Catching up...
Back on Tuesday I had a very long work day. It started at 3:15am, but I was done in time to get to my Kobudo class and even get a run in before hand. I gave my self permission to take the run easy. My time was 11 minutes. Not too bad. I usually get a small stich in my side during the first half mile, but that didn't happen. I also felt relatively strong at the end of the mile. I wish I had had more time before class. I would have gone for 2 miles. Oh well someday. Class was great. We did a lot of Bunkai (practical application), where we strike and block each other. It really makes you focus. You don't want to get hurt doing the wrong block and you especially don't want to hurt your partner by doing the wrong strike.
Wednesday was a tough class run by Mr. Larson. He really worked us hard. I wasn't the only one who had sore gluteous maximus the next day.
This past Thursday was a regular class. Todd Mauer, Jim Guidry, and I ran after class. I forgot to start my stopwatch. The route is a more or less a rectangle. We start at one corner of it. I have been keeping eye on my split times at the far corner. It has been around 5:10. My pace was pretty good to the far corner. So I started my watch at that corner. I came in at 4:50. Let me see 5:10 plus 4:50. 10 + 50 = 60 which is really 1 (who ever made up this base 60 thing anyways?) Where was I? Oh yeah, 5 + 4+1 is 10. So I'm pretty sure I came in under 10 mintues.
Saturday was a candidate class in Fitchburg run by Mr. Clary. We start with the run. I felt like pushing it a bit. I started out in the middle of the pack. I past a few and a few past me so I probably ended in about the middle, but more importantly I came in at 9:35. A new personal best! The push ups and sit ups still need work. I got 39 and 45 respectfully before I rested a bit. It really makes a difference on the sit ups when I can tuck my feet under the couch. I'm not sure why I fell short on the push ups. Maybe the pace of the running took that little but out of me. That just means I need to keep working hard. We then did a core exercise drill of holding a up postion push up for 1 minute followed by a V sit position for 1 minute 3 times. The V sit is a killer. It strains my lower back. The same spot where I get my injury when I'm not careful picking heavy things up. I don't have that pain the next day, so maybe I only think it's being strain when in reality it's being strengthened. I can only hope. The V sit is definitely part of the intial hour work out of the test. Old Mr. D (that's Mr. Degnan's father. We call him old Mr D because he's old) can hold a V sit for something over 2 minutes. He's the one who runs that drill the day of the test. I can hold it for 30 seconds. If you can manage to out last him, you can relax to rest of the work out hour. Of course that drill is one of the last drills, but its a nice carrot non-the-less. The most of the class was spent doing Quest and Veritas (2 of our forms). He had 4 students doing Veritas at a time while the rest stood at a railing and held a side kick chamber. Whenever the 4 yelled "I ya" we did a kick. This got very difficult as Mr Clary made corrections and had students doing it over and over. All the while we held our chamber. We switched legs when a new group of 4 came out. The out side of my upper legs are really feeling it today. The rest of the class was a line drill with us doing kicks the length of the floor. It was then that I realized I was holding up really good. When we were doing that first core exercise, I wa really struggling. It's nice to know my body can recover during the slight slower pace of the end of the class. I know they will be picking up the pace as we go, but maybe I stand a chance of surviving.