Walking does not equal cardio

Although it is a pleasant activity.

I really haven't been giving cardio a lot of thought, thus far. My plan, especially since the winter turned out to be the way it did, was to wait until spring to get back into running. The walking, which I do enjoy, has been a good place holder for the time, and I figured the intervals and body weight matrix of NROL/W would be as good a start back as anything. But oh, did I pay for the waiting last night!

I went to both karate classes on the evening, the brown/black belt class followed by the all-adult class. Sensei has been on a bit of a tear lately (he started a triathlon club at his office, and they're already training), so it's been extra pushups, drills, etc. lately anyway, but last night was killer. We did drills and then six or eight long rounds of partner/shadow boxing (one person fights, the other just provides a target - obviously there's no intentional contact here, it's a pure cardio drill), followed by kata, kata, and kata. Then adult class, and we started with kata and more kata, and then went into another several rounds (5, I think) of light contact sparring. I. Was. Sucking. Wind. I know that's the point, but holy shit. And THEN, of course, when we were all pretty run down, we all got to do dry runs of the pre-test for our next belt exam. Needless to say, I slept well last night.

Today I did start Stage 3, and as predicted, the 105 second rest between sets drove me insane. I think I only made it the full 105 seconds once or twice; I was generally drumming my fingers after about a minute and stretched it to 75 - 90 seconds. I'm sure there's a Good Reason for the long rest somewhere in Alwyn's mind, but it's not like this is one of those strength workouts where you need minutes between sets, so I haven't quite figured out what that reason might be. I think from here on out, I'll go with up to 105 seconds, and just do what feels right in the gym.

On the whole, I do like the workout, and I'm looking forward to trying the B workout on Monday. Tomorrow is the actual pre-test and I'm feeling pretty ready, especially after last night, and Sunday will be a simple day, just a walk. I'm looking forward to that!