Think Happy Thoughts...

Stress levels have hit the fan again and I found these pictures, which cheer me up immensely. These are 70 meters with 700 spine Carbon Express Predator II on the zebra-wood longbow and me using an Olympic anchor (under the chin). This is really good for me because instead of having to line up the arrow up in the trees somewhere, I'm able to line up somewhere between the top of the target butt and the top of the flag, depending on the head- or tail- wind. The Olympic anchor is also a lot more consistent and I can get a much cleaner release and follow-through with it, but it's not very useful for close-distance shots because of the way my gaps get thrown off.

I'm training for the Gator Cup on the far right target. I think compound archers (like the kids on the left target) do 50 meters but get the inner five rings of the 80 cm targets while recurve archers get the full 122 cm targets at 70 meters.

Fun at 25 Meters on a 60 cm Target Face

The guy on the right, Coach J, with the fancy compound was shooting on the same target as I was at indoor league. For some reason, the target on 7B was unoccupied and we ended up with 2 of us on 7A. Then again, it probably worked for the better given that I had something that gave me some pretty spectacular flatulence that probably would've killed anyone too close behind me.

I shot first and somehow, Coach J was able to get 2 of his arrows between my arrows without causing any damage... completely unintentionally, as he had planned to shoot a tad lower.

And who says that you need to be shooting a high-tech setup worthy of Star Trek to shoot well?

I finished the round with 236/300 with my zebrawood longbow, which is pretty darned good considering I've clocked in quite a few push-ups for the week and a few parts of me are pretty talkative. I still have a lot of work on my release and follow-through as well as stabilizing myself throughout the shot cycle. I have an unfortunate habit of torquing and my release isn't quite as consistently powerfully explosive as I need to be, but it's slowly getting better now that Coach R has identified some of my form issues and gave me some ideas to correct them. Having awesome folks at the gym like Slaughter and my former student also help me, not only with endurance, but also with general stabilization in my core and everything else.

Hoggetowne Medieval Faire 2012

As always, click either the title or here for the full suite of pictures.

TBoF Charity 2012

As always, click on the title or here for the full suite of pictures.

Me and the furry one. One of these days I'm going to have to take him out to do some real shooting over at Newberry!

I took 3rd in women's longbow, Mar took 2nd in my division, and the 1st place winner had already gone home. I'm surprised I even placed considering I don't have a reliable gap to work with on shots significantly under about 30-35 meters! In a more controlled setting like a field range or indoors or stndardized target butts, I have reliable gaps down to about 18 meters, but anything closer and I'm disoriented. Such is the exchange I make as I put more and more emphasis on rounds such as the 900 and FITA rounds as well as the NFAA field round. It was still a great time with friends I don't see at the shoots I love most or elsewhere!

Adventures in Face-Walking at 70 Meters

I decided to play with my anchor a bit after realizing that there was A LOT of uncertainty in my gaps at 70 meters with the zebrawood longbow. After some fumbling around with error corrections, I was able to find a pretty good gap at 70 meters with an Olympic (under the chin) anchor, which is just above the target frame, about where the top of a flag would be if there were one. Before I figured out the gaps, let's just say I was extra glad that I had a taller archer with me. As a side note, I do look up to her, having gotten to shoot with her at Gator Cup in 2011. I'm definitely rooting for her as she continues to shoot for the US Archery team!

New Years Eve Party

Let's see if I can reach 12" circumference in my biceps this year!

The Wickerman before he blazed up into a nice, cheery bonfire... and this was before he had something really neat added to his crotch. I didn't really do much photography, as I was more interested in keeping my sinuses semi-functional and my ears from blowing out. I really can't stand cigarette and cigar smoke! Why, oh why, is it still legal to smoke anywhere? It's up there with excessive perfume and cologne in terms of absolute disgustingness! Heck, excessive stench stuff should also be made illegal or at least less socially acceptable!

Compound Night

After Tuesday's little adventure with 520 arrows, I knew that I was NOT holding back 30+ lbs at full draw, so I pulled out the Bowtech Equalizer and shot a surprisingly solid score for someone who almost never shoots training wheels. I finished the 30-arrow target round with a 274/300, 4X, which is pretty darned good for me given that I was shooting skinny arrows and hardly ever practice with the compound. I also felt surprisingly good considering that my upper back is still a bit talkative. It was so darned worth it though!

Proud of my Mighty Hog Slayer

My other half may not be much of a target archer or any sort of athlete or someone who likes to miss his horrendously boring "reality" TV shows involving buying/selling junk but he's certainly well-trained in the art of controlling the hog population one at a time. He got this good-sized sow and I have a feeling that this one will be pretty darned tasty and tender! And if I may add, he shot this sow with a recurve he built himself. I'm certainly proud of my guy, even if I still need to train him to read the actual ingredients (and decipher them) and to not bug me while I'm working out or working on target archery!

