When will my legs stop hurting so much??!!!

I keep telling myself my legs are hurting so quickly during class because I haven't been training properly for the past 3 months or so, and I know that's the truth, but I can't wait until I've been back at it long enough that someone else in the brown and black belt class is wimpier than me.

Last night three of us carpooled to karate at the Instructor's Dojo and participated in the Thursday evening class, which is generally a lot about advanced basics and partner work.

Partner work is a big part of this club, our instructor is very good at building a class where first we warm up, then we practice attack and defense combinations that we then use in partner exercises with a variety of partners. The combinations are definitely co-ordinationally challenging, and Sensei puts us through it at a pace that makes it extra challenging as well. Occasionally I can remember the combinations well enough to go hard and fast, but most of the time still I'm a little confused and going more of a medium-type pace.

My partners were good ones last night, I'm happy to say. None of the "bruisers" as I call them (those guys who are stronger than they realize and who have one speed, no matter if we're supposed to be going full speed or "light") were out and training, and therefore there were a lot less "accidental contact" moments.

In fact, there were only two people (aside from the instructor) who don't train regularly at our kyu rank club, out last night. Four out of six students were from our other club :)

We're taking over!!

After those advanced basics combinations/partner exercises, Sensei had us practice cat stance for a while, and stepping forward in cat stance as well. For my already exhausted legs, this was more torture, but thankfully stepping forward lets one leg work, then rest while the other is working, and on and on.

Cat stance practice was a lead up to the kata that we practiced for the last 20 minutes of the class - Gojushiho-sho. Sensei had wanted us to work on Gojushiho-Dai but there weren't enough people in the class who knew it to help guide those who didn't know it, so he went back to Sho.

I went home after class and drank a full liter of water while I wound down for bed, and surprisingly I didn't get up ONCE in the middle of the night. Tired, and dehydrated after class, I guess!