Kendo Blog

Stress Test!

So, Wednesday last was my annual stress test.  My doc is somewhat bemused by my approach to medical care (at least my own) but he tolerates my self-experimentation and titration of my medication.  My BP at home and work has run in the 130/80 range so I was surprised after pounding out 11 minutes on the Bruce Protocol that my exercise BP was 210/100.  Of course, 11 min had me huffing and puffing a lot harder than a kendo keiko or match but it was still a bit alarming.  The good news is that my lipids and BG have been well controlled.

So my meds were adjusted with a decrease in the dose of carvediol-CR from 40 mg/day to 20/day and the addition of amlodipine 5 mg/day.  Since then I have been very light headed and my BP has been 110/70 with mild orthostatic hypotensive symptoms.  I've checked with my doc and decreased the carvediol CR to 10 mg/day.  Diet plan kicks in this week.  Stay tuned for more details.

And as to kendo, I've both a bosu ball and am using it to improve my core strength.  My iaido is really poor because of the weakness of my core muscles.

He's baaaaaaaacccccckkkkkkkk

I've actually been practicing kendo, despite my lack of blogging, and I took my shodan examination in Tucson last month in conjunction with a kendo seminar held by the SWIKF.

The seminar was a good experience (I always like to be exposed to different takes on the same ideas) and the kendo shinsa was not too harrowing.  In a nutshell, I passed!  Immediately thereafter Stroud Sensei was pressing me on my forthcoming nidan examination.

Keiko thereafter was interesting as well.  I lined up with Jeff Marsten Sensei and the first thing he did was throw me a tsuki.  Fortunately I (a) suspected he would try it, and (b) with my fencing background I was able to parry - but not riposte.

I regard this as the end of the beginning, and not the beginning of the end, of my kendo journey.