Osu

[Urgan]

1 hour ago, Kishi said:

 

Nuts and seeds do count! They're just a little harder to fit in on account of macros. OTOH, though, given that I'm trying to fiber up, maybe I should be focused on those as a primary fat source as opposed to adding fats during cooking.

 

Yeah, nuts and seeds are very, very caloric for their size. Helpful if you're trying to fuel progress...

[Mistr]

I support your plan of tailoring your food choices to your activity. That just makes sense to me.

 

As you get closer to your target weight you might need to do more experimentation with what you eat as well as how many calories. Hormones play a key role in determining what your body does with the nutrition you take in. I'm sure you've already read a lot about it. Right now you're still working on improving your food quality and cooking strategies. At some point you'll have that down and be looking to take on the next level.

 

I hope you have a great time in New York!

[Kishi]

26 minutes ago, Mistr said:

I support your plan of tailoring your food choices to your activity. That just makes sense to me.

 

Thanks! I think it'll work. The hardest part is generally owning how much activity I do, but also trying to gauge at the end of the day how much I've actually done.

 

49 minutes ago, Mistr said:

As you get closer to your target weight you might need to do more experimentation with what you eat as well as how many calories. Hormones play a key role in determining what your body does with the nutrition you take in. I'm sure you've already read a lot about it. Right now you're still working on improving your food quality and cooking strategies. At some point you'll have that down and be looking to take on the next level.

 

Indeed. I've already made the choice to start to phase beans out when I can - I tend to go over on protein as it is, and I don't like some of the GI side-effects I've been experiencing. I've opted over to more veggies instead, trying to get an equivalent amount of fiber that way, and it seems to work.

 

1 hour ago, Mistr said:

I hope you have a great time in New York!

 

Thanks!

 

*

 

So! Tuesday!

 

Tuesday was a dietary sabotage. We've gotten high marks consistently from our QA department, so we were rewarded with spontaneous ice cream. And they went all out - four different flavors, fruit and candy toppings, different syrups, the works.

 

Did I indulge? You bet your ass I did. It's been so long since I've had the real stuff; it was awesome. (Not to knock Halo Top or anything; as a low-cal protein-based option, it's pretty great, but it's not the same).

 

Afterward, I got right back to normal by eating my lunch and everything felt fine.

 

Got out of the office late, so I had to go fast on S&S, which I didn't want to but. I worked the 32 in for 4x10, but I couldn't complete in 16:00. So, I'm off standard by a bit. Which happens. I'm not gonna read anything into it, and honestly it's been a long time since I practiced hard anyway. I'm honestly just happy that today I'm feeling good.

 

But yeah, did that, then went to Karate. Class was as normal, meaning that we didn't go any lighter than normal. Lots of play with movement, though. Sparred afterward; K-sensei wanted me to focus on going on the attack. So I did, and things went better than usual. As usual, there's a lot left to fix, but having the attack means a lot of advantages and being able to compensate for your weaknesses.

 

While I was there, I saw a notice for a shiai down in Charleston. June 2nd. Sigh. No downtime. Guess I'll have to keep on the program as is. Good thing I like it.

 

I took my measurements this morning since I'll be headed out tomorrow and will be out of town by the time my measurements are usually done. I'm down 3 lbs and showing at 16.4%. An interesting dip in the numbers, but we'll have to wait and see whether it indicates a trend downward or not, and I expect this next week or so to throw that all for a loop. But then again, who knows? It will be NYC, and the expectation seems to be that there'll be lots of LISS-type movement and lots of martial arts. So. I dunno.

[Urgan]

1 hour ago, Kishi said:

Tuesday was a dietary sabotage. We've gotten high marks consistently from our QA department, so we were rewarded with spontaneous ice cream. And they went all out - four different flavors, fruit and candy toppings, different syrups, the works.

 

Did I indulge? You bet your ass I did. It's been so long since I've had the real stuff; it was awesome. (Not to knock Halo Top or anything; as a low-cal protein-based option, it's pretty great, but it's not the same).

 

Afterward, I got right back to normal by eating my lunch and everything felt fine.

 

[Kishi]

Wheeeeew. Wow. What a week it's been.

 

Okay, so let's catch it all up.

 

Wednesday, I went in to my work day and my training with my dispensation, ready to go to judo even if it meant being really ridiculously super-late. And, naturally, everything went exactly as it was supposed to and I got out of work in time to finish my training and get to judo on time. I friggin' swear.

 

Straddle Planche work was done with the tempo modifications I had in mind, and oh buddy it was harder than I thought. Step 1 is Scap Push Ups, which basically means pressing up and down via scapular protraction and retraction. Doing so with a quickness was easy. Doing so with tempo mods, though? Oh, man. I'mma have to drop my volume back to work on this proper. But I think it's actually a good thing. Since the next step is going to be holding a plank with protracted scapulae, I think it's good to get those muscles used to holding the position for time. I do not regret the challenge.

 

Push ups afterward went well. I managed to hit Beginner Standard for kneeling push ups, so I'll be adding sets and reps to that, which was fun. One thing I forgot to mention about Tuesday's training is that K-sensei had me doing push ups and ab work while he was focusing on Waifu. So, on the spur of the moment, I did a reverse ladder - 10 push ups and 10 crunches, then 9, then 8, with the goal of getting down to 1. I was down to 4 by the time they finished, but I never had to drop to my knees or stop. Which is just nice reinforcement for me that this tempo stuff works well for me. It's humbling and difficult, but it's easy to recover from and it's making all the other stuff I do lighter and easier.

