my nose and a fist.

Are not best friends. In fact, they may be enemies. Specifically with Jen's fist. Last Thursday she landed a blow that left some faint bruising and a definite amount of soreness in the bridge of my nose. When Heather was my only option for sparring on Sunday I bowed out and did all technical work - and trust me, with Lyle, that's not necessarily the easy way out!

I'm pretty sure I'm glad there isn't any footage of last night, not sure I want to see my reaction when my eyes start watering and I start closing my eyes every time I see a fist coming. Cause when my nose hurts, that seems to be my only reaction. The smarter thing of course would be to get out of the way!

I've had one honest nose bleed in my life. I was about 8 years old and I crashed HARD into a table corner. I was quite shocked. Since then I've only seen a spot of blood here and there due to extreme dryness. Obviously I was quite surprised last night when I wiped my nose to find a faint smear of blood. Stopped almost immediately. One more round in, a few more drops. I suspect my nose just doesn't like to bleed - which is a good thing!

There's some faint bruising on the sides of my nose, the lower cartilage is painful and Lyle's declared no more sparring until it feels better. I feel like a wimp, but I have to agree. If I start cringing and closing my eyes every time I see a fist coming for my face I'm going to be in trouble FAST. (Yes, I realize this is probably the most instinctive reaction to seeing a fist coming at your nose, but instincts would serve me better if they told me to DUCK! SLIP!)

Have your instincts ever led you wrong?