Gearing up for the 2011-2012 Season

Wow it's been a while, but I finally got my butt back in gear and my writing cap back on. I've been at Northwestern for about 4 weeks now and it has been surreal. The atmosphere is something else. It's like nothing I have ever experienced before. There is a huge sense of independence and freedom to go out there and be all that I can be.

Classes have been pretty good, pre-med is not exactly a cake walk, but it's worth all the hours spent painfully bent over books for hours on end in the library. You build a certain bond with teammates over the shared pain of school work and practice. It really truly brings you closer together.

Speaking of the team, the Northwestern Wild Cat fencing team has been fantastic! I am so excited to be a part of such a strong and unified team that would do anything for one another. It is far beyond just putting on a shared uniform or color. This team is truly that, a team, in every essence of the word. There has definitely been an adjustment period, but in the end everyone is there for each other day in and day out.

Practices have been intense and we have been at work not stop, both in the classroom and outside the classroom. And this weekend I finally got my act together to get myself back into training mode for the upcoming college season. Below I have listed my ab workout from Friday. I am really looking forward to kicking off the season and can not wait to be busing over to Pennsylvania for the Penn State Open in November!

Ab Workout:

1) Push ups         X 30
2) Toe Touches   X 30
3) Alternating Toe Touches   X 20 per leg
4) Upper ab. Crunches    X 60
5) Reverse Crunches       X 30
(3 cycles)

Run 3 miles

Go Cats!

Courtney Dumas

Last Day in Barcelona/Monte Carlo

After 2.5 fantastic days in Barcelona, it was finally time to board the cruise ship, the Ruby Princess. I spent my last day in Barcelona touring the Barcelona Cathedral and exploring Old Town.  By 1:30 it was time to head for the boat and get settled in our rooms.

Once aboard the ship, I took the liberty to venture around and get the lay of the land. This boat was huge! From what I heard there are around 2000 people on board! After I figured out where everything was, I sunned myself for an hour or so at the pool and then headed to the fitness center for a workout. I got in a nice 3.5 miles before I jetted back to the room for a quick shower and to get ready for dinner.

By the end of the day I was pretty tired, but very excited to be underway and heading to our next destination, Monte Carlo.

We dropped anchor in Monaco at about 11am the next morning. I decided to take advantage of the later docking time to catch some extra ZZZs, before I ate breakfast and headed to the gym. By about 10am I was up and ready to cross train for the upcoming fencing season and Northwestern.

I focused on muscle confusion and toning my body, working my legs and abs as well as my arms in a fast pace workout routine. I started off with cross slashes  (8lbs), sumo squats (10lbs), punches (5lbs), and crab crawls all in reps of 16. From there I decreased the number of reps by 2 until the final set of 6 reps per exercise. After this set of exercises, I moved on to abdominal work. Supporting my head with my hands I did 20 sit ups to start. Once I completed those, I moved on to cross leg raises (each time trying to bring my leg close enough to touch my toe with the opposite hand) at 20 per leg. From there I did 20 reverse crunches, making sure to really raise my hips. Finally I finished the set off with a 1 minute plank-my least favorite :P

For this group of exercises I did 3 sets. By the end of this workout my abs were pretty soar, but I wanted to make sure a did a little more cardio work before lunch, so I ran a quick mile.

After lunch, my family and myself went off to tour Monaco, a country within France. I was able to see the casino where the James Bond film Casino Royale was filmed and ventured up to the Prince’s palace. This quaint little town was pretty cool and it was really nice to get off the boat and explore a different culture!

To wrap up the day, we headed back to the boat after exploring the city to kick back and relax before we departed for our next destination later that night.

Barcelona Day 2

Today in Barcelona a tour guide led my family and myself around the city. I learned all about Gaudi architecture and Barcelona's history. The designs were amazing and I could not believe that so many of Barcelona's buildings were constructed of ceramic! The designs were so ornate and the attention to detail was fantastic.

I toured cathedrals, museums, the heart of the city, and so much more! The culture is just so fantastic!!! After our 4 hour tour we grabbed a tapas style lunch and relaxed in the room before we hit the city again. My aunt and I spent at least 2 hours exploring Barcelona's shopping, modern, and historic districts. We must have walked around 4 miles at the least.

 

 We found some great gelato and smoothies along the way as well as stumbled upon street mimes (the people who paint themselves to look like statues and hold still to entertain the public). They were so colorful! There was a great market as well!

 
On the way back to the hotel we took pictures by the arch of triumph. I love this city and am sad to be leaving tomorrow, but at the same time I am excited to be moving on to the next countries in this Mediterranean cruise!


 




 

 

      Courtney Dumas                                    

Adios Cleveland, Hola Barcelona!