 

Wednesday judo was relatively vigorous - lots of uchikomi with a focus on the three throws that I like. Lots of bad reps and I couldn't ever duplicate my mistakes from rep to rep, which basically means I went from doing one thing wrong to doing another thing wrong when corrected. Humbling and frustrating, but in the sense of wanting to solve a puzzle rather than feeling like a failure.

 

Thursday was the start of the roadtrip. Made it to the train station and spent the day riding. Train travel is... interesting. I think I actually liked it a lot, but I think I liked it because of the people I was travelling with rather than the mode of transit itself. I spent some time listening to Mistborn, which whoa man is really good, but then I also spent a significant amount of time talking to my friend and K-sensei about politics and philosophy and martial arts, and I don't think we could have pulled that off if we were on a plane, all packed in like sardines. But then again, if I were on my own and just having to get somewhere, I don't know that I'd want the transit time. So, you know. It kind of comes down to what you want and who you're with.

 

But, uh, yeah. We made it to Penn Station in New York, and then made a mad dash for the subways. The most striking thing about all that to me was the energy of the place. Everyone was moving super fast - not that people were unfriendly, but they all walked like they had somewhere they were late to. We having to carry our luggage and shit made for a bit of a struggle, but it was whatever. We got on the Subway out of Grand Central to go to Queens and got stuck by MTA for a while. Which was just an annoying thing - like, what, I thought the whole point of the subway was to avoid shit like this. But we made it eventually, then had to walk a ways to meet the person who we were staying with - Cheryl Murphy, a contemporary of my sensei. Being fairly fried at this point, we went out to a 24-hour diner and ate good Greek food.

 

And then, with her talking on her phone as it blew up over people being excited that K-sensei was in town, that I was told I'd be testing on the morrow.

 

Which, I mean, I'd suspected, and I'd tailored my training for, but to be told offhand that this was happening and then to see that everyone else had been in the know about this while I was kept in the dark... haaah. Well, you can imagine, my stomach just dropped. But I don't know if it was the news I'd be testing, or the fact that Murphy's phone was blowing up with people coming out of the woodwork to test me.

 

We made it back to her place and got to sleep.

 

Friday, we got up and went to go train with her. Murphy's training involves lots of power and agility work, so after a lot of running around and warming up we did box jumps and sprinting. Because this tends to work with the shift. And lemme tell you - there's a lot more to sprinting and springing and moving than just going really fast. She gave us some stuff that I think we want to take back with us as far as how we train, although how we're going to program this stuff in is still up in the air at this point. But I'd personally be excited to have classes open up with some kind of sprinting work followed by whatever technical work we wanted to do, followed by the sparring. But that's just how I'd do it; I'm fairly certain that as Waifu is the only other student that she'll pretty much put a kibosh on that if we try on account of her feet. But whatever, right? A man can dream.

 

Afterward, we went out to a dim sum place, which just had loads of good food that we don't normally get to try. There was chicken feet and beef tripe and some kind of meatballs and all kinds of meat and veggie dishes. At that point, another one of K-sensei's contemporaries met us. We will call him D. D is a brilliant man who is also a bad, bad influence, but fun for all that.

 

After lunch, we went to hit up the dojo. There, I met my sensei's sensei - Shihan Wiles, who explained to us our lineage, where we came from, what we were doing. I learned that Murphy is not just a badass, but is in fact a stripe of badass that's contending to compete in Karate in the 2020 Olympics. The walls were lined with trophies in the windows, and he had a trashbag full of medals that he hadn't had the chance to put up around the school's walls yet. But there are a lot of them.

 

Afterward, there was class. He put K-sensei to work teaching the class, where we got to explore some of the ways that we do things down here. I got the impression it was a very different class than what people were used to, but that's to be expected given that we're more kickboxers than traditional karateka.

 

Then, the test.

 

And, well, what can I say about it? All through the class leading up to it I was a bundle of nerves. The nerves didn't go away as I trained. They didn't go away when I geared up. They just didn't go away. Afterward, I was set aside while the others were lined up. I remember trying to meditate to calm myself down and it seemed to work - nerves were still jangling, but my thoughts were not fearful. In fact, there wasn't anything to think about.

 

The next 10 minutes were kind of a blur. Video was taken, and will be shown if I can ever track it down. But the basic gist is that I dealt with a lot of people who were very, very good. No two of them presented the same kind of karate, not exactly, and they just kept me moving over and over. Yet, I got better as the test went on. Once I figured out that I could make people respect my right hand and my side kick, things got better. I figured out how to get off the line from people, and that made things better too. At one point, the friend of ours who traveled up, who was a judoka, got in to throw me around, and that wasn't so great, but I was able to roll with it and keep going, even on thin little karate mats.

 

Also, someone got me from behind, which is the second time that's happened in as many tests. Oh well.

 

Anyway, at the end of it, we all hugged it out. And in the midst of everyone getting out of the way of the next class, K-sensei walks up to me and says, "I got a question for you."

 

"Yes?"

