Tei sets some goals, how original!

[tei_]

Hello! I’m tei. I’m a professional classical musician who always wanted to be good at gymnastics and two years ago, decided to give a real try at making it happen. 

 

Gymnastics is my priority, athletically. It’s easy to lose sight of that because it’s also the hardest thing to train consistently, but it really is what I care about most so I want my training to reflect that. 

 

My big goals this year are:

 

General:

- 1 min handstand hold

- Stalder press

 

Floor:

- Roundoff backhandspring layout

- Front handspring front tuck

 

Beam

- Back walkover

- Switch leap

 

Bars

- Giants

- Clear hip

 

Vault

- Tsuk onto a mat????? I have no idea how realistic this is but it’s NYE, let’s just saying this is a thing I wanna do by the next one

 

So here are how these big goals map onto the first month and a half:

 

Nutrition goal: be gymnast-sized

When I was eating at a deficit last year and training a lot, I was hovering around 108 lbs and I could honestly feel it? I could feel that it was less effort to move my body in space. Then I discovered that I could suddenly do fulls, cast handstands, connections I didn’t have before, all sorts of stuff. I’m probably about 10lbs above that now, which is a lot when you’re a tiny halfling  So I am going to go back to the deficit that I was using then, helped along by beginning the day’s eating at noon. 

 

Training goal 1: maintain strength

*chants* I lift for my body, not my ego. I lift for my body, not my ego.

 

I am going to keep lifting  3x/week to maintain my strength while losing fat. And it’ll be frustrating, because I just want to be awesome at everything and get super strong while shrinking! But it turns out physics will adjust your plans if it thinks your plans are stupid. So if I go to the gym weeks in a row and am lifting the same weights, or lighter weights? That’s OK! I am focusing on my lifting E-score this challenge. 

 

Training goal 2: work on foundational skills

It it’s sucks that I can’t go to gymnastics as much as I used to be able to, and that there aren’t tons of people around me with similar goals. Oh well! There are lots of things I can work on that don’t require a gymnastics club or a coach. Handstands are pretty important in gymnastics! Imagine how much awesome I would be if I could hold a really long handstand, or do a real press! Also— leaps! Leaps, jumps and turns are gymnastics skills just as much as flips are, and there’s no law against practicing them in the group fitness room at GoodLife. I am going to do 2 sessions/ week of handstand and dance skills work. 

 

 

Recovery goal: sleep 

Pretty self-explanatory. Sleep makes you good at stuff. 

 

So, them’s the gymnastics goals!

 

There are other goals: 

- I am playing a concerto with an orchestra in February, so that is actually the main goal I’m working towards for the first two months of this year (also, the past year and a half.) So if I drop off the face of the earth, or allude to other goal-type things without explaining them, that’s probably why. 

 

- There is a climbing gym opening in Regina! Which is cool because there wasn’t a place to climb at all before. I don’t think it’s open, but once it is I’m looking forward to checking it out and maybe incorporating that into my life . I went outdoor climbing once this summer and would really like to get into that more, so if the opportunity presents itself I’d love to learn to lead climb, start acquiring the necessary gear and be ready for next summer climbing-wise!

 

 

[millhavenslottie]

I was a professional classical musician for a number of years (piano)! I also started serious physical activity waaaaay too late in life (silks and circus) and am a tiny halfling sized person where just a little extra weight makes everything unwieldy. (Well, right now I'm a pretty squishy halfling.) What concerto are you doing, if you don't mind me asking?

[tei_]

25 minutes ago, millhavenslottie said:

I was a professional classical musician for a number of years (piano)! I also started serious physical activity waaaaay too late in life (silks and circus) and am a tiny halfling sized person where just a little extra weight makes everything unwieldy. (Well, right now I'm a pretty squishy halfling.) What concerto are you doing, if you don't mind me asking?

 

Woahhh, twins!  I am a bassoonist and I’m playing John Williams’ Five Sacred Treess!

[@mu]

2 hours ago, tei_ said:

Beam

- Back walkover

 

Beautiful goal! Following up! It's great you have access to a gym to practice all this. Why is it you can't go as much as you would like to? Is it far?

[sylph]

wooo! New challenge

[tei_]

3 hours ago, @mu said:

 

Beautiful goal! Following up! It's great you have access to a gym to practice all this. Why is it you can't go as much as you would like to? Is it far?

 

Nah, I just live in a small city where there’s only one gym with one adult class a week, and I often have to work at night so I can’t go every week. 

[karinajean]

hi, and yay!

