Getting back on track

Life kind of got disrupted with the passing of my last living grandparent. Gramma Eleanor died on August 12, and the funeral was on August 17, which would have been her 94th birthday. It doesn't sound like she died in pain, which is good, but she's been in everyone's lives forever and her being gone really does change the way the world looks, just a bit. That elderly lady with the bright red top and dark pants, sitting with her friends at the donut shop, gives me warm feelings, instead of just being another woman I don't know, for example. It's nice, although sprung from a sad occasion.

I went to karate last night (Monday) and after two weeks of not training, the class felt like a killer! There were more than a few times that I was barely able to go through the techniques - I certainly wasn't attempting to do the techniques any kind of right. I'd gain back a bit of wind with a bit of rest, but by the time class ended I was toast.

I walked on the treadmill today, using the new workout I programmed just before Gramma died is what I walked to today, and my heartrate got up to 163 as a high. When I got to the end of the program, my heartrate was still above 140. This sucks, but will improve as I keep at it.

For now, however, I need to get rested as tomorrow is another karate night and promises to be physically challenging once again!

Jill

Changes to treadmill workout

I programmed a new, more challenging, 45 min workout while walking tonight.

Old stats:

• average speed 3.7mph, with about 40 min of the walk at 3.8mph
• 2.8 miles completed
• 6.8 aeropoints
• ? calories expended (sorry, I don't pay much attention to this stat)
• max incline, 1 degree

New stats:

• average speed 3.7 mph, with about 40 min of the walk at 3.8mph
• 2.79 miles completed
• 6.8 aeropoints
• 320-some calories expended
• max incline, 3 degrees

As you can see, not much of a change to the workout, the major change was the max incline. I targetted my new workout to a heartrate of 155 or 157bpm during the main 35 minutes of the walk, bringing myself up gradually over the first 5 minutes and down gradually over the last 5 minutes.

My walking goals are to maintain a 45 min walk that holds my heartrate between 145-155, so I should be able to use this new program for a couple of weeks before the main part of the walk is getting very close to not keeping my heartrate high enough to stay within that range, and then I'll have to re-examine things. I won't worry about it until then.

No karate tomorrow, so I'll be walking then, too. After taking this time to carefully watch and adjust the incline and speed on the machine to go with my heartrate, it's always nice to take that first walk on the new program, without having to pay attention to changing anything.

Wednesday night training

Last night was a great class! Physically it went very well, Mentally I was well-connected within partner exercises, and as an added bonus, my favorite instructor who runs a related club came out to train with our mutual Sensei here at the Instructor's Dojo.

Brianna - someone who used to train 15 yrs ago as a pre-pubescent youth and just came back - came to the dojo early enough that I was able to invite her before class started to go through the kata she knew years ago, and she was very happy about the invite. We only had about 7 minutes of time to work together before Sensei came onto the floor and class started, but we went through Heian Shodan three times and walked through most of Heian Nidan before class started. After class, Brianna asked me to take her through Heian Shodan one more time so we did that as well. Throughout class and while we went through kata before and afterwards, Brianna trained near me and watched me for clues of what we were doing, and as a result I tried to go through my techniques more completely without rushing through them, to give her brain time to recognize what was going on.

During the class itself, Don (my riding/training buddy) conducted the warmup as usual, and when Sensei returned to the floor, we continued the warmup with our standard standing punches (hip vibration practice), then jab/reverse punch combinations while standing in a deep front stance (hip rotation practice), then stepping forward, punching (forward drive practice), then front kicking (hip pendulum action practice). We went back and forth and back and forth with the moving exercises, and got the blood pumping and the breath gasping for everyone.

Wednesday nights are 'kata night', although we tend to have kata as part of all of our training classes, with very few exceptions. Wednesday is specifically labelled kata night however, and we tend to go through more kata or junior level kata with much more detail and depth than when we were learning that same kata for testing for a colored belt years ago.

Last night we went through Kanku Sho again a few times, and then moved on to Heian Yondan and Heian Godan. I'm sure Sensei selected those two to help Brianna re-familiarize herself with those two kata, since her old rank attainments as a kid had already used both kata successfully in tests (meaning, Heian Godan was the last kata she used for her last successful testing, and thus isn't testing with the same kata again for the next 3 tests, but still should know and improve upon the kata she's finished testing with). We went through each kata about 4 times, until everyone was tired again.

Afterwards we did some kumite exercises with a partner, and switched around so we got to work with a number of different people. I was working on my sen timing, mainly. It's kind of scary to go IN on an incoming roundhouse or front kick to start my defense, but a useful timing ability to have.

All in all, class was a good workout and I made some nice deposits to the karate karma bank by being the one who approached the "new girl" and helped her start to re-learn what she already knows. I don't understand why so many other people my rank are afraid to offer assistance, or just don't think about what someone else at a junior rank may be interested in getting assistance with. After all, Sensei can't answer every question or help you with everything - a lot of karate is self-training and seeking out help on your own.

Walking walking walking...

Watched another episode of Smallville, season 3 today after work during my 45 min walk.

