Rationalizing

I beat the best fencer in my club today, 5-3. She's A-rated and wins regional and local tournaments so regularly that she's stopped going to them because she feels bad about it.

I went all-out while she went at her normal intensity, as evidenced by me stumbling to the water fountain and quaffing about a liter of tepid water directly afterward. If we had been fencing to 10 or 15, she would have likely beat me by a margin of several touches, if she figured out how I was exploiting her technique.

I blame my tiredness for later losing 4-5 to a fencer whom I beat regularly. In addition to the previously described bout, I went 7-10 against the club's #2. My hand was so weak at the time that I couldn't oppose in quarte at all, and my circle-six was slow and feeble. It would've gone to a tie, except at 2-3 he scored on the floor, thus locking out on the scoring box my solid riposte to his chest and I feel confident that I would've broken the tie in my favor.