagine why.

How DO other fencers help themselves remember what it was they wanted to work upon so that they remember it for the next practice and review it again and again until it STICKS?

Or am I the only one with a horrible memory?

Lately, I've been keeping a lesson log and typing in everything I remember (and/or can deciper from my handwritten notes) the moment I get home and then practice the manuever there [even if the husband is hiding, anticipating my desire to hit him with a sabre] in an effort to drive it home. Still, I find some things slipping away and the next time I see it, I'm standing there going, DUH.... which way does my arm go?

It reminds me of a cartoon from childhood. Warner Brothers, I think.

Which way did he go? [Cartoon character points the opposite direction. Character who asked the question runs off in that direction. Character being chased steps forward from behind a tree and shakes the hand of the person who misdirected the character persuing him.]

I want to be the best possible fencer I can be and this memory problem is driving me NUTS!

No, I do not think it is Alzheimer's.

November 17, 2007

Blame It On The Spouse

I couldn't decide what to do today. Logic said I should go to practice and take it easy on the shoulder until I see the doctor Monday. Yet I'd also committed to a vet and women's sabre competition when I thought at least two of the vet fencers from KY could come up (we've been trying to get together to fence as often as feasible since July). If I went to practice, I might tell coach that I had a tendon tear and I'd rather not say anything to him until after I see the doctor and know how it's going to impact my fencing.

I couldn't make up my mind.

The spouse -- who has been visiting friends in CA this week and returns today had told me he thought it was time I started bringing tropies and medallions into the house again and he expected Vanderbilt's 2nd place for women's sabre to be the first of many. [My spouse expects impossible things from me, really he does.]

So I decided to do what the spouse wanted and go to the competition. The fencers at our club are at a level where they can see what I'm doing too well and the competition was mostly U fencers and thus I felt that I'd have a better chance at the competition to practice some of the skills I needed to work upon for Richmond.

The bad stuff: I fell into some of my old bad habits, including reaching out to take the parry, which meant giving the parry to the attacker (the referee would see attack/counter-attack/parry, not attack/parry-riposte).

The good stuff: I am definitely in good physical condition for Richmond. I fenced 3 bouts and 2 DEs in mixed veteran and 3 bouts and 2 DEs in women's sabre and I note that both competitions started at the same time. Yes, I am physically ready. More, the ability to plan my next attack while walking back to assume en garde is coming back. I'm a few light years away from where I need to be, but I'm no longer cluelessly going en garde and reacting rather than acting. Three competitions in a row on Saturdays has apparently helped me work through some issues I was having there. Another improvement is that I'm doing better at focusing upon one point at a time and not thinking ahead or freaking out if I'm behind.

I finished second in mixed veteran's, losing 8-10 and the opponent took the last two touches. I won the women's competition and the final bout was TOUGH. We were trading points the entire time and I was down 14-12 or 14-13 and managed to keep my head and win. The results are already posted online at http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=3891

I made many mistakes. For one thing, I was lunging into the opponent's attack. OTOH, these were referees in training and they were calling it SA, so I took advantage of that.

I was tired, but the knee was working properly and the elbow did not hurt.

I am not ready for Richmond, but I am no longer as unready as I was a month ago.

November 15, 2007

An Uh-Oh

The doctor's office called and left a message that they've scheduled an appt. for me for MONDAY with a specialist and they want to talk to me NOW.

And I had worried that I was being unduly paranoid in asking for an MRI.

Too bad I set the cell phone down where I couldn't hear it.

Update: I have a TENDON TEAR in my shoulder.

It's a small tear, they said.

Head. Desk. Repeat over and over and over again.

Why? Why? Why?

Okay, I HAD felt something was wrong or I wouldn't have asked for an MRI but still... WWWWWHHHHHHYYYYY?

November 11, 2007

Dead Cat Bounce

On the trading floor, a dead cat bounce is a term used to describe stock rising after a spectacular fall. "Even a dead cat will bouce if it falls from a great height."

I was never that high, BUT, I had a spectacular skill decline after last year's Richmond due to returning to competitive fencing too soon and just as I was beginning to recover enough to think I could be competitive at the Summer Nationals, I developed tennis elbow.

Picture Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. Two bounces.

Tigger, however, is alive. There were times when I thought my competitive days were dead. Or as Bones would say, "He's dead, Jim. You grab his wallet, I'll get his Tricorder."

I have been digging in my nails and trying to claw out of this hole I've dug for myself and Vanderbilt indicated I MIGHT... MAYBE... have bounced. The Storming the Fort (Fort Wayne E1 with 8 fencers, 1 B, 4 Es, 3 Us) competition satisfied me, I think, that if I'm a dead cat bouncing, I've got a rubber bottom.

We fenced a single pool of 8 and I immediately lost to R (an E) 5-4. I then lost to B (the B fencer) 5-1, and to S (an E) 5-1. I won against the 3 U fencers and lost to E (an E) 5-4. To me, this indicates that I'm making some progress back to where I was. My head still isn't right on the strip, but I'm progressing again rather than standing there with a deer in the headlights expression.

My DE was against E, who had defeated me 5-4 in the pool. I want to talk about this one.

We're talking male, young, built somewhat like what people envision when they think of sabre fencers. Not skinny. Hard hitter. He got a yellow card for corps de corps in one bout.

Having observed this, I started our pool bout with small steps and there were two reasons for this: (1) I thought (correctly) that this would improve my opportunities for winning touches and (2) I did not want to be injured.

At first, my strategy worked and I was three points ahead and only needed one more touch. Alas, this is when he changed tactics and I wasn't mentally sharp enough on the strip to recover.

He flunged. I missed the opportunity for a beat attack on that blade, partially because I failed to step back and partly because he was rather higher in the air than I could reasonably hit (due to my failure to retreat).

For another touch, he retreated to the end zone and beat my blade. Oops.

I lost the last touch on a SA. IMHO, part of my problem was that I was so close that I started fencing "safe" and that's NOT safe. I know this and yet I keep falling into the same old trap.

Now about that DE: I took the lead for a while but he quickly figured out how I was fencing and won easily 15-8. There is one point of which I am especially proud: His point. He had retreated to the end of the strip and I missed my opportunity. Immediately, he was pressing me down the strip and I RETREATED!!!! Yes, after months of mentally hitting my head against that brick wall of using only half the strip, I retreated to 2 meters from the end of the strip and if I could have retreated a little faster, I probably would have gone all the way back.

I have finally found what I need to make myself retreat: a legit threat.

Some survival mechanism kicked in and I wasn't fencing for the point; I was getting the hell out of the way to avoid being hurt.

I have NEVER retreated that fast before and I'm rather proud of myself for finally getting the hell out of the way. Whew!

Now all I have to do (she says, optomistically), is learn how to retreat while scoring.

I did this a year and a half ago. I did it regularly. Once the knee started working again, I lost that ability.

Time to practice that manuever again.

October 20th, 2007

Update

The tendonitis is somewhat manageable. [Pause to knock on wood.] I can fence as long as I'm wearing my sleeve cuff without any sensations of pain during or afterwards, although I do ice it ASAP to be safe. I do notice the symptoms (1) when I wake every morning; (2) when I do my arm exercises; and (3) when I do little things like zipping up my coat. No pain until the angle rises above 90 degrees and then there's a warning signal about the time the zipper reaches the top.

I've had my hair cut short again so I can continue to just run my fingers through my hair and not need to comb it. I'm continuing with the OT exercises and icing and doing all the so-called right things and I wish to hell this tendonitis would go away. I don't want to be young again; I just want my younger and healthier body back.

Sometime last week, something unknown caused the small of my back to hurt like hell. I don't know what triggered it, although I note that when this last happened (years ago), I could guess in advance when the back would hurt by looking at the scales. At 125 pounds, my back would hurt. At 120, the backache was gone. My weight on the scales yesterday was 122, which was a significant jump from the fairly steady 118 that it's been for a long time. Thus, I foolishly decided to not eat anything until the weight dropped and went to the gym this morning.

I didn't make it through the usual 30 minutes on the ET. My ears were popping like I was coming down with allergy problems, it hurt to breathe, and I felt light-headed. At 28 minutes, I decided to stop being stupid and got off the machine, sat down for a few minutes, and went home to chow down on a sandwich.

Sometimes, my stupidity amazes me.

October 13, 2007

Lessons and Thirty Laps around the sun

And now I'm back on the lesson schedule again after all. Woot!

If I didn't have tennis elbow, I would be feeling very good about my chances for this season. The leg will never be as good as it was, but I've been working it hard in the gym almost every day and I'm starting to regain my ability to keep distance. I've signed up with a personal trainer again to work on regaining some of the core strength that I've lost in the last six months (assuming we can work around the elbow problem), and I'm struggling to wrap my brain around the tactical aspects of this sport.

