Gator Cup 2011

I shot a 762/1440 which was pretty darned good given that 50 and 30 meters involved the 6-ring 80 cm target (so I didn't have the full 80 cm diameter), floating gaps, and erratic winds. I shot two personal bests though: 183/360 at 70 meters and 211/360 at 60 meters, both on the 122 cm target face. I was amazed at the magnitude of the shoot. As usual, click on the title for the full suite of pictures.

It was definitely an amazing shoot! I'd love to do this again!

A Few Calibration Samples

50 meters, generally calm conditions.

50 meters, somewhat windy conditions.

30 meters, pretty windy conditions.

Here's what 50 meters looks like from the target to the shade thing. I think I like the full 80 cm target faces a lot more than these individual 6-ring targets, but as long as I remember to do my Tai Chi breathing, all should be well!

Someday

The thousand arrow challenge with an after-word by Coach Kisik Lee. One of these days, I'll get there and maintain solid form throughout.



There's got to be more to life than a desk sentence and paper-pushing... I can feel my health declining further with every line of code or parameter I have to think about.

Shot at Sanity

I shot a personal best at the 900 round at the Villages. 690/900 -- previously my best score had been a 620/900 but it was with the walnut longbow. Yesterday it was with the little Chek-Mate Hunter 1, which is a whole different beast. It's almost as if it's optimized for the event -- spot-on at 50 yards, about 2/3 of the way up the flag at 60 yards, and the bottom of the target at 40 yards. The best part though was just having a blast with friends I haven't seen in months and meeting some incredibly sweet women who were on the same target as me who provided me with plenty of moral support and giggles throughout.

70 Meter Practice

70 meters, 122 cm target face, 42 lb walnut longbow, Carbon Express Predator 700 arrows. I'm the large arrows, by the way. The little arrows belong to a friend of mine who's practicing for the Gator Cup. I really want to shoot it but unfortunately *someone* pre-empted that weekend from me. When will certain people get it that I actually want to shoot something besides short, trashy 3D shots?

By-Products

Looks like things are starting to stabilize on the little by-product of the stuff I do. Tentatively this by-product or side-reaction is under the code-name of "The Archer and the Swordsman" but the title is bound to change as things get shifted and jiggled around.

Let's just say as of now, I'm standing alongside an extremely confused archer who's trying to figure out if there's any truth to some semi-coherent ramblings from one of my all-time favorite D&D characters and a mysterious, gigantic black wolf that constantly haunts her dreams...

In the Name of Self-Amusement

Sometimes, I just gotta shoot something different. I couldn't believe that I actually took 2nd place in the women's compound record high score at the Newberry Indoor league on Thursday.

Basically I had wiped out my upper body on Thursday and knew I wasn't going to be holding back 34-35 lbs at full draw long enough to make a good shot. But I could still pull back a good amount of weight, so I opted for the compound, which has let-off... allowing me to hold back about 10 lbs instead of 34-35. Next thing I knew after a little fidgeting with the sight, I'm generally hitting the gold aside from two fumble shots where the release went off before I was ready. And I was just behind the #1 record high score and the guy running the shoot. I think I'd rather shoot my longbow or recurve though... but the compound certainly caused a lot of laughter and gasps of amazement!

Long Hammock delight! Sometimes the labels just crack me up too much to not photograph...

Robert shot a Robin Hood on one of the targets and lookin' proud!

I still feel extremely puny in the arms and not particularly powerful. Then again, I generally feel like I don't carry nearly enough muscle mass and way too much adipose tissue!

Nearly Forgot

28/30 on this end! I've yet to get a 30/30 but I don't think it'll be *too* far off! This was with the Chek-Mate Hunter I recurve, by the way. Any of my 40-something lb bows have an existent chance of pulling this off but the Hunter I and the walnut longbow seem to have higher probabilities than the Crusader.

FYI -- "Recurve" division at Newberry includes Olympic recurve (with sights), other recurves with sights, traditional recurves, and longbows. We may start a Barebow division but I don't think I'm really helping out my fellow barebow folks by staying just a shot ahead of an Olympic recurve! We'll see what happens though once she gets into full practice.

Belated TBoF Pictures

Belated awards for the women's longbow division from the Charity shoot back in January.

Where am I?

Get the red shirt!!

Robert in men's open championship round.

I wanna be like the fellow in the green shirt and white pants if I reach his age! Shot with him at the FITA field back in November and he gave me a good challenge as far as physical fitness went once temperatures rose above about 55 degrees!

Belated Five Points of Life 5k Pictures

TBoF Spring 2011

As always, click on the title for the full suite of pictures. I took 3rd in the women's longbow division after shooting as best as I could given that my training is now very heavily biased towards long-distance precision shoots where all my shots are clear and I have plenty of room to set up my shots.

Indoor Action

Crunch went the nock! Shot a surprisingly good FITA 300 round (18 meters) given that I've been up since 0400 hrs and do feel a bit sore from this morning's training (courtesy of my favorite trainer at the gym). I honestly didn't think I'd even break 180 tonight after the first few ends but I finished with a 204/300, so that was pretty good for shooting wood arrows. And yes, that's a very easy repair!

I was extremely surprised to get these today given what shape I was in while I was shooting that round back in January. Boogers everywhere and more! I think just finishing that shoot was extremely impressive on my part but yeah, this was an added bonus. I guess either nobody challenged me (most likely) or someone did and had a rough day too, maybe also waging the war on boogers!

It FINALLY Happened

I bench pressed 105 lbs unassisted with full range of motion. Granted, it was only 5 reps but I finally did it!

In other news... it's amazing what writing on pen & paper for 10-15 minutes before going to sleep (and during random dead-time) can produce. Apparently high concentrations of academic stress make for ideal conditions for side-reactions and high yields of strange by-products. It's actually a story concept I've been tinkering with for almost as long as I've been wielding a bow in my hand but it's only begun to materialize perhaps only this past year. Suffice to say, it's the story of a scholar who gets stuck with a curse that'll eventually kill her unless she can figure out how to break the curse and she realizes that she's not at all who she was brought up to think she was.

Five Points of Life 5k

I almost didn't run this one today because I had a bit of tightness in my calf muscles for about 2 days prior to the race but it went away with help from Robert and ran it in 25:34.5, netting me a 2nd in the 30-34 female division and an 8th in overall female and a 51st in overall of all runners. It was a beautiful run on the nice side of the UF campus and I couldn't have asked for a nicer day... even if I did get stuck looking at some funny-looking rear ends for the first mile or so :) As before, I started off fairly slow but once everything fell into place, I just kept going and going and going until I saw the end of the course and picked it back up. I didn't realize how fast I went until I looked up my time -- I honestly thought I was somewhere in the 27-28 range but I guess a vivid imagination and that sprint at the very end were very helpful!

More Hoggetowne Pics

Mostly courtesy of Aesa.

Hoggetowne 2011

I didn't really spend very much time there this year but the time I did spent was great aside from being the Ultimate Booger Factory (tm). More details later (maybe) once my brain actually functions. As always, click on the title for the pictures.