 

"Why the fuck are you wearing that belt?"

 

"I, uh. I dunno, sir."

 

"Take that shit off. You don't wear that anymore."

 

 

And, uh, yeah.

 

After that was west Indian food and beer with the people who beat on me. There was this sense of camaraderie and brotherhood and connection, and it was a huge contrast to the normal hermitage that we seem to do down here, where most people seem to think so little of us. I'm kind of effed up about how I feel about all that, but it's just feelings.

 

Back to Murph's, and slept.

 

Saturday, got up and went to the dojo to practice. We showed them some newaza, they showed us some fineries of technique and how to fake, and also some traditional jiujutsu which was fun. Class went for a while, after which we were tired enough to quit. Then Murph showed up to get her training in and suckered us into another class, this time with a Russo-Brazilian trainer who spars like he's dancing. That was a hard class. We spent the entire time either running, sparring, drilling, or running. Huge emphasis on speed and traditional technique, which was way different from what we do down here. It was good to get on the other side of that.

 

After that, off for some NY pizza where where we met up with more classmates and teachers and just generally talked about martial arts and politics, which was pretty great.

 

Sunday, we had off finally. So we went to a bagel shop where I got to experience lox and cream cheese for the first time. After that was the Met for the afternoon, where we just took in loads of art. Lot of time spent in arms and armor, but also in the Arabic and African sections too.

 

After that we met up with a friend of K-sensei's for dinner at another kind of NY pizza place, which was the same and yet different. Fascinating to explore those differences. Then we went to meet D at this pinball place which was hidden behind a laundromat. And I mean hidden - you go in the place and it's lined with washing machines and a folding table with a couple of pinball machines. At the very back is this door that's painted to look like a pair of washing machines atop each other, but with blinking lights inside. You step into it, and the whole decor changes - brick walls, low lights with beeps and whistles and clanging bells. D wanted us to be surprised, and we were! We spent some time there, drinking and playing pinball, and we sucked at it but it was fun.

 

After that, D took us off to another bar, where we drank cocktails to the point of being drunk. I've never seen K-sensei drunk, and that was a different kind of fun. More deep talk, lots of drinking, but not the point of being sick. Afterward, D took us out into the rain to see a view of the skyline.

 

 

After that, D talked us into a bar that was closing for more drinks. At which point we ubered back to Murph's and slept.

 

Monday, we had to make a mad dash for the train. We'd been using the MTA line to take us from Queens to Grand Central, but they switched the lines on us so that instead of going toward NYC we were going toward points away. So we switched the lines and by the time we made Grand Central, we had no choice but to charge through the rain for three miles to get to our train home. We almost didn't make it. But almost doesn't count.

 

The ride home was uneventful. And now I'm here today, having weighed myself and finding myself down 4 lbs and also tracking at 15%.

 

So, uh. Good trip. I'm taking today off to clean my place up some and do my laundry and just get back in the groove of things. We will be training today. I've already done my S&S; just Karate left on the docket.

[Teirin]

Congrats Kishi :-)  Sounds like it was a wonderful trip.

[Urgan]

18 hours ago, Kishi said:

And then, with her talking on her phone as it blew up over people being excited that K-sensei was in town, that I was told I'd be testing on the morrow.

 

Which, I mean, I'd suspected, and I'd tailored my training for, but to be told offhand that this was happening and then to see that everyone else had been in the know about this while I was kept in the dark... haaah. Well, you can imagine, my stomach just dropped. But I don't know if it was the news I'd be testing, or the fact that Murphy's phone was blowing up with people coming out of the woodwork to test me.

 

This seems like the equivalent of funneling cattle at the stockyard. They know you well enough that they could get you to Point A while closing the avenues of escape before you even realize

'

 

and hoping you wouldn't jump over the railing and head for the hills.

Seriously though, it sounds like the most epic of belt tests was had that day. Congratulations on a successful trip. 

 

Funny you should mention the Olympics. Is it coincidence that the AL Open Karate tournament was also this past weekend?? (I volunteered to help run a tiny corner of the tournament, to much fail...)

[Kishi]

11 hours ago, Teirin said:

Congrats Kishi :-)  Sounds like it was a wonderful trip.

 

It really was. We avoided the tourist traps and got the chance to see what the city is like off the beaten path. I loved it. There's this sense of focus and energy about the place, and I can see how it lures people there. Dunno if I'd want to live there, but it was fun to visit.

 

3 hours ago, Urgan said:

This seems like the equivalent of funneling cattle at the stockyard. They know you well enough that they could get you to Point A while closing the avenues of escape before you even realize

'

 

and hoping you wouldn't jump over the railing and head for the hills.

 

Not that I'm gonna have a cow over it, but are you really going to compare me to cattle?

 

But yeah. It's one of those things where I was hoping for it? And also felt all my nerves at once when the hope was confirmed? You know, one of those things where you feel all your feelings at once. But at the same time, I was kind of smug/satisfied that I'd read the situation well enough to tailor my training so I wouldn't go in too fatigued or anything.

 

3 hours ago, Urgan said:

Seriously though, it sounds like the most epic of belt tests was had that day. Congratulations on a successful trip.

