Monday (01/07/19) I, against my better judgement, decided to pop along to training tonight, despite my tickly cough / sore throat / breathing issues being just slightly worse than they were yesterday. Karate @ 90 minutes - Sensei took the Black belt candidates, and myself, thru some Dan Grading Prep Work tonight. He started us off with some High Intensity Pad Drills, working for 3-minutes, which was broken down into 1-min Hands Only, 1-min Feet Only and 1-min Anything Goes. The next 45-minutes, or so, followed the format of alternating between Kihon Work and Pad Drills - Sensei wanted look at the separation / similarities between our techniques being performed during the line up, compared to when being used against the pads. The final 30+ minutes were then spent on a split of Kata and Bunkai - We'd perform a Kata at 100%, then in pairs, be given 2-minutes to come up with a piece of Bunkai (from a section of the kata chosen by Sensei) which we then had to demo back to the other pairs. (We only had time to do this for Ichi, Ni and Saifa) In light of how rough I felt during this session, and how incrementally worse I expect to be tomorrow, I have decided to replace the next 3 days training (which was to be Insanity workouts) with some light, remedial exercises instead. Travess
Tuesday (02/07/19) Not feeling anywhere near as bad as I thought I would, but still wanting to take it easy, I took a leaf out of my Wife's exercise playbook. Warm-up: 12 minutes of Stretching Treadmill: My Wife, not being much of a runner, likes to throw on Spotify, and follow a Walk for a song / Run for a song pattern, for between 2 and 3 miles - Which I followed today. Distance: 5km Duration: 35m 34s Walking Pace: 10m 38s per/km Running Pace: 5m 42s per/km Average Pace: 7m 07s per/km Cool Down: 4 x Kata @ 50% (Ichi x 2 / Ni x 2) Duration: 58 minutes Starting HR: 77 bpm Max HR: 153 bpm Average HR: 117 bpm Calories: 539 burned This was a chilled 'Workout' and one that I will likely repeat tomorrow. Travess
Bit of an update: I took a bit of a break from logging (though not from training) in recent months, as I concentrated all my efforts on the final straight of my journey to 2nd Dan, which I successfully completed last weekend, under the scrutiny of a very knowledgeable, 3 person (my Sensei, Sensei Iain Abernethy and DKKs Sensei Rob Newton) panel. It was a tough day, consisting of Kata and Bunkai Drills, multiple rounds of Intensive Pad work, as well as wide variety (stand up, throws, clinch work, escape drills, randori, and multiples, to name but a few) of Shark Tank Sparring rounds - Which am definitely still feeling! That same evening (whilst hepped up on painkillers) I signed myself up for another Half Marathon (in April of next year) which I will be starting my formal, 11 week training plan for, on the 15th January... ...Until then, my log will likely just consist of weekly activities, designed to keep me active, between now and then. Travess
Congratulations! Great news on the promotion Glad to read you are still training and just having a logging break
I've Not really done a whole lot since my last update, certainly not any of the Strength Training that I'd planned on increasing, on the build up to the new year, as the motivation just hasn't been there. It's not been all lazy days though, as, despite my Half Marathon Training not being due to start until mid-January, I have been squeezing in the odd Road Run, and even managed to score myself a couple of New PB times... 5km Road Run @ 24m 04s (previously 25m 12s) then a week or so later, a 10km Road Run @ 49m 51s (previously 52m 17s) ...which I am pretty chuffed about! That's all the news fit for print for now though I guess. Thank You very, very much Nachi, I appreciate that. Travess
oooh nice PBs!! A big chunk of time off the previous PBs I always found strength training hard to mix with the running training, often I would scale it out completely to get the most out of running and vice versa. I look forward to more run logs in January
Thank You Jaydub, I hope your training is going well. Thanks - I was only really hoping for a clear 20-30s improvement, so yeah, very happy with the results. Agreed, which is why I wanted to fit that last little bit of strength training in, before shifting my focus fully towards running. (Though my training plan does include some running specific leg strengthening drills) Ha Ha - You may regret writing that... Travess
