Snow, wind

Heh.

Actually I think the snow is finally going to stop today. It's been snowing for about 5 days straight - most of it was light and didn't stick, but it reminded me of when I lived in Pittsburgh, and it seemed to me that it snowed just about every day between November and March. Not stormy, pile-it-up snow, but frequent, light snow. I'll take this over rain any day, but what I'm really up for about now is some sunshine.

The area kind of went nuts over the last storm, but on a practical level, for me, nothing interrupted the usual plans (walking, gym, karate, yoga). We did have a substitute yoga teacher who was pretty interesting. At the end of the class she gave everyone a mini-neck massage, and found, in very short order, the tight spot in my neck/shoulder that has been bothering me for months. She gave me a rec for a massage therapist and I'm considering giving them a call. For the most part it's livewithable (although - duh - I know it's not a good thing), but every now and then something comes along that really aggravates it. (Read: Prone Cuban Snatch, which you know and love if you've done NR/W. I'm really not looking forward to the YTL exercise in the next stage, at that.) It's not annoying enough for me to want to shell out money for professional services, but then, waiting for that tipping point hasn't always worked out well for me in the past, so maybe I'll make the inquiry.

I should finish up NR Stage 2 this Wednesday. The plan is to take Friday off and start Stage 3 next Monday, assuming all goes according to schedule. I've doodled out a very tentative schedule for finishing the program, and assuming there are no significant breaks, I should finish up by 4th of July. Naturally, I've been wondering what I'll do after that (I mean, I only have four months to think about it), and one program that has recently come to my attention is Female Body Breakthrough by Rachel Cosgrove (and yes, she is Mrs. Alwyn). I've been skimming the book, and I have to say that while I was warned about her borderline condescending, it's-just-us-girls writing style, it's worse than I expected. I figured I'd be able to wade through this because I can navigate (read: ignore) the testosterone laden horseshit in Manly Man weight books, kettlebell books, and websites, but for some reason, I guess I expected more of a woman addressing women than an overbalance in the opposite direction. The workouts themselves look interesting, though, so there's hope.

And on the subject of books - here's a massive Thumbs Down to Barnes and Noble. I ordered FBB and another book from them, as opposed to Amazon, mainly because I had an unused gift card that has been sitting around for a good long while. I got this book and one other at a Special Member Price (offered to everyone), with Free Expedited 3 - Day Shipping! Well, the Special Member Price was still more expensive than Amazon's usual price, and it took a week for one of the books to get to me. The other still hasn't arrived. I'm glad it was all free, basically, but in future I'm going to discourage people from buying me B&N gift certificates.

Ending with some cuteness: I went to take my breakfast dishes into the kitchen this morning, and what to my wondering eyes did appear, but



Grif is not really a Sink Cat - in fact, that's the first time I've seen him in there, so I just cracked up and was glad he stayed long enough for me to get the camera. Baby Boy also likes my new kitchen throw rug:

Dang

New blog, and I'm already tired of trying to think up snappy titles for my posts. I may start doing without, or I might just post the weather. Today, it would be rain. I'd say at least it's not snow, but in winter I prefer snow to rain by a long shot, so blech to today, and the week's forecast, which calls for more rain.

I stopped taking heavy duty pain meds on Saturday, and by Sunday I felt a zillion times better. Duh. There I was thinking I was feeling crappy overall because of the surgery, and switching from Lortab to Vitamin I/tylenol was like turning on a light switch. Da-yum. I went back to the gym yesterday and was able to do NROL/W, as scheduled. All of my lifts were up and the interval cardio (again done on the step mill) went well. I presumed the post surg ban on heaving lifting had something to do with 1) drugs (no longer a factor) and 2) possible increase in blood pressure, and therefore bleeding - so I figured I'd stop the workout if I tasted blood. I didn't, so that was that.

Funny thing - one of the side effects of the meds was that I completely lost my appetite. I normally NEVER lose my appetite; the only other time it ever happens to me is after I do a very long run (15+ miles). So naturally (?), that realization lead to the following conversation:

Me: Hey, you should think about running another marathon!

Me: What?

Me (ignores me, starts mentally mulling over training schedueles).

Me: Hello, this is supposed to be the Time of Karate? Focus? One main sport? Other activities to support that? Ring any bells?

Me: Oh, shut up. I plan to start running again as soon as the weather breaks, maybe six weeks. I'll tailor a basic light schedule into the end of New Rules and then pick up a heavier schedule when it's over.

Me: Yeah, sure, while you're learning Chinte, Bassia Sho, that long-ass sai kata you can't even pronounce yet, the sai attacks, all the heian katas in mirror image, and perfecting your favorite kata? That's a lot of freaking work.

