Kangeiko Day 3! 6am starts are sharp, turnout is great; the dojo is full, intensity is high if a little muted. This morning is the fourth training for the week, after the beginner session this evening (yes, two training sessions again today) we will be at the half way point. YaaaaaAAAAAA hoo!

It was a pleasure to go to sleep last night without dreaming of kirikaeshi. Karl narrowly avoided injury at the end of training this morning when he suggested we finish on Sunday with a repeat of Monday, kirikaeshi. I was overjoyed to wake this morning only 10 minutes before the alarm, and somewhat surprised when it went off what felt like only 30 seconds later. Clearly my body was telling me to go back to sleep.

Christchurch weather continued being kind to us, 3 degrees, positively warm. At the end of training my own micro climate was tropical - if fog is a measure.

Small signs of attrition are appearing quietly; the focus is kendo. We're in the middle zone now, not far enough in to looking toward the end, too far in to be able to ignore the impact of what is the most physically intensive training I have experienced. Looking back the closest I have come is weeks of tailing lambs on a farm (some 26 years ago), the morning start is similar, the intensity similar, it's just packed into 90 minutes as opposed to 10 hours.

Today was the second day of a routine of kirikaeshi (1 minute), jigeiko (3 minutes), kikarigeiko (1 minute), switch roles and repeat, kotai and repeat. My own strikes are getting slower and slower as kakarite. I have to work to keep up both mentally and physically as motodachi for the stronger, fitter kendoka. In jigeiko my lapses in attention are being punished sufficiently to show me the value of maintaining my wits, my attention and an everpresent readiness. I'm hugely impressed with those who still seem to be attacking with the same speed they started the week with, gives me something to aim for.

As the days pass I am hitting what I thought to be my personal limit closer and closer to the start of training, for Sunday this will be some time Saturday night. As a result I am getting great practice at improving and maintaining form while exhausted. I really hope this translates to better kendo when I recover.

I couldn't possibly have planned a better introduction to kendo, starting as a beginner in October 2009, in bogu for a couple of months and the first ever Canterbury Kangeiko this week. Superb!