Basic Fitness (all trainees welcome)

[Matalina]

The Mistress of Trainees, the Master at Arms and the Commander of the Guard all wanted Jesse to take a break from watching their prisoner, so Mistress Thera assigned him the task of teaching basic fitness.  Which was fine with him, but he was afraid that Cari would get away.  It would not do him any good if she got away on his watch, he knew this, but it wasn't his watch right now, so it didn't matter much anyway.

 

Instead of reporting for guard duty Jesse made his way to a simple spot outside of the Barracks where he would wait for his class.  He wasn't sure how many would show up, but he knew that there was a few new faces and they wanted this class.  So Jesse waited for everyone to show up.

 

Jesse

 

OOC:  you have until my the end of the second "day/post" by me to join in, then I'll have to stop any new comers.

 

[Sangreal]

Sandre arrived at fitness training a little more sore and a little more out of shape than he should have been. Sword forms alone had given him a work out. He could swing a hammer for hours at an anvil but sword training was exhausting. He got an early start to the class since he was unsure of where it would be held, and frankly, the three months he took to getting in shape before he got here was not enough to make up for a lifetime of books and lectures. He had swimmed daily but legs were affected differently by the impact of running.

 

He was unsure of what to call the instructor whom he eyed warily. After sword training he had had nightmares about this class. Dreams of swimming in suits of full plate and chain. A shiver passed through him knowing how sore he would be after this day. Smiths arms were not going to compensate this time.

[Blade]

Complaining to himself, Davian dragged himself out of bed. It hadn't been an easy or very fun road so far here with the warders. All he had done was practice some wierd moves with the sword. Well at least he could get in shape. Honestly though he really wasn't sure why he was staying. Well...he could leave at any time. He really wasn't sure what was keeping him here.

 

Well, time to get off to the yards. Someone had assigned him to a basic fitness class. He couldn't remember the details of the conversation but one of the guards had called him a scraggly bean pole or something like that and ordered him off to fitness. Well...maybe he wasn't particularly strong, and really hadn't had to any really physical labor. He had been good at the shop and selling stuff so that's all that really mattered. Well some strength was needed with swords, and probably even more important, endurance, but strength could really be outdone by wit, and that's what Davian intended to do, outwit outmaneuver, and probably outbluff his opponent.

 

Enough of that though, time to get to the training. There was already another trainee there. Not surprising really. He hadn't been told who was going to be in charge so he broke the silence himself. "Umm...hi. I'm davian, reporting here for some basic training as ordered!"

[Jehaine]

Irian slowly woke up, yawning as he got his brain back in a conscious state. It was getting easier, waking up in the morning, but still wasn't any easier for the former bouncer. It´d help a great deal if he could actually fall asleep at night for once...

 

Taking a deep breath, he poured some water from a pitcher over his head, the coldness helping in waking him up. Then, after getting dressed he'd walk onto the Yards to see if he could get some training done. Spotting several groups of Trainees -- and some Warders -- training with weapons, he realised he had forgotten his, and was about to return when he spotted a small group to the side. Maybe they didn't need their weapons? Stifling a last yawn, he figured he'd walk over and ask, worst that could happen was that he'd have to go and get his weapon, which he'd have to do anyway to train with the other groups.

 

- "Mornin', Irian here. Can i join this class of *mumbles*?"

 

The last part was almost unintelligable due to another yawn, ending up with him stretching out. Things weren't so bad as a couple of weeks ago, when he'd actually oversleep on some classes or just come running in in the nick of time, but this was several years he was trying to get 'un-used' to, he couldn't very well get that out overnight. He just hoped the teacher wasn't in a bad mood or something...

 

 

Irian

Not much of an early bird

[Matalina]

Jesse noted that one lad was already tired.  He smiled it would only get worse.

 

"All right boys, my name is Jesse.  I will be instructing you on some basic fitness that you will need to be at least minimally effective.  We will start with endurance, then work on balance and then finally strength, each of these three things is key to becoming a good Tower Guard or Warder."

 

"But first it is very important that we all begin stretching.  Failure to do so can wind you up in the infirmary.  While the Yellows and Accepted may be nice to look at they are not so nice when you are fool hardy and come up because you did not stretch.  Think your mother times ten."

 

Jesse started showing the boys how to stretch each and every muscle in their body going slowly and helping them understand why each muscle must be stretched and how important it was that nothing be left cold.  Ten miniutes later Jesse stood up.

 

"We run today, until you drop."  Jesse showed the boys the course.  "I want each of you to run by my side in turn and tell me about yourself."  Jesse started to run at a fast pace, one faster than he knew they could handle, first was testing, then they could run their own pace.  Jesse waited for the first boy to catch up and start his story.  "Tell me about yourself."

 

OOC:  Catch up to Jesse, tell him about yourself and then see how long you can run before dropping.