Today was Dawn's birthday so I drove down to Louisville to fence the 30 Laps Around the Sun competition. I'd received the e-mail earlier warning that they'd changed the competition due to low anticipated turnout and thus I was prepared for fencing two weapons.

Epee was first -- pools only, no DE and since one of the fencers was wheelchair-bound, we each took one turn in the wheelchair. It was my first time at wheelchair fencing and took a few attempts to begin to get the hang of it. I managed to score only three points in that bout and I lost all my bouts. I note that I was fencing left-handed (I'm right-handed) so that's my excuse for the poor performance.

The up side of this is that I thought one fencer had taken pity on me and let me score a point (which this was not going to be a rated event) but he pointed out that I'd earned it fairly and I'd caught him off guard with a tempo change.

Woot!

I've been working hard on those legs and while I still can't seem to shift from forward to reverse and vice versa on the strip, I am apparently sometimes managing the shift from third to first, etc.

Seven of us fenced sabre, but we were NOT staying with the original premise of requiring participants to be 30 years of age or older (hence the 30 laps reference). I won 3 bouts and lost 2 and while I'll never be satisfied losing, I note that I did manage to accomplish a few small goals.

I made an effort to decide what I was going to do before the director said "fence".
I adjusted my fencing based upon results.
I tried to do a few second intention attacks... sometimes with bad results.

I am, unfortunately, still reaching out when I see the blade heading towards me and that means that my intended parry becomes a counter attack, giving the opponent the parry.

Idiot!

After the pools ended, we took a break for pizza and cake and sang, Happy Birthday to Dawn.

I won my first DE but lost my second and that last one would have bothered me if I'd been a little more determined to score and a little less determined to try a few things regardless of the consequences.

Overall, it was a good day and I got back to Indianapolis while Coach was still giving lessons and he stayed late to give me my first lesson since I developed tendonitis.

Another Woot!

Sometimes I forget how much I love fencing and how much I long to fence better. It's days like today that remind me what it's all about.

Good fencing. Good company. Constant work towards becoming the best that you can be.

October 4, 2007

Return of Bluefinger

My finger was no longer swollen and nice and pink so I went to the OTHER fencing club (the JCC being closed for Jewish holidays) and fenced left-handed epee.

Coach was right; it's a waste of my time to try to fence left-handed. However, the intent here was social interaction with the goal of not turning into my mother (who has dementia). Social interaction was achieved but I made the mistake of picking up a sabre with my right hand and lightly fencing a left-handed beginner sabre fencer.

As I packed up for the evening, I realized my middle finger felt swollen again. Once in the light, I verified it was swollen and dark purple. Upon reaching home, I iced it and the bottom of my finger turned ghostly white while the middle two-thirds of the finger remained dark purple.

My husband looked at it and pronounced words of wisdom: Whatever you're doing to it; stop it.

Before I fence next Saturday, I'm going to get some athletic tape and buddy tape the middle finger to the ring finger.

September 26, 2007

Bluefinger

Today, I saw a doctor about my blue finger, which technically is sort of a blueish purple rather than a nice shade of blue.

The diagnosis: torn ligaments.

What IS this problem I'm having with ligaments?

Bloodflow to the finger is fine and he said the only time he's seen this before has been with torn ligaments. I haven't a clue how this could have happened since the symptoms began while I was DRIVING and during a time when I hadn't done any fencing in a few days.

My annual appt. is next month so if the finger isn't back to a normal color by then, more tests will be required. In the meantime, we just assume that I've somehow torn ligaments in my finger without pain and without any remembered incidents that could have caused this.

September 25, 2007

Me and Brittney Spears

Tonight, Coach wasn't at practice so we did two pools of 5, whereupon I found great similarities between myself and Britney Spears.

Like Britney, I am out of shape. My timing is off, and I've forgotten how to do some basic things. Like Britney, I am seemingly unaware of this problem and still visualize myself as perfectly capable of doing certain moves until I do them and then... darn near fall all over myself.

Unlike Britney, I did not wear a sparkley bikini.

One of my biggest mistakes was something I haven't done in a year: reaching out to parry at what I see as the beginning of the opponent's (simultaneouos) attack rather than letting them finish and TAKING the parry. The result, of course, is that the director sees MY attack and the opponent's parry rather than the opponent's attack and my parry.

It took me three bouts to figure out what I was doing wrong.

On the plus side, I did figure out how to set up two of the better fencers by playing tired old woman. Alas, they are bright fencers and I only got away with it twice each.

I also managed to defeat the child who was half my height. But not the three fencers who were less than 1/3rd my age.

09-24-2007 08:46 PM

Bluefinger Entry

No, it's not a new Bond movie. I'm trying to figure out what in the Sam Hill is going on with my middle finger.

At first, I thought I was just cutting off the blood circulation by pulling the band (for tennis elbow) too tight but today, I wasn't wearing it when the finger got that "I'm going to hold my breath until I turn blue feeling." My husband was nearby at the time so there is a witness to testify that my finger did, in fact, turn blue from the base of the finger to the top knuckle. The fingernail and tip of the finger did not change color.

More, the finger felt stiff and numb and then it started turning a little purple on the palm side while the upper side looked a little brown.

WTH?

Two hours later, I'm looking at it and it still feels a little swollen, the palm side is definitely still darker (although no longer quite as purple) than the other fingers while the other side has only a slight yellowish look to it.

I've Googled and come up with several things that don't quite fit the description.

It is on the hand with the tennis elbow problem so I keep thinking it's got to be related somehow...

Maybe I should call the Nurse Health Line tomorrow. It's part of the insurance package. Every time I've done this, however, it's been a series of questions and then a recommendation that I see a doctor.

September 9, 2007

NAC E

I just sent in my entry forms for NAC C and NAC E. I've signed up to fence WSVET and WSV50 at NAC C and WSVET, WSV50, DII, and DIII at NAC E.

Then I went outside and pulled weeds until my tendonitis flared up again.

Yeah. Not so smart. Fortunately, I'll be away from home for a while beginning Tuesday and hopefully will not damage myself while away from home.

I did take it easier than usual at the gym on the arm while bumping up the weights slightly on the leg. I'm now back up to 60 lbs. on the reclining leg press and 85 on the calves. I got an unexpected bonus on the calves as someone had left 2 35-lb. weights on the machine and I didn't have to make multiple trips with lesser weights.

[I am only lifting what I can lift with my left hand.]

Septbmer 8, 2007

Skipping Gym

I skipped the gym today because I suspected (and did) get a darn good foot workout at fencing. Afterwards, I fenced drills with Chris and then fenced Chris to 15, fenced Ayla, Darrin, and Stephen. I noted that I can move my wrist again and while my fencing is still terrible, I no longer feel that I'm losing sliding backwards. Instead, I feel that I'm driving on ice: Much spinning of wheels and no distance gained.

I'll start lessons again next month.

Coming up next week are the big events:
(1) Car repair Monday
(2) Business trip Tuesday/Wednesday
(3) Maybe new hearing aids on Thursday -- they're in but I won't be available for the suggested Monday fitting. [These things need to be programmed and it's going to take more than a couple of trips, imho, to get it right.]
(4) A trip to Tennessee Thursday.
(5) Granddaughter's surgery Friday in Tennessee
(6) Drive home on Saturday, almost certainly missing fencing practice but maybe dropping in at Louisville to fence.

I am very worried about the surgery. I know these things are fairly routine now but I can't help remembering that the sister of a boy on my son's soccer team DIED while undergoing surgery for the same problem. Of course, this was more than a couple of decades ago and medical technology has improved. Still... I am feeling a little panicky about this.

September 7, 2007

Damn Leg!

Is swollen slightly again. I've taken it easy on the leg since Monday (when the gym was closed) so it shouldn't be doing this to me (imho).

I did fence this week. Wednesday, I fenced one bout and spent the rest of the evening directing. Thursday, I spent a half hour working parries with an intermediate fencer and then fenced Andy, Scott, and Stephen before going home a half hour earlier than usual. I've been wearing a Coopercare sleeve with strap that has a gel pad that is supposed to absorb the vibrations and thus allow me to do more than I was doing before.

My fencing is so bad that it almost hurts to watch everyone else. They're doing really well and here I am, limping along. [Almost literally.] It's not the knee or the arm that's the problem, but the time that I lost. I could have been learning, fencing, and improving and instead I've been watching, doing what I could, and doing a very poor imitation of Pollyana.

I'll try again. I should be happy because I can walk normally again and I can fence (even if any one of the kids could take me out, she adds with a snarl).