 

On 12/31/2017 at 10:36 PM, tei_ said:

Nah, I just live in a small city where there’s only one gym with one adult class a week, and I often have to work at night so I can’t go every week. 

 

this is something that I really struggle with. there's so many things I want to do but my time is so limited, and the intersection between class availability and ME availability doesn't work out in my favor, usually.

[raptron]

I LOVE YOUR GYMNASTICS GOALS.

 

So big and exciting.

 

You totally can work on those basics without gym access, even if it does feel weird sometimes! 

[tei_]

3 hours ago, karinajean said:

hi, and yay!

 

 

this is something that I really struggle with. there's so many things I want to do but my time is so limited, and the intersection between class availability and ME availability doesn't work out in my favor, usually.

 

Ugh yes I feel you! Also for some reason drop-in classes just do not seem to be a thing where I am currently, and I can’t figure out why! So there’s stuff that I would love to do, but am not willing to pay for an entire session of when I’d only be able to go half the classes or less. 

[tei_]

Day 1

 

My husband didn’t believe me that the gym would definitely, for sure be open on January 1st Obviously, it was.  

 

Squats: Still struggling with knee valgus, but only in my right leg. It seems that my right leg is significantly weaker than my left. Sooooo I took weight off when they started deteriorating, as I intended. OHP actually progressed, yay. Deadlifts were AWFUL, I think mainly due to a perception issue of how much I should be deadlifting for sets of 5 vs. The idea I had in my head of how much I can theoretically deadlift (for one rep.) 

 

Saved most of my calories yesterday for a date with my husband before I headed back to Regina this morning.  (Context: I am currently in a long-distance marriage. We’re hoping to close the distance at some point but for now he’s in Ontario and I’m in Saskatchewan )

 

Currently at the Calgary airport, waiting for my connection and eating some not-very-macro-friendly Manchu wok

[lucky fire dragon]

Can't believe you already trained on January 1st  much impressed

Awesome goals too, will be super shiny to watch you train for them... at the ready to cheer

 

Whoa long distance marriage, that can't be easy! How long have you been enduring that already? The some point of closing distance anywhere in sight yet?

[tei_]

On 1/2/2018 at 1:53 PM, lucky fire dragon said:

Whoa long distance marriage, that can't be easy! How long have you been enduring that already? The some point of closing distance anywhere in sight yet?

 

I moved here in August. The idea is kind of to see who likes their job better and adjust from there, and so far it seems to be me with the better job, but there are still lots of moving pieces so we're not sure how long it'll be until one of us ends up somewhere else

[tei_]

Jan 2-- spent most of it on a plane, but stayed within my calories despite the fast food.

 

Jan 3-- this morning was November Project and this evening was the running club. Neither are particularly hard workouts in their own right-- like really, the NP workouts are more about trying to stay warm than getting stronger or faster, and I am a slooooow runner. So I figured it won't be too strenuous to do both on Wednesdays. But when added together with my walking to work and walking to the mall to change my phone plan, it all added up to 28k steps Still stayed within my calories, since I had a bunch saved for after the run so didn't feel hungry.

 

Unexpectedly have the day off tomorrow because the nursing home we were supposed to be playing at is on a health lockdown Second strength workout scheduled for tomorrow, and maybe checking out the cat cafe that just opened around the block from my house because CATS!!!!!!

 

ALSO, watched the Doctor Who Christmas special introducing the new Doctor-- anybody else??? I noped out of that show towards the beginning of the Moffat era and am hopeful it will be less garbage with him leaving, so decided to give it another try. I was utterly charmed by Capaldi (and what we saw of Whittaker, which wasn't much) and mystified by the plot which seemed to be some sort of very shallow regurgitation of a Ray Kurzweil book.

[Twilight]

I noped out of Doctor Who partially during Matt Smith, caught a couple with Capaldi, and am thinking about checking out the new series. I just am not hopeful and don't want to get invested if they're gonna pull the same fan-bashing BS that Moffat likes to do.

[tei_]

2 hours ago, Twilight said:

I just am not hopeful and don't want to get invested if they're gonna pull the same fan-bashing BS that Moffat likes to do.

 

Yeah. I wasn't watching for some of the more obvious fan stand-ins in DW but I turned off the "look at all these crazy fans" episode of Sherlock ten minutes in and never went back.

[RogueLibrarian]

Yeahhhh let's do this

 

I'm about two seasons behind on Doctor Who. I will always be about two seasons behind on Doctor Who, apparently. I love Capaldi, but I was a fan (via The Thick of It) before Doctor Who, so I was pre-disposed to like him. I like what I've seen of Whittaker in other stuff and I'm looking forward to her stint.