Me: Philly is in November. A four month schedule for that would tie in perfectly with the end of NR, plus there'd be no hotel/travel costs...

Me: Plus three special trainings, plus

ME: SHUT UP, BOTH OF YOU! Good fucking grief, let me eat in peace.

And so it went. I completely tabled the issue. Truth is I do want to get back to running a few road races; I'm not really into short distances (if it takes me longer to get to the race than to run it, odds are, I'm not doing it) but I like the idea of another marathon or some mid-distance trail runs. We'll see.

Argh. The idle mind is a dangerous thing.

Toothless in NJ

Well, at least it's over with! Three teeth, two wisdom teeth and a molar, gone. My surgeon also oooed and aaahed at the length of my roots. (Personally, I would have been happy with something more useful, like longer legs.) I wound up with stitches on both sides, and even at this hour, both incisions are still oozing blood. Yum. The procedure itself didn't take all that long and was basically painless, until the novocaine wore off. I do have good drugs, but those first few hours were a bit rough.

I was told no heavy lifting over the weekend, which is fine with me. I'm not a martyr and intend to keep taking pain meds as prescribed until I'm not afraid to not take them, or at least switch to plain old vitamin I. I would like that to be by Monday, so I can neatly resume my lifting schedule, but some things are just out of one's control, so what will be, will be.

Ooo, and I got to see the teeth after she pulled them. They were pretty gnarly looking, and I could tell she got some bone out with the roots. (Funny side note: All of the dentists I've used in this little odyssey have been female. That wasn't out of any intention on my part; I just picked practises from my list of insurance eligible providers, and wound up with an all female cast. Pretty cool, eh?)

Going soon...

... three teeth.

Set up the appointment with the oral surgeon for this Friday. I will be happy to have this over and done. I've also looked into what is left for me in terms of the root canal tooth. Holy shit! If I had realized how much crap was involved, I might have just had that tooth pulled, too. (OK, maybe not; that would leave a gap, which I figure would be a Bad Thing, but still...)

This will kind of throw off my NROL schedule, but whatever. I may just restart Level 2, which I don't figure is a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Or, not. I think he's cool with your just doing two workouts a week, and that just might be the easier way to go. The program is six months long, and I figure these breaks are going to happen here and there, and I can't continually restart levels... We'll see. I haven't had teeth pulled since I lost a wisdom tooth over a decade ago, and I have no recollection of what the recovery was like, so it's hard to know how things will go.

Monday I did the B workout of Stage 2, which includes interval cardio. My vast, vast preference would be to do this outdoors, running, but that presents several problems when it's February and you have a couple of feet of snow on the ground. Somehow changing from sweaty indoor workout clothes to warm-enough outdoor running clothes and then dodging traffic, snow piles, and ice patches while eying your watch for an all of 15 minutes workout seems even dumber than cardio machines. Monday, I bit the bullet and used the step mill, which I figure I'll do on the days I do this workout at the gym. (At home, I'll use kettlebells and karate drills - much simpler.)

I've been pretty happy with the way my strength has been coming back, but dang, my endurance is still not anywhere near where it was. It'll be great when I can start to work some running back into the schedule.

Paperwork

One thing I've found, in years of doing sports, is that sometimes the hardest thing about doing an event is filling out the paperwork. You can want to do something, think about it, consider it, think about how you'd train for it - but the paperwork, the actual entering, always seems to be the holy shit! moment for me. THAT is the commitment. Was that way for my first horse trials and subsequently any big event I entered, my first road race, my first marathon, my first triathlon, big seminars and trainings, and most of my recent belt tests. They more or less come around on a predetermined schedule, presuming you're showing up to class, working hard, and doing what you're supposed to be doing, but it's still always a big deal for me when I advance a rank.

So, I turned in my pre-test paperwork today - meaning the ship is sailing, and I'm on for the ride. Sensei was out today so we didn't set a date, although it wouldn't surprise me if it were next Saturday. The actual test will depend on the head sensei's schedule, but I'm guessing it will be in early March.

It was great to be back in class today. There are several of us up for pretesting, so we went over most of the test requirements, then did some sparring. Got to spar with one of the newer students, a transplant from the left coast who is 3rd dan in a similar style. He's a good teacher (had a school of his own out there), and I got a lot out of it. I think I'm going to have a few gnarly bruises, too.

Plowing onward

Guess I’m a little bit out of the habit of blogging. Then again, this was a relatively quiet week, workout-wise. I’ve missed a couple of days of karate plus yoga due to the weather, and I finished NROL/W, Stage 1 on Monday. On Wednesday, I had a root canal (joy), which, along with the quasi-blizzard, killed a good chunk of that day.