 

Thanks! I'm super annoyed that I can't find the test video again. It was posted up on Facebook, but it's apparently been buried under a bunch of content and I don't know how to find it again since the dude who posted it isn't a friend and the only reason I saw it was that K-sensei commented on it. I'll probably just ask him to send it my way.

 

3 hours ago, Urgan said:

Funny you should mention the Olympics. Is it coincidence that the AL Open Karate tournament was also this past weekend?? (I volunteered to help run a tiny corner of the tournament, to much fail...)

 

Probably not! And given how they're organizing it for 2020, there's a lot of scrambling for points with athletes traveling for every tournament they can find. It's... grossly overcomplicated by the IOC at this point, but it should hopefully calm down in time. And hopefully Murphy-sensei will be able to make it.

 

*

 

So, uh. Looking over my measurements, I realized that I've dropped 10 lbs in the past 10 days, from 189.4 to 179.6. That's, uh. That's a little fast.

 

I'm not feeling weak or sluggish or anything, and I'm not experiencing any other signs or symptoms of something catastrophic. Just down a bunch of weight. I think I can chalk this up to two things - one, the decision to scale my energy intakes to the day's activities, and two, the gradual phasing out of beans in favor of an equivalent amount of vegetables. Reasons for that second being that one, I'm not really having trouble getting protein, and two, that I don't like how gassy they made me. I've been making a point instead to get an equivalent amount of fiber via starches, nuts, and veggies, which requires a little bit more diligence in tracking. Riced cauliflower is a godsend - a decent amount of fiber that doesn't clog up the IP.

 

But, uh. Yeah. Hopefully this slows down or stabilizes or something soon. Otherwise this could just get worrisome.

 

S&S yesterday wound up being good. I did two-arm swings w/ the 32 and couldn't get my heart rate out of the 120s no matter how hard I tried. Shoulders were feeling kind of strained, though, so I elected to go lighter on TGUs w/ the 24, which felt good.

 

As for Karate, well, the training's going to change. Now that K-sensei knows I can hit hard and pick the shots, the new goal is to work on getting me to move well. So we spent class bouncing and shifting and moving a lot. It's a challenge, particularly because it's this weird mix of freeflow and precision that we really haven't practiced all that much. Which makes sense - the other stuff deserved a lot of practice too - but to find a whole host of new things to worry over is... well, it's an odd mix of fascinating and frustrating. Just goes to show how far I have to go.

 

The other complicating aspect of this is that I'm really going to have to make time to hit the heavy bag if I'm going to keep practicing the stuff I've got already. It's a long term programming/scheduling problem that I'm not too terribly concerned about, but it is something to mind.

 

Today should be push up practice and judo. Still can't believe how easy regular push ups are right now with the tempo work thrown in on my own practice. I wish I'd appreciated this when I was younger and first trying this stuff out, but now I have wisdom, and I can enjoy the results.

 

Ooh, yes, I'm also going to have to iron out the Straddle Planche progression with tempo work as well. Should be fun.

[Kishi]

Oh hey look what I found

 

 

K so just so you know, I'm the one with the orange gloves getting kicked around for 10 minutes. Dude with the big white gloves is K-sensei, who brought the rage. D, who I mentioned, is the first one I faced. I think.

[Kishi]

So, the plan last night was Judo and push ups.

 

Work made the plan go sideways. Essentially, they're preparing to offer paid overtime again, and when I had the chance to get back on board with that, I jumped at it. The thing is, in order to qualify, you have to close a certain amount of cases in a week, and my average closure rate is a bit subpar at the moment. I did some calculations to figure out what I'd have to do to get my closures caught up, and while it'd be a tall order, I was already halfway there halfway through the week. So, I spent my afternoon and evening working on cases and getting them ready to close.

 

I went off to do my push ups and such, but by the time I was done it would have been too late to get any benefit out of Judo. I have to admit, though, it was nice not to feel the sense of guilt.

 

Instead, I spent some time at the gym hitting a wavemaster, and then went to work on footwork and movement. I capped it off with some time spent in horse stance, because the next step is to get low and I don't know any other way to get comfy with that than getting low and staying there.

 

Tonight's plans... up in the air. The folks are dropping off a new bed for me, and I want to believe that will be a simple process but I'm just braced against the thought that it's going to get complicated somehow. I don't know what my training's going to look like - part of me thinks that I could just get it done afterward, and part of me thinks that the folks are going to want to get dinner, and I don't know. I just don't know.

 

I guess I'll have to just play it all by ear and see what happens.

[Mistr]

Congratulations on your test! 

 

Excellent trip report. I enjoyed hearing about your adventures in New York.

 

Sounds like you got plenty of training in over the last several days. You can take a day off to spend time with your parents with no worries.

[Kishi]

27 minutes ago, Mistr said:

Congratulations on your test!

 

Osu, thank you very much!

 

27 minutes ago, Mistr said:

Excellent trip report. I enjoyed hearing about your adventures in New York.

 

I'm glad! I didn't quite get to cover everything I wanted to with going into setting, but like Sanderson says, you only need to build the world enough to tell the story.

 

29 minutes ago, Mistr said:

Sounds like you got plenty of training in over the last several days. You can take a day off to spend time with your parents with no worries.

 

Yeah, that's what I figured and what I ultimately wound up telling myself.

 

It'll make today's training a bit of a bear, though.