[tei_]

Jan. 4

 

Woke up super late and had one of those days where an abundance of free time somehow makes it harder to acheive things. :/

 

Stayed within my calories.

 

Went to the gym and did some lifting and some handstanding. Also back walkovers, which are feeling decent-- I have resolved to ask to be spotted on the low beam my next gymnastics class. I had been putting it off, I think, because the coach is the head mens' coach and he had been referring all the other peoples' beam questions to me. But like, he can definitely spot my back walkover.

 

Gymnastics has been shifted to Tuesday for this semester, and next Tuesday is supposed to be the AGM of my union local... and I said I was gonna go, because ~unionism yay~ but also... gymnastics. Hmmmmm.

 

 

[lucky fire dragon]

On 4.1.2018 at 4:55 AM, tei_ said:

 

I moved here in August. The idea is kind of to see who likes their job better and adjust from there, and so far it seems to be me with the better job, but there are still lots of moving pieces so we're not sure how long it'll be until one of us ends up somewhere else

 

Interesting approach  guess that is what globalization does for you...

 

6 hours ago, tei_ said:

Woke up super late and had one of those days where an abundance of free time somehow makes it harder to acheive things. :/

 

ugh isn't it just so?!!

 

You did a LOT anyhow.

 

6 hours ago, tei_ said:

Gymnastics has been shifted to Tuesday for this semester, and next Tuesday is supposed to be the AGM of my union local... and I said I was gonna go, because ~unionism yay~ but also... gymnastics. Hmmmmm.

 tough decisions, personally I am crossing fingers for your gymnastics but then it's easy for me to say

 

[sylph]

9 hours ago, tei_ said:

Jan. 4

 

Woke up super late and had one of those days where an abundance of free time somehow makes it harder to acheive things. :/

Inertia.

I have this problem all the time...

[raptron]

10 hours ago, tei_ said:

Went to the gym and did some lifting and some handstanding. Also back walkovers, which are feeling decent-- I have resolved to ask to be spotted on the low beam my next gymnastics class. I had been putting it off, I think, because the coach is the head mens' coach and he had been referring all the other peoples' beam questions to me. But like, he can definitely spot my back walkover.

Yeah, definitely. I'm sure you don't need an active spot anyway.

[tei_]

Jan 5

Went to the gym to do gymnasticy things. Presses are frustrating, leaps were somewhat better than expected once I remembered to focus on getting my back leg up. Backwalkovers were the same as before but I realized that my nervousness about them is mostly due to an inability to lower myself down/control my descent as much as I need to to very deliberately place my hands on a beam.

 

Tumbling tomorrow! I was watching some coaching videos today where someone emphasized the importance of getting your arms all the way up in your hurdle (And that they spend two entire days at TOPS camp working on hurdles, GUH NO WONDER THOSE KIDS ARE SO FREAKING GOOD) so I am looking forward to doing some work on my hurdle!

[@mu]

19 minutes ago, tei_ said:

where someone emphasized the importance of getting your arms all the way up in your hurdle (And that they spend two entire days at TOPS camp working on hurdles

 

what do you mean exactly? (video maybe?)

 

Walkover on beam practice, it's really cool! I think beam is the apparatus I like to watch the most, it's just beautiful.

 

[tei_]

22 hours ago, @mu said:

 

what do you mean exactly? (video maybe?)

 

Walkover on beam practice, it's really cool! I think beam is the apparatus I like to watch the most, it's just beautiful.

 

 

It was this one!

 

[@mu]

Thanks!

[tei_]

Week 1 summaryyyyyyyyy!

 

Nutrition goal: success! Stayed within my calories every day. I think I might need a non-tracking day by the end of next week-- if some sort of work social event ends up happening next week then I'll make it that day, otherwise I'll plan for Sunday.

 

Training goal 1-- lifting, done x3. Brought down the weights when I needed to, good job self.

 

Training goal 2-- gymnastics workouts done x2. My handstands are so frustrating ugh. Turns out that's what happens when you stop practicing them for a month? Surprise!

 

Sleep: My average this week (as calculated by fitbit, which only takes into account the minutes you were actually asleep for-- harsh!) was 7h 30 min. Not a bad average, but unfortunately it's not a bunch of nights of sleeping 7h30-- it's some nights sleeping 10h and some with 4. Sooooo looking for a bit more consistency next week.

 

Gymnastics starts up next week and the cheer gyms open! yaaaay!