3 in a row

Kids classes this morning. First the little ones. They were really hyper this morning and it was hard for T and I to keep them under control. One of the little ones was telling me that she's drawn a picture of me teaching Kung Fu - I'm looking forward to seeing it next week!

Then the beginners. A much bigger class this week than last, which made it a bit more spirited. Did some sparring with the padded sticks at the end, which they seem to enjoy. I hate refereeing it though - I can never tell when someone has scored a clear point, I just give the bout to whoever gives the impression they're working hardest.

By the time I was going through the 3rd warm-up I was once again exhausted, with legs like lead, so I'm never at my best with the improvers. They're still a bit foxed by the step-in-and-hook drill, I've a vague recollection that there's a defence to it for a 2-person set that we haven't started yet, although it has to be said my memory of the kick-boxing syllabus is very hazy. They're struggling a bit with the windmill-arms sequence too. Good work on their forms though, and now we have another month to prepare for the competition I think some of them will be ready to have a go at a display.

Leading Ladies

It being the last Friday of the month, it was my turn to teach the Ladies Kickboxing class this week. Wasn't anywhere near so nervous this time, although it started badly by me being on the last minute getting there. So we started slightly late, and I didn't manage to get through all the stuff I'd been planning to, but I think I managed to keep everyone fairly busy and working to their ability. Very little time for pad work at the end though, which was a shame, because I think it helps make people think they've worked really hard in a class if they spend the last few minutes getting a bit of a sweat on with the pads - they leave on a bit of a high.

Towards the end of the class a crowd of what I think were cheerleaders turned up, they had the hall booked after us, they were watching through the door. 2 of them came in afterwards and asked me if they could come along next week, so that's good.

Better to burn out....

Thursday Kung Fu - spent a lot of time on Siu Lim Tao as a whole class, then I taught the beginnings of the basic Bokken applications to a couple of Green sashes. Finished up with some 2-person Wing Chun work.

Then Tai Chi. I was making a really big effort to concentrate on what I was doing during the short form (I guess a Buddhist would call it "being in the moment"?) because I know I have a real tendency to drift off mentally and start thinking about other stuff - particularly going over Kung Fu stuff that I've just done. I think my Tai Chi has been suffering lately because of this. Anyway, Thursday nights studious attention to the short form seemed to pay off, it felt good and D complimented me on it later, saying I had looked particularly relaxed (which at first hearing as a bit odd, given my deep concentration, but in fact I was consciously trying to be relaxed and to sink)

After short form we did some straight sword (I think it's Li style?), wherein I reverted to type and started thinking about how the form would look if I speeded it up a bit and did it in more of a Kung Fu style. More mindfulness practice needed, obviously!

After class we went to the pub for a farewell drink for L, who is off to start a new life in Korea. I suspect I'm going to miss her.

The Marshmallow Kid

Kickboxing, Kung Fu, Advanced Kung Fu. 3 solid hours of exertion....then toting extra big bags of pads and gloves back to my car because I'm taking the class later this week. Expected to feel drained this morning, but actually I feel surprisingly energetic - although I have a big bruise on my forearm - can't remember how I got it.

Bit of a Wing Chun night  with Chum Choi, chi sau and Biu Jeet, then some nam chuan thrown in for good measure.

Magic pink gloves still working a treat for sparring, too!

Flat as a Pancake

Went out with other half Sunday morning. He wasn't prepared to go up the big hill, so 4.25 miles on the flat. 

Counting down to the 10k now - and no chance to run this week - meetings with Airframers and visit to CAA interfering with my training schedule!

Catch Up

Haven't managed to blog much over the last couple of days so time to catch up. Nothing unusual, just Kung Fu and Tai Chi Thursday, KickBoxing Friday and 3 Kids Kung Fus this morning. Felt really exhausted by the end this morning....but arrived home to find  the number I'll be running with in the Rushcliffe 10k in a week or two, so need to find the energy to go for a training run tomorrow am. Might get to run with the other half if his mum doesn't mind looking after the kids for an hour or so.

