A World of Blah

Nothing too exciting to report on this end, dear friends. Following weeks of ceaseless work, nagging head colds, vicious allergies, and overall not-so-great-ness I attended a small intraschool tournament at our dojang this weekend. Took first in forms with Bassai, which was nice. Due to my testing schedule this would have been my only opportunity to compete with Bassai (barring a tie in a future tournament where I have to perform a backup) so managing to grab first place with it was a nice feeling. I test for 2nd gup next month, so by the time the next tournament rolls around I'll need to compete with Chil Sung Sam Rho, so at least I got Bassai on its feet and brought home something shiny with it.

When it came time to spar about 2 hours later, though, I was dead on my feet. I was matched up with a guy about 2/3 my size and 6-7 years my junior -- fast bugger, I'll tell you. I've sparred him before, and he's always challenging -- very quick, very aggressive. On a good day I can usually hold my own OK against him. Our relative size differences tend to make my kicks pretty much ineffective because I just can't get the speed on them I need to catch him off guard, so I just go defensive, let him rush in, wait for the openings to present themselves, and then pop some hand techniques in.

Not this time, though. I defended really well, though a bit slower than usual, blocking pretty much everything he threw when I was just staying defensive. But I just couldn't get any sort of momentum going when it came time to counter his stuff with some of my own. I felt like I was standing still half the time -- blocking and blocking like mad and then soooooo sllooooowwwwwwlllllyyyy throwing something out there. Very annoying.

Of course, by the end of the day I felt like hell, and then I sneezed about 400 times the following day, due to either/or cold and allergies. Cedar fever is kicking my ass this year. And the res tof this week hasn' tbeen much better. Headachey, chest tight and irritated, overall feeling of ick. Skipped training tonight to try to get ahead of whatever is plaguing me, and now I feel worse just because I hate missing training. I think it's time to just curl up on the couch with a hot cup of tea and try to recuperate from whatever's got me in low gear.

Mood: Ugh-y
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