Comments (11)

By kilax, February 10, 2009 5:31 am

“Some people get overly excited because they are about to get stabbed, and that’s all they can think about. But don’t get sloppy!” – another quote from our professor.

I’m surprised – Fencing is becoming addictive! Last night was the first time we got to properly fence one another. We’re doing electric Épée Fencing. In Épée, you can hit your opponent anywhere on the body, but only with the end of your sword (well, your “épée”, but we’ll call it sword). Épée is the slowest of the three kinds of fencing because these two factors require more time and concentration… making it perfect for beginners! It’s called “electric” because an electric cord is plugged into the sword, and registers each hit made by the push-button on the end of the sword on a scoreboard.

Take that, imaginary opponent!

I was feeling really clumsy and anxious last week, but felt a lot more focused tonight during my warm-up with Steven. The professor must have noticed – he asked me and Steven and to demonstrate a fancy move to the class! After class, he even told me he liked “our style.” Heh.

I think we have two VERY different styles. Steven is focused and calculated. He is very deliberate in his steps. I just go for it. I’m very aggressive and fast, and definitely sloppy. I think we could learn a bit from each other.

We both did well against (read: beat) our opponents. A male opponent of mine jokingly said, “You must have some hidden maliciousness!” (This is the same guy who was joking that there should be “drunk fencing,” but also made a very nice hit on my right-handed ring finger. I’ll take a photo when the bruise shows up.) And one guy was teasing Steven that everyone else gets to fence and go home and forget about it, but Steven has to go home with his opponent. Ha. Steven and I still haven’t fenced. He’d kick my butt, surely.

I was suprised by the adrenaline rush I got when I got up in front of the class to fence. My legs and hands were shaking! It took me awhile to calm down afterward. It’s fun. You just want to keep going and going. I can’t wait until the next class!

Comments (18)

By kilax, November 25, 2008 5:24 am

Last week I only ran ONE DAY. Not because I was lazy, or not in the mood, but because all of my nights were occupied with painting our bedroom, being sick, or having a migraine (wonderful week, right? And yeah, I still owe you some photos of the new paint).

On Thursday (the day with the migraine), I decided I HAD to run on Friday. All week I could feel the urge to run in my legs – when I was walking to work in the morning, I would wish I was running. I ran a little bit on the train platform (to get around some slow people) and I didn’t want to stop. But the only way to run on Friday was to do it in the morning, because I was going to be with my family all night.

So on Friday, I got out of my warm bed at 4:00 a.m. to go run in the 20°F weather. Steven made sure to call me a “crazy runner” when I woke him up to tell him not to be startled when I opened the garage door.

I felt like I was crazy, putting on long running tights under my pants, thick cold weather socks, Under Armour under a long-sleeved shirt under a jacket, along with gloves and a hat. But I knew I would warm up.

And I did. I walked a cold 5-minute walk to warm up then started my run, and felt fine after a minute or so. I had my mp3 player on, and the upbeat tunes made me feel energized. It was actually a pretty good run, despite being so gosh darn early and so gosh darn cold. The only bad parts were that my thick socks kept making my shoes untie (duh, I need to double knot them) and that I got cold when I stopped to walk back to the house (I’ll just run home next time).

When I got done with my run and got home, I felt completely energized. I ran up the stairs to take my shower. I thought, “This is a great way to start my day! I feel great!”

Yeah, it’s a great way to start my day… if I could be in bed by 9:00 every night!

So, I’ll try it for a few days this week, and whenever I need to, because of time constraints. But I really can’t do this all the time. I feel too exhausted by the end of the day.

It’s a shame, because I really prefer to exercise in the morning. I have that great, “I exercised this morning!” feeling, and I feel just the right amount of tired when I go to bed at night. And my stomach doesn’t get upset because I am running right after dinner.

But it just doesn’t work with my schedule all the time. And I DO prefer to run with Steven. So I guess I just need to fit it in whenever I can.

Comments (12)

By kilax, November 13, 2008 7:49 am

Usually, when I am making a “life decision,” I just follow my gut. I stick to whatever my natural inclination is.

That’s a luxury, I know – a selfish one – to be able to make decisions solely for myself.

(And unfortunately, it’s not always THAT easy. I’ve learned that the big life-changing decisions take me a LONG time to sort out)

In my gut, I knew that I really wanted to participate in the WonderGirl 5K this Saturday. Like I mentioned before, I read about the organization in a magazine, and felt like it really called out to me.

But there were a few logistical barriers: the race is about a zillion and one miles away from my home (okay, 60 miles), I would have to wake up at the crack of dawn to run it (okay, Data is waking me up that early every weekend anyway), and I would have to run it alone (okay, I’ve done that before – no biggie!).

And the big one – I felt guilty asking Steven to get out of bed that early on a Saturday, to drive me halfway across the state (slight exaggeration) and watch me run a 5K – possibly in the snow – with a bunch of young girls and families.

But you know what? I really wanted to do it, so I signed up for it first thing Monday morning, and have been excited about it ever since then.

It struck me as odd this week, that I felt so much excitement simply by signing up for this race. I usually don’t feel this excited about a race.

Yesterday, I found out there is a chapter of Girls on the Run in the county next to mine. From the content on their website, it sounds like they are just getting started.

I found myself getting excited again, imagining myself becoming a running buddy for a young girl in the program, or helping the program set up their first 5K. I was fantasizing about volunteering.

This feeling of excitement helped me get through the day.

But for some reason, I am kind of embarrassed about it.

I am kind of embarassed about being hopeful!

What a weird reaction. I am attributing it to my natural skepticism. Inside me, a voice says, “Yeah, it sounds like a really cool program. But maybe on Saturday you’ll find out it’s totally lame and a big waste of time!”

I can’t go to the race feeling that way, so I am going to continue to be excited, positive and upbeat about it. I am going to continue to look forward to it, and hope that I’ve found a good organization I may like to give some of my time to. I’ll let you know how it goes!