Training accountability

Last night, I talked to one of my instructors and asked her to help me start running and training myself to get into better shape and get ready for the possibility of testing in the future. She's in school full time and probably won't have that much time, but she suggested something really good to help motivate me. She suggested that I start posting my workouts on my blog. I'll be putting it over at my training blog (Martialartsmusings). That way, I'll have public accountability for what I'm doing.

I can do pretty much everything they ask of me in class, although in my eyes, it's not quite up to the standards I think it needs to be at. I need to step up further and do more. For example--last night, Ms. M had the kids in her Beginner's class do Roman Chairs. You put your back against the wall and slide down until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Then you HOLD it for a period of time. Ms. M is super athletic and had no problems with it. I did it with the kids as I was waiting for their class to end. I could NOT go down until my thighs were parallel to the floor. A green belt pointed that out to me. I started to go down and felt a "ping!" in my right knee, so I stopped. Of course, I need to either get that "ping" looked at or work through it. What I should have done last night was to work through it. That would have been better than just doing that halfway. I have work to do to get to that point again. I WILL do it.

I sent an email to the Masters last night (and copied in a couple of people I know can also push me), asking them to please help me stay accountable for my work outs. I have a certain number of pushups and crunches that I have to do, plus I have to run a mile in ten minutes. I'm going to start working the mile aspect because I'm afraid that my years of inactivity have caught up to me. I'm severely a couch potato. I'm not afraid to do most things, but I've never seen myself as a runner. Time to break out of that mold.

If you are a reader here and you want to go over to Martialartsmusings and give a nudge or a push there as well, please feel free. There's a link in my sidebar under Martial arts blogs. If not, please nudge me here. At this point, I'm taking all the help I can get.

Day 6 of the 30 Day Challenge

Since we bought the Wii Active, I've been faithful to the program. I AM working out every day, even if I'm not blogging about it here. I've noticed a few minor changes. The changes I'm seeing not everyone else will see right away as they don't see me as I do. I'm pretty happy about it though. I'm noticing that I am getting smaller and it looks like my arms are gaining definition. I'm going to stick with it because it's a lot of fun. I can only imagine what my poor downstairs neighbors think though...there's an "inline skating" thing that has me jumping to do "tricks". I haven't quite mastered that yet. I hate jumping, but I'm getting better.
Tony pointed out to me today that I have a tendency to land hard on my heels when I'm running, so I need to work on that. It may be the cause of some of my foot pain. I'm not sure yet. I'm going to practice running on a track tomorrow, not on the carpet in the living room. It's a "rest" day for me on the Active, so I CAN go to the track. I am noticing now that I'm happier when I'm exercising daily. Must be that endorphin high I keep hearing about!!

I have 20 more workouts to do on this 30 day challenge thing. I'm happy to keep at it. Once that challenge is over, I might just start a second one. I'm not sure yet. We shall have to see. I know I need to start working on pushups and crunches too. Those are important to my martial arts studies, so I'm going to work on them too.

Plans gone astray?

I'm all talk and no actions these days. I INTEND to work out. I don't. I intend to write things down. I don't. This has got to stop. I need to get off my butt and go do something constructive. I need to change this.

I haven't really done anything this weekend, other than laundry and cleaning out the kitchen. We went out and bought a new television to replace our old, blinkie television. We now have a nice, new television that isn't blinking and driving us nuts! It's good to see true color! Hooray.

It looks like I'll be taking Aidan to Black Tiger on Tuesday and then staying for the adult class afterwards. There are some things I need to do, like filling out the appropriate paperwork to get myself started back on the martial arts path. I need to refresh my memory on the forms. I need to see if my good friend, DB, will be willing to get together when he's not over at school and help me refresh my memory on forms. I want to go into this new school in better shape than I am now. I need to start doing crunches and push ups before work. If I start with ten and work up from there, I'll do fine. Actually, I'll set a different goal. I'm going to start with 15 and work up to 30. My ultimate goal is to do 45 pushups in about a minute. I don't know if it's timed during Dan tests or not, but we'll see. I'm going to treat it like it is, so it'll give me more motivation.

I am going to work on this grand scheme of mine tomorrow. I'm going to start taking clothes to work with me, going out and walking (yes, during the heat of the day!). I SHOULD be able to walk almost a mile in about 15 minutes. Since I haven't walked in quite a while, it's going to be a stretch to get the first walk in in 15 minutes, but once I've been doing it for about a month, I can build up to shortening the time to ten minutes.

If it's the second Saturday, it's CIT...

It's the second Saturday of the month, so you know that means CIT class.
Today's class was very informative. One of the changes Mr. M has implemented involved one of the lead instructors flying out to visit another studio. It was pretty neat to hear how excited he was this morning when he came back. We talked about the culture we're developing in our school, what we want our students to get from us when they walk in the door. We talked about presentation--your presentation is going to make a difference in whether your students are interested or not interested.
He led us through a warm up that was quick and very high-tempo. We did 20 jumping jacks and counted them out loud. We jogged in place, then did front falls, did pushups (10), got back up, jogged in place, turned and did a back fall, then did crunches with no count until he told us to get back up, then we did more jogging in place. Then he had us turn to the left into a good guarding stance and do left jabs. We had to repeat that multiple times as we were entirely too slow in several instances. Then he decided that we'd have a little competition and try to outdo Mr. Todd and Ms. Jackson. The point was to be a faster and better than either of them.

After that, he had a couple of instructors lead us in techniques and kicking drills so that we could get used to his teaching style. He then pointed out where the individuals could have made improvements. Our MMA teacher was also there and he led us in jab and cross combinations. I enjoyed that part of it because that's something I know I need work on.

We did an old Tae Kwan Do form today. It's an ITF form and we learned it in the CIT class. Transitioning from TSD to TKD is a bit of a challenge if you're used to doing things one way. I learned TSD to begin with, so this is a little bit of a change. My best friend was an old TKD person, so this form will be nothing new to him. He remembers his TKD training.

I made sure Mr. M knew that the instructor who led the Black Belt class on Thursday did a great job. I told her that she did a great job too. I have since found my butt, which I didn't realize was missing until yesterday, when it showed up again. That was as a result of her lunge drills.