Tuesday 25th July 2017 I still feel shattered today. I am awake and alert but my body has a weariness that goes down to my bones. As a result, I didn’t jump back into the edits tonight, instead catching up on Game of Thrones (I’m several seasons behind). If Leggedon taught me anything, it’s to [...]
Monday 24th July 2017 I feel exhausted. I feel so exhausted that I have a tiredness that goes beyond just wanting to sleep and can be felt all the way to my bones. I’d thought about taking the night off training tonight given how exhausted I felt, but then Matt announced we were running a [...]
Sunday 23rd July 2017 I slept fretfully last night, waking several times and having trouble getting back to sleep. But upon getting up and having breakfast, despite it being stupidly early and thinking I’d not had enough hours sleep, I felt good. My first fight today was for the rapier & dagger quarter finals. I [...]
Saturday 22nd July 2017 So bits of me ache and my knuckle is purple but day 1 of the Astolat tournament has taken place and I’m now back home trying to get sleep for an extremely early start tomorrow. I felt good this morning. I felt focused as I had my breakfast and loaded up [...]
Friday 21st July 2017 It’s the night before the big tournament. I am focused, I am not focused enough. I am prepared, I am unprepared. This is it, I think. This is what I’ve worked towards. It all boils down to this, where those hours of sacrifice, those hours of training… this is where I [...]
Thursday 20th July 2017 Today has been a day of trying to chill and get myself into the mood for my upcoming tournament. Given the way the world rankings have come along in the last year, Astolat now qualifies more than Fightcamp for the title of the UK’s national tournament. Not that there’s an official [...]
Wednesday 19th July 2017 I attended the first day of a big departmental meeting with the day job today. I don’t tend to enjoy these because I rarely see the value in what we discuss. Because the area I work in is very specialised, 90% of these things usually end up being of no relevance [...]
Tuesday 18th July 2017 I’d like to pretend that I’m not still smarting from yesterday, but in truth I am. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m going to keep away from people – both in person and online – from Thursday so I can focus on my mental preparations for competition. I know I [...]
Monday 17th July 2017 If you asked me my views about the judging of swordfighting tournaments, I’d say this. I’d tell you that judging is hard, that you are trying to watch fast moving pieces of metal going in all directions. I’d tell you how your mind isn’t sure what you just saw. Was it [...]
Sunday 16th July 2017 Today was my second consecutive day of swordfighting and my last weekend before the Astolat tournament. In a week's time I will know whether all those months of training will have paid off. They usually say that you fight terribly the week before a tournament. It’s almost become a swordfighting superstition. [...]