September 5, 2007

Limping Again

I don't know if it's because I overdid it Sunday (I didn't THINK I overdid it) or if it's because I did nothing Monday and then spent most of the day Tuesday drivinig from one place to another, but I'm limping again and I can't sit back on my heels without a slight amount of pain. This is usually an indication of swelling and while I don't SEE any obvious swelling, I can certainly feel it.

Time to prop the leg up again, except that's how I probably gave myself tennis elbow (leg propped up one way while I leaned WAY over in the opposite direction to move the mouse).

OTOH, the arm is continuing its gradual improvement to the point that I have to force myself to continue doing my exercises. Pulling still hurts and biting my fingernails on the right hand hurts my elbow (which should encourage me to stop this bad habit, right?).

Things have been a little dicey lately as our emergency funds evaporated due to an emergency (which is why we had the emergency fund) and the emergency -- of course -- didn't happen until I'd committed to buying hearing aids (almost $8000 and no, that's not one too many zeroes). Seeing the account balance signaled an alert for Murphy to pay a visit and thus my car is in the shop for some kind of transmission valve rebuild on the heels of the ~ $700 repair bill from Friday.

These things tend to come in bursts but I figure fate is giving me another reason NOT to go to Tuscon. I'm not physically ready and even if I was, I've been unable to fence for so long that I can't be competitive.

I plan/hope to start lessons again at the beginning of October and to ease back into the 3X a week practice and maybe 4X a week as the arm and knee permit.

September 1, 2007

Saturday Practice

I skipped my usual Saturday lower body exercises this morning because I had too much to do and figured I'd get a good workout at fencing. I was correct and I note that today I managed to (1) jog three times around the area and (2) jump in halfway across the diagonal line from one corner of the practice area to the other. I think I could have made it all the way across if Val hadn't noticed me doing this and motioned for me to stop. [I'd been following the teenagers through the paces and the sight of me hopping across the room on my bad knee apparently was not something he'd expected to see.]

The leg is not at the level it was two years ago, but it's continuing to make good progress. The tendonitis is also slowly healing. Every time I think I want to take a try at Tuscon, I do something stupid and I'm reminded why I should wait until Richmond. For one thing, I've been off the strip for so long that I've forgotten how to fence.

I fenced Chris and then Darrin and then Ayla and Washington. I also directed and wished once again that I was better at seeing and hearing the action. I have a great respect and appreciation of good referees.

After returning home, I cut the grass and I've got a long, long list of things that need to be done before the spousal unit returns from Dragoncon.

August 31, 2007

Not quite Brittney Spears

Today was another very long afternoon/evening/darn near night at the local gym. I kept the weights at the same level as last time because I'm trying to ease back into this, not dive head first into it. I could have done more than 50 lbs. on the reclining leg press and I could have done more than 75 pounds on the calf exercise. I didn't think it wise to do more.

I did give myself a good workout on the legs and then I did the every other day workout for the tendonitis problem. That part alone took 45 minutes.

I also had more hair removed. Any more haircuts and I'll look like Brittney Spears shortly before she went into rehab... except, of course, I don't wear my skirts that short and I DO wear underwear.

August 30, 2007

I Got Shock Absorbers

A co-worker directed me to a different kind of arm brace for tennis elbow. This one is like a sleeve with a removable gel piece that attaches to the inside of the sleeve with velco. Once in place, there's a strap just like on a regular tennis elbow brace.

I wore this tonight to practice and fenced two bouts (1 to 10 and 1 to 15). I was feeling pretty good when Andria said, "Don't push it," and decided that was good advice.

I use a cyrocuff to ice my elbow while driving home and now I've got my arm in a heating pad in preparation for doing the second set of the twice daily arm exercises.

I am cautiously optomistic that I'll be able to return to lessons in October.

I know the problem is still there. Scratching, opening a bottle of water, opening a door, etc. still occasionally cause discomfort. Thus, I'm not backing off the exercises until I have managed a few WEEKS without pain.

August 28, 2007

3/4th Healthy

If we're only counting limbs, I'm now 3/4th healthy. Sort of.

My latest tests showed the left knee can bend and flex as much as the right and I can leg press 90% as much with the left as the right. I'm still just below 80% on leg extension capabilities when compared to the right but that's still good enough to discharge me from PT.

The only restrictions now are common sense ones and I can start working the legs as much as I can tolerate.

Since I'm not a fool, I'm easing back into the old routine slowly and following the PT's recommendation to do separate reps on left and right legs and then a set together so that I continue to build strength on the left side.

Thus, I gave myself what I consider to be a reasonable workout tonight at the gym. In addition to the leg press, the leg extension, and the leg curl, I also put in some time on the hamstring machine where I used no weight while exercising the left side and only 10 pounds while using both legs. I also tried the reclining leg press for the first time in over six months and I could just barely manage 12 reps with no weight before adding 50 lbs. and using both legs. I also put 75 lbs. on the calves exerciser and did a minimal 2 lb. weights in each hand on lunging 2X the width of the gym.

I spent three hours at the gym by the time I did all the exercises I'd planned to do and now I'm tired, but not sore.

I'm betting that I won't have any aches and pains in the morning and if I'm right, I'll bump up the weight slightly next time.

The arm, unfortunately, is still not healing as fast as I'd like [Lord, give me patience and I want it RIGHT NOW!] so I'm reduced to focusing upon footwork for the time being. I think I can parry 3 and 4 without problems and even riposte, but extending the arm and using the wrist to force the blade down is a definite owie so I'm not doing drills or lessons and I feel like I'm falling further and further behind my

August 25, 2007

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Good: I ran at full speed today. Admittedly, I only made it 1.5 laps around the exercise area before slowing but I CAN run again. Woot! I could also do all the footwork exercises except the one involving squatting. [I can squat, but moving afterwards is not yet possible.]

Bad: I started doing with drills with Chris and immediately discovered that my elbow HURT every time I made a small motion. I could do macro moves, like the whole arm moving left or right but when I moved my wrist or my fingers, I felt a sharp pain in the elbow. Yes, I stopped. Damn it! I thought I'd progressed to the point where I could fence at least a little and yes, I was wearing my elbow brace.

The Ugly: I tried to make myself useful by directing the kids after they arrived and were doing a pool. However, I kept getting a blurry sensation in my left eye and some double vision that happened every time I moved quickly.
Everyone was ugly.

Upon reaching home, I discovered the reason for this: my left contact lens came out with a large rip down the middle. No WONDER!

Sigh!

Maybe I'll do better next time. For today, I focus upon resting the arm. Tomorrow is another long exercise day. I'm also going to start taking pills again. I gave my body a 3-day rest.

August 20, 2007

The Every Other Day Routine

Every day, I warm up the arm for ten minutes in the morning, do some stretching exercises for about ten minutes, and then ice it for ten minutes. I then go to the gym that evening and put in 30 minutes on the ellipitical trainer and do some other light leg work and return home to repeat what I did that morning with the arm.

It's the every other day routine that's exhausting me. IAfter the morning routine and a day of work, here's what I did today, which was the "other" day routine:

Heel Slides 10 reps
Sit back on Heels 10 reps
Squats 10 reps
Squat stretches 2 reps
Lunge stretches 10 reps
Sideways stretches 20 reps
Leg pulls (left only) 20 reps
Ellipitical trainer 30 minutes
Seated Leg Press at weight 25, 25, 27, 27, 30
Leg Extension at weight 15, 20, 22, 25
Seated Leg Curl 30, 40, 40
Step downs and tap the floor with my heel 100
Clock taps (stand on one leg and tap the floor with the other foot noon, 6 o'clock, 9 o'clock, and 3 o'clock) 10 times with each foot.
Lunges 2X width of gym
Calf Exercise 50 lbs 36, 36, 36
Crunches 100
10 minutes in the hot tub, sitting in a squat and/or squat walking
10 minutes in sauna doing arm stretches.
Exit the sauna, change quickly (don't bother showering) and do the following:

bring arm straight forward, over the head and back with 2 lb. weight in ea. hand 10 times
With elbow bent, bring hand to stomach and then away from body 2 lb. 10
With elbow bent, bring arm behind back 2 lb. 10
Bend and straighten elbow 2 lb. 10
With elbow bent and by side, turn palm up and down 2 lb. 10
With palm up and over the edge of a table, bend and straighten wrist 2 lb. 10
With palm down and over the edge of a table, bend and straighten wrist 2 lb. 10
Squeeze tennis ball 10 times with each hand.
Using tubing, pull arm back. Keep elbow straight 10X
Using tubing, start with arm at side and pull arm outward and upward. Move shoulder through pain free range of motion 10X
Using tubing, start with arm across body and pull away from side. Move through pain free range of motion 10X
Using tubing, pull arm in toward buttock. Do not twist or rotate trunk 10X
Using tubing, and keeping elbow in at side, rotate arm outward away from body. Be sure to keep forearm parallel to floor 10X
using tubing, keeping elbow at side, rotate arm inward towards body. Be sure to keep forearm parallel to floor 10X
Lying face down on mat, arms extended outwards, raise both arms off floor 2 lbs. 15 X
Lying face down on matt, arms at side, raise arms off floor keeping elbows straight 2 lbs. 15 X
Lying face up, attempt to push arms straight up to ceiling while keeping back against floor and elbows straight 2 lbs. 15X
Lying face down on mat, arms extended outward in Superman style, raise arms from floor 2 lbs. 15 X
Step on band, holding one end in each hand. Shrug 15X

I left work an hour early today so I reached the gym at 1530 hours. I left after 1830 hours.