 

*

 

So, when I say that my parents made things complicated, what I mean is, they asked me to help them unload my mattress from their truck at their house, and invited me to dinner afterward at this really awesome gameday bar about a mile from where they live.

 

How could I say no? I care about them, and also, the bar food is really really good. I have a new bed now, and it is small, but it's kind of cozy too. And given how much of a premium I have on physical space right now, it's really for the best.

 

So, I helped them with that and went to dinner. Our waitress was really, really cute, like to the point that I regretted not having properly shaved my neck beard in a while. I think she liked me anyway - or at least, I think she liked me maybe a bit more than she necessarily had to given her job. Don't really know how I'd go about seeing her again, since I've tried to follow up with waitresses before and it's kind of dicey. Even if you see them again, even if you manage to get there on a day they're there and you manage to get into their zone, there's no guarantee they even remember you, and it's a long-ass trip from where I am to where she'd be. It's definitely a factor since my folks have had her wait on them before and she didn't remember them either.

 

Still. It was fun. It's nice to know that being old and bald doesn't matter so much if you're self-confident and willing to show it.

 

But yeah, dinner with the folks was good even without the cute waitress. Just lots of time spent bragging about the trip and waxing nostalgic and talking about what we're planning with our lives. Good times.

 

No formal training, though, and tonight's looking like my time will be infringed upon. My cultured friend took a job in Charleston, so we have a last hurrah tonight. Fortunately, he wants to get dinner in a place that's near where I live, so I had a crazy thought. I'm going to GB it up at my place, both yesterday's training and today's, just as much as I possibly can. It's a mad dash kind of thing, and I don't expect to make it, but I do expect to give a good effort and who knows? I might just do better than I think, if I respect my time enough not to waste it.

[Urgan]

15 minutes ago, Kishi said:

No formal training, though, and tonight's looking like my time will be infringed upon. My cultured friend took a job in Charleston, so we have a last hurrah tonight. Fortunately, he wants to get dinner in a place that's near where I live, so I had a crazy thought. I'm going to GB it up at my place, both yesterday's training and today's, just as much as I possibly can. It's a mad dash kind of thing, and I don't expect to make it, but I do expect to give a good effort and who knows? I might just do better than I think, if I respect my time enough not to waste it.

 

DO THE THING. Quickly but carefully if need be.

[Kishi]

21 hours ago, Urgan said:

 

DO THE THING. Quickly but carefully if need be.

 

I DO'D THE THING

 

*

 

Aaah, Friday. What a mixed freaking bag.

 

Work ended on a mixed note. I wound up closing a lot of cases, more than enough to bring my average up for OT pay. And then proceeded not to get it because apparently there was a limited window of opportunity and somehow I missed it? Which I don't understand. Supervisor-san said she would check my averages again at the "end of the week," and I interpreted the "end of the week" to be close of business, because that's how it's worked in every other job I've ever done. But apparently it wasn't? So even though I worked my ass off for the past few days to get this back, I'm not going to get OT until the next time payroll opens it up, which there's no telling when that's going to be.

 

It's frustrating. My supervisor's been noted by other workers to not be a very good communicator. She tells things on a Need To Know basis, but she doesn't seem to think that we need to know much, or alternately she doesn't know what we need to know. All I know is, if I'd known I wasn't going to get it, I wouldn't have wasted my time Wednesday trying to kill myself for something that wasn't going to make a difference.

 

So, yeah, that put me in a bit of a funk.

 

At least training went well! I respected myself and my time and made it back home in time to do most of what I set out to do. The only thing I couldn't make room for was handstand training, which makes sense to me as it's skill training which would require a lot of rest and a lot of keeping things fresh.

 

Assisted Squats: 1x21

Integrated Mobility: DONE

 

Half Squats: 1x15

Integrated Mobility: DONE

 

Full Squats: 1x9

Integrated Mobility: DONE

 

Elevated Deck Squats: 5x2

Integrated Mobility: DONE

• These went really well. I used a small drop-off that leads into my kitchen as the assisting height and I was able to complete the squats with perfect form. I'm surprised and impressed that I don't need as much height as I thought, but I'm still not able to get my center of balance over the levers when I try to do them unassisted. It's not a big issue yet - I still mean to do Front Squats when the time/equipment is available, but if I'm going to build toward a pistol using bodyweight variants, it's an element that I'm going to have to consider and calculate for.

High Rows: 4x9 at Tempo

Integrated Mobility: DONE

• I was amazed at how easy these were. It was still good to slow this down, though, because I noticed the part of the movement that aggravates my elbows, and I know now to control for it going forward.

Hollow Body Tuck Hold: 4x48s

Integrated Mobility: DONE

• Haha, God, I gotta hold up at this point and practice for a bit. I could do it, but I got the feeling off of it that if I held longer, I wouldn't be able to.

Russian Twists: 1x9

Integrated Mobility: DONE

 

Side Plank Twists: 4x8

Integrated Mobility: DONE

• Not bad. I realized that I'd neglected a bit of my form, though, by letting my glutes drift out of the line. When I tightened back up and executed, move was a lot harder. Could still do sets and reps, but really had to grind them out at the end. Guess I'll be practicing here for a while.