 

Jesse

[Sangreal]

Sandre stretched trying to copy Jesse's movements as close as he could. He wasnt terribly flexible he found and vowed to work on that later. When the running started he was at the front. Not because he wanted to be but rather because he was the first to the class. As for the run, he had run for a good while in full armor when he trained a few months in Shienar before coming here but in armor the slow pace allowed you to run longer. The pace set by Jesse was nothing short of Sandre's sprint. He decided also in that moment that in addition to flexibility he would also work on speed. He had learned a few exercises for that in Shienar. It was time to use them.

 

Runing up beside Jesse he started.

 

"I am Sandre Kaldun... I came from a well off minor house and have been training to be a General one day since I was seven. The Tower was interested in my ability to find patterns in things and remember things with perfect clarity and pushed it towards that direction by making sure there was no shortage of teachers to teach me... I didnt exercise much until three months ago. I did some swimming growing up, some time as a Smithing apprentice, and threw some knives but thats it."

 

Sandre fell back to allow other students to go up and kept running. He was happy that he managed to keep up the pace long enough for everyone to get their stories out. However after a time cramps settled in. He didnt want to be the first student to quit though. He first tried to concentrate on anything besides what he was doing but after awhile his breathing became erratic. So he concentrated on his breathing but then felt as though he wasnt getting enough air. Blackness creeped in at the edge of his vision and he shook it off. He made him self angry and that helped for awhile, to catch up at least. He wasnt sure when it happened but soon he wasnt thinking at all. The blackness creeped in again and suddenly his legs felt light as air.

 

Sandre sat up and realized he had over done it and pushed himself too hard. He had almost passed out and had a nice gash on his face from where it dragged on the dirt. He thought that as long as there was water in his system this wouldnt happen, fact was he went to his limit. Jesse stood over him as the other students continued on.

 

"I think I am done sir."

[Matalina]

Jesse smiled.  "Well I didn't mean it literally young man.  Find some water and rest, but keep moving or your muscles will lock up.  We will move on when the others have finished their run."  Jesse patted the boy on the back.  "Good job."

 

Jesse

[Jehaine]

Having long legs was an advantage in keeping up with Jesse, but the small amount of time it took him to occur people needed to run caused another Trainee to make it to the Warder first. As the boy fell back again, he sped up his pace until he was next to the dark haired Shienarian, barely even noticing that he was over half a foot taller than him. It was something that barely made him look up anymore (no pun intended) over the years.

 

- "My name's Irian, Irian Nerendahl. I'm from Tarabon originally, going through a few odd jobs before ending up in Almoth as a bouncer to the local Inn. There weren't that many fights that i recall, but off-duty Taraboner soldiers and on duty Whitecloaks are a bad mix. Just me sitting in the same room prevented more than a few fights, though i still needed to toss someone out every once in a while. Got here as a guard to a noblewoman, she's in the White Tower now. Needed something to do, so i ended up joining here."

 

With a nod, he let himself fall back for the next person to step up. Though large steps allowed him to keep up at first, now that he was getting a bit tired his weight wasn't helping much, and it wasn't long until he was thundering over the field with all the grace and subtility of a rampaging bull. A Trainee next to him fell to the ground, and he stopped only a few steps later himself, putting his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath again. Hearing what Jesse told him, he decided to take that advice as well, starting to walk despite his leg muscles protesting that they wanted him to sit down for a bit.

 

 

Irian

Yarr

[Blade]

Stretching....what the heck was the point of stetching? Well...if it would keep him from getting injured maybe it would be useful. It still felt really wierd to be doing though, although at the same time it felt kind of nice. The start of the training sounded like it was going to be just as hard as Davian had thought. Fitness wasn't exactly Davian's specialty and the others looked to be in a lot better shape than he was. Starting the run, Davian let his mind wander...at least for the first little while until he had to start concentrating on getting enough air in each breath.

 

After a bit it seemed the other two had already had a little chat with Jesse their trainer, now it was his turn. Unfortunately Davian had never done anything extrememly physical and this little run was really tiring him down. They hadn't even gone very far but already he was winded. "Hi I'm...Davian. I used to be a....shopkeeper in Cairhienin....family was killed by Aiel.....wanted to get some revenge..." Talking while running wasn't easy and so Davian left it at that and tried to recover his breath. Light, after only a few times through the course he was already slowing down. He was far back from everyone else, moving at what most everyone else would call a jog, but which was top speed for him right now given how tired he was, when he noticed one of the other trainees pass out. He got a rest and some water from it, so Davian decided to try something of his own to get out of the rest of this. Light he was tired! Letting that tired thought slip into his mind, Davian decided to fake a tumble and hopefully he'd get to stop. Unfortunately he was a lot more tired than he realized and his fake tumble turned into a real one. He scraped up his hands in the process. It was only minor though. Lying there in the dirt he hoped he'd be allowed to stop and rest.

