Here at the Big Bad Blog, we think that we might not have this “training” thing quite right. Those of you with a good long-term memory might remember that, back in September, we posted that the first tournament of the year did not go too well.

We spoke of an increased competition schedule, and a pared back practice schedule.

All this is true, young Padawan.

This weekend, your intrepid blogger will be in Cardiff, preparing for another early exit from another large tournament. There exist dreams of glory, of course, but the reality is that the last tournament was followed with three practices.

The last of which was in late September.

After that there was the moving, and Maggie, and certainly no fencing. Not even a jog, if we are to be completely honest with you.

As a result, once again, on Saturday morning I will be hitting the piste while out of shape and rusty. I will have a poor seed from having been in insufficient competitions. This will mean:

Two difficult-to-impossible-to-win bouts instead of one in my pool.
One I-should-have-won-but-screwed-up bout in my pool.

This will culminate in three losses — four if I am having a bad day — instead of one. I have learned that you do not win the difficult fights if you don’t train. Unless your opponent also does not train. We can always dream.

This will lead to a bad seeding, and a loss in either the 64 or 32. And an early start to the rest of the weekend, including time to enjoy Cardiff.

My training regimen isn’t all bad, you see. It still works well when teamed with fencing tourism.

Photo by Mr. Topp. See it bigger here.