Shotokan's doing groundhog day

[Shotokan]

The last challenge went pretty well overall and I made a lot of improvements so I'm going to do it all over again.  Like Bill Murray in Groundhog day, I am going to keep doing it until I get it right.

 

 

Focus area #1: Stances and kicks five times a week

Since these are the areas that I need the most improvement in, they are going to be the main focus. 50 kicks a week for each leg, especially side thrust kicks and both stationary and moving stance work. The kicks will be done slowly, since doing them slow is harder than doing them fast. The stationary stances will most likely be timed and the moving stances will be done slowly for reps.

 

Focus area #2: Flexibility or mobility five times a week

Stretching and mobility does help when I do it and I have enough programs to keep me busy but I just have to do them. Five days a week is going to be a little hard to hit but if I want to improve, I have to do it.  The Pavel programs have been working well so I am going to focus most of this area on those.

 

Focus area #3: Don't loose what I have - glute and hip workouts twice a week

I do not want to loose the improvements that I made and there is a lot of value in workouts that I have been doing. I am pretty sure that twice a week will at least maintain the gains I made and it should not overload my stance and kick training if I keep the frequency low.

 

Extra credit: Meditation five times a week

Using Headspace has really been helping and it helped me come up with the idea of working on what I need to improve instead of just working. I need to training smarter and harder and I think the meditation is helping.  I have over 50 days in a row doing meditation each day.

 

Life goal: Rekindle the writing fire

Writing has been working so far so good. I haven't published anything yet but I wrote more in the last four weeks than I did in the last two years.

[Kishi]

So, work on what works and fix what needs fixing.

 

Good challenge, sir! Best of luck!

[Shotokan]

Day one:

 

Glute and hip training: done

Static stance training: done

Side thrust kicks: done

Mobility with Pavel: done

 

Meditation will be done before bed and some writing too.

 

I always like day one of a new challenge because it really motivates me.

[Kishi]

It's that new-challenge smell.

[ICB]

On 4/19/2017 at 10:43 PM, Shotokan said:

 I have over 50 days in a row doing meditation each day.

I am just SICK with jealousy at that hitstreak. Good work!

 

On 4/19/2017 at 10:43 PM, Shotokan said:

Writing has been working so far so good. I haven't published anything yet but I wrote more in the last four weeks than I did in the last two years.

Getting a solid groove on with writing is so cathartic. Pushing through with writing is especially important on days when you don't feel it. What are you writing, and where are you trying to sell it?

[Teirin]

Yay continuing-with-things-that-work buddies!

[Shotokan]

Week one was off to a great start but it ended on Sunday. I was ready to knock the first week out of the park but on Monday, that idea went out the window. My dad came down with a bad infection and we ended up taking him to the hospital on Monday night. Luckily, the doctors were really good and knew what to do so he is better and back at home. With 10-12 hour work days and going up to the hospital each day to see him there was nothing much more than a couple late night katas along with meditation. I missed one day of mediation and broke my streak of 54 days but it's back on track again. 

 

I am hoping to get in a good workout tonight even though I want to just sit back in my chair but I know that won't cut it so I'm off to do some training.

[Shotokan]

Today was my ground hog day of day one. 

 

I started working on Simple and Sinister. I got as far as the swings for one set of 25 lbs for 20 reps because the warm already tired me out. I got so into the swings, I couldn't stop at 5 or 10 since they just felt good.

After that came Super Joints. I only did the mobility part because it's was already after 11:00 pm and work is going to come all to soon tomorrow. 

Next came side thrust kicks with 5 for each leg. They felt really good and my left leg kick was way up. The right leg was okay but the left leg was better than I recall. Maybe the time away was a good thing?

I ended with a couple of katas. Those too felt different. My hips were working very well and movements felt strong but almost effortless. The katas really bumped my heart rate up but it didn't slow me down at all.

Time for some mediation and then I'm off to counting sheep.

[Teirin]

Strong and almost effortless is pretty awesome. 

 

Yeah, checking in on your Dad is more important than workout.  Glad he's ok.

[Shotokan]

Not much to report in the way of workouts or much else except for a great Karate class on Tuesday. We did about 300 kicks and many of them were side kicks. For the first time, I was able to do many side thrust kicks with good control and balance. We also did a ton of stance work and it made my legs like jello but it even after all that, I was able to do a kata that felt great. I'm not sure how it looks but it felt incredible. I have been a quick Super Joints before class the last few times and it really seems to help.

 

Meditation is going really well. I have over 115 sessions in since I started and I only missed one in the last 70 days or so. 

 

Work is draining my energy on many levels and it is having a negative impact on my workouts. I don't feel like doing anything after work and my sleep is not good either but such is life. 

 

I'm not discarding this challenge but I have some new plans for the next challenge already. 

[Kishi]

Well, if it felt good, you were probably comfortable enough to make it look good. At least, that's hopefully how it went.

 

I know how you feel about work getting in the way of training and sleep. It's a challenge. I hope you get it figured out sooner rather than later.

 

What kinds of plans have you made?

[Shotokan]

What kinds of plans have you made?

 

Similar to this challenge but more bit size pieces.  Since my time and energy is limited, I am trying to design some shorter workouts but doing them each day. The key now is to do something, even if it's small. I made a lot of progress, even though I didn't train much this challenge and I need to take what is working and focus on those things instead of trying to do everything. All of the Pavel stuff that I have been doing has really improved my kicks but the 30 minutes a day, just for that, isn't working. I want to take parts of my entire program and focus on what I feel are most valuable and do parts of them each day. I am thinking that getting in 10 minutes a day is better than zero minutes a day.