Since we're yammering on about skyrim.
Any suggestions on improving armor skills? I have this habit of killing things in one hit, or dying. I'd like to avoid that.
Raise the difficulty. I normally play on the easiest difficulty, but on my current playthrough, I am using all skills, so need to be able to use them as much as possible. Raising the difficulty means I get hit more (light and heavy armor goes up) and I have to hit more (1-handed, 2-handed, and Destruction increase).
You can change difficulty in the middle of combat, so if you encounter something you cannot kill or run away from, drop the difficulty until you finish the fight.