Ah, for the days when I was a teenager and the body healed quickly and didn't require hours of daily maintenance! OTOH, I don't have to worry as much about acne and I no longer have a curfew.

August 18, 2007

Discharged from OT

I'm discharged from OT with a set of instructions. My grip is better than it was three weeks ago and while I still have occasional pains when doing something I shouldn't, I'm relatively confident that if I keep doing all the right things, I'll recover.

The therapist said I caught it early and thus we didn't have to do many of the things she usually has to do with patients.

Whew!

I'm still doing a heck of a lot (imho). The stretching exercises are every day and add about an hour to my usual routines while the every-other-day exercises add 2.5 hours to my daily non-work routine.

August 15, 2007

Stop When It Hurts

I went to practice tonight and fenced Mark (under 12) for a warmup and then his father, Darrin, and sometime during that second bout, I realized that I had a twinge of pain. However, I was about three touches past the original pain when I realized it had hurt and it wasn't hurting THEN so I kept going.

Stupid? Yes. You'd think I would have learned by now.

I decided to do just one more bout -- which wasn't a keep-score bout, but simply fencing with our WSDIII medalist, India, and while I wasn't doing well, I did manage to get a few touches. In fact, Val was giving a lesson beside us and turned just in time to see India's attack and my parry-riposte.

It was beautiful and we did about 5 more touches before calling it quits for the night.

At that point, I stripped off my gear and my elbow strap and the wrist strap, and used the cyrocuff to ice my elbow. Val looked up, stared, and I said, "15 minutes of ice." He walked over, grinning, and asked if there was beer in it. Then he told me to take it easy. There's no reason to push myself. Let the arm heal.

He's right; I know that. I just find it incredibly difficult to stay off the strip.

August 13, 2007

Goal Setting

The topic of the day is Goal Setting and I've had the same long-term goal for two years: Make the WSV60 World Team. My secondary goal has been to make the Alternate List (meaning make it to the top 8) for WSV50.

I honestly think I could have made it last season if I hadn't lost time to injuries. Now, with 40s moving into the 50s, I don't see much likelihood that I can make that secondary goal so maybe it's time to set some attainable short-term goal for myself so that I feel less discouraged.

I think the first goal is:
Get healthy; stay healthy. Then again, perhaps this is just a step on the way to achieving a goal. But what goal? I cannot realistically expect to catch up/surpass any of the better fencers this year while I'm still limping and dealing with tendonitis. Goals (imho) should be high enough to require great effort but low enough to be achievable. Setting a goal of winning a gold medal would just be setting myself up for failure.

So what's the new goal? What do I want to accomplish? What would I attempt it if was impossible to fail and if this was the last chance to ever fence?

Under those guidelines, I'd try for the gold but in real life failure IS a possibility and I cannot realistically expect to go that high. When I'm 60 and have more experience and (hopefully) have my body back under control, then maybe. For this year, I want a more realistic goal and that goal is one that I still think is too high: Finish in the top 8 at both NACs and the SN.

I haven't a snowball's chance in hell.

The instructions in goal setting say:

Make sure your vision is clear and powerful, one that you would follow despite whatever setbacks and failures that might arise along the way.

Um.... I don't think that you can follow that goal despite setbacks and failures if those are health issues. The distant goal of making it to the world team in my 60s, yes. This year, no. I think I did a darn good job of overcoming injuries and making my way back but I still fell short of what I wanted. But this year, I just don't know if I can drive myself that hard again when the cure for the physical problem is to do LESS.

And that takes me to the issue of where I am right now. I'm still limping, still in PT, and still have to focus upon that left leg because it does not yet feel right. I cannot squat and stand up without support and there's no strength in that leg. I'm also in OT for the arm and the worst thing I could do right now woud be to cue the Rocky theme music and start pushing myself.

Step 3 is be honest about what I need to do. I need to rest the weapon arm and I need to focus upon recovering my former physical fitness before I start pushing on the strip again. I need to go light, and that means that while everyone else is training hard, I'm going to be fencing with beginners.

Step 4 is formulate a daily improvement plan. Well, I've already done that. My plan is to become physically fit and THEN work on fencing. Towards that end, I recently started a 12-week log of diet and exercise. Putting it online helps keep me on track. It's at http://www.lindajdunn.com/journal/dare07.html

Step 5 is to make and work on short-term goals. I've been doing that all along and that's where I'm having a problem now. What possible goal can I set myself for this year that could be achieveable and make me feel good? Walking without limping is hardly the greatest goal I could set.

Okay, let's try these:
Be able to lunge across the gym. [No, not in one lunge.]
Be able to squat and stand up without assistance.
Be able to squat and lunge.
Renew my E.

Step 6 is to commit. There are people who say I should have been committed long ago. Okay, it was an easy line and everyone saw it coming. I'm one of the few people who DOES follow through on New Year resolutions but I do it by making public statements -- like this one -- so that I can't fail without embarassing myself.

Step 7) Continually monitor your progress

I like the suggestion of a checklist. I'd had a pseudo checklist but I think a formal one would work even better.

I'll put one online. Why online? Because then I can view it and edit it from just about anywhere.

August 10, 2007

Almost Discharged

The OT almost discharged me today but noted that I was a little nervous and asked if I preferred to return one more time. Yes! I'm definitely nervous about this.

I can try fencing and stop if the arm hurts.

I'd also noted that my right shoulder aches and she gave me some exercises, noting that there is probably more going on with the arm than just the tennis elbow. The other exercises are to strength my rotor cuff and improve my posture. I'm slumping and she noted that what I'd discussed could lead to rotor cuff problems.

I note that most of the exercises are ones that I used to do on a fairly regular basis and stopped doing after the Richmond thumb ligament injury (when I stopped the pilate training).

Donna P. suggested I do pilates once I'm safely on the mend and I think that's a good idea. I've got tapes and I'll start with those and then check with Christine at the Wellness Center about going with personal training once a week again. They prefer twice a week but I don't think that's right for me and I suspect it may be driven more by a desire for income or a belief that this is the ONLY exercise most people are getting versus a real need to do this twice a week.

Last time I checked, there were only 24 hours in the day and 7 days in the week. I have not yet been able to purchase a time compression device that will allow me to increase the available hours and quitting my job or being fired does NOT sound like a good way to gaiin more time to exercise.

I think I'm averaging 3 hours a day for OT, PT and exercise and with 8 hours devoted to work and 2 for commuting time, this does not leave an abundance of hours for other activities.

I note that women usually have less so-called free time then men (at least, in my limited experience) because women are responsible for housekeeping, yardwork, and food providing. YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary).

August 8, 2007

Short Hair

My hair is now shorter than it's been since I was a teenager.

I think it's called a crop.

I'm now threatening to dye it.

With a little luck, I'll be able to shampoo this with my left hand and it won't need any real combing.

I may have to buy a real comb. For years, I've been using a very, very wide tooth comb as my hair tangles badly and no conditioner has proven sufficient to keep it under control.

One more thing crossed off the list of things I can avoid doing with the right hand.

My hair is short, the grass is tall, and my house is still in desperate need of a good vacuuming.

August 7, 2008

Pain Free Day

Sunday and Monday were pain-free days. Of course, I've set things up so it's difficult to do anything with my right hand, which means I may not be feeling pain because I'm not moving my arm in a way that leads to pain.

Still, it's a good change of pace.

I'm still waking up at odd angles with the arm broadcasting, Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! but that fades once I've done my morning warmup, stretches, and ice down.

Now I just need to decide what I'm going to do about my hair. I don't like it in my face so I'm looking to go even shorter.

I'm checking out hairstyles and rejecting 90% of them. Substance before form. Always.

August 6, 2008

More on the Dangerous Game

Cutting the hair meant I could shampoo and dry this morning without pain. Using two fingers instead of my thumbs while dressing meant I could also dress without pain.

The objective is not so much to avoid pain as to avoid doing anything that will continuously irritate the already inflamed tendons.