Today was great! I made the long venture from Cleveland to Barcelona, over 7 hours, but in the end it was worth it. I survived the flight running on 1 hour of sleep due to the chatty stewardesses and the noisy man that sat behind me. But the endless episodes of the Office during the flight made up for the lack of sleep as well as the fact that I made it to Spain!

Once we reached the Palace Hotel at around 10:30 am, my family and myself found that we would not be able to get into the room until 3pm. Luckily the room was ready before expected and we were able to get settled and freshen up by 2:30pm. With a basic idea of where we were and where we wanted to end up, we headed out to take Barcelona by storm. Taking many of the side streets, we were able to gain a greater idea of the true Barcelona and not just the one seen in travel guides.

I had the opportunity to explore the city and get an idea of where everything was before our in depth tour tomorrow. We saw the Cathedral of Barcelona and the Roman Wall, as well as Main Street. The architecture was amazing and the weather was fantastic! I had a blast getting to know the sites and sounds of this city.

   There were mopeds left and right and Gaudi inspired buildings everywhere you looked. The tiny stores were quaint and unique in their own way. On top of it, I got the chance to practice my rusty Spanish!

After a few more hours of exploring, we were ready to kick our feet up and rest a bit before dinner.

For dinner we went out to a tapas restaurant, something Spain is known for. Dinner was great and I even tried some fried small fish…

After dinner I had this delicious brownie and ice cream for desert! Once we finished we headed back to the hotel to get some rest so we would be all set for our 4-hour tour around Barcelona the next day.

 

Courtney Dumas

Alliance Camp Footwork, Day 2/Week 2

Today was great, lots of intense fencing the entire morning! I got a lesson from Andre today as well during lunch. After some intense blade work (1 hour long), we moved on to super intense footwork. We spent 45 minutes drilling our legs and calf muscles.

Drills:

1) Squats-get into the engarde position and slowly lower your body down into a squat. X 10

2) Fire Feet Squats-get into engarde and pick up your feet quickly, making sure to keep good form. Drop into a squat every couple of seconds. X 10

3) Fire Feet Squat Jumps-get into engarde and pick up your feet quickly, make sure to keep good form during the exercise. Drop down into a squat, varying the time difference between squats. Once in squat, propel yourself upward in a jump and land softly back in engarde on the toes. X 10 

4) Lunge Jumps-get into a lunge and while staying low to the ground hop in and out of the lunge into the engarde. Make sure knee in the lunge is at a 90 degree angle.  X 15

5) High Knee Fire Feet-get into engarde and start alternating feet in fire feet workout. Every so often pick up your knees alternating knees 4 times then continue fire feet. Make sure to keep the back straight. X 10

6) Engarde Jumps-get into engarde and jump forward as far as you can, landing softly on your front foot. Keeping your back foot in the air, push back as far as you can. This is one rep. X 15

7) Double Engarde Jumps-get into engarde and jump forward as far as you can just like before, except this time when you land hop in place once on your front foot before you hop back. On the back hop when you land also do another small in place hop on the toe. This is one rep. X 15

8) Engarde Jump Lunges-get into engarde and continue the exercise like above. This time though after the second back hop lunge forward then reset into engarde. X 15

9) Reaction Lunges-Find a partner and a tennis ball. Have your partner extend their arm with tennis ball in hand, when they drop the tennis ball lunge as quickly as possible. The point is to finish the lunge with clean form before the ball hits the ground. 1-2 minutes

10) Short/Long Reaction Lunge-Set up the exercise just like before, except your partner has two tennis balls. When they drop the ball in their left hand you are to do a double lunge before the ball hits the ground. When they drop the ball in the right hand just do a regular lunge. 1-2 minutes

11) Short/Long Hand Target Lunge-Find a partner and have them stand with one hand closer to you than the other. Have them randomly open one hand at a time and you must react quickly to lunge and hit it. The closer hand for the short lunge and the farther hand for the long lunge. X 20

12) Fencing Suicides-get into engarde and start at the very back of the strip. Go as quickly as possibly and keeping good form go to the 2 meter line and back, the engarde line and back, and so on.   

Hello St. Lawrence River!

After a laborious 7 hour drive from Cleveland, Ohio to Oak Point, New York, I finally had the chance to stretch my aching legs and sore knees.  The river was calm and the air was crisp and fresh. I was thrilled to be back up in this beautiful and quiet cottage after a hard fought venture in Reno, Nevada for Summer Nationals 2011.

The St. Lawrence River way is so secluded from the busy city noise and ruckus. You can actually hear the sounds of the river lapping up on the shore and the sun beats lightly on your shoulders and warms the senses. You are close enough to small towns that you still feel attached to civilization, but at the same time you are isolated enough to feel peaceful and all your worries fly out the window.