Tom Welling is hot, even if a little cheesy now and then. Just had to write it ;)

I increased the incline to 2.0 degrees, with the max speed still at 3.8mph (walking), to increase my heartrate so it was closer to 147-150 than the 139-142 it was at before then. I will eventualy re-program my walk to the higher rate, but for now I'm going to play with it manually. I was pleased to find that I could adjust the speed and incline while I walked, I think in different programs on the same machine I can't do that.

Tomorrow is a regular training day, and is Don's turn to drive. I like sharing the driving responsibilities, it really helps me keep focused on attending regular classes.

Monday night training

I wasn't sure I was able to make tonight's class, because I went to a Real Estate seminar in the afternoon and wasn't sure it would end in time. Thankfully, it ended with enough time for me to go home, eat something useful, and relax a little before I went to pick up my training buddy and riding buddy, Don, and then head for the dojo.

There were a few seconds there where some little voice in my mind piped up, worrying I wouldn't get enough relaxation time before going to socialize at karate, and another voice popped up in a soothing voice, trying to convince me I didn't want to go to class tonight... but I quieted them down and shooed them away, with the simple thought that I would have to call Don to cancel picking him up, and I don't like to cancel for whimsical reasons - I already avoid enough classes with legit ones.

It turned out, as it generally does, to be a great workout. I perspired a lot, of course, but didn't get super-winded like I got the last few classes, and I didn't feel like it was me lagging behind who was determining the pace of the class during the last half hour. When Sensei ended the class, I actually had a bunch more energy left and could have gone for the full 1.5 hours by training an extra 10 minutes, quite easily. I'm happy leaving with this positive feeling, however, as I've been feeling a lot of discouragement regarding my endurance over the past couple of years. I'll take any of the good experiences I can get.

We worked on Kanku Sho again today, after going through some basics (hip vibration, then rotation practice in terms of punches, and hip tilting practice for front and side snap kicks), but there were a number of people in the club who didn't know the kata very well, so we never really went through it with much speed or power.

One thing, while doing the basics, that Sensei pointed out to me specifically is that when my right leg is the supporting leg in a side snap kick, the supporting leg caves in. He says my left leg is just fine but my right leg has problems. I need to bring my camcorder in and do some taping so I can see what it is HE sees. It's really hard from above to see the problem and mentally understand how to correct it, and the mirrors just don't cut it.

Anyway, good workout today, and my next workout is on Wednesday, which means tomorrow is a treadmill day.

Today's walk

I walked again this morning, another 45 min with the majority of the walk at 3.8 mph at 1deg incline.

For some reason, my heartrate didn't reach 150 this time and generally hovered around 142-144, whereas yesterday (at the same time in the morning) it made it to 160 and hovered around 155. I'm not going to change my workout until next Saturday, but it'll be interesting to see how the heart rate progresses.

My next walk will be on Tuesday, and I will walk on Thursday if I don't train karate, and Friday for sure.

Today's walk, combined with the walks from the past two days, have left me with lightly sore achilles tendons. I need to stretch them out well before and after walking, but I'm glad to be doing something that strengthens them.

Treadmillin' it.

I'm happy to post that since I didn't have a workout on Friday, I walked for 30 min on the treadmill, and it's now 9:38 AM on Saturday morning and I've already done a 45 min walk as well.

My walking goal is mainly to walk 45-60 minutes, keeping my heart rate between 145-155 for as long throughout the walk as possible. Right now, 3.8mph at an incline of 1 degree seems to be pretty much perfect. As time goes on and my cardio system gets fitter, I plan to increase the incline rather than increasing the maximum speed, so I'll always be walking, but up "hills" eventually.

Now I can sit back and relax, maybe have a snooze, and enjoy my Saturday, which plans to be hot, and where I plan to be sitting by an outdoor backyard private pool during part of it.

Noon hour class

I'm sure you'll be relieved to know that I've decided to accept I live in an extreme climate and high humidity and heat in the summer is "the norm" and thus not something I should repeatedly complain about. I've given myself permission to mention that it was humid and hot at class, but no longer to whine about it ;)

I took in the noonhour class at the "Instructors" club today, with two other karateka in attendance. We warmed ourselves up and then Sensei started the class at 12:15, then worked us until about 12:50. Relatively "short" workout, but when there are only three students, (and it's in the heat of summer) that can be a damned good workout despite its length.

We started out with standing punches, where the main focus is on starting the punch from the hip (heel to hip to target) vs the shoulders, which is a big mental shift for many people training karate. Especially men who are used to generating their power from their arms and shoulders in a punch, apparently. Personally, I don't get feedback that tells me I have any problem with starting my punches from my shoulders, but I mention it here because it's something that a lot of people DO have problems with, and because I'm not entirely sure it's because I'm a woman that I don't innately have that problem.