A minor rant about over the counter drug labels follows:

I could NOT read the instructions on the back of the Aleve bottle. They're printed in blue and the font type is ultra-small. Add a little crinkling to the label and you have an unreadable bottle. I handed it to my husband, who does NOT wear glasses, and he couldn't read it either.

No problem, I'll just go to the web site to find the recommended dosage.

Guess what the web site says? Come on, guess. You know you know the answer.

It tells you to follow the recommended dosage on the label on the back of the bottle.

From the Redundancy Depart of Redundancy. Worse. It's unreadable redundancy.

We finally managed to determine that there is NO recommended dosage listed on the bottle. The front of the bottle says SEE CARTON FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION.

Of course I no longer have the carton.

We found another bottle with the same problems as the first EXCEPT the dosage was on the bottle rather than the missing carton.

Recommended dosage is 1 pill every 12 hours. I'd already taken two, thinking it was like aspirin.

August 5, 2007

A Dangerous Game

More so than fencing.

NSAIDs give me nasty side effects but with this tennis elbow problem, I feel that I need to take a calculated risk and thus I'm going to play a dangerous game of drug usage.

Today, I took two Alleve pills and I intend to continue taking the recommended dosage for two days while continuing to take my twice-daily (Doctor said I could double the dosage) Prilosec for acid reflux.

I'm going to do this for two days unless I develop severe heartburn and then I'm going to take a day off the Alleve, see how I feel, and try it again if I feel my system can handle it.

For most people, this would NOT be a dangerous game.

Last time I took NSAIDs, I couldn't eat for 2 weeks because I couldn't swallow. The weight loss was wonderful, although I note I regained those lost 5 pounds. I'm hoping this time that I can hasten the healing of the right elbow without heartburn.

August 4, 2007

Hair today; Gone tomorrow.

I have what might best be described as a bowl cut.

I had planned to let my hair grow about 3 more inches before making a Locks of Love donation but I'm eliminating everything from my life that can be eliminated when that elimination has even the tiniest chance of speeding the tennis elbow healing process.

It hurts when I try to comb my hair and my attempts to comb left handed only have been rather awkward. More, I like to blow dry my hair and that's a two-handed deal.

The hair will grow.

For my next trick, I'm going to start eliminating food from my diet and see how much Ibuprofen I can take before my acid reflux reacts. From previous experiments, I think I can probably do two days on and one day off without damage.

I went to fencing practice today and did footwork and directed. I note that we have a two new girl fencers and while I didn't get a chance to watch one, the other one was keeping up with India, who placed 8th in cadet and MSDIII at the Nationals.

This looks good.

Kevin is also back and I don't know where he's been but he was also fencing well.

We're losing our oldest boys to college but I think we'll still be able to field a men's and women's team next year.

I desperately want to be out there with them.

Whiplash alert! Another sudden topic shift lies ahead.

Before fencing, I went to an adoption seminar with my daughter, who is looking into their possible options for adoption. It looks like we've outsourced this one overseas as well because domestic adoptions are almost all private agency adoptions and those are usually open adoptions. Also, the drug usage history of moms in the US looks pretty dreadful. No wonder so many prospective parents are going overseas!

That, and the cost is about the same unless you're AA or Hispanic, in which case you have a short wait for a baby.

I discovered that China requires you to be at least 30, so my daughter's not old enough for that. Korea will not grant adoptions to couples whose age difference is more than ten years so that one is also scratched off the list of possibilities. Russia and Ukranie have had problems with American adoptions (14 families killed children adopted from Russia and one man adopted an 8-year-old girl so he could molest her so I can understand why adoptions have become much more difficult there).

Fortunately, there is a tax credit for adoptions. Otherwise, I suspect most couples would have to forfeit the opportunity to become parents.

You know adoption has become too expensive when the handout of basic information includes information about home equity loans and lines of credit.

08-03-2007 10:32 PM

Okay, so here's what I'm supposed to do twice a day:

Warm up the arm for 10 minutes and then do active stretching exercises. This means stretch the arm out and stretch the palm out, up, down, out 5 times each to a count of 15.

This is followed by passive stretching of 10 repetitions to a count of 15 each.
1. While elbow bent, bend the writst towards the body with the opposite hand.
2. With elbow bent and palm down bend the wrist towards the floor with the opposite hand.
3. With elbow straight, forearm neutral, bend the writst towards the body with the opposite hand.
4. With elbow straight and palm down, bend the wrist towards the floor with the opposite hand.

Ice three times a day for 15 minutes by putting water into a styrofoam cup and after it freezes, peel the cup down so the left hand can hold the cut while icing down the right elbow.

I have two cups in the freezer now. We'll see how this works.

Every other day, holding my 2# weight, do 10 repetitions of each of the following:

Bright arm straight forward, over the head and back as far as possible.
With elbow bent, bring hand to stomach and then away from body.
With elbow bent, draw arm away from body.
With elbow bent, bring arm behind back.
Bend and straight elbow
With elbow bent and by your side, turn the palm up and down
With palm up and over the edge of a table, bend and straighten the wrist.
With palm down and over the edge of a table, bend and straighten y our wrist.

We're skipping the last item: squeezing a ball. Gripping the ball is the one thing that causes pain and I'm only to do exercises that do not cause pain.

August 3, 2007

The First OT Visit

Today, I went to the hospital for an evaluation. In a nutshell, it looks like this was caught early. However, it's been a problem for about 2 months and I am not a patient person nor am I a knowledgeable person. Given that I'm not so stupid as to attempt to self-medicate and Google... or perhaps it's just that I'm too bloody impatient... I requested OT.

The wrist brace I'm using is good (Thanks for the suggestion, Donna!). The brace for the arm is good. Some things were not so good, which is why I'm seeing an expert.

I now need to wrap the arm in a hot towel for 10 minutes before doing the exercises, which I'm to do 2 times a day and if anything hurts, I stop. I've also got some strengthing exercises to do and if anything hurts, I stop.

I return next Friday.

I was also told that what I had been doing at work is what one would do if one were trying to CAUSE tennis elbow.

Yes, I sort of figured that out after the fact.

So now let's see how fast I can recover with someone who knows what they're doing telling me what to do.

August 01, 2007

Daring Myself

I feel so unmotivated and lethargic that I decided what I need is another dare.

Back in January 2001, a friend decided to try a modified version of the Body for Life 12-week program and called it a fitness dare. Since a gym had opened near home, I joined the gym and her dare and we posted daily updates about what we were doing and checked one another's web pages for motivation.

I've tried this a few times since and it's never worked as well because...well... I'm just not that motivated. Still I'm going to try it again and I'm posting a link so I can tell myself that other people might actually look at this and thus it will hopefully shame me into actually following through.

The link below is for the web page and I'll start the journal Sunday. That will, hopefully, give me a little time to spruce up the page. It also gives me a few more days to engage in bad eating habits.

http://www.lindajdunn.com/journal/dare07.html

July 27, 2007

Oh, drat!

There's a game I've watched people play at arcade places where they whack a mole-like critter that pops up out of a hole and then another and another and another and no matter how many you whack or where you whack them, there's always more.

The knee was the first major problem and that happened last year. While whacking that problem, the thumb was injured and I lost the ability to grip properly. Now there's the tennis elbow issue.

Maybe it's not whacking moles so much as it's a the leg bone connects to the hip bone type thing. [Vague reference to an old song.]

Everything's connected. When I injured my knee, I had to compensate for things and that's caused other minor physical problems that the physical therapist has detected (fortunately) and guided me towards avoiding.

When I injured the thumb, I didn't ask for physical therapy and the doctor just told me to esentially wait for it to heal. The thumb is still occasionally sore and I notice that when I do gripping exercises, the whole arm and shoulder feel odd. Thus, I wonder if the thumb ligament injury wasn't a contributing factor to the tennis elbow situation. I also wonder if carrying around a bucket of ice water every day didn't also add to the problem.

The pain is still in the elbow, below the elbow, and ABOVE the elbow and always, always, always in my shoulder.

I'm supposed to be resting the arm but this is the time when we deploy new computers and take the outgoing computers and reimage them to become the new common workstations and then take those old common use computers, wipe them, and excess them.

Guess who's job duties include moving all this equipment?

I've GOT to find a physical therapist and get a referral from the doctor. I also think I need an MRI of that shoulder and elbow.

I don't think this is *just* tennis elbow and I want to stop whacking moles. I want someone to turn off this game and tell me what the heck I did to activate it.

I have purchased a sling for my arm. As soon as I finish about three weeks of work (my estimate) with moving equipment, I'm going to start wearing it and tell everyone I cannot use the arm.

First, I've got to get through the crisis at hand.

And I've got an earworm. For the last two weeks, I'm hearing a song in my head that just does not want to go away and it's the same lines over and over again.

We've got to move those refrigerators, we've got to move those color TVs....