METCON:

10 rounds: Superset: 10 squats, 5 wall one-arm push ups/side

• Completed six rounds, not because I ran out of work capacity but because I ran out of time. I wanted to make sure that I was respecting my friend who I was hanging out with, so I cut out early to get cleaned up and make the trip over.
• Whenever I'm not doing sprints, I take my metcons from Gymnastics WOD, which has a good archive for this kind of work. Sadly, you can't access all of it, and also he apparently stopped updating the site some time ago. OTOH, what is available is a huge archive of workouts, and I could probably mine it for a year or so without ever really repeating anything.

Lots of people came out to see my friend, and I was quiet. He saw my test video and he really wanted to talk about it, but I didn't really know how to talk about it with him. He tried to brag me up to everyone else, but I couldn't really figure out how to play along with it in a good way, you know, like sassing it up and walking that line between self-deprecation and acknowledgement. That's the thing about being different from other people - you don't know how to talk about what you do with people who don't really value what you do, and when they try to bring it up they don't even ask the right questions, and I didn't know how to highlight this and explain it to them in ways that they would understand.

 

Of course, I could have just been fried from a week's worth of work at this job, and... I dunno.

 

Had a good time, though, and went to see Isle of Dogs, Wes Anderson's latest animated story. It was good! It was both funny and sad and the setting felt as much like a character as anything else. One thing I was really struck by was this sense of quirky minimalism - the characters are all offbeat and weird, but they were able to convey and build these deep relationships with a relatively small amount of work. If you're not into that kind of thing, probably this film is not for you, but then again I always thought Anderson was a highfalutin kind of ridiculous artsy guy whose work I wouldn't like. I did like this, and I liked it enough to think that maybe I need to reconsider some things about his work.

 

Maybe.

 

Anyway, S&S, kali, handstands, and ruck on the docket today. Let's get it.

[Kishi]

SATURDAY IN THE FRIGGIN' BAG

 

Opened up with S&S. Ran it with a quickness - 100 one arm swings with the 32, 10 TGUs w/ 6 at 24 and 4 at 32. Crushed it in 14:14. Guess the time off did me some good.

 

Kali was next. Definitely feeling the lack of practice, and had to go with Cherokee for a bit, who was stiff and hard to practice with, but not dickish about it, so I didn't get frustrated. Stayed after to shoot the breeze with Manong and his wife for a while, then helped them clean up the dojo, mopping mats and such. We kvetched about our lack of space, how hard it is to just find a place to hit a freaking heavy bag, and how if we could just market this place a bit better we could do more in terms of getting a space where we could conceivably build something that would serve all of us rather than just being for the judoka. Also, apparently John Howard wants to come stab us. That could be fun, if it works out.

 

Handstands and ruck training went well. Basically, a nice quiet day.

 

Essential Strength and Sprints on the docket today. Want to go ahead and incorporate some of what Murphy-sensei showed us into it today. Should be good, I think.

[Urgan]

19 hours ago, Kishi said:

Opened up with S&S. Ran it with a quickness - 100 one arm swings with the 32, 10 TGUs w/ 6 at 24 and 4 at 32. Crushed it in 14:14. Guess the time off did me some good.

 

 

Errbody loves a good stabbin'.

[Kishi]

29 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

 

Errbody loves a good stabbin'.

 

They always continue 'til morale improves.

 

*

 

Sunday was one of those long training days that I feel like I need every once in a while.

 

Incline Push Ups: 1x9

Integrated Mobility: DONE

 

Hollow Body Push Ups: 4x6T

Integrated Mobility: DONE

• Tempo work is steadily improving. When I first started, I had to rest after two sets. Now I can go through all four, but the last few reps don't go up smooth. Still at this level, then.

Deadlifts

 

Bodyweight Single-Leg: 1x8

 

1x5x134

1x3x153

1x1x172

2x8x192

• 

Sprints: 6x~40m

1-2-3s: 4

• So, this is basically a take on what we did up in NYC. Shorter, more powerful sprints with full recovery. Felt just like back then. One big thing that made a difference is 'bracing' into the ground, so that in your initial steps you're pulling in with the lead leg as you push off w/ the rear leg. I felt way lighter and flew faster, although I reckon that my start could probably be improved further yet.
• 1-2-3s is my notation for the other thing I did - sprinting three steps and then pausing. The goal of it is to explode-explode-explode and then stop on that final one. And completely stop - no having to jump to catch your balance, like I have to do. ;

Tuck Ups: 4x15T

Integrated Mobility: DONE

• Wow, but these get painful when done slow. Good pain, to be sure, but painful nevertheless. I was able to get through all my reps, but not w/o rest.

Afterward, I spent some time hitting the wavemaster. Didn't feel a need for movement practice or horse stance after the sprints. Just focused on hitting the thing hard.

 

Today, right hamstring's a bit stiff, and I'm feeling overfull on account of having eaten a ton of food and then also some homemade cookies. They were good with decaf coffee. Speaking of, I'm off caffeine for the next week to give my body some time to settle back down and recuperate itself.

 

But otherwise, a light meal and some stretching are just what the doctor ordered.

[Kishi]

Man, something in my programming has to change. I didn't quite recognize it at first, but that stiff soreness in my right hamstring is back with a vengeance.

 

It's not bad enough to keep me from walking, thankfully, and I remember the healing protocols well enough. I'm actually feeling pretty good about things right now. But still, this should not be happening.

