High Red Belt

I trained. I tested. I conquered.  Among the things on my high red belt exam: Taegeuk Chil-Jang, various combinations involving back hook kicks, various blocks prominent in Taegeuk Chil-Jang, push-ups, sit-ups, punches, and general calisthentic conditioning.

Hypertrophy Work

I still feel very under-muscled and soft but it's a bit of progress and I am getting better at camera tricks. This was immediately post-workout so I still have the pump and the swole feeling. Now to make it last! And then, hopefully I will have the infrastructure to improve my 1RMs as I recruit more and more of my muscle fibers, especially my fast twitch ones.

And I Dub Thee... Anduril

I seem to have a habit of naming weapons. Given the Firewolf and general fire theme, it was just fit to name my Olympic recurve based on something involving fire. It was a close call between Anduril (Flame of the West... Aragorn's sword) and Narya (the Elven ring of fire, given to Cirdan the Shipwright and the passed on to Gandalf).  Anduril just barely won out because it just felt more natural to me.

I had many, many more pictures and clips to help monitor my form, but I also took the liberties of taking a few "glam" shots with the newly dubbed Anduril. I also adjusted my sidebars a bit after realizing I did have one little problem at the tournament.  Suffice to say, it's one of the few times being female was actually useful. I'm sure male athletes would've been a little uncomfortable with where the inner side-bar would've gone!

The Firewolf Returns for the NFAA Southeastern Sectional Indoor 2015

I have been pretty much buzzard bait for about a week and today was my first day where I wasn't just a corpse. I shot a single round personal best and composite 2-round score for an NFAA indoor round, which is 12 ends of 5 arrows for a maximum score of 300. I shot a 264/300 and a 259/300 for a composite score of 523/600. That was even more impressive considering I wasn't even able to move yesterday.

Control Freak Stabilizers: Wind Dragon

I did some more fine-tuning on my new stabilizers, which ultimately resulted in me removing 5 oz from my stabilizers: 3 in front and 1 each from my side-bars.







And of course the stills and selfies. Some of them were taken by the Furry One (tm).  I still have a lot of work on my form but I think I have hope for the upcoming NFAA SE Sectional!

Control Freak Custom Stabilizers

I have also officially signed my soul away to Control Freak Custom Stabilizers as a staff shooter. I'm looking forward to my adventures with my new stabilizers and side-bars!

Slow Progress

I still feel like Disney's version of Baymax in Big Hero 6 even after a good shoulder day. I guess I didn't quite catch the new vein that was starting to show up.  I also got a bit of bicep and tricep work in but most of the focus was on blowing up those shoulders.

Saturday Fun with NFAA Single Spot Target

This was from Saturday's short practice session for the upcoming indoor shoots. The NFAA indoor is 20 yards (or 18 meters plus about 25 cm) and is shot in ends of 5.  For some reason, one always likes to get away from the center!

This was the ONE time I scored a 25/25 even if it was only 2X.  Not bad for outdoor arrows!

 And one came so darned close it took a second look. I literally had a few millimeters of blue between the edge of the shaft and the 5 ring. Can't complain though!