Tag Archives: karate

Freakin’ Streakin’

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I did end up doing Bodyflow on Wed night and it felt great.
Thurs. morning I skipped my workout to take my daughter to get braces. The poor dear’s teeth are so messed up they could only put on the top ones. We’ll see what happens over the next 3 months – she’ll probably go into 2011 with a full metal mouth.
Thurs night was karate. My back was still a bit sore, but not painful. We practiced one-step sparring. Your partner takes one step towards you and punches, you have to block the punch and take the person down to the mat. Somehow I ended up partnered with the tallest, biggest man in the class. I’ve heard that he’s never gentle. I was pretty scared. The first time he flipped me over in a 360 the teacher said, “You looked petrified.” And I was, but once I was actually flipping through the air it felt like I was flying and I wanted him to do it again. The teacher said Wendy is ready to test for blue belt and I’m ready for a stripe on my green belt. I’m not going to test next week though, I want to come as “Wendy’s mom” with the camera and take video and let her have her spotlight. I’m hoping the whole family can go together.
Friday I went walking with a friend around her neighborhood and came home to do some abs.
Saturday was a fun run. I convinced Brian to join me at the Lululemon Tampa Showroom birthday bash, which was the “Bare It All Birthday Bash”, a 5k run followed by a yoga class.
The Facebook event page said: No need to invest in a party ensemble, this event is clothing optional! Yep, you heard it right! Less is best but we don’t post bail…

Finishing mile

My finishing mile on beautiful Bayshore Dr., Tampa

The funky 5k led by Nicole Sturtze included bootcamp checkpoints. After the first mile we did 33 pushups and a 33 second plank. At the 1.5 mile stop we were meant to do 33 burpees. (I think I did 8.) Then we all ran back to the one mile point, and then there was a race to the finish. Then we had an outdoor yoga class taught by triathlete/yogi Lisa Jamison.

The morning culminated in mimosas, mini chocolate cupcakes, goody bags, and prizes for the first finishing male and female. Brian was the first finishing male and got a wonderful long sleeve tech shirt that is fuzzy like fleece but wicking like tech stuff, with silver to keep it from getting smelly. I avoided the sugar like a good girl.

We came home and showered, and started to iron out the errands that needed to be run that day. Suddenly, the phone rang and my high school buddy Cindy and her husband asked if they could pop by. She lives in Boston, but he’s a pilot, so they fly places very last minutes and wanted to spend time with us before their real reason for coming – a Sunday trip to EPCOT’s Food and Wine Festival. I was off to volunteer at a fundraiser for My Hope Chest, and Brian & I were invited to a friend’s 30th birthday party, and Wendy had a Halloween party – but they came for about 18 hours to hang out. We ran our errands, I got all fancied up, went to the fundraiser from 4-8, and after some clean up I joined Brian and our buddies at the birthday party. Then they pretty much had pancakes, packed up, and left for Orlando.

Sunday I took the kids for some professional photos. (Sneak peek below of what I snapped with my phone while waiting around.) Then we watched An Inconvenient Truth for their National History Day project. I had never seen it before. The message is powerful but it’s all information I’ve heard by now. girls

We have a very busy week coming up with a karate test, cross country meet, 7th grade parent social, Halloween parties, trick or treating, Fall Fun Day at school, Beauty and the Beast rehearsal and meetings at work – with my lead graphic designer out of town. I also plan to meet our old karate instructor at Bodyflow Wed night. I hope I can keep my head on straight. I’ll let you know how it goes!

2010 goal update: 750 crunches, 17 minutes of plank remaining

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Sore Betty

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Last night my sore lower back kept waking me up. Every position I tried hurt, and when I tried to shift or roll over that hurt too. Why, you ask? Well, I think it was a combo of things.

Monday I focused on upper body at the gym. I did about 12 mins on the Stairmaster before working my upper body with a combo of machines and free weights. I start with the big muscle groups – like chest and bicpes, and move down to tricpes and shoulders, and then start it all over again. I also did some one legged bent over rows which makes my mid back feel great. I did a quick mile on the treadmill, snuck in to 10 mins of Zumba and then called it a morning. None of that was a bother.

That night we went to karate. I got thrown to the ground a few times by the teacher when he was demonstrating. (on a gym mat). That may have done something… mostly we worked on how to get out of wrist grabs, though (Jiu-jitsu).

Tues morning I met B at the park for our 3 mile run. I asked if she’d rather do a bootcamp workout or just run. Since she had done 4.5 miles the night before, she opted for Bootcamp and I pulled this work out off The Fitnessista’s website.