My main problems when it comes to punches in general, no matter if they're standing punches or punches executed in a stationary but low-to-the-ground stance or punches executing while I'm moving are as follows:

• I let my punching shoulder extend too far out at the moment of impact. I need to focus on squeezing my armpit into my torso at the moment of impact (instead of letting my arm "float out too far") so I'm properly connected with my muscles at that key moment. If muscle connection is not "right on", there's a lot more chance that I will hurt myself when I hit someone else!
• I punch across my body's centre line. I consider this something I did because a lot of fellow students don't punch to the centre properly and thus the whole class gets reminded regularly to punch to the centre... and now I'm doing it too much ;)
• The line of my punch from hip to target is not straight. It's fine up until the moment I twist my fist at the near-end of the punch, but somewhere in that twist my hand is going up and then coming down onto my target, which severely changes the direction and amount of energy present in my landed punches.
• I open and close my hands between punches - I need to keep my fists consistent in some usefully closed position.

Then we moved on to hip rotation practice (standing punches are hip vibration practice) by stepping left foot forward into a front stance, then starting our punching position in a reverse punch (opposite arm forward as the currently-forward leg). From here, we keep our feet in the same place but execute alternating jab, then reverse punches while focusing on generating drive for the punching techniques from our back leg and from proper rotation of the hips and legs. As with all techniques in Shotokan karate, what's going on with the legs and hips is far more important than what's going on with the arms.

Continuing on with basics to warm us up more, next we did stepping punches going forward, then stepped backwards doing a 3-part combination of upward block, front leg front kick, reverse punch.

So, yeah, by this time in the class, I'm already puffing and panting. My endurance sucks worse than anyone else's at class but I keep working at it.

Next we ventured into kata. We went through Kanku Sho a few times to reinforce this kata as we've been going through it semi-regularly at previous classes and all three of us pretty much had the general gist of the kata down well enough for Sensei to start to work with us on parts of the kata we were especially weak at. Since I was training with two men over the age of 50 who aren't very flexible nor naturally athletic, side kicks got some special attention, which was just fine by me.

After going through Kanku Sho three or four times and answering all of our questions about the various pieces of the kata, Sensei decided to take us through Go ju shi ho sho. I personally have gone through the kata about 30 or 40 times, but not on a regular basis enough to keep the entire thing memorized. My familiarity with the kata made it a lot easier to go through, however, because once the memories were tickled I remembered a lot of the combinations and with guidance didn't have a lot of troubles going through it all.

The class was only, what, 35 minutes of training? But I was drenched, once again, and tired. Exactly what I want to be at the end of a good workout!!

Not entirely about karate

Another hot night of training!

Yesterday - thankfully an off night - it reached 35C with huge humidity. Thankfully, today there was more cloud cover and while the humidity was still sky-high, the high was more around 29 or 30. By the time training time came around, it was about 23C out.

I drank about 4L of water today, throughout the day, and another 500mL throughout the class then another 500mL plus a Coke :) after class. I may be a woman, but that saying about women not sweating is completely bull in my case. It is, of course, a "clean sweat" because there's so much fluid flowing, but none-the-less, I finish classes even in the cold of winter looking something like a drown rat... so I'm actually having to towel off my hair with my gi a few times throughout class with this heat.

Training was good - my training buddy, Don, and I arrived about 45 min earlier than we normally did, so we had lots of opportunity to stretch out and to go through a few kata to keep them memorized outside of regular class time. We actually went earlier because it might have been "Movie Night" at the club which means no regular training, and Don and I wanted to make sure we had a bit of a workout at least.

As it turns out, Movie Night has been moved to mid-month so we had a regular class. I ran out of steam at a serious level about 20 minutes before class was supposed to be over, so it's a good thing that I went really easy in that extra 45 minutes we gave ourselves before class.

My running out of steam is a constant problem, and one that I've put effort towards resolving a number of times, but fell back in my resolve time and again. I don't get down on myself for falling back, I just know that I need to toughen my resolve and give it another go.

There's always excuses (aka "reasons") for why I fall back, and while I don't feel bad for their presence, I do try to realize them and respect them. And I do believe that the more I pay attention, the more I learn about myself and my natural motivations and how to tap into them and what drains them.

Soooo.... what's my plan? Getting back to walking on the treadmill.

Last time I was watching an episode of Smallville while I walked, which was great but I wasn't drawn to watching Smallville enough that I would walk just to watch it.

These days, I'm listening to Podcasts out the wazoo (free broadcasts on a wide variety of topics, available easily through iTunes) and I'm really interested in learning more about investing, finance, real estate, and the likes. I like that when I listen to these types of things in audio format, my mind is engaged to a point where my vision isn't so important, which is perfect for walking on the treadmill.

I have to co-ordinate with my husband with treadmill workouts, but I think I'll do my first tomorrow, while listening to ..(selecting).. Ed Zollars' Tax Update podcast (likely American, oh well in my case) about uninsured medical reimbursements. It's just under 30 minutes long, which is a good length for my walk, especially considering there's another karate class I'm pondering going to tomorrow night.

Ooops, my husband just came in and said he's going to cook steaks tomorrow night. He is only recently doing this BBQ steak thing and he's doing an excellent job, so when he wants to do it, I want to be there. Maybe I'll train at noon... maybe I'll extend my walk and do an hour instead of a half hour. I certainly have the Podcasts and Smallville episodes to keep me entertained.

At any rate, this wasn't really a "karate" entry, but I promise to soon spend some time pontificating about karate things.

Jill