July 21, 2007

Relearning How to Jump

I can now SQUAT and stand up again without needing to use my hands for support.

I can now do that exercise where one leg is out at an angle and the other leg is in a squat position.

Whoo Hoo!

The leg continues to heal. I'm incredibly out of shape and couldn't run far or fast but the leg is coming back. Go leg!

I asked Ben (one of the teenagers who is a VERY good backwards jumper) to show me how to jump backwards because I've literally forgotten how to do this. He seemed to think this a bit odd but demonstrated and then pointed out what I was doing wrong.

I worked in front of the mirror for several minutes and note that I still cannot jump backwards more than a foot. I think I could STEP backwards further and faster than that but I'm hoping this will improve as the knee continues to regain strength.

July 23, 2007

More Physical Injury Stuff

I note that there's a study that shows a gender difference in recovery from knee surgery: women heal slower.

Why am I not surprised by this?

The strength is coming back slower than they'd like so the Physical Therapist wants me to up the weight and work that knee hard.

Gee... it wasn't THAT long ago that they told me to stay off it.

And on the subject of injuries...

We're nearing the end of the new computer deployment, which means I'm now reimaging many of the replaced computers so I can pull out the oldest computers and put these in their places. I figure I'm going to be moving about 20 computers over the next two weeks and that's NOT something I should be doing.

Today, I dropped a computer (fortunately, not on my foot) because I simply can't do things that were easy a few weeks ago.

I think I'm going to put my arm in a sling simply to make it more inconvenient to use it.

My new aircast attachment arrived. I've now got the knee attachment, the elbow attachment, and the shoulder attachment. If this keeps up, I'll soon have the whole set. At that point, I should just fill the bathtub with ice and lie down in it.

July 31, 2007

Mini-goals

I've only been going to fencing practice once a week due to a tough schedule at work and now that the schedule is beginning to return to normal, I'm doing WORSE.

I just don't function well if I don't have a concrete goal to strive towards and resting my arm so it will heal is NOT a concrete goal.

I think I'm going to have to draw up an exercise schedule and then give myself a series of mini-goals to get back on track.

I need mini-goals because that's how I work best. When I've got a far-off goal and no small goals enroute, I just don't do as well as when I break it up into small chunks with the opportunity to celebrate small successes.

August 3, 2007

My OT Exercises

Okay, so here's what I'm supposed to do twice a day:

Warm up the arm for 10 minutes and then do active stretching exercises. This means stretch the arm out and stretch the palm out, up, down, out 5 times each to a count of 15.

This is followed by passive stretching of 10 repetitions to a count of 15 each.
1. While elbow bent, bend the writst towards the body with the opposite hand.
2. With elbow bent and palm down bend the wrist towards the floor with the opposite hand.
3. With elbow straight, forearm neutral, bend the writst towards the body with the opposite hand.
4. With elbow straight and palm down, bend the wrist towards the floor with the opposite hand.

Ice three times a day for 15 minutes by putting water into a styrofoam cup and after it freezes, peel the cup down so the left hand can hold the cut while icing down the right elbow.

I have two cups in the freezer now. We'll see how this works.

Every other day, holding my 2# weight, do 10 repetitions of each of the following:

Bright arm straight forward, over the head and back as far as possible.
With elbow bent, bring hand to stomach and then away from body.
With elbow bent, draw arm away from body.
With elbow bent, bring arm behind back.
Bend and straight elbow
With elbow bent and by your side, turn the palm up and down
With palm up and over the edge of a table, bend and straighten the wrist.
With palm down and over the edge of a table, bend and straighten y our wrist.

We're skipping the last item: squeezing a ball. Gripping the ball is the one thing that causes pain and I'm only to do exercises that do not cause pain.

August 14, 2007

Finally Fencing Again.

I'm averaging 2-3 hours a day on exercise and physical therapy and I fenced for the first time Saturday after the Occupational Therapist suggested I give it a try and stop immediately if I experienced pain. I found I could do drills (although badly, since I was wearing not only the elbow strap, but a wrist guard that restricted my wrist movement) and I even did one bout. However, disconnecting from the box at the end of the bout hurt so I guess I need to learn how to do this one-handed (left hand).

I plan to attend practice sessions twice a week while working carefully towards physical recovery. The key word now is "patience."

My goals are now:

5 year goal: Earn a place on the WSV60 World Team.

4 year goal: Earn a C. Finish the season no longer than 10th. Finish 8th at the SN.

3 year goal: Earn a D. Finish the season no longer than 10th. Finish 8th at the SN.

2 year goal: Since this year's World Team event is in Russia and I'd love to go, I'm going to set the high bar at wining a place on the WSV50 team. Do I think I'll make it? Probably not, but I'll never know how I would have done if I don't try.

This year's goal: Place no lower than 10th at the end of the season. Finish 8th at the SN.

Now the question is: What shall I do to get there? What milestones should I expect to reach on my path towards these goals?

For this year, the focus is upon recovery. I intend to spend a minimum of 6 days a week exercising and 5 of those should be at the local Wellness Center. I may try Pilates again if the OT/PT recommends it. I need to learn to fence smarter, not harder.

I will work on footwork while the right arm is healing.

August 15, 2007

Fencing With Tendonitis

I went to practice tonight and fenced Mark (under 12) for a warmup and then his father, Darrin, and sometime during that second bout, I realized that I had a twinge of pain. However, I was about three touches past the original pain when I realized it had hurt and it wasn't hurting THEN so I kept going.

Stupid? Yes. You'd think I would have learned by now.

I decided to do just one more bout -- which wasn't a keep-score bout, but simply fencing with our WSDIII medalist, India, and while I wasn't doing well, I did manage to get a few touches. In fact, Val was giving a lesson beside us and turned just in time to see India's attack and my parry-riposte.

It was beautiful and we did about 5 more touches before calling it quits for the night.

August 18, 2007

Tendonitis Update

I'm discharged from OT with a set of instructions. My grip is better than it was three weeks ago and while I still have occasional pains when doing something I shouldn't, I'm relatively confident that if I keep doing all the right things, I'll recover.

The therapist said I caught it early and thus we didn't have to do many of the things she usually has to do with patients.

Whew!

I'm still doing a heck of a lot (imho). The stretching exercises are every day and add about an hour to my usual routines while the every-other-day exercises add 2.5 hours to my daily non-work routine.

Sleep is the first thing to go.

August 20, 2007

The OT Workout

Every day, I warm up the arm for ten minutes in the morning, do some stretching exercises for about ten minutes, and then ice it for ten minutes. I then go to the gym that evening and put in 30 minutes on the ellipitical trainer and do some other light leg work and return home to repeat what I did that morning with the arm.

It's the every other day routine that's exhausting me. IAfter the morning routine and a day of work, here's what I did today, which was the "other" day routine:

Heel Slides 10 reps
Sit back on Heels 10 reps
Squats 10 reps
Squat stretches 2 reps
Lunge stretches 10 reps
Sideways stretches 20 reps
Leg pulls (left only) 20 reps
Ellipitical trainer 30 minutes
Seated Leg Press at weight 25, 25, 27, 27, 30
Leg Extension at weight 15, 20, 22, 25
Seated Leg Curl 30, 40, 40
Step downs and tap the floor with my heel 100
Clock taps (stand on one leg and tap the floor with the other foot noon, 6 o'clock, 9 o'clock, and 3 o'clock) 10 times with each foot.
Lunges 2X width of gym
Calf Exercise 50 lbs 36, 36, 36
Crunches 100
10 minutes in the hot tub, sitting in a squat and/or squat walking
10 minutes in sauna doing arm stretches.
Exit the sauna, change quickly (don't bother showering) and do the following:

bring arm straight forward, over the head and back with 2 lb. weight in ea. hand 10 times
With elbow bent, bring hand to stomach and then away from body 2 lb. 10
With elbow bent, bring arm behind back 2 lb. 10
Bend and straighten elbow 2 lb. 10
With elbow bent and by side, turn palm up and down 2 lb. 10
With palm up and over the edge of a table, bend and straighten wrist 2 lb. 10
With palm down and over the edge of a table, bend and straighten wrist 2 lb. 10
Squeeze tennis ball 10 times with each hand.
Using tubing, pull arm back. Keep elbow straight 10X
Using tubing, start with arm at side and pull arm outward and upward. Move shoulder through pain free range of motion 10X
Using tubing, start with arm across body and pull away from side. Move through pain free range of motion 10X
Using tubing, pull arm in toward buttock. Do not twist or rotate trunk 10X
Using tubing, and keeping elbow in at side, rotate arm outward away from body. Be sure to keep forearm parallel to floor 10X
using tubing, keeping elbow at side, rotate arm inward towards body. Be sure to keep forearm parallel to floor 10X
Lying face down on mat, arms extended outwards, raise both arms off floor 2 lbs. 15 X
Lying face down on matt, arms at side, raise arms off floor keeping elbows straight 2 lbs. 15 X
Lying face up, attempt to push arms straight up to ceiling while keeping back against floor and elbows straight 2 lbs. 15X
Lying face down on mat, arms extended outward in Superman style, raise arms from floor 2 lbs. 15 X
Step on band, holding one end in each hand. Shrug 15X

I left work an hour early today so I reached the gym at 1530 hours. I left after 1830 hours.

