courtneyc

Week 3 Day 2 Push Up/Core Work: 1.5/6 BJJ: 2/4 Tracking: 2/7 Plants: 2/7 Writing Workshop HW: 0/1 Thankfully, we can disperse with the sad trombone. I woke up this morning and my elbow was feeling okay. The whole arm is a little sore, but I was able to do some light class work and rolling without trouble. I skipped the push-up training today, because I was feeling nervous about putting that much pressure on my elbow. Maybe I'll ease in to tomorrow's training with some knee push-ups to test the waters. I rolled with someone I'd seen around the studio but never had the chance to partner up with before. He had some great tips to improve my game and was good about exercising control. One of my biggest take aways from the time was his tips to have one or two moves/escapes that are my go-to's for every position, that way I don't waste precious seconds considering what to do next. Eventually, I'll have the experience to work in more moves, but I think it is a solid suggestion to establish some tried and true ones as a foundation. Another handy suggestion to secure an opponent's arm was to loop through from behind and grab their opposite side lapel. I often lose arm control, and that gi grab sounds delightfully frustrating for my competition.

So glad to hear training might be back on the menu for you in the near future. You've had to go without for a long time, and I know the waiting has been tough! Just make sure when you do go back that you ease into things to avoid new/old injuries. (Sorry if that was a total mom thing to say!) Don't stress about not commenting. We're all in varying stages of up and down, and sometimes taking care of yourself is all that you can manage. That said it's always great to see you around the boards.

Sounds like a good start to a new week! Getting the writing time in always makes such a big difference for my overall mood...don't know if it's the same for you, but either way glad to hear you'll have some free time for it this week.

Womp, womp, womp. Bridge escape went badly tonight. My elbow got locked in place while all my partner's weight dropped down and twisted. There was a grinding sound and yeah...that was it for rolling. Lots of ice, some Advil, and I guess I'll see what this looks like in the morning.

Week 2 Summary Push Up/Core Work: 5/6 BJJ: 5/4 Tracking: 7/7 Plants: 7/7 Weekly Word Count: 1,220 Revision Hours: 0.5/4 Okay, glad week 2 is over. It was rough, emotional rollercoaster, and I'm really, really hoping I can jump off that ride this week. I'm getting down a little farther on the push-ups...not quite to 90 degrees at the elbows but close. When I started this month I think I could drop down about an inch, so it's progress. The technical core work is doing exactly what I'd hoped it would. My shrimps are no longer shrimpy, and those upkicks are making it easier to practice backward rolls. Also, I look super hard core when I tack on a mini workout after classwork and rolling for an hour. My reading and homework for my writing class took a fair amount of my usual writing time, and this week didn't even involve submitting manuscript portions. I'm not sure what to expect once we are submitting manuscripts. For the remainder of the challenge I'm going to drop the word count and revision goals and focus on completing my assignments and reading/commenting on classmates' work. My weight is still hovering around the same number as last week despite a caloric deficit, but that isn't too unusual for me every couple weeks. Things are shrinking, and the number will follow in time. I think I'm feeling a little antsy about it though, because I'm getting close to saying adios to the 200's and good god I want to see that first number change already!! There is going to be one hell of a party on my thread the day that happens. Alright, onto week 3!

I did a little more reading on GtG and am intrigued at the idea of making my muscles more efficient at the move. I hadn't been thinking about this concept when I started this challenge, just the idea of a daily habit, but it sounds like GtG is essentially what I'm doing. Just to be clear about what you're saying with the 4-1-1-1 schedule, are you suggesting I keep to my current level of push-ups 4 days, take a rest day, max out on the 6th, and rest on the 7th?

Week 2 Day 2 Push Up/Core Work: 2/6 BJJ: 1/4 Tracking: 2/7 Plants: 2/7 Weekly Word Count: 1,220 Revision Hours: 0.5/4 Week 2 is off to a rough start...just feeling really overwhelmed at the moment, and it has me struggling to do anything. Today was the first day of a 4 week online writing class. The work load looks like it is going to be intense, so I might adjust some of my writing goals for the remainder of the challenge. Basically, I shelled out some major-ish bucks to take this thing, and I want to squeeze every bit of help I can from it. Push-ups progress is slow. I'm really not certain if daily work with the low reps is best or if I would be better served by really exhausting the muscles with rest days in between. Any thoughts on this are welcome. Core work is going well. Those shrimps are getting less shrimpy, and my quarter turns on my back are landing closer to 90 degrees on the first try for both sides. Knee side planks on my weakest side are getting much easier. I think next week I'll shorten the time and work on full side planks. My elbows and knees are increasingly talking to me. Nothing that's forcing time off from training, but it is driving me to figure out what I can do to help address these issues before they possibly turn into something serious. After doing some reading I ordered a theraband stick for the elbows. People seem to have good results doing strengthening exercises with those. As for the knees, lots of sources indicate tightness or imbalances in the hips/IT band can be to blame. I spent a few minutes rolling, really focusing on the umm...posterior with my roller ball. The difference was crazy. I felt like I was standing on someone else's legs and my knees were so relaxed. Clearly that needs to be a part of my daily routine. Okay, rambled enough for one night. Later fellow nerds!

