in the basement and digging
Jul. 16th, 2010 09:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anotheranonIf you've been reading my Twitter feed, you'll know I didn't do very well at Nationals. It was, indeed, one of the worst competitions I've done lately. Part of this was due to circumstances outside my control, but in other particulars I could have done better.
Div III started very early - check-in was at 7 am and fencing started at 8. In order to eat something, get to the venue and warm up, I had to get up at 5:30. I KNEW this going in.
I now know that I can't skimp on breakfast or sleep and not expect it to impact my performance dramatically. A friend wanted to have dinner, and I should have declined, but this person has always had my back and absolutely hates to eat alone, so I joined him. Instead of a quiet, substantial dinner at 5/lights out at 8 I had a chatty, light dinner that ended at 8, and it took me until around 10:30 to drift off into an unrestful sleep.
Breakfast = because of the early hour there were few options, so I had a bowl of instant oatmeal in my hotel room.
Warm up went well. I felt invigorated and focused until I stopped moving - and then I got hungry. And sleepy.
I should have kept moving and had something with more substance to it than sugar to gnaw on. Coulda woulda shoulda... long story short, by the time I actually got to fence my stomach was growling and my eyelids were droopy.
My ability to plan ahead, only a couple of actions in advance at the best of times, vanished. Evaluation of the situation wasn't impossible, but was slow - I didn't realize what happened in one of my bouts until 10 minutes after it finished. All of this tanked my game, though warm up + previous days of warm ups meant I felt pretty good physically.
I lost all my pools, and didn't advance to DEs, and was not at all surprised when I finished 110 out of 113 competitors. I thought about getting bent out of shape about it, but instead I'll take it as a learning experience:
Conclusions: much as I may bitch about aches and pains, it really isn't my body anymore, it's my brain that needs the feeding and care. More about this later.
Div III started very early - check-in was at 7 am and fencing started at 8. In order to eat something, get to the venue and warm up, I had to get up at 5:30. I KNEW this going in.
I now know that I can't skimp on breakfast or sleep and not expect it to impact my performance dramatically. A friend wanted to have dinner, and I should have declined, but this person has always had my back and absolutely hates to eat alone, so I joined him. Instead of a quiet, substantial dinner at 5/lights out at 8 I had a chatty, light dinner that ended at 8, and it took me until around 10:30 to drift off into an unrestful sleep.
Breakfast = because of the early hour there were few options, so I had a bowl of instant oatmeal in my hotel room.
Warm up went well. I felt invigorated and focused until I stopped moving - and then I got hungry. And sleepy.
I should have kept moving and had something with more substance to it than sugar to gnaw on. Coulda woulda shoulda... long story short, by the time I actually got to fence my stomach was growling and my eyelids were droopy.
My ability to plan ahead, only a couple of actions in advance at the best of times, vanished. Evaluation of the situation wasn't impossible, but was slow - I didn't realize what happened in one of my bouts until 10 minutes after it finished. All of this tanked my game, though warm up + previous days of warm ups meant I felt pretty good physically.
I lost all my pools, and didn't advance to DEs, and was not at all surprised when I finished 110 out of 113 competitors. I thought about getting bent out of shape about it, but instead I'll take it as a learning experience:
- On the rare occasions I fence at godawful early hours, I need to have a large, quiet, early dinner the night before: large to tide me over as there's nowhere to get bacon and eggs at 4 am; quiet because conversation revs me up and keeps me awake; early so I am digesting and in bed by around 8.
- Keep moving, even if it's just walking around or doing the odd jumping jack. I was so concerned about spending all my energy I sat on it 'til it died :P
- Don't have sugar as my only back-up fuel - it burns too quickly and doesn't provide enough "oomph" to act as brain food.
Conclusions: much as I may bitch about aches and pains, it really isn't my body anymore, it's my brain that needs the feeding and care. More about this later.