This past week - Getting back to some sort of logging normality... (W/C 18/12) Monday: Rest Day! - I had a very heavy workload looming tonight at work, so was forced to skip Karate, in favour of soms planning and prep. work. Tuesday: Kept things light this morning, with a 50 minute Remedial (2 min running / 30 sec walking) Road Run, with no distance or pace planned - 8.36km / 6m 00s per/km Wednesday: Rest Day! Thursday: First (and last) Karate class of the week, where tonight Sensei ran a 'masterclass' on Seyunchin Kata, which was pretty insightful. Friday: I headed out for another Road Run today, with a goal of 60 minutes, but again with no set distance/pace in mind - 11.65km / 5m 09s per/km Weekend: No more overtly physical activities planned over the coming weekend, other than some Stretching and/or Yoga sessions. Travess
(W/C 25/12) Monday: Made it to Karate tonight, despite the roll out of the new operating system at work being unveiled in the morning. In a continuation of Thursday's Seyunchin 'Masterclass' session, tonight we worked on introducing some Stock Bunkai for the club - Whilst others had free reign, my group with tasked with making our bunkai Ground Fighting Based, which we did... Tuesday: Not gonna make Karate tonight, due to the previously mentioned new operating system (which I am part of the support staff for) so I headed out for a short little Road Run instead - 5km @ 25m 07s / 5m 02s per/km Wednesday: Rest Day! Thursday: AM: I ran myself a little 4-tier Tabata (4 x 4 mins) focusing on Arms/Chest (tabata 1 & 4) Legs (tabata 2) and Core (tabata 3) Bodyweight Exercises. PM: Back in the Dojo again tonight, for a continuation of our in-depth look at Seyunchin, this time working on a variety of Partner Drills, centred around the Trapping, Takedown, and Redirection techniques found within the Kata. Friday: AM: I headed out for a 10km Road Run this morning, lowering my output, but increasing my stride, with the aim of maintaining pace, without allowing my BPM to creep up into mu the 'Red Zone' for too long - 10km @ 56m 05s / 5m 36s per/km (total time in red zone - 6m 29s) PM: Back in the Dojo again tonight, marking my 1st session at our brand new venue (only been open 4 weeks) where myself, and my partner, were tasked with coming up with a Pad Drill, based upon some of the Seyunchin Bunkai, that had been devised at one of the previous sessions. Once established, we were then asked to teach it back to the group. Weekend: As per last weekend, there are no more overtly physical activities planned over, other than doing some similar Stretching and/or Yoga sessions to those from last week. Note: It is is the 1st of December tomorrow, so I'd better get to work on my annual Advent Training Calendar. Travess
Should be enough to keep me going, at least up until (and including) the 1st January that is. Travess
Got things off to a pretty good start this week... Monday: Spent the entire 90 minutes on Partner Drills at Karate tonight, focusing on Grappling, Clinch, Trapping and Takedown transitions, with added 'Dirt' Tuesday: Headed out to the garage today, for the 1st time in 6+ weeks today, for some Kata and Shadow Boxing, followed by 10 x 1-min rounds on the Heavy-Bag. Wednesday: Road Run day today, with a relaxed 6km effort @ 33m 17s mins / 5m 33s per/km (average BPM only 146, which I am very happy about) More to follow... Travess
Not a very positive update today I'm afraid - The Advent Training started off so well at the beginning of the week, but met with a few hiccups, during its latter half... ("a plan rarely survives 1st contact with the enemy") Thursday: Continuing our current theme at Karate, we got started with a few rounds of Randori (nothing too competitive, just playing for grips/holds/submissions) which served as our warm-up. (But which was the best part of the session!) The remainder of the session was dedicated to more Grappling, Trapping and Takedowns, with an emphasis on Management of Failure (finding/creating an opening, out of a previously unsuccessful attempt) Friday/Saturday: Planned: Circuits/Bag-Work (respectively) Actual: Rest Days! Between cinema visits, waiting around for deliveries, wrapping prezzies, Santa grotto trips, and a poorly 4-year-old, all whilst flying solo as a parent (due to my wife being away for work) I didn't get anything physical done these past couple of days. Sunday: This is a planned Rest Day, and since I will be operating on barely 5-hours sleep today, and have the nightshift to look forward to tonight, then that is exactly what it is going to be!!! Will need to aim MUCH higher next week!!! Travess
