Tales of a One-Kidney Fencer

I made it to Saturday practice today with a full on lesson, and three, albeit short, bouts. I think now, at the eight week mark, I may have turned a corner. I felt very good today bouting, though woefully out of shape. I did start to feel a small pinch in the final bout of the day, and called it quits. My opponent was displeased, but understanding. I have a very good vet group at my club that are just great people in all.

However, not only am I out of shape cardio wise, all the gains I made at the gym with my back are also gone. After practice, in the hour drive home, I could feel my back acting up like I was at a tournament walking on a hard concrete floor all day. I have been working for months at the gym to try to fix this problem and could tell at the last tournament that I was making good progress. That is clearly all gone now.

The good news is two-fold. First, I have a ton of Hyperice products, with my eye on others. These include a Venom 2 Back that acts as a heating pad, additional support, and provides multiple levels of vibrations. The second is that now that I’m practicing without additional ill effects, I can head back to the gym next week to slowly start, very very slowly start, getting back to training.