Archery this week was continued minor improvement with a little bit of frustration. I started using the clicker this week. A clicker is a small metal bar on the riser which you put on the outside of the arrow (relative to the riser), and when you reach full draw and the tip of the arrow slides passed the bar, it makes a clicking sound and signals you to fire. It is a very useful way to ensure that you always get to a full and consistent draw length. And it did wonders for my consistency. I was shooting 52-53/60 fairly regularly. The downside was that it forced me at full draw and at least earlier in the week I was confronted with the poundage of my bow. I have gotten stronger and it is better I do it right.
On Saturday (yesterday) was the final BUTTs competition and the BUTTs ball. I shot ok. I was shooting consistently well until I kept having random bad arrows. I also had one really terrible round, where I was doing something wrong, not sure what, and dropped way too many points. As a result, despite should being able to, I did not break the 500 score barrier but got continuously closer at 496. This was still a good score but considerably frustrating. On the plus side, given that only four of the novice team archers were there, I was on the team for total score and with the three other gentleman scoring 506, 515, and 527 we made a new Oxford novice team record of 2044! So I was proud of all of us in general. The ball was also fun, with some of the bigger awards being handed out and a nice dinner. Plus there was dancing and it made me happy to dance as a team! Of course this meant we got back late (2am).
In role playing society, the final round of Ragnarok Society game came to an end. There was a bitter sweet feeling in the air as everyone's characters talked of the future and fair wells. While I recognize this is a fictional universe, these characters were very much alive in the sense that Ragnarok was a game of many plots and relationships and drama. I look forward to the next week when we debrief and I will get to know exactly what was going on. In the meantime, most of us are looking forward to the society game next term and some character concepts have been tossed around. I am excited.
We also had the role playing society banquet on Friday. It was a wonderful time and it was great to see everyone dressed up nicely for another tasty meal and socializing. The fun didn't end until 3 am, but it was most enjoyable.
So, I had a lot of good happen to me this week and particularly at the end. But, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was just not right in terms of balance. I didn't like the fact that I had more free time than normal. I get some fulfilment from having work and there was an actual point in the week where there was nothing that I could do academically to get ahead or do the work that I knew I would have. Similarly, I'm not satisfied with this work out regiment. I can tell that I am losing some of the progress that I achieved from Jillian Michaels. I can tell that it isn't a regiment that is intensive enough to counteract the eating habits that I co-developed with the Jillian Michaels routine and with the stress of break looming over me, that I may be compensating for.
All of these things make me realize the importance of listening to yourself and finding balance. When something works, it works and I may need to alter my behaviour to suite my life style as it changes. Here's hoping I can find some way of doing that in the last week of term. Also, here is to hoping that break goes as smoothly as possible. I am looking forward to being home and to go on the Archery Isle of Man trip, but I still fear the uncertainty of the rest of my travels and my inability to plan some of it due to information I don't have yet. But these worries are but a minor backdrop to a pretty good thing I've got going.
Until next time!
Adventures Await
KH
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