Oh, and the gloves arrived!

Bad Hair Day

Went out for a run with A at lunchtime today even though it was very overcast and damp which is a bit of a nightmare from a hair perspective.

About 2.75 miles, felt really quite easy like I could have gone much further - think the hill at the weekend did me some good. A and some of the other Harriers have a hare-brained scheme to run around the coast of Cornwall over the May Day weekend - running in 10 mile shifts through night and day. I declined to get involved this year....but maybe next time?

Single Whip Throw

Went to the Tai Chi class tonight, got over the school thing fairly quickly (there seems to be a lot more fences than when I was there. I guess security wasn't such a concern back in the 80's). 

It's a while since I've done beginners Tai Chi, it has a very different flavour to a beginners Kung Fu class, but I enjoyed going over Single Whip Throw a few times and the class all seemed keen to learn about the philosophy behind Tai Chi as well as learning the moves. The gym was freezing though, so we had to keep moving rather than stand around and talk.

Night Off

No training tonight because the community centre where we meet is being redecorated! Not sure what to do with myself during this enforced lay-off. So tomorrow night I'm going to go to a beginners Tai Chi session that runs at my old school. I was so unhappy at that place and haven't been anywhere near it since the day I walked out in the middle of an A-level chemistry lesson - now that I'm older and wiser it's time to slay a few demons perhaps?

Mountains or Molehills

New route this morning, g-maps tells me it's about 4.75 miles, but includes a long climb, which made it quite tiring at one point. It even made my legs hurt, which is unusual, usually it's my chest that feels it first cos my legs are pretty strong (if I say so myself).

Kooks, Led Zep, Lemonheads, Lloyd Cole, Madness, Madonna, Mansun on the shuffle. Fatigue failure of the casing I carry the shuffle in when I got home and took it off - obviously I need one of the new style that just clips on.

New Regime

Today's Kids Kung Fu was the first trial for the new system, 3 seperate, shorter classes. I'd say it went pretty well overall, certainly it was much easier to keep the kids engaged with the smaller classes, and the fact that they were all of roughly the same ability in each class made it easier to teach them and to push on to some more advanced stuff with the "Improvers" class.

The only draw back is how tired doing 3 sessions, and in particular 3 cardio warm-ups, has made me. As I type this I'm fighting to stay awake. I'd like to blame it on a cold I think I've got, but probably I'm just not fit enough yet.

7 Stars, 6 Harmonies

Back from Cologne. Over dinner with the guys from work I went with, turns out one of them studied 7-star Mantis for more than 10 years when he was younger. We had a good chat about it, and especially about how Kung Fu seems, both physically and philosophically, much subtler than Karate. I believe the style of Mantis I know is 6-Harmony. Not sure what the differences are - it wasn't really appropriate for us to start demonstrating our mad skills to one another in the middle of a restaurant in Germany!

Women's Kickboxing Friday night. Good class. Unfortunately one of the teen-aged girls came over all faint half way through. We sat her down and tried to get some more fresh air into the training hall, which was quite warm - she hadn't bought a drink with her, which is always a mistake, so we got her some water. She sat out for a while, but was keen to join in again towards the end, so hopefully it hasn't put her off too much.

Bokken but un-bowed

Lots of bokken at KF on Monday, went through all the sets I'm supposed to know. I'm quite fond of it as a weapon, not so some of the people I was teaching it to, who handle it very gingerly - I think the trick is to treat it as an extension of my self (same with the pole, which is my all-time favorite).

Kick-boxing was fun too, everyone there was fairly experienced so T drove us pretty hard and we covered lots of stuff. I've decided to invest in some heavier boxing gloves as an addition to the light sparring gloves I already have, looks like I've just won a pair of 10oz ones on e-bay. They're pink, which will add that fetching feminine touch don't you think?

Off to Cologne for a couple of days for work tomorrow, so no chance of running and I'll miss Thursday's Kung Fu and Tai Chi.