Ah, for the days when I was a teenager and the body healed quickly and didn't require hours of daily maintenance! OTOH, I don't have to worry as much about acne and I no longer have a curfew.

August 25, 2007

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Good: I ran at full speed today. Admittedly, I only made it 1.5 laps around the exercise area before slowing but I CAN run again. Woot! I could also do all the footwork exercises except the one involving squatting. [I can squat, but moving afterwards is not yet possible.]

Bad: I started doing with drills with Chris and immediately discovered that my elbow HURT every time I made a small motion. I could do macro moves, like the whole arm moving left or right but when I moved my wrist or my fingers, I felt a sharp pain in the elbow. Yes, I stopped. Damn it! I thought I'd progressed to the point where I could fence at least a little and yes, I was wearing my elbow brace.

The Ugly: I tried to make myself useful by directing the kids after they arrived and were doing a pool. However, I kept getting a blurry sensation in my left eye and some double vision that happened every time I moved quickly.
Everyone was ugly.

Upon reaching home, I discovered the reason for this: my left contact lens came out with a large rip down the middle. No WONDER!

Sigh!

Maybe I'll do better next time. For today, I focus upon resting the arm. Tomorrow is another long exercise day. I'm also going to start taking pills again. I gave my body a 3-day rest.

August 30, 2007

Shock Absorbers

A co-worker directed me to a different kind of arm brace for tennis elbow. This one is like a sleeve with a removable gel piece that attaches to the inside of the sleeve with velco. Once in place, there's a strap just like on a regular tennis elbow brace.

I wore this tonight to practice and fenced two bouts (1 to 10 and 1 to 15). I was feeling pretty good when Andria said, "Don't push it," and decided that was good advice.

I use a cyrocuff to ice my elbow while driving home and now I've got my arm in a heating pad in preparation for doing the second set of the twice daily arm exercises.

I am cautiously optomistic that I'll be able to return to lessons in October.

I know the problem is still there. Scratching, opening a bottle of water, opening a door, etc. still occasionally cause discomfort. Thus, I'm not backing off the exercises until I have managed a few WEEKS without pain.

August 28, 2007

Working Out

Today was another very long afternoon/evening/darn near night at the local gym. I kept the weights at the same level as last time because I'm trying to ease back into this, not dive head first into it. I could have done more than 50 lbs. on the reclining leg press and I could have done more than 75 pounds on the calf exercise. I didn't think it wise to do more.

I did give myself a good workout on the legs and then I did the every other day workout for the tendonitis problem. That part alone took 45 minutes.

I also had more hair removed. Any more haircuts and I'll look like Brittney Spears shortly before she went into rehab... except, of course, I don't wear my skirts that short and I DO wear underwear.

September 5, 2007

Easing back in

I don't know if it's because I overdid it Sunday (I didn't THINK I overdid it) or if it's because I did nothing Monday and then spent most of the day Tuesday driving from one place to another, but I'm limping again and I can't sit back on my heels without a slight amount of pain. This is usually an indication of swelling and while I don't SEE any obvious swelling, I can certainly feel it.

Time to prop the leg up again, except that's how I probably gave myself tennis elbow (leg propped up one way while I leaned WAY over in the opposite direction to move the mouse).

OTOH, the arm is continuing its gradual improvement to the point that I have to force myself to continue doing my exercises. Pulling still hurts and biting my fingernails on the right hand hurts my elbow (which should encourage me to stop this bad habit, right?).

Things have been a little dicey lately as our emergency funds evaporated due to an emergency (which is why we had the emergency fund) and the emergency -- of course -- didn't happen until I'd committed to buying hearing aids (almost $8000 and no, that's not one too many zeroes). Seeing the account balance signaled an alert for Murphy to pay a visit and thus my car is in the shop for some kind of transmission valve rebuild on the heels of the ~ $700 repair bill from Friday.

These things tend to come in bursts but I figure fate is giving me another reason NOT to go to Tuscon. I'm not physically ready and even if I was, I've been unable to fence for so long that I can't be competitive.

I plan/hope to start lessons again at the beginning of October and to ease back into the 3X a week practice and maybe 4X a week as the arm and knee permit.

September 8, 2007

Fencing and Other Stuff

I skipped the gym today because I suspected I would (and did) get a darn good foot workout at fencing. Afterwards, I fenced drills with Chris and then fenced Chris to 15, and fenced Ayla, Darrin, and Stephen. I noted that I can move my wrist again and while my fencing is still terrible, I no longer feel that I'm sliding backwards. Instead, I feel that I'm driving on ice: Much spinning of wheels and no distance gained.

I'll start lessons again next month and I am very much looking forward to regaining lost skills and moving forward again.

Coming up next week are the big events:
(1) Car repair Monday
(2) Business trip Tuesday/Wednesday
(3) Maybe new hearing aids on Thursday -- they're in but I won't be available for the suggested Monday fitting. [These things need to be programmed and it's going to take more than a couple of trips, imho, to get it right.]
(4) A trip to Tennessee Thursday.
(5) Granddaughter's surgery Friday in Tennessee
(6) Drive home on Saturday, almost certainly missing fencing practice but maybe stopping in at Louisville to fence.

I am very worried about the surgery. I know these things are fairly routine now but I can't help remembering that the sister of a boy on my son's soccer team DIED while undergoing surgery for the same problem. Of course, this was more than a couple of decades ago and medical technology has improved. Still... I am feeling a little panicky about this.

September 9, 2007

Taking a Leap of Faith

I just sent in my entry forms for NAC C and NAC E. I've signed up to fence WSVET and WSV50 at NAC C and WSVET, WSV50, DII, and DIII at NAC E.

Then I went outside and pulled weeds until my tendonitis flared up again.

Yeah. Not so smart. Fortunately, I'll be away from home for a while beginning Tuesday and hopefully will not damage myself while away from home.

I did take it easier than usual at the gym on the arm while bumping up the weights slightly on the leg. I'm now back up to 60 lbs. on the reclining leg press and 85 on the calves. I got an unexpected bonus on the calves as someone had left 2 35-lb. weights on the machine and I didn't have to make multiple trips with lesser weights.

[I am only lifting what I can lift with my left hand.]

October 8, 2007

Fencing and Other Stuff Update

(1) The car was repaired at a price that exceeded the car's resale value. Ouch!
(2) Business trip went fine but another trip may be required
(3) New hearing aids were purchased but I think they need to be reprogrammed. Everyone sounds like they're shouting and it's literally painful. I've turned the aids down below the so-called "comfort level" and wear them only at work or at social occasions. I cannot tolerate wearing them in the car and I find I'm gritting my teeth while wearing them. Yes, they're that uncomfortable.
(4) The trip to Tennessee and back was fine. No car breakages.
(5) The granddaughter's surgery went well and she's playing soccer.
(6) I reached Louisville in time to fence and reached home in time for fencing practice.

The tennis elbow problem continues but I've reached a point where I can fence without pain (although my grip is weak). Now, I need to get back onto the schedule for lessons. I'm continuing my OT exercises every day without fail and I'm icing the elbow frequently. I'm also sleeping in a wrist guard as that's supposed to help the healing process. No tennis elbow brace while sleeping because that allegedly makes the healing process more difficult.

My lower legs are now about the same size, although the muscle in the uninjured leg feels stronger and I can certain leg press more weight with that one. I'm continuing to work hard at reclaiming muscle and strength in the left leg and icing down the knee afterwards to reduce swelling. Swelling continues to be a problem and I've become reconciled that this is something I'm just going to have to learn to manage.

October 13, 2007

Thirty Laps Around the Sun

Today was Dawn's birthday so I drove down to Louisville to fence the 30 Laps Around the Sun competition. I'd received the e-mail earlier warning that they'd changed the competition due to low anticipated turnout and thus I was prepared for fencing two weapons.

Epee was first -- pools only, no DE and since one of the fencers was wheelchair-bound, we each took one turn in the wheelchair. It was my first time at wheelchair fencing and took a few attempts to begin to get the hang of it. I managed to score only three points in that bout and I lost all my bouts. I note that I was fencing left-handed (I'm right-handed) so that's my excuse for the poor performance.

