Stranded In Swindon – The Climb #271

Thursday 19^th October 2017

After last night’s beating, I’ve come to the conclusion that I really need to step up my training. It’s less than a week until the next Wessex competition and if I want to win it I really need to pull something out the bag.
I’m thinking of going up to London to Waterloo Sparring on Saturday. It’s an awful journey and the weather is supposed to be bad but I could park at my parents, get a lift to the station and then drive up.
That is… if I have a car.
The car is due it’s MOT by the end of November and with training, sparring and tournaments, it made sense to book it in for today. Of course, I could do without the expense. What with Romania (which turned out not to cost me anything more than airport parking), Sweden and Car tax… this month is proving to be expensive.
Given I drive 25,000 miles each year I knew that come the MOT there was always going to be expenses. And with bits of the car grumbling over the past few weeks meant that I expected it would be in for at least a couple of days.
And I was proved right. The windscreen washer motor failed and they are having trouble sourcing a part. Which means that I currently without a car.
That’s not a problem so long as I get it back for the weekend. I dread to think what I’ll do if I have to miss sparring on Sunday. And of course, without a car, I won’t be able to do London on Saturday (there’s no way I’m taking the train from here)
In many ways, I think I’m just panicking after last night. It was a really useful session, and a year ago I wouldn’t have been anywhere near as good as I am right now. But it’s made me acutely aware of my shortcomings as a fencer. As a result, I want next year’s progress in the next week. I’ve started telling myself that next year I want top 20. This seems like a massive challenge but then I think back to myself a year ago and think it’s a doable aim.
The thing that really bothers me is something Sasha said last night. He said I wasn’t offensive enough, and given one of the reasons this is the Year of the Offensive is because that was something I wanted to correct. I thought I had, given my success, but obviously to Sasha it’s not enough. So that’s playing on my mind right now.
With these worries, pre-tournament nerves, and the car MOT costs, my anxiety has been on a razor’s edge today. I’ve managed to keep it the right side of the line, but mainly because I’ve not tried to tax myself too much.
I did read over a friend’s first chapter of an experimental project. He thought I’d hate what he’d done. I think it’s a massive step up for him.
And whilst I’ve not done any editing on book 2 it’s really been in my thoughts, and I’ve come to some insight about the protagonist in this book. I do want to get back to editing, but with tournaments (I think 5 of the remaining 8 weeks of the year have a tournament), I think I’m too all over the place to really knuckle down and do a lot of work right now.
Need to get it done though. Kate is waiting for it and I’d like to get her a draft before the end of NaNo
If you want to follow more of my journey, then be sure to check me on my social channels. Likewise, if you’d like me to expand on any point mentioned above, please say so in the comments.