It's not a competition, but I'm winning

Still icey, but went out this morning anyway. Decided to mix things up a bit by doing my favorite route the other way round to normal, which I've never done before. Difficult to find my stride properly because of the patches of ice and snow that had to be dodged - my running shoes have no kind of grip, so I have to be careful. When I got down to the grass by the river, that was less slippery but frozen absolutely solid still.

Inadvertently found myself in the middle of a pack of rowers who were warming up for their morning's training with a run. This meant I had to speed up a gear so I could pass them (not that I really had to pass them, it's just my competitive streak coming out). Happily I seemed to manage this quite easily, so maybe I am getting fitter? (NB No, they weren't carrying their boat at the time!)

Anyway, about 3 and a quarter miles in all (I took a detour across the park because it wasn't as treacherous as the roads, which also turns out to be a short-cut when I mapped my route - but I didn't know that, honest!). Tunes: Julie Daniels, Kaiser Chiefs, Kinks and Kooks

Anarchy's Last Hurrah?

Kids Kung Fu today. Another new starter in the tinies class, I thought I recognised her mum and when we chatted it turns out I was right - she used to do Kung Fu with us a few years back before she had her kids....and now she's keen for them to learn it too. Seems like once you're bitten with the bug, it never quite leaves you. I'll start working on her to come back to an adult's class!

The older ones class was chaotic again, after some discussion T has decided to re-organise it and split it into two, so that the beginners/lower sashes get their own session, followed by the more senior sashes. New regime starts next week, so hopefully today was the last of the anarchy. I think this should work better, although it does mean J will have to find something to occupy herself with for the first hour. Perhaps I can persuade her she should help out?

No definite date for the competition yet, I can't help thinking it's bound to be on the day I'm going to see Kaiser Chiefs.

Scared?

Kung Fu tonight - good lesson with chance to work on my Li Pi and also teach the 2-person mantis set to the intermediates, and get chance to do my beloved Wing Chun Pole set. Well worth the journey out through the deep slush.

Afterwards, though, no D to take the Tai Chi lesson. Those of us who were there stood around looking at our shoes trying to decide what to do and waiting for one of us to volunteer to take the class. No-one did. So we all went home. And ever since getting back I've been regretting not stepping up to the challenge. I've never taken a Tai Chi class at all before, let alone the "advanced" class. But I have taken KF and kickboxing classes, and I do know quite a lot of Tai Chi. And it's not like they would have been a hostile crowd. We could have run the class as a joint effort. Can't decide whether it was cowardice or laziness, but next time I WILL do it.

Brutal

Monday - Kickboxing and Kung Fu. Since it was still snowing up a storm (nearly crashed the car on the way there - good job there weren't any pedestrians crossing at the moment I went in to a spectacular slow-motion-but-completely-uncontrollable skid) hardly anyone showed up, so I got to do a bit of training for myself as well as being the glamourous assistant.

While kickboxing isn't usually my favorite (I find it a bit crass and relatively mindless compared to Kung Fu or Tai Chi Chuan), I learnt what strikes me as a particularly brutal combo last night, involving strikes with the elbow and knee. It was peculiarly satisfying/enjoyable to practise (against someone padded up for protection, of course). Should I be worried by this aspect of my personality?

Snow

Ran this morning - I prefer to have Sundays as my rest day, but the tech review at work is looking like dragging on to a sixth and seventh day next week, so there'll be no chance to get out at lunchtime, just plenty of opportunity to practise trying to be "in the moment" instead of letting my mind wander off when it gets excruciatingly dull. 

Once I was out this morning though I quickly found my stride and got into the zone where I don't have to think about the running at all and my mind is free to muse over whatever floats into it. When I manage to find this zone I realise that perhaps I quite like running after all - but unfortunately I only get there once in a while.

Anyway, about 3.5 miles today (and including a bit of a hill, which is good), could have gone much further but didn't really have time. About half-way round it started snow - obviously I wasn't so far away from my body that I didn't notice that!