[Matalina]

OOC:  Sorry for the delay

 

Jesse let the boys rest and walk off their exhaustion first.  Then he lead them along the most familiar path.  The way towards the Ogier Grove.  It was time to practice balance. 

 

Jesse led the boys through Tar Valon until they reached the Ogier Grove Gates.  The towering trees were still awe inspiring to him.  In the borderlands, trees didn't look like this.  He enjoyed the casual walk through the tall trees, but the weather was chilly and the boys would need much more than a casual walk when he was done with them.

 

They reached the side of a creek with a very deep section in it.  The creek was called Radzy's creek, after one of the first people to use this particular creek for training.  It was a historical place if you thought about it but few ever did and Jesse didn't care to share it with the boys, old traditions new people.  They could learn of it on their own. 

 

Jesse kicked three barrels into the water the started a fire well away from the shore so that all the splashing that was about to take place wouldn't put out the much needed warmth afterwards.  Jesse removed his weapons and removed all of his clothes, there were no women present and right now he wanted warm clothes to be in after the freezing dip in the water he was about to take.

 

"You lesson is in balance."  Jesse strode into the water and grasped one of the barrels.  He carefully pulled himself up quickly out of the water.  Goose bumps ran over his skin from the air.  Jesse preformed Heron Wading in the Rushes and then paused for a few moments then jumped off into the depths of the water.

 

"That is your ultimate goal.  Today's goal is to manage to stand for three seconds before you fall into the water. You may or may not master it today but you will try for three hours taking a break every 30 miniutes to get warm for 10 miniutes here by the fire.  Then back to your task." 

 

Jesse quickly pulled on his clothes and sat by the warm fire.  "Well get on with it!"

 

Jesse

[Sangreal]

Sandre walked off the exhaustion and stretched some more. The walk through the trees certainly took his mind off of the burning in his legs. He felt at peace there and by the time they reached the creek he was ready for the next task.

 

After hearing Master Jesse explain the exercise he grinned and did not hesitate. He swam at a creek back home though the water was swift enough not to be called a creek. As a child he would play with the peasant children and his cousins and they would try to balance on drift wood. Or build rafts and stand on those as it went through the fast moving water. Good memories. Memories of a life long gone.

 

There was no hesitation yet no rush to get undressed and get in the water. As he undressed he eyed the barrels and began planning. He would need a good center of gravity and learn to move with the currents. If he could do that, he would be able to stand up there as long as he wanted.

 

Diving in the cold water covered a hot and exhausted body. He sat there on the bottom of the creek before rushing up. Giving his body a few seconds to adjust before swimming up again. Grabbing a barrel he realized quickly that by using his own weight and throwing his body over it he could get positioned to get on the barrel. He seemed hopeful until he pulled his legs out of the water and realized they were still weak from the run. It was also cold and shivering set in fast. The water was almost welcoming as he fell back in.

 

He was not sure how long it took him to realize that with his legs weak and shivering this was not going to work as he intended. His solution then was to hold the barrel steady and allowing the other student to get up there. That least worked... until he sent the other student flailing back into the water, laughed, and then went back to his barrel. He may not have done it alone, but he found one way to do it at least.

 

OOC Feel free to be the unfortunate student who got a moment of triumph over the barrel before Sandre launched you back into the water. I hope this solution was ok Matalina? If not I will change it.

 

OOC

[Matalina]

OOC:  It's fine but not what was intended.

 

Jesse watched as one of the boys held the barrel for another Jesse watched and held a laugh as the other fell in.  "While that will work, your final test will be with and you alone in the water, do not get use to the helpfulness of your friends.  Your balance is your own, you must master it or your opponent will dominate you.  Try again, alone."

 

Jesse

 

OOC:  you don't have to succeed in any of these events, the whole "course" will be over several months to years until you master that task.  This is only a Lets get started in your basic fitness, more of an evaluation and a goal to reach not the whole thing, so your post is fine, you can post trying again or not, totally up to you.  Tho in all the years I've taught this class THIS was the first time someone did this lol. 

 

Mat

[Sangreal]

After Sandre launched the other student (A simple matter of letting go of the submerged barrel and allowing it to pop up.) He returned to his own barrel. Submerging it and using the pressure of the water made it both easy to try and get on top of but also held it steady until it popped up and launched you. The trick Sandre figured out was to center your body weight on it to keep it submerged... a trick he got close to but never touched.

 

At least the fire helped...

[Jehaine]

Though the water was cold, at least it managed to do a better job of waking him up than the previous exercise. Now properly awake, he swam to where the barrel was, trying to pull himself on top of it but failing to. With his height came a good deal of weight, and a higher center of gravity than some of the shorter students. With a little help, he managed to climb onto one of the barrels, the muscles in his legs tense as he kept trying to compensate for the barrel trying to get out from under him.