 

Oh well, one more problem to solve.

 

Stretching, at least, went well last night, and we got to play more Blades in the Dark. Limited crew, but fortunately the system is really flexible about that kind of thing. So we took the time to do some stuff that would augment further games for the group going forward. Hopefully those poor sods will appreciate it.

 

Anyway, S&S and Karate on the docket tonight. Will be going lightly, I think.

[Kishi]

So... I've been researching and checking with gymnast friends and hemming and hawing back and forth, and giving a lot of thought to what benefits me and what doesn't, and to save us all a rant, I think I'm going to let the barbells go.

 

I took up barbell training because it seemed like a good way to get strong. I'm still convinced it is. But my body is increasingly telling me that I'm not recovering enough, and I'm increasingly unconvinced that the barbell is necessarily a tool that will help me fight better. I've found a way to regress the pistol work in GB to make it productive, and I've found that kettlebell work ultimately not only made me stronger, but taught me how to use that strength, and with way less injury, especially to my hamstrings.

 

Meanwhile, all the benefits of deadlifting are being attained in other ways - grip via swings, TGUs, and rows; abs via everything; hamstrings via swings, TGUs, and sprinting. And given everything I've got going on right now, I think that might just be enough.

 

So, yeah. That's kind of where my thinking is right now.

[RisenPhoenix]

2 hours ago, Kishi said:

So... I've been researching and checking with gymnast friends and hemming and hawing back and forth, and giving a lot of thought to what benefits me and what doesn't, and to save us all a rant, I think I'm going to let the barbells go.

 

I took up barbell training because it seemed like a good way to get strong. I'm still convinced it is. But my body is increasingly telling me that I'm not recovering enough, and I'm increasingly unconvinced that the barbell is necessarily a tool that will help me fight better. I've found a way to regress the pistol work in GB to make it productive, and I've found that kettlebell work ultimately not only made me stronger, but taught me how to use that strength, and with way less injury, especially to my hamstrings.

 

Meanwhile, all the benefits of deadlifting are being attained in other ways - grip via swings, TGUs, and rows; abs via everything; hamstrings via swings, TGUs, and sprinting. And given everything I've got going on right now, I think that might just be enough.

 

So, yeah. That's kind of where my thinking is right now.

 

Make sense.  Pretty much the same reason I was thinking I'd switch to kettlebell stuff if I ever made it back to the gym.  Which is a shame, because I love deadlifting, but I also just don't want to die via over training and lack of sleep.

 

Priorities, man.  They're weird some times...

[Mistr]

3 hours ago, Kishi said:

Meanwhile, all the benefits of deadlifting are being attained in other ways - grip via swings, TGUs, and rows; abs via everything; hamstrings via swings, TGUs, and sprinting. And given everything I've got going on right now, I think that might just be enough.

 

I agree with RP, it makes sense for you to let the barbell training go. You are certainly lifting plenty of weight and covering all your major muscle groups. I'm sure you have other important things you can do with that time.

[Kishi]

17 hours ago, RisenPhoenix said:

 

Make sense.  Pretty much the same reason I was thinking I'd switch to kettlebell stuff if I ever made it back to the gym.  Which is a shame, because I love deadlifting, but I also just don't want to die via over training and lack of sleep.

 

Priorities, man.  They're weird some times...

 

Yeah, man. Ultimately, it kind of comes back to Dan John and Pavel Tsatsouline's Easy Strength. What makes you better at what you want to do is training; anything else is working out. And there's nothing wrong with general work or with barbells, but if you want to hone in and focus on something, then you have to be willing to cut other things away.

 

As for myself, it just seems like gymnastic/bodyweight work is good because it makes me stronger and also increases my awareness of my body in space as well as developing my ability to move well in various RsOM.

 

And anyway, if the gymnasts I've talked to are anything to go on, I'll develop some nasty strength along the way anyway.

 

17 hours ago, Mistr said:

 

I agree with RP, it makes sense for you to let the barbell training go. You are certainly lifting plenty of weight and covering all your major muscle groups. I'm sure you have other important things you can do with that time.

 

Yup. Like recover.

 

*

 

Tuesday... welp. It didn't end up quite the way I hoped it would.

 

S&S went well. Two Arm Swings and TGUs w/ the 24, and it was the right call; hamstring is feeling loads better and I reckon between that and the letting go of the barbell that I'll probably be well-recovered by the end of the week.

 

As for Karate, well, I messed up and hit Waifu in the face twice again.

 

I didn't mean to. K-sensei wanted me to focus on having an active lead hand because he thinks my lead is way too passive. So I was moving my jab hand around a lot - I didn't mean to jab, but it was a factor - and also he wanted me to focus on a different stance than I'm used to. The problem is that this stance is about longer range, but if I can't face punch I can't keep people at range. I was okay'd to switch into things that were closer, but with her in that moment bearing down on me I couldn't think through. And I was tired. K-sensei just had me sparring constantly for about 20 minutes or so, and even if you're not always going hard, that's still a long time.

 

Anyway, I did jab, or at the very least I moved my hand in such a way that it was indistinct from jabbing, and she got popped in the face a couple of times. So naturally, all the hard work I've put into controlling myself and being a good partner doesn't count for anything and I have to rebuild all that trust from the ground up. Again.