The surroundings are beautiful! The flowers are in full bloom and Canada is a short boat ride away. The big freighters flow up and down the river, the trees are green and the beautiful birds pepper the branches-decorating them with splashes of reds, yellows, brilliant blacks, and bright oranges. The water is crystal clear and the air clean. It is the perfect place for a nice vacation.

The cool water makes training ten times better when the sun beats down on your back. This week I will not only be relaxing, but training as well. The peaceful surroundings make exercising so much more enjoyable. Imagine training in total and utter complete bliss. Work almost feels like play-almost...

I have been and continue to plan to fill my days here with brisk 3 mile runs-the cool air in the morning allows for perfect running temperature, but if you wait too long the beautiful river side street becomes a hellish pathway where you feel as though you are melting and the sun is pounding you into the asphalt.

After my morning runs, I come back to the house for footwork and fleche exercises that fill another 45-60 minutes of my time. Due to the gravel road, I am forced to resort to utilizing the faded wooden gray floors of the boathouse as my mock piste for my training. (It is not well appreciated by my family members when I do footwork across the kitchen and living room floors :P). Even though the room gets a bit muggy, it's nice to have my own secluded fencing training area to concentrate on my footwork and technique without interruption.

I put in the minutes day in and day out carefully training my footwork. All the pain and sweat goes towards perfecting actions and improving reaction time and foot speed. Pushing myself to the limits allows me to feel a sense of accomplishment. I am not only physically working, but mentally too. I imagine bouts and actions happening bore my eyes-my fleche taking off and my fingers ever so slightly disengaging and taking the blade in 6 as my point finds its intended target-the shoulder.

Throughout my lunge jumps and scissors jumps I picture my lunge growing and increasing in speed and endurance. I practice and perfect patterns and blade takes to shave time off of my footwork. I force myself to bounce during footwork exercises like I would in tournaments in order to increase endurance and speed of attacks.

At the end of it all I relax and make my way swiftly to the calm cool water way of the St. Lawrence River. The cool water refreshes my sore muscles and cools my mind, allowing me to let loose and unwind. By the end of my days I work my ab muscles with my medicine ball-performing ab twists and sit ups. All in all, throughout my time on the St. Lawrence I relax and unwind and take the opportunity to train deeper than usual with my clearer mind. My goals are sharper and my motivation high. I run, swim, do footwork, and all sorts of ab and arm exercises to reach my goals and to train for my next fencing challenge-this year I will be at the Alliance international training camp in Houston for two weeks after my week here!


Courtney Dumas

Training...It's a Love/Hate Relationship

Training, every athlete does it, but not many actually love the cross training. It's work. At the same time, this work is what makes athletes great. Determination and perseverance drive athletes to work their hardest to be the best.

Personally I HATE running. Maybe hate is too strong of a word, but nonetheless running and myself are not friends. Unfortunately, to be a great athlete running is a necessary evil. It is probably the best form of cross training out their for athletes and especially fencers!

Although I dislike running, I feel that I have to do it in order to keep progressing in my fencing and hey, you gotta love the way you feel after a workout. Not the sweaty nasty feeling, but the accomplished and I can conquer the world feeling. My lungs just feel so much more open than before I went on the run!

Running is great for the body, but in order to keep pushing yourself as an athlete to the edge to improve, one needs to do more. Personally I love to hit the gym. Weight training is probably my favorite training outside of actually fencing more. I create my own playlists to jam out in the weight room and and a little pizazz to the routine.

I lift every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to improve my physical abilities, while allowing my muscles to rest and heal in between. After I complete my workouts I feel like the Incredible Hulk, like there is nothing that can stop me. It is such a great feeling and I hope you all are inspired to get up and try it after this post!

I mentioned above that I rest my muscles in between lifting days, and that is true to some extent. Tuesdays and Thursdays I do my footwork exercises. Footwork is vital in fencing. Without it you might as well be a padded dummy for all your opponent cares. It is the foundation of fencing and the true way to improve one's abilities. I created my own footwork workout that entails preforming exercises at normal speed for 45 seconds, fast speed for 30 seconds, and fastest speed for 15 seconds. (If anyone ever says they can do their fastest speed for more than 15 seconds then they aren't actually doing footwork as fast as they possibly could). I build my endurance, speed, and technique all at the same time with this workout.

On top of this I also go for a run every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays I either hit the standing bike or go for a run. In doing this I give my muscles time to heal from lifting by working other muscles. In this way my body is always working, except for on Sundays and I burn far more calories than I would otherwise. (Let me mention that I do not diet, I hate that word and its connotations-I eat healthily and I eat less calories than I burn off working out to destroy fat. My goal is always to build muscle, never to lose weight).

Let me end by saying that every person is different and my workout routine won't work for everyone. My coach's never did for me, that is way I created my own routine! Working out is hard, but it is fun too and the results are a plus too ;)

Happy training!

Courtney Dumas