The 500 Arrow Challenge

Originally Coach Rob had set it as a 400 arrow challenge, but someone had shot 500 arrows on the dot last week. I didn't know about it in time to do it that Thursday but vowed to take a day to see how far I could get before either parts started falling off or before *other* things kicked in. I shot all of 520 arrows. I could've safely gone to 600 with good form judging from how my upper back, my limiting reagent, felt, but unfortunately I made the mistake of answering the phone and *someone* wanted to spend quality time with him (which unfortunately doesn't involve testing physical limits thanks to his torn meniscus and general lack of interest in high-intensity challenges) because I spent the weekend severely out of commission... so I got stopped prematurely... just to be nice.

My last un-interrupted endurance run had me running out of fuel somewhere around 300 arrows, which was sometime in April, shortly before my original nemesis at the gym left for his next adventures in medical school. I haven't really had too many opportunities to do these because it's hard to get to the range with a clean conscience on a weekday morning and weekends tend to involve a significant other who thinks 100 arrows is pretty significant and has trouble understanding why someone would voluntarily want to challenge themselves that aggressively. I had an attempted endurance run in August as well, which unfortunately got interrupted and I could tell that 350 arrows would be pushing my limits again. I think there's a lot to be said about my current nemesis at the gym, who has pushed me to my limits and beyond with what can be described as a mixture of CrossFit and Army training... mostly because I know I haven't been shooting as much as I like or should... and the only significant change to my training has been my new nemesis, who has inspired me big-time.

This was my final end, which isn't too shabby for 500+ arrows! As of now, I hold the record at Newberry for most arrows shot in a day, at least as of when Coach Rob posted the 400+ arrow challenge. I may have to defend that title soon though and I'll make sure that my phone is turned off the next time I do it!

Note to self: train the other half to NOT keep interrupting me while I'm actually trying to do something exciting... and train myself to just ditch the phone when I don't want to be interrupted!

Wanna Try These?

I dug these up in my training notebook and thought I'd put them here as well as on my other blog. I personally favor timed circuits like the one right below, partially because it encourages me to be a bit more aggressive, partially because I have way too much fun playing rough with an intriguing creature with an extremely strong, driving personality who inspires me to push myself that much harder and let him know that I can be just as tough as he is, if not tougher. This was a single pass, which is a bit different from the usual increasing reps I'm used to from this critter, and it inspired quite a bit of grumbling and groaning from the other three people who did this with me.

The next three were all part of a single workout, none were timed and were generally at a relatively relaxed pace. The fellow who gives these circuits is extremely laid-back and doesn't exactly inspire the urge to show off or to be aggressive, but it's still challenging in its own ways. It's a good thing my time as a TA has trained me to decipher all sorts of different hand-writings or I probably would've had to knee-cap someone for writing illegibly. Actually I've seen far worse handwriting than this, mine included, but when there's sweat on my glasses and in my eyes, it does get a little hard to read and remember.

These three circuits didn't feel too tough actually even if other people were convinced that even one of those was going to kill them. Of course, being a lot more focused on form and not having someone barking orders to go faster and harder makes a difference too. They're not too much different from the circuits I do on myself periodically, just a little more emphasis on endurance than bulking up than I tend to do.

So... does anyone want to join me for a bit of running, squatting, push-ups, burpees, and maybe some barbell work? ;)

Height Extremes

I think *someone* is just freakishly tall. The camera angle sure as heck didn't help either!

Hog-Slayer and Random Camera Cleanout

As usual, click on the title for the full suite of pictures I've accumulated through the semester but didn't remember or bother to post for whatever reason. Or click HERE

It's probably a good thing that there's no smell feature on the computer yet... This hog reeked really, really badly.

Nothing like playing with Coach Rob's tournament recurve. I'd much rather shoot my longbow!

Did I mention that Coach Rob is also one freakishly tall fellow to have to use something this huge?

Not a common feat. for me...

18 meters with the zebra-wood longbow. It doesn't get much better than this!

Crooked Camera

I probably should've fixed the tripod first but I thought it would be fun to see what I looked like while doing barbell rows without the benefit of a mirror or a spotter or floor instructor to correct my form. I typically do about 45-55 lbs total on a barbell row, but if I have a good spotter of some sort and I'm feeling ambitious, I'll go a little more.

First Kill of the 2011-2012 Season

I took her Thanksgiving morning at about 0720 hrs. She had shown up twice before that morning but never really had a clear shot at her on the first two showings, plus I had my doubts about whether she was a doe or a spike or button, so I waited... and waited. Then she showed up in a grassy lane in front of my tree-stand and stopped to eat the mushrooms there (if you ask me, they're some pretty gross-looking brownish mushrooms that have seen better days, but I *hate* mushrooms myself). No nubs, no antlers, she appeared to be of a decent size, especially compared to the other doe that showed up and tried to share the mushrooms with her. She drove the little one off and went broadside. And then... boom!