 

But yeah, in addition to K-sensei beating me for my sins, I had to get read the riot act, about how she's dealt with people who didn't care and it's why she doesn't do Judo anymore and she knows I'm trying but whenever this happens she feels like she doesn't know why she's here. I had to exercise much restraint to point out that I didn't know why she was there either.

 

Accidents do happen, though, and ultimately the blame does lie with me. If I'd had better control, if I'd read the situation better, I could have prevented this. I would be at fault even if it was another white belt and not someone so finicky as Waifu, although I like to think that most people are more reasonable and forgiving about that kind of thing.

 

Unfortunately, while I can rationally accept that, emotionally I'm kind of compromised right now, because it feels like I'm being held to a higher standard than *everyone else* in *everything,* whether it's on the mats or not. Just deep, abiding frustration with everyone else whether it's the apartment mates resetting the thermostat all the time or with traffic needing me to be this better person or my work being good enough except for what someone else thinks.

 

So that's where my head is today. Push ups and judo on the docket, and afterward I'll probably be headed to Target to pick up another space heater.

 

Phew. Focus.

[Urgan]

1 hour ago, Kishi said:

As for Karate, well, I messed up and hit Waifu in the face twice again.

 

I didn't mean to. K-sensei wanted me to focus on having an active lead hand because he thinks my lead is way too passive. So I was moving my jab hand around a lot - I didn't mean to jab, but it was a factor - and also he wanted me to focus on a different stance than I'm used to. The problem is that this stance is about longer range, but if I can't face punch I can't keep people at range. I was okay'd to switch into things that were closer, but with her in that moment bearing down on me I couldn't think through. And I was tired. K-sensei just had me sparring constantly for about 20 minutes or so, and even if you're not always going hard, that's still a long time.

 

Anyway, I did jab, or at the very least I moved my hand in such a way that it was indistinct from jabbing, and she got popped in the face a couple of times. So naturally, all the hard work I've put into controlling myself and being a good partner doesn't count for anything and I have to rebuild all that trust from the ground up. Again.

 

But yeah, in addition to K-sensei beating me for my sins, I had to get read the riot act, about how she's dealt with people who didn't care and it's why she doesn't do Judo anymore and she knows I'm trying but whenever this happens she feels like she doesn't know why she's here. I had to exercise much restraint to point out that I didn't know why she was there either.

 

Accidents do happen, though, and ultimately the blame does lie with me. If I'd had better control, if I'd read the situation better, I could have prevented this. I would be at fault even if it was another white belt and not someone so finicky as Waifu, although I like to think that most people are more reasonable and forgiving about that kind of thing.

 

Maybe you could conform better to their expectations if they just dispensed with the pretense, hung you from one of those punching bag hooks one can mount on the ceiling, and armed you with pads with which you may not strike in any way whatsoever. You can only do so much damage that way, you monster.

 

[RisenPhoenix]

1 hour ago, Kishi said:

Accidents do happen, though, and ultimately the blame does lie with me. If I'd had better control, if I'd read the situation better, I could have prevented this. I would be at fault even if it was another white belt and not someone so finicky as Waifu, although I like to think that most people are more reasonable and forgiving about that kind of thing.

 

It's a Martial Art, not a Performing Art.

 

Shit like that happens.  When you step on the mat you are supposed to acknowledge that, and accept that sometimes you're going to get hurt.  Yes, you might have been able to change something to avoid the strikes, but partners are supposed to be EQUALLY self aware to AVOID THAT.  Especially if you were getting shown new things - of COURSE you are going to fuck up somewhere.  It's NEW.  You get some blame, yea, but the blame isn't *ultimately* with you because sparring is a two person practice, and unless you were acting entirely reckless, she is equally culpable.

 

She sounds like a woman who trained at my dojo briefly, didn't tell people she had prior health issues, didn't get pay attention to her partner, and when she got clocked because she didn't move from a really slow atemi went off to tell everyone how terrible we were, because we were 'too rough.'  No matter what, even the best performer has an off day where things just go wrong.

[Urgan]

3 minutes ago, RisenPhoenix said:

It's a Martial Art, not a Performing Art.

 

Shit like that happens.  When you step on the mat you are supposed to acknowledge that, and accept that sometimes you're going to get hurt.  Yes, you might have been able to change something to avoid the strikes, but partners are supposed to be EQUALLY self aware to AVOID THAT.  Especially if you were getting shown new things - of COURSE you are going to fuck up somewhere.  It's NEW.  You get some blame, yea, but the blame isn't *ultimately* with you because sparring is a two person practice, and unless you were acting entirely reckless, she is equally culpable.

 

This. Good grief it isn't ballroom dancing for the love of all that is good and right and such.

 

3 minutes ago, RisenPhoenix said:

She sounds like a woman who trained at my dojo briefly, didn't tell people she had prior health issues, didn't get pay attention to her partner, and when she got clocked because she didn't move from a really slow atemi went off to tell everyone how terrible we were, because we were 'too rough.'  No matter what, even the best performer has an off day where things just go wrong.

 

Somebody kvetched about an atemi? Seriously? This is actually a thing that happens? Y'all I've been kicked in the head and kicks weren't even part of the technique because aikido, it just isn't that bad.