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....