So sorry to hear about the additional injury. Have you hurt your back in the past? Maybe you're relying on it more with the leg/elbow issues? Awesome progress with the vegetables and weight loss! Hope that elbow keeps behaving for you so you can get back to bjj in a few weeks.

Thanks! I'm trying to resist the 'scew it' mindset...it's not the mess up, so much as a general malaise that's settled in abruptly. I hate when that happens, because I don't know if it is going to stick around for a couple days or turn into something bigger. If it really takes hold, I might have to adjust my challenge. Nothing is worse than battling depression or anxiety and being stressed by goals that are suddenly unrealistic for your situation. Yeah, 100% power with sloppy technique is going to get someone hurt, and unfortunately, it will probably won't be the person acting like an ass. Most of the people at my gym are wonderful, which means I have a ton of good options.

Deadlines are always good for making things happen! Do you have a writing group you can jump into? I keep playing around with the idea of forming an online group, but then I never take further steps.

Week 1 Review Push Up/Core Work: 6/6 BJJ: 5/4 Tracking: 7/7 (600 calories over) Plants: 7/7 Weekly Word Count: 4,779 Revision Hours: 8/4 This week wore on me more than I expected. I was feeling really stressed out by Sunday morning with the word count looming and 300 calories to make up for and some general life stuff. I think meeting all the revision work on Friday to prep for my writing group combined with the more intense training left me physically and mentally drained. Feeling stressed and guilty yesterday for not buckling down and getting the rest of my challenge met doesn't have me starting week 2 in the best place. Big picture though? I still had a really good week. I got a lot of training in, still had a caloric deficit, lost a little more weight, wrote about 5,000 words for my novel, and got a short story in a much better place. Oh yeah, and I ate a lot more fruits and vegetables than I had been. Now, onto week 2.

Week 1 Day 5 Push Up/Core Work: 5/6 BJJ: 4/4 Tracking: 5/7 Plants: 5/7 Weekly Word Count: 4,779 Revision Hours: 8/4 Had my writing group tonight, so most of the day was spent revising part of a work in progress. After a big revising session it is difficult for me to judge what sort of state a story is in. A couple days away should give me a little perspective. Writing group had some good feedback and seemed to enjoy it. Training is going well. I'm getting as much roll time in as I can manage, and it's making a difference. I'm starting to see some opportunities as they present themselves. I can't always remember the full sequence of what to do, but I count that identifying as progress in my learning. Yesterday, I did manage to get a tap on a legbar and a rear naked choke. The leg bar happened as the result of a transition going screwy...let's call it a ridiculously deep north-south? Anyway, the leg was there doing nothing and looked potentially useful to me, so I went for it. My partner said, "I don't think you can do a leg bar on your stomach." Now, we both know you totally can. Last challenge I earned a set of new gi pants and a rashguard. Those items arrived yesterday, and I'm crazy excited to take them for a test roll. The rashguard is pretty much the most fantastic thing I've ever worn. I may just wear it all the time. Because I'm a brat I upgraded my gi pants to pants and a jacket. It's blue and this one fits better than my first attempt at purchasing. (For any plus-sized female rollers who are shopping for gi's definitely give Fuji's offerings a look.) That's enough rambling for one night. The word count needs some work this weekend, but otherwise week 1 is going well!

The zombie runs sounds pretty cool! Might have to check that out one day. Do cats like being pet? If so yours deserves extra pets for surviving the scary, spinning stick.

That sounds like an awful situation. I'm not surprised you wouldn't want to stick around for more of that. Maybe one day you'll find a dojo with a different mentality. I'm not sure what the rolling rules are at my studio, but I'll be sure to familiarize myself with them. I'm going to avoid this guy from now on, but should he offer to roll again I'll probably tell him I prefer to work on technique, not explosive power. If he ignores my request, then as I see it I am well within my rights to stop the roll and say we'd both be better off working with different partners.

