The Plan was... (part 1)

Since the first time Mr. SMura mentioned that we’re hosting a tournament in October, in the back of my mind I was already plotting the course of action as far as my own fitness training and Kendo to get myself ready for this event.
I think I started hitting the gym hard right after I came back from my back injury. Sure there were some ups and downs along the way, but for the most part I think I had a good run there.
I made some real progress in terms of my diet, lost a bit of weight in the process. My weight training helped to gain some much needed strength and stamina even when I wasn’t feeling so well.
As for Kendo, I didn’t think I had a very good year training wise… in fact I don’t think I had a very good year at all. However, I went and grind through everything I was faced with. Even though it wasn’t very satisfactory, but I think I still came up at least even.
Unexpectedly, I was hit with chicken pox sometimes last month. My Kendo, work out and diet automatically came to a halt at that moment.
It took me about a month to get back into training. By that time, I found that I have gained weight and was out of shape, with practically no time left for me to get back into rhythm. My Kendo strangely enough wasn’t so much affected, sure I was in decline compared to earlier this year or late last year, but it was still on an acceptable level. However, I felt I am way below par coming into this tournament, with my training and preparations gone to waste.
Came tournament time, the result was rather surprising, in regards to my personal performance at least. I deliberately did not place myself on the strongest team, in the hopes that the strongest Indonesian team will be able to advance far into the tournament. My gamble paid off, Indonesian Team A was able to get the silver medal, losing marginally to a Japanese Team from Hokkaido. While my team, Indonesian Team B, lost to Indonesian Team A in the quarter-finals.
I was also quite satisfied with my own performance. I fought four times that day. I won twice, lost once and draw once. I was especially happy that I was able to draw with a young advanced sensei from Japan, from what I heard, he was also quite surprised with the fight that I put up. I was also quite happy that I was able to beat a sensei from Hongkong 2-0.
All in all, it was a pretty satisfactory tournament, not to mention exhausting.