The up side of this is that I thought one fencer had taken pity on me and let me score a point (which this was not going to be a rated event) but he pointed out that I'd earned it fairly and I'd caught him off guard with a tempo change.

Woot!

I've been working hard on those legs and while I still can't seem to shift from forward to reverse and vice versa on the strip, I am apparently sometimes managing the shift from third to first, etc.

Seven of us fenced sabre, but we were NOT staying with the original premise of requiring participants to be 30 years of age or older (hence the 30 laps reference). I won 3 bouts and lost 2 and while I'll never be satisfied losing, I note that I did manage to accomplish a few small goals.

I made an effort to decide what I was going to do before the director said "fence".
I adjusted my fencing based upon results.
I tried to do a few second intention attacks... sometimes with bad results.

I am, unfortunately, still reaching out when I see the blade heading towards me and that means that my intended parry becomes a counter attack, giving the opponent the parry.

Idiot!

After the pools ended, we took a break for pizza and cake and sang, Happy Birthday to Dawn.

I won my first DE but lost my second and that last one would have bothered me if I'd been a little more determined to score and a little less determined to try a few things regardless of the consequences.

Overall, it was a good day and I got back to Indianapolis while Coach was still giving lessons and he stayed late to give me my first lesson since I had to quit lessons and rest the arm (due to tendonitis).

Another Woot!

Things to work on:

Lunging -- Watch my arm while lunging. It is not moving correctly. Also, I need to push off stronger and stretch as far as I can.

Stop cut -- watch the blade, not the target.

Sometimes I forget how much I love fencing and how much I long to fence better. It's days like today that remind me what it's all about.

Good fencing. Good company. Constant work towards becoming the best that you can be.

October 14, 2007

The Tactical Wheel

A recent post in the forum led me to give some thought to the tactical wheel and I realized that I really didn't have a clue what the tactical wheel was or how to use it as a learning tool. Thus, I made a tactical wheel and input a small amount of info about each spoke and hung it off my web site while I do a little more research and try to gain a better understanding of how it works.

I suspect it is much like writing in that first, you learn the rules and then you break them. [The trick is to know WHEN to break them.] IOW, I suspect it's one of those things you need to learn at the beginning and then your skill level (hopefully) progresses to a point where it's no longer useful.

My TW is here.

November 15, 2007

Pilate Training

I've went to my second pilate reformer session last night before fencing and the jury is still out on this method. I don't feel like I'm pushing myself and I'm not really sore afterwards. OTOH, I'm not hurting the elbow and I'm doing exercises that will probably lessen the muscle loss due to the inability to do the exercises I want to be doing.

I've paid for ten sessions and the "partner" in this has turned out to be a woman approximately my own age with a similar background and objectives (except for fencing). We're both work in IT fields.

I thought my thumb was whacked hard last night and when I checked this morning, the right thumb was purple on the INSIDE. Given that this is the part that normally grips the sabre, I'm at a loss to explain how the heck I did this.

November 19, 2007

More Injured Body Parts

An MRI confirmed I have a small tear (separation of the tendon from the shoulder) in the rotor cuff area. Surgery is an option only if everything else fails. In the meantime, I have tendonitis and bursitis in that area.

I will be fencing at Richmond. I will be icing my shoulder after competing. I'll pack my Cyrocuff again.

I may not be doing many PILs and I'm probably going to be fencing a little differently than before, but I CAN compete.

December 10, 2009

NAC C

Fencing did not go well in the WSVET. I focused on keeping my head with me at all times on the strip, but I once again tried to do the safe and easy thing rather than taking chances and this cost me at least one bout and a few points. I seeded 13th out of 24 and then Jones wiped the floor with me and I dropped to 18th.

I was so upset that I couldn't sleep that night and tossed and turned, trying to figure out what had happened. Later, I talked to other fencers and learned that Jones was an epee fencer and what she'd been doing was leading me into an attack that fell short and then remising for the first half of the bout. Once I changed my approach, I was down 5-0 and just couldn't pull out of it fast enough.

I consider this a valuable lesson and will work to avoid making similar mistakes in the future.

The WSV50 went somewhat better.

I won two of four bouts in my pool and was seeded 10th and then fenced Susan Nicely, who was seeded 7th. Susan is a left-handed fencer and I always have trouble with left-handed fencers but by this time, my knee was swollen and this forced me to slow down and THINK. I won this bout and moved on to fence Jeannie Bender, who had defeated me 5-0 in our pool. I was down at the half when I asked Susan (who was on the sidelines) if she had any insight. She said that Jeannie was doing the same thing that she had been doing and while part of my mind wasn't taking it in, the subconscious mind did. The next thing I knew, Jeannie and I were tied at 8-8.

No, I didn't win. Jeannie won 10-8, but it was a very good bout. I'd taken chances, I'd let go of my comfortable routine, and I'd adjusted my fencing as needed.

I finished 8th and took home a medal.

I also limped. The knee was badly swollen again by the time I stepped off the airplane in Indianapolis.

December 21, 2007

A Trip to the Occupational Therapist

I asked for occupational therapy after my right rotor cuff tendon tear (a small one) was diagnosed and today I reported to the hospital basement for Act II of occupational therapy.

This round, I'm to stop using the bands for a week and concentrate on other exercises. I've also been instructed in how to massage the elbow three times a day (followed by ice) and my right shoulder is taped because when I'm standing, that shoulder tends to slouch or hunch, depending upon your point of view and vocabulary preference.

I return next Friday for a follow-up. I have a maximum of 4 visits authorized and hope that this will get me back on track.

Additionally, I've been told I can ease back into some of my upper body weight training as long as there's no pain and I restrict my actions to no movements that begin or end with my arms above shoulder length. Thus, I'm easing back into biceps curls with light weights.

Tonight, I went to the gym and did one set of biceps curls with 5 lbs and 2 sets with 8 pounds followed by the same weights on modified biceps curls and then one set of shoulder lifts with 5 lbs. I then did the usual 30 minutes on the ET, followed by 1 set of 20 lbs. on the vertical leg press, 2 sets of 25 on the vertical leg press (one leg at a time) and moved on to 3 sets of leg extensions at 20 lbs (one leg at a time). Next stop was 3 sets of reclining leg presses at 50 lbs and yes, I could have done more but the left leg is still swollen and I didn't want to overdo it. I finished with 3 sets of 25 repetitions on calves at 50 and then went to the locker room to ice the knees for 10 minutes while doing some of the arm and shoulder exercises the OT had recommended. I finished in the hot tub with elbow exercises and used the cyrocuff to ice my elbow before leaving.

I'm still having trouble staying on track with the exercises. The schedule is too full at this time of year.

December 23, 2007

OT, Try again.

I managed to do my required OT before fencing practice but I attended a Christmas party afterwards and only did half of what I was supposed to do, despite dragging a heating pad and cryocuff with me.

Today, I started the morning with the heat (long, hot shower) followed by ice for ten minutes. After this, I'll start working my way through the exercises and I suspect that by the time I finish, it will be almost time to start the second set of heat and ice.

Icing a shoulder is not easy and there's not enough space in our freezer for the gel packs.

December 26, 2007

Weights and Fencing

I'm easing back into weight training again so tonight was 3 sets of biceps curls and modified biceps curls plus one set of triceps exercises with the left arm only. After putting in my 30 minutes on the ET, I did the usual 3 sets on sitting leg press, 3 sets of leg extensions, and then 3 sets of 60 lbs. reclining leg press followed by 3 sets of 16 repetitions with 75 lbs. on the calves.

I'm keeping the leg press weight a little light to avoid re-injuring my back but there's no reason to cut back on the calf exercises and I really, really, really want those muscles back. I followed this with the OT exercises for the third set of the night on everything.

At fencing practice, I did only three squats before deciding tonight was not the night for that. I had a fencing lesson where I was reminded once again that:

1. parry 2 uses the elbow, not the wrist.
2. angles, not wide, sweeping curves for beats and stop cuts
3. with the beat attack, stop but don't rush forward unless out of distance.
4. When I miss, don't pull back. Instead, leave the blade out there and try to beat the opponent's blade and/or remise.

And as always... I need to work more on retreating.

I need to find some time to practice a few things over and over again until I build muscle memory. At the moment, my muscles remember to do the wrong things.

February 1, 2008

Body Comp and Whine

Does one serve red or white whine when reporting the unhappy results of a body comp?

Last year, shortly after surgery, my body comp was 19.7% body fat. Last week, it was 22% body fat. Obviously, I have not yet pulled out fo the physical fitness tailspin. The NAC E is only a few weeks away and I'm dealing with a left knee that's been swollen for three weeks and a right shoulder and elbow that are still weak from tendonitis. The result is that I rarely practice fencing manuevers at home when I used to do them almost daily.