5 min warm up
Sprint 45 seconds
Walking lunges 30 seconds
Jog 2 min
30 sec bench pushups
Jog one min
Sprint 45 sec
Bench tricep dips 30 seconds
Jog 2 min
High knees 45 seconds
Squat 45 seconds
Butt kicks 45 seconds
Jog 2 mins. Easy
Sprint 1 min
Tricep dips 30 seconds
Jog 2 mins.
Push ups 30 seconds
Jog 5 min easy to cool down.

We pounded the pavement and made it through with one drink break and changing the jumping high knees into walking high knees. I’ve never made it through before, and I could feel my lower back start to get sore, but it was worth it.

Tues night was our regular karate class. We actually did jump kicks back and forth across the room for about 20 mins! So 30-something year old me barefoot on the hard gym floor trying to run and then leap up and do a back kick. Yah, that was not pretty. I felt bad for the kids in the class who had to see that! Then we did form for the end of class, and at one point that involved working on jumping again.

So today I woke up knowing it was going to be a day to go easy. I headed for the gym with a BOOK in my hand. I rarely read when doing cardio, because I will totally focus more on the book than the cardio and barely work out. But I did today on purpose, to take it easy. I did 10 mins of brisk walking on the treadmill to get things warm and loose. Then I did 10 mins on the Stairmaster. Then 20 mins of restorative yoga – some of the Lunar Flow class from Yogadownloads.com and a lot of my own cat-cow and supine stretches thrown in.

Maybe I’ll be able to catch Bodyflow at the gym tonight. That would feel nice…

2010 goal update: 850 crunches, 18 minutes of plank remaining

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Ending the week with bald men

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My workout recap left off at Wednesday. I don’t remember my morning workout, but I do know I arrived home at the end of the day to yucky news from a daughter about a test grade. I decided to appropriately “not sweat the small stuff”, I went to the gym for bodyflow. Luckily, I came early enough to catch the last 15 mins of Zumba with Gemma. Earlier this week I described Gemma as being “like birthday cake”. She’s very in your face, upbeat, sweet and smiley. Her Zumba class was about halfway through the Grease remix and no one would sing the girl parts of Summer Lovin’ to go with her Danny, so I did. The following Bodyflow class was the same as Saturday’s. The instructor apologized for that, but it let me try some of the balancing poses over again that I was wobbly at.

Thursday I missed the morning gym to give tours of the kids’ school at an Open House. I helped show 3 moms around the middle school along with the principal and answered their questions. I always like to hear reactions to our curriculum for other moms who have nothing to lose. It seemed like they were all impressed and interested in joining our school next year.

Thursday night was karate. We had a tough class with a lot of small movements requiring muscle control. It was tiring, and the teacher mentioned my lousy side kicks. I know I have lousy side kicks. In karate you are supposed to try to get your heel up and toes down – but with all the dance I’ve done and almost every other type of exercise I’ve done you turn out your leg so that your big toe faces up and your heel is down. It’s been hard for me to try to retrain my legs, and I quite conscious of it. So I tried something new. I was lying on my side in bed practicing the right movement to assure myself that my leg is indeed capable of going in the right direction. It doesn’t feel too great, but I can do it. So that’s my homework.

Friday morning was core class. The last 2 core classes were the same routine, and not a very difficult one, so I was desperately hoping for a change. We had a sub! She had us standing with our legs wide and knees bent crunching by bending at the waist to each side. A lot. I thought it was silly. But Friday night in bed I woke up at about 3am with my obliques hurting around my back. I’ve made my obliques sore in front before, but never in back. It hurt so good!

But I jumped ahead to bedtime and skipped Friday night – which included my daughters, the TV and Netflix. We had a Veronica Mars marathon and finished watching season 3. Unfortunately we then found out the show was canceled during season 4, and we’re going to try to find those last few episodes online.

Saturday I went back to Bodyflow. This was with a different teacher and her style was more physical, less mental. I usually do Yoga for my head, not my body, but really I suppose Yoga is meant to connect the two. This class did that well. There were at least 3 people there new to the class and probably completely new to Yoga, and I was surprised at how little the instructor corrected them, but maybe she lets them glide through the first class with confidence. My karate teacher’s sister-in-law was there and shared my side kick dilemma with her. Not that I can’t get my heel up easily, but the thought process I have of “Do I really care because I don’t have this deep desire to be a black belt, I’m just there because Wendy is…” I have not come to a real conclusion on how much I care about this yet, but it will hold me back from some more advanced moves if I stay with this class long term.