Helped my folks dig out after both storms (I think we got somewhere around three feet of snow, total, give or take) so I did get in some exercise, and was able to keep up the daily walks. Along the way, I took a few photos:

Downtown (sculpture of a Hadrosaurus):


A stream near my apt.:


Today I started NROL/W Stage 2. It's always interesting, feeling out a new WO and trying to get the weights right. It seemed to go well, but I’ll know more tomorrow, eh? I also plan to get back to karate tomorrow.

The next wrench I expect to be thrown in to the works are multiple tooth extractions. I had a consult with an oral surgeon last Monday, and she recommended I get an additional tooth pulled. Like the two I already plan to have out, there is no longer an opposing tooth, so the tooth is what she termed non-functional (heh - I like that term) plus it also has a cavity, meaning sooner or later, it's going to give me a problem. So, yeah. More fun. Oh well, it's gotta happen.

Calm before the storm

Let it not be said that I don't enjoy a good weather event.

We're supposed to get a goodly amount of snow tonight/tomorrow, which to me means only one thing - snowshoeing! Yes, I know snow's a sucky inconvenience for most people, but we don't get it in quantity that often, so I say enjoy it while you have it. This could make getting to karate tomorrow very interesting (assuming we have classes), but so be it.

Soooo, I am back. Last year was a sort of sucky year, in many respects. I lost my job, panicked a bit, tightened the budget, quit doing some things I loved due to financial concerns, panicked (well, freaked out, is more like it) some more, then really lost it due to some health problems which culminated in a 10 day hospital stay this past fall. I lost a good half year plus of training, and when I restarted I could not even walk around the block. Bit of a blow to someone who pretty much took health and fitness for granted for a long time.

I started moving again in late November, just walking progressively longer distances, and started to pick up weights in mid December. In January, I returned to the gym (not optimal timing, I admit, but my timing was based on physical readiness, not the calendar), and started doing NROL/Women for lack of any better plan.

While the whole being sick thing was not a lot of fun, having to re-start forced me to do some of the dreaded navel-gazing, which historically lead me to do things like spend 10 hours a week in the dojo, do triathlon, and go for a kettlebell cert all at the same time, and then take up figure skating. Which doesn't make any damned sense, but you couldn't tell me that. Anyhoo, I was not always like this - when I was riding horses, I focused on that sport, and everything else - which to me at that time was just running and weight lifting - was done to support that endeavor. And it makes sense to me now to go back to that simple type of plan, which involves swallowing a lot of ego (and I hate that) but hopefully resulting in my actually being good at one thing - martial arts - rather than running around like a headless chicken.

So my extremely boring schedule looks like this:
I walk every morning, generally for about 40 - 45 minutes, as a bit of a meditation. Eventually this will probably become running, but not before the weather breaks.
Monday - gym workout
Tuesday - karate
Wednesday - yoga class, gym workout (generally done at home)
Thursday - easy day, just the walk - I will eventually add karate here
Friday - gym workout
Saturday - karate
Sunday - easy day, just the walk

Sounds sane and balanced, eh? Now watch me figure out a way to fuck that up. I do toss in some kettlebell action here and there, mainly for fun, or if I for whatever reason need to burn off some energy, and will probably do a kettlebell only rotation after I finish NROL/W, just to completely switch things up. But karate will be my main focus for the next year to 15 months - which, if all goes well, is about when I should be up for black belt. For me, that's a nice, tangible goal to focus on for now.

My side goal, my immediate goal - well, I have two of them now, one scary, one scarier. Scary = testing for 1st kyu (3rd stripe brown belt, one step below black) which it seems I will be pre-testing for sooner than I expected (in my school, you pretest before our sensei prior to testing before HIS sensei - it's a very intense session, wherein he nitpicks you to death in a very helpful way). I had hoped to test in April, now it looks like I might test later this month, or whenever we can get the head of the school to come down to sit for gradings. Gulp.

And in the mean time, the scarier. Let us say, I have been somewhat neglectful of my dental health for, oh, the past three decades. I have some fun problems now, which include two infections (opposite sides of the mouth, opposite halves of the jaw - eating is not fun, and I can truly say it was my inability to enjoy food which did get my ass to the dentist) and three teeth that should either be removed or have root canals done. What I am planning to do is have two pulled and one root canal; I see the oral surgeon on Monday for a consult, then the endodontist on Wednesday. Next week should be a ball of fun. To the good, I end Stage 1 of NROL/W on Monday, so hopefully I can get most of the ugliness done in short order so I can get on with Stage 2.

And on that note - welcome to my new bloggy home! I may get around to prettying it up one of these days....