Week 1 Day 3 Push Up/Core Work: 3/6 BJJ: 3/4 Tracking: 3/7 Plants: 3/7 Weekly Word Count: 3,245 Revision Hours: 4/4 Yesterday, I broke my usual morning routine, because I was focused on getting those revision hours in. I should have trusted in the routine I've developed that has been incredibly helpful in dipping into work first thing. In case you're interested the routine roughly looks like the following: breakfast and tea, more tea and a couple minutes reading non-fiction, a quick task list and time block scheduling, then straight into writing my morning pages. At no point does my computer get opened unless I'm quickly checking the time, and the phone is always in another room. When I finish my morning pages I go straight into my first writing session, absolutely no internet use may happen until prescribed points in my day. Anyway, I abandoned my system, thinking I should really just get straight into the revisions, and proceeded to break the most crucial rule by getting on the internet. It took me a few hours to reign my focus in from that series of mistakes. Lesson learned. Next time if I'm feeling squirmy about revisions, stick to the routine no matter what. I'm might experiment with shortening my morning writing block, but I think that time is crucial for getting my mind moving creatively. Aside from the procrastination issue, revision went fairly well. I'm experimenting with breaking my story into revision sections. Each section gets a title (not to be included in the actual story), and working from that I lay out the emotional and physical stresses/shifts that will be the focus of that section. So far it is helping me better organize the process. Had a good bjj class last night and roll time afterwards. One guy was kind of an ass on the mat, but otherwise my partners were good. I guess you just learn who to avoid in the studio. There's a definite pattern with who this happens with. I won't let it stop me from giving someone new who fits the markers a try, but rolling is an act of trust. I've been fortunate so far that the majority of my partners don't violate that trust. Push-up practice is going alright. I don't make it very far down before I have to pause. In time I'll work my way down. One tip I came across was to spread my fingers and really focus on distributing the weight to them. That helped me get a little lower.

Good tips! I spent last challenge doing planks for 30 second everyday, so this felt like the natural next step. People seem to be split on starting from the bottom vs. the top with training. If only there were two of me to simultaneously test out both methods at the same time in a race to the perfect push-up.

Week 1 Day 2 Push Up/Core Work: 2/6 BJJ: 2/4 Tracking: 2/7 Plants: 2/7 Weekly Word Count: 3,245 Revision Hours: 1/4 Core and Push-up work child free was much more effective yesterday. I got some good training time in as well, and learned a new choke during free roll: the zip tie choke. It's a nasty little lapel move that gives you a lot of control over your opponent's movement...can't wait to bust it out during some rolls. I'm nervous that I might have a knee injury in my future, if I'm not careful. The inside of my right knee gets sore when I do activity that puts pressure on that side (shrimping onto my left is a prime example). I don't know if it's just muscle fatigue though or if it is the early signs of a problem. I might get a knee sleeve to be on the safe side. Lots of revision time to get in today. I've come up with all sorts of ways to procrastinate already. Time to put an end to that and get some work done.

Oh she was into it! She just went racing ahead and finally got bored of my snail-like pace. Cue the rolling and cartwheel attempts. I was able to go through the routine today kid-free, and it was noticeably more rigorous without the distraction. For week 1 I'll keep it as is.

Ha! I'm trying and failing to come up with a witty response, so ::insert witty response here:: The weekly calorie count has made a huge difference for me. It gives me the flexibility to enjoy a nice meal now and then, and keeps me thinking big picture. I don't use MFP so I'm not sure how they have it set up, but LoseIt will tell you in your home screen if you're over or under your total calories for the week. If that hadn't been there I probably wouldn't have considered it as an option.

Nice looking challenge. The quests seem realistic and positive, and all your goals seem like they'll help get you there. Now go kick March's ass!

Sounds like a solid first day. Keep up the good work!

Nice work! I'm happy to see you being positive about all the steps forward you took and thinking of new ways to approach the things that didn't improve the way you'd hoped. Looking forward to what you make happen in March.

Week 1 Day 1 Push Up/Core Work: 1/6 BJJ: 1/4 Tracking: 1/7 Plants: 1/7 Weekly Word Count: 1,657 Revision Hours: 1 First day of the challenge completed. So far, so good! The core work might need some adjusting, but I want to give it a few days before I make any changes. Yesterday, I thought I had this brilliant idea for fitting in push-up/core training after my daughter got off school. I invited her to do it with me aaaaand yeah, it was distraction city. If I was just doing sit ups it wouldn't be a problem, but technically challenging moves need my undivided attention. Going back to that adjustment possibility, my core didn't feel as physically taxed as I expected. It's possible that maneuvering around my chatty, whirling dervish messed with my execution. More data needed. Otherwise, all is going well. Thanks for the huge turn out of support fellow nerds!

Small dailies for the win!

Indeed! My big boss version of bodyweight exercises is the pull up. I'm not ready to take it on just yet, but one of these days I'll conquer it.