Okay, so that didn't exactly come to pass... Amendment: Self pressure got the better of me, so I bunged a movie on for the girls (not something I usually like to do on Sundays) and snuck away for a very (very) short Upper-body Bodyweight session, following a 10-down-to-1 format, for Push Ups, Bicep Curls and Core Work*, with minimal rest (10 secs) between sets - Only took about 10 minutes, all told, but it'll have to do. (Note: *I alternated the core sets between Bicycle Crunches, Leg Raises, Mason Twists, and regular Crunches) Travess
Very happy with how this week's training has played out, even if I have ended up training on different days than originally planned, tweaking a few drills along the way, and, getting an extra Rest Day out of it... Monday: Planned: Karate Actual: Rest Day! Tuesday: Planned: Rest Day! Actual: Karate - Tonight, following a quick Kata based Warm-up, we got to work looking at some Ground Skills, which included (but were not limited to) Scarf/Shoulder Holds, Pinning, Neck Cranks, Limb Control, as well as ground based Striking, and of course Getting Back to your Feet. This was both a fun, and at times, a bloody uncomfortable session - Having a guy 25+ lbs heavier than you pinning you to the ground, with the point of his elbow pressing into your jaw line, causes you to make some bloody weird sounds I can tells ya. Wednesday: Planned: 45 min Treadmill Run Actual: Karate - Tonight was an Academic (classroom based) Session (notebooks, pens, and plenty of Coffee) where we discussed aspects of Iain's (Abernethy) Martial Map Podcast, how we view the benefits and draw backs of Combat Sports vs. Traditional Martial Arts vs. Reality Based Self Defence, and ultimately where we feel that we fit in. We finished up the session with a self assessment of our individual Karate, and set about creating some S.M.A.R.T. Goals to work towards, in the new year. Thursday: Planned: Karate (cancelled due to the election) Actual: Rest Day! Friday: Planned: Karate (Wife had conflicting plans) Actual: 45 min Treadmill Run - I'm a bit torn between happy and let down by myself with this run - Happy enough with the 8.42km distance, and 5m 21s per/km pace, but not so much with the fact that my bpm spent 73% of the that time in the Red zone, just achieve those results. Saturday: Planned: Bag-Work Actual: Bodyweight Circuits - As with last week, I concentrated my efforts on Sets of 10-down-to-1 reps, focusing again Chest (push ups) Core (bicycle crunches) and Arms (bicep curls and tricep dips) Sunday: Rest Day! Down as such, and kept that way... Travess
I opted to (mostly) put my calendar on hold this week, as things fell in to place, that allowed me to spend more time in the Dojo instead. Monday: Karate - We've been hitting the takedown / ground based partner drills quite hard recently, so today, we took step back, and just focused solely on Grade Group Kata. Tuesday: Rest Day! Wednesday: Run Day - This was the only part of my Calendar that I stuck to! 10km @ 53m 27s (5m 21s per/km) Thursday: Back to Karate again tonight, for the penultimate (club) session of the year, which, having had a session off from hitting the floor hard, we returned once more to Traps, Holds and Takedowns. Friday: As tonight is the final (official) Karate class, before our Christmas hiatus, Sensei decided to turn it into an Open Matt Night, allowing us free to cover what ever our hearts desired. I was still feeling all of last night's Breakfalls, so opted to stick to some light Kata, specifically Sanseru and Seipai, both of which I am still very much in the novice zone with. Saturday: Back in the Dojo once again, for the final time this week, this time for some Instructor Development Training. Sunday: Rest Day! Down as a rest day, desperately needed as a rest day, so absolutely will be kept as a rest day... Travess
