What a week!

Wow...I've had quite a busy week. So busy I didn't even have time to make any entries into this journal! I was housesitting for the Robbins through Thursday, so it took a little more planning to get everything done. Had the usual schedule, fencing at Salle Ariol on Monday, riding on Wednesday and Wallingford Fencing on Thursday. I took Tuesday and Friday off, just to catch up with myself a little. Tuesday was especially nice as I was able to enjoy the Robbins' house which is situated along Lake Washington. Nothing spectacularly different about my training during the week. I had some fun doing obstacles with Pet on Wednesday...he got a little excited several times and was ready to go up to gallop rather than a mere canter after going over the obstacles.

I did attend the Western Washington Division Winter Open fencing tournament here in Seattle. I got close to competing, but since this was my first time attending a fencing tournament of any kind, I decided not to compete so that I could learn about how the whole thing proceeds, watch how others warm up, learn about scoring...just soak it all in basically so that next time I can focus on my fencing. I scored for the mixed epee event, which was a great opportunity to watch others fence, including my coach, Greg. On Sunday, I scored a little for the women's epee event and also learned a lot.

Have epee, will fence

Went to Wallingford fencing tonight since I plan on starting some shooting on Thursday, my usual night at Wallingford. The usual agenda, and I'm glad to say that my basketball is getting a little better. Greg didn't arrive until the end of the night, so I spent a lot of time fencing Sam, one of the club juniors, since she is the only other epeeist at the club right now. Sam just came back from a juniors event in which she won a bronze metal. She was pretty tired, so we didn't do any intense fencing, but we figure out how she could overcome my long arms and got some great wisdom from Steve about strategy in epee. My lesson with Garik went well, but I still need to do better in my footwork and concentrate on the present more than strategizing too far into the future. Greg arrived with a few things he purchased for me from the vendors at the competition (glove, electric cord, bib, etc.) and we made plans to put my epee together on Thursday...my first electric weapon. Soon I'll be ripping up and down the fencing strip.

Foiled again

Went to Wallingford again tonight. Started with basketball again, I'm getting a little better. There wasn't anybody around to fence epee, so I ended up doing a lot of foil. I think the epee has improved my confidence and strategy a lot as I felt much more in control of what I was trying to do in foil. It was a little hard getting back into foil mode. After drills I did a little electric foil with some people I've never fenced before. I was humbled pretty quickly. I look forward to going back to epee on Monday. One of the juniors at Wallingford, Sam, may be interested in doing pentathlon too. Her mom wants to wait until her legs have stopped growing before she starts doing a lot of running though. So it looks like there may be a couple juniors starting up in pentathlon soon (including the student Laura has in her pony club). Greg (one of my fencing coaches and the guy who leaves all the bruises on my chest and arms) is off to a major competition this weekend. He may get a chance to get me some electric epee equipment since all the vendors show up to the tournaments.

First epee lesson

Went to the Wallingford Club to do some footwork and take my first lesson ("pyerviy urok" in Russian) with Garik. We started with the usual game of basketball and then some agility games. I'm still a little sick so I was huffing and puffing pretty hard by the end of this. Greg let me borrow his epee again, so I was able to do the weapon work with an epee. The urok with Garik went well. I need to work on a wider stance with my feet for better balance in epee and keep my position 6 arm extended more for better defense in epee. Epee is such a different feel and strategy than foil...I have a long way to go. Still kind of sore from the half moon yoga pose on Tuesday too (don't know why, the position should have affected my legs more...but you know how yoga is crazy sometimes), so had a tough time keeping my shoulders and arms relaxed.