I Find Excitement in Strange Places

I don't know why I went up into the attic. But on the way down I found something amazing: a handhold!

Now I can do pullups every morning! Most people are not excited by this kind of discovery. I think most people would be happy to discover they could sleep for ten more minutes. I am not most people.

Today I did 10 pullups, and I'm very proud of myself. Yay!

Adjusting the Plan

Yesterday, after finishing my workout, I decided it was time to change gears. Yesterday I did an extra 25 pushups (after resting my arms) after my original 50. This morning I had to either do more or put them together.

I put them together and oh did it hurt. Then I added 25 to my crunches, bringing the total to 100. it hurt. a lot.

The new totals are 75 pushups, 100 crunches. This puts me about half way to my end goal. I still want to add some weight work, & pullups, to the routine.

Motivational Surprises

This morning I was not at all surprised at my lack of enthusiasm to work out, or to even get out of bed. It was too cold, I stayed up too late, the floor is cold, blah blah blah.

I hit the snooze one more time, pulled the blankets up, and tried to feel warm.

*ALARM*
Notably warmer, but ever so reluctant, I begrudgingly dragged out of bed. The floor is not cold. the air is not that cold. i still don't want to do the pushups.

after standing around for a minute, i finally decide "pushups but no crunches" and get to work. Clearly I've missed a week but I push through it. Done. Stretch. Move on.

When I'm done I feel tightness in my abs. I'm bewildered at an overwhelming sensation to do crunches. Why? I could just go get on with my day... But no. There Must Be Crunches.

I didn't argue any further, I just did them. But I was surprised, to say the least, at my body's insistence that I do the crunches.

What did you practice today?

I've been sick for a week. Today's the first day I was really better. I practiced all the forms and about 32 techniques (about a quarter of the system). And kicks and punches on bags. It's my typical Sunday morning routine, and it lasts 2 hours.

Next month I'm staring the regular workout with the 'test candidates' on Saturday mornings. It's guided practice by Mr. Steve White, 8th degree black belt. I'm so psyched!

Brisk Walk

I jogged on Thursday at 15ºF, about a mile. And because I am crazy I wanted to go out and do it again.

So I did:

9:07am, 3 miles at 10ºF:
Mile 1: 8'43
Mile 2: 9'43
Mile 3: 10'00
Total: 28'27

The conditions: Packed snow over ice. I touched pavement exactly one time.

Twisted Twig

Last night we did Twisted Twig in class. This is one of those fun techniques where you jump up in the air and land on your attacker, multiple times. We had a blast!

Tonight I reinforced Monday's techniques to burn them in.

Details

Today I worked on the details of a couple extensions that have been giving me trouble.

Locked Wing, Calming the Storm.
Gift of Destruction, Glancing Salute, Gift of Destiny.

I practiced them each (at least) five times to burn in the correct motion, then worked on drawing a distinction between Gift of Destruction and Glancing Salute, pinpointing the similar moment and identifying the differences. I said the name of the techniques out loud to help the memorization process.

Tomorrow, check out my post on Dreams with Deadlines.

6am Sunday

There is only one reason why I woke up at 6am on a Sunday:

To Practice Kenpo

[edit]
Thirty minutes of forms to warm up. Sixty minutes of techniques (awesome!) then thirty minutes of bag work.

What a great workout! It was nice to have the rest of the day to lounge around.

Techniques with my Aunt

My aunt and I ran techniques on new years day: 30 or so. Then we ran form 5.