Blood-trailing her was pretty difficult because I shot her in the heart, and without a functional heart, well, blood tends not to get pumped around, so she wasn't gushing blood everywhere like a double-lung shot would've. She made it maybe 35-40 meters before dropping dead and I got a bit nervous when Robert saw some meaty-looking stuff on the ground. Turned out the meaty-looking stuff was bits of heart tissue and not skeletal muscle. She's by no means the biggest doe I've shot and she's certainly a youngster, but I figured she was a shooter given that the little doe that came up to her got driven off, she seemed to be of a good size, and well, this season has just been outright brutal with all the bears showing up. So yeah, no fawns were orphaned in the process and I now have some nice, healthy protein in my freezer!

Pic from 2011-Oct-30

I just got this picture from one of my fellow archers, a brave traditional archer with wooden arrows and a 20 lb @ 24" recurve, at the October 30, 2011 Field/Hunter round at Gator Bowmen.

One of the Best Exercises...

It's hard to beat the burpee in its overall bang for the buck. Besides the squat and push-up, this one is one of the most awesome equipment-free exercises to do. Just don't do it on a full stomach. I really love burpees!

Coming to think of it, my top five favorite exercises are as follows:
#1 -- Squat
#2 -- Burpee
#3 -- Push-up
#4 -- Dead-lift
#5 -- Kettle-bell overhead swing

Honorable mentions in no particular order: clean and jerk, snatch, bench press (incline, decline, flat), Arnold press, bicep curl, flys, salamander (aka seal crawl), push-press.

If I Ever Wanted to Convert any of my Stories into a Musical...

... I think I'd love to have these guys come up with the music because I really love how well they blend elements of classical, rock, and metal with fantasy themes.

I just heard this song today and it's already stuck in my head. Both the song and the imagery are just really catchy for me so I've decided to inflict it on others. Recognize any fairy tales or other children's stories in this?


I gotta admit, this song has influenced a few of my characters' quirks in the current story arc. Then again, my musical preferences and writing are correlated, although there's not necessarily any type of causation.

Speaking of stories, I'm now standing alongside a severely wounded grey wolf who's just personally killed a dangerous creature that looks like a bad cross between a cat, a stereotypical alien, and Gollum (from Lord of the Rings) with only her fangs and wits. I guess I'm also standing alongside an aspiring Olympic archer who witnesses her courageous act and is the only person who recognizes who she really is and tries to protect her from her own extremely wolf-phobic family...

Happy Thoughts

Sometimes when things just suck, I've just got to dig up pictures that put a grin on my face.

18 meters. Stuff like this is very reassuring that I'm capable of some pretty good accuracy and precision.

Set-up for a dead-lift, one of my favorite lifts along with the bench press, squat (both front and back), snatch, and clean & jerk. Of the big lifts, I think my dead-lift is the largest by far with a personal best of 6x155 lbs (too lazy to look it up) but I'd love to see how far I can get on this one. I probably should get filmed and/or photographed doing my lifts, not only so I can see my form, but I think it'll just look cool.

2011 FITA Field

I shot a fairly strong FITA Field round this weekend in Ft. Meade, FL. My first day I did very well on the longer shots (35+ meters) even if the closer shots (under 30) gave me some trouble and the bunnies gave it to me in the rear end. I think I've re-learned how to shoot instinctively after taking it in the rear several times on Saturday, at least if the number of points I picked up is any indication! I shot a personal best today -- 225. My last personal best was a 205 (could've sworn it was a 199 but apparently I did have a 200+ before). Let's see if I can break 250 next year! I had an awesome time with my fellow barebow archers and we zipped through the targets like candy. I forgot how biased FITA Field for barebow was towards the really short shots and I went in slightly unprepared because most of my practice had been in the 35+ meter range, but not many targets were 35+ meters. In any event, I had a lot of fun seeing folks I normally don't see elsewhere.

Followed-through!

Setting up... and hopefully I calculated my 20 meter gap correctly...

Nothing like showing who's boss at 50 meters! Now if the closer shots treated me a little more nicely...

Calibration round at 18 meters. I guess my shooting style *is* replicatable. I thought I hit something strange and sure enough, I did hit something... my own arrow!

Ahh, the joys of 45 meters! 2/3 exactly where I wanted them. One kinda strayed off but still landed somewhere fairly nice.

Me and Vivian at the start of the second round while we're killing time until it's time to start...

My awesome group this weekend minus the older gentleman who shot with us on Saturday. Barebows rule!

Day 1... kinda took it in the rear end on the bunny targets and other close shots but did extremely well 40 meters and up.

Day 2... learned from day 1 and gave the bunny targets a beating.

Click on the title to see the rest of the pictures...