Saturday night some friends of ours had a V.I.P. suite at the Daughtry concert. They invited us along. We had 6 couples and 2 single girls, and a lot of vodka and champagne. I was the driver, so I had one drink at dinner and about an ounce of champagne during a toast, and other than that I just enjoyed the music. Daughtry is quite good looking and good sounding – and you probably know I like bald men. The people whose van we rode to the show “tripped it out” with green Xmas lights on the inside. It was funny! 2 of the families had little kids and my girls babysat their kids – it was a Win-Win night for everyone! I took a bit of video of Daughtry with Brian’s phone – I’ll have to figure out how to get it on here…

Today the weather was too amazing to stay inside, so I grabbed my headphones and a series from Yogadownload.com and headed to the park to do Yoga outside. I did about 20 mins with my headphones on listening to the instructor, and about 20 more listening to Shakira and just winging it. I felt a little like a weirdo doing Yoga alone on the grass, but if people can go their to run, rollerblade, walk their dog or play on the swings, can’t I go to do Yoga?! Of course I can!

Alice is busy making fondant covered cupcakes that look like s’mores and I have laundry to finish up – lazy few hours. Enjoy the tail end of your weekend!

2010 goal update: 850 crunches, 20 minutes of plank remaining

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Welcome mat

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half-moon-pose-ardha-chandrasanaI tried a new yoga class today. My kids’ school added a class Thurs AM for parents. It was a bit slow for me but reminded me of the lack of balance I have in Half Moon pose. The teacher helped me roll my chest and shoulder out into a straight line, though.

After a full day at work making some attorney web sites I had karate class. We started a mat work unit. This means we have big gym mats to tumble on and – UGH! – we had to do forward rolls across the room. So you start standing, roll, stand, roll, stand, etc. And it’s not a somersault, because you skip your head and use your shoulder. It’s fun to watch the teacher flip black belts around and upside down to show why we need to learn forward rolls, though. Mat work is my least favorite unit in karate, and I hope it only lasts 3 wks.

Wed I did a full body workout at the gym. Treadmill, Stairmaster, abductor, lunges with medicine ball, upper body weight machines for 1st set, and hand weights with a big swiss ball for 2nd set. I did abs and stretched, and still had a little time, so I went back to the treadmill and jogged along side Richie for a while. His pace kept me going and when he stopped to answer his phone I promptly got off the treadmill and showered.

Brian’s birthday is Monday. (Hear that, arunnersblog readers?) So I made a rum cake to stick in the fridge and soak up some rum – thus it will be ready to enjoy all weekend. Saturday we need to work on the plumbing in the house, but we plan to go out to dinner in the evening. Hopefully we won’t need to do plumbing on Sunday.

Alice is at the Taylor Swift concert tonight. Some good friends got superb tix and took her for her birthday (coming March 23). Taylor Swift is the only celebrity she really seems to follow, and she has an autographed photo of her framed in her bedroom. I’m sure she’ll have a blast! I think my first concert was Richard Marx. Do you remember yours?

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Keep on Keepin on

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Sunday afternoon we were at a pre-football party and someone brought a Jack Daniels ice cream pie. I swear, I have been dreaming about it the 40 hours since. Oreo crust held on by caramel to some kind of chunky ice cream goodness. I literally had only one bite of Brian’s, and then the whole pie was gone (because of the other people there, not because of me.)

Monday was nothing special. 22 mins on Stairmaster and full body weight workout. Lots of squats – with and without weights. Music during the workout was boring, but music at work included Yael Naim. You know one of her songs from TV. She has this blend of English, Hebrew and French that I like, because those are the languages I have dabbled in.

For dinner I made chicken fricassee for the first time. It did not have tomatoes or mushrooms, like some of the recipes I’ve seen online. My fingertips kinda smell like garlic still. Someone said to rub them with a half a lemon. Seems like a waste of lemon, it’ll wear off today I’m sure. It was quite tasty!

Tuesday (this morning) my lower neck/upper spine felt tight so I started with 25 mins of Yoga. (I have Yoga for Runners #1 from yogadownloads.com on my MP3) Then 1.5 miles on the treadmill. The girl next to me was doing a walk/run program and I wanted to ask her to keep running because we were at almost the same pace and it was motivating hearing her along side me. But I didn’t recognize her and didn’t want to freak her out. I focused a lot on obliques today at the end of the workout – side crunches on ball, diagonal on captain’s chair, bicycle crunches on floor, etc. Feelin’ tight!

Tonight is karate - we’re back in our forms unit. Wendy is excited! Forms are a series of movements we memorize in a specific order to learn proper form. They represent a fake fight. As you go up belt levels you need to learn harder forms as part of testing. Here’s a video of a beginner form – 2 tests ago for Wendy.

Do you use the Stairmaster? When I do, I add back kicks, side steps, skipping steps, etc. so I don’t feel like I’m just doing the same motion for a half hour. Do you mix up your Stairmaster workout? Let me know if you have ways to make it more exciting…

2010 goal update: 3300 crunches, 79 minutes of plank remaining.

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