 

But, like most first attempts this one failed as well, and Irian crashed into the water in a way that almost sent the barrel flying out of the creek. Though he did technically manage to stand there for a couple of seconds, Jesse mentioned that they did need to get this done on their own, something that unfortunately included climbng on top of the barrel in the first place.

 

After more failed attempts to get on top of the barrel, he eventually found a way that at least gave him a fair chance of climbing on. He'd push the barrel down, then attempt to lever himself on top of it before wrestling himself in a seated position. Regardless of how it may have looked, only the results would count in the end. Results which, judging by the amount of trouble standing up on the thing was giving him, would be taking a good while...

 

 

Irian

Not giving up

[Matalina]

Jesse watched as the boys did this very simple task and yet it took him months to master it.  He still had trouble on bad days, but it was the key to getting good balance.  He let them splash around with the barrels for a while longer before pulling them all in to warm by the fire.

 

Jesse smiled at each of them and reassured them that one day it would be easy as pie.  As they sipped their tea and warmed by the fire Jesse spoke of their next lesson.

 

"Next we will work on strength.  We will be doing yourself and our community good in the following six week exercise.  You have been commissioned to help with building a house in the city proper.  Your task will be to move things from one area to the next as the workers need.  This will help you build your strength and do your community good."

 

Jesse let the boys finish their tea and then put out the fire and put the teacups and kettle back in the barrel fo the next people to come by this particular training area.  "Follow me while I introduce you to your supervisor".  Jesse lead them through the streets of Tar Valon to the dock district where a house was being built.

 

Jesse spoke with a man and gestered to the three boys.  "These are the boys I've told you about Master Idan." 

 

Master Idan motioned for the boys to follow him and Jesse followed behind him.  The man spoke gruffly, "You need these."  He pointed to a pile of leather gloves.  "Your first job is to move this pile of timbers to the west side of the building, over there." He pointed to the area where his men were building currently.  I know you have training and other duties, you will join me everyday when you can or Master Jesse will tack on an extra week for every day you've missed."  Master Idan left quickly and Jesse nodded to the boys.  "You heard the man, Do all the exercises we have gone through today and help build this house and you will be well on your way to being a Tower Guard."

 

OOC:  I want to see at least one day of hard labor moving the beams and then you are done with this lesson.

 

Jesse

[Sangreal]

Sandre's attempts at balancing on the barrel were less than successful and he was glad to be out of the water. The jog to the city to warm up again was almost a blessing.

 

Arriving at the work site Sandre suddenly picked up immediately what Master Jesse's tactic was here. They would build strength faster if concentrating on the work and not the work out. Building strength would turn into a mental battle rather than physical for which Sandre was thankful.

 

The timbers of various size and thickness sometimes only required one of them but most often required two or more. Once they got the hang of it they were able to move faster (Not that that pleased Master Idan any more who pushed for more speed.) It was not all timbers either. Sometimes they used ropes and pulleys or moved stone by rolling them on logs.

 

When their time was up all of them were harder for having done it. Looking at the project and recognizing a stone they helped set or a timber they had helped shape into a plank brought a sense of accomplishment with it. This would be here long after they were gone hopefully. It would provide warmth and shelter from the elements for someone.

 

Before they left that last day Master Idan let them carve their names into a foundation stone for one of the walls that had yet to go up. It would be covered by another stone of course. But should that stone ever be lifted for repairs or simply to rebuild the house some hundred or two hundred years later they would find the names of the trainees who helped build it and perhaps, wonder who they were.

[Matalina]

OOC: good to go.

[Jehaine]

Irian had it easy during the assignment, well, compared to the other Trainees that was. Having been apprenticed to a woodcutter back home he was aware of the tricks of the trade that were used to get large trunks back to the village without taking all week. Holding the beams close to him to keep himself from burning energy too fast, and helped others with pointers for much the same effect.

 

Unfortunately, Master Idan managed to find out he had had previous experience relatively fast, and adjusted the workload put onto him accordingly. For most of the week, he was to help in pulling and pushing the heavier parts into position. He was strong, but it had been a while since he had had to work that much, and it made him realise that he had been getting out of shape lately.

 

He dropped by every day as told -- though still tending to run a late streak in the beginning -- and worked hard as his body got used to what he had been doing during his woodcutting days. The first couple of days had been a pain, quite literally so after dragging his sorry behind out of bed the next day, but he settled into the rhythim more and more each day.

 

The best thing was actually something other than his time with Master Idan. During the time he trained with weapons, he noticed his grip on the weapon had improved, and more strength allowed him to swing the war hammer even faster than before. He had to admit Master Jesse had known what he was doing back when he told them all to help out here. Now if only that barrel training would start working out for him he'd really be getting the hang of this...

 

 

Irian

Darn barrels...

[Matalina]

good to go