A Man Reborn

This morning I woke up and I felt good - I got a full night of sleep and ate really well yesterday.  I’ve been running to work on my low-intensity endurance and so far my longest run has been 2.5km.  I watched some videos on proper running form the other night and now it feels like something just clicked in my head.

This morning I ran 3.2km!  I just walked in the door a few minutes ago and my heart rate and breathing already feel back to normal.  Watching the videos made me realize that I was wasting a lot of energy by keeping my hands up too high and keeping my upper body a bit slouched over and tensed up.  I set my goal for the end of my current 9 week challenge at 4.5km and I feel like I could have run that today.  I wanted to just keep going, but I had to reign myself in as I’m leaving soon to help some friends move to a new apartment and I don’t want to be useless.

I feel really good right now - like I just smashed through a mental barrier that was holding me back.  Or maybe I’m finally feeling the runner’s high for the first time?  Either way, I like it.  On Monday morning I’m going to get up early and run 4.5km.  I’ve already set aside Monday as a mental clarity day completely to myself, but I’ll write more about that later.

Went to the gym today - I wanted to go to the new Friday Muay Thai class at Kombat Arts, but they’re running a testing tonight.  I’ve really missed doing pull ups - since the top of my door frame chipped, I haven’t used the door mounted one I have and have only been doing them either at Kombat Arts or at the gym.

It’s funny to think that I could miss an exercise, but I felt like I made really good progress when I was doing them daily.  I ordered the perfect pullup bar so I can get back to doing them more frequently - kind of gimmicky with the rotating handles bit, but I’ll try it out.  I can always use the bar itself to do normal pull ups and chin ups.

I did a bunch of pull ups at the gym, then some shoulder, bicep and tricep exercises.  I’m not feeling too focused when I go to the gym and I am going to revamp my workout plans this weekend.

Anyway… I’ve got to wake up early tomorrow.  Going for a run in the morning and then helping some friends move.  Won’t be able to make it into Muay Thai class, but I’ll get some activity in at least.

Konditioning class day!  I got there and did the 2.2k warm up run - getting better, only stopped once and then only for about 30 seconds.  Gotta get cracking on the running - I figure if I run an extra 100 metres every time I run, I should be able to gradually get up to 5km without really pushing it too much at once.

Once the run was done, we came inside and did some more running.  We did a lot of quick drills with different variations of squat-thrusts, push ups, squats and other leg exercises.  Too many different ones to go into detail - but I know my legs are going to be sore tomorrow.

I made sure to drink a lot of extra water before I left the house today - the outdoor run is a killer and I’ve noticed that if I don’t drink enough water before the run, it’ll really get to me afterwards and during class.  I am going to make sure to drink enough water before class every day.

I am going to get back into the habit of writing these immediately after my workout.  I’ve been waiting too long to update and I lose a lot of the details in my mind which is one of the main benefits of doing this.

I just got back from an hour of Muay Thai class.  We did a lot of different drills where we would deal with different attacks and then counter attack.

1. Catch jab, throw jab right away
2. Catch jab, catch double-jab, throw jab, cross, hook, rear-leg Thai kick to leg
3. Catch jab, catch jab then pat down double-jab, throw cross
4. Catch double-jab, catch jab, roll away from cross, throw step-in cross
5. Catch jab, roll away from cross, throw cross, uppercut, rear-leg Thai kick to leg

I need to work on not wasting energy with extra movements when I block/catch/parry.  If I keep my hands up and my arms parallel to my head, I’ll only need to turn a little bit to block and will be quicker and less exposed.

I’m starting to feel more fluid in my movements - moving around a bit more while attacking and I feel like I can adapt better to throwing from different ranges - like if I’m too close to throw a kick, I’m starting to take that extra step to put myself in position automatically.

Went to Konditioning class today and we started off with the usual 2k warm up run outside. Went pretty good but I wasn’t able to do it continuously without stopping at all like usual - I guess the break affected me a little more than I thought.

Today’s class was held mostly outside in the lot behind the school. We started off lined up at one set of pylons with another set of pylons across the lot. I’m not sure exactly how far it was - maybe 50 metres? We started doing 10 squat thrusts, then sprinted to the other set of pylons, then did 9, sprinted back and so on - down to 1. We then did a few sets of quick step ups on some cement dividers, followed by sets of pushups again on the dividers. Finally we did some zig-zag sprints - before a delivery truck came through our course and ruined our fun :|

After relocating back inside the gym, we did a bunch of chin ups and then some ab work. I had a pretty big blister on my palm from doing squat thrusts on the ground outside and it tore while doing chin ups… let me tell you how great that felt, haha.

Ahhh… I am sore. It’s always such a tough class and that’s part of why I love it. Won’t be able to get to class tomorrow but I’ll definitely be doing something at home.