Day 842

​ Better Arms Day 6
Splits app. Day 6 Intermediate.

Poomsae training. Tonight we went through pattern 5. The Powers-That-Be have apparently decided to change an angle of a hand strike in this pattern. We'd all learnt it as a knife-hand strike, where the blade of the hand faces forward (but on an angle). This has now been changed so that the palm faces forward, but in a straight line with the forearm or else it would look like a bear claw. Why? Dunno. Maybe someone somewhere just wanted a change. Ah, poomsae - keeps you on your toes! We finished with more "against the wall" work - 40 knee-ups es, and then 40 side kick prep up-and-downs es. When asked which we felt more, we unanimously declared the side kick, whereupon we were told that was good because that exercise is the total best for strengthening the hip for nice high side kicks. Great...

Quick taste of winter today. Went down to almost -2° this morning, and when I came back from training tonight, it was 6° but that wind made it feel just under 1°. Brr. Got to be careful again now, coming out hot and sweaty into such coolth. Probably need to put socks on again too. Ah, the things you have to remember when the mercury drops!

Oh heavens, you scared me with your HR misreading, LOL!!!

Day 841

​ Better Arms Day 5. Went to the heavy bag for the first set.
Splits app. Day 5 Intermediate.
ZR5k training. Funny thing happened today. Funny, that is, in retrospect, but at the time it was a little alarming. I was running along, doing the final 10-minute free-form run, when I checked my FitBit to see what my heart rate was. Imagine my surprise when I saw 171!! And it kept going up!!! I thought, goodness me, and slowed to a walk. But the numbers kept getting higher. How could this be?! I was quite alarmed when I saw 179 when I was just walking. Then I realised that I was looking at the distance (which was why the numbers kept increasing as I kept walking!), not the HR! My HR was actually 112 at that time so I ran for the final 5 or so minutes.
Chloe Bruce splits follow-along Glad I got those yoga blocks for Christmas.

Taekwondo general training. One of the trainee instructors took the class today. Ran to warm-up, then the 30-second on, 30-second off drills - pre-squats, push-ups, switches, sort of flutter kicks but slower and the leg goes as high up as you can get it, spidermans to the hand, jumping jacks, sit-ups, diver squats, punches, and 180° jump turns. Then we did the same sort of kicking drills as previously (I think this is the programme for the next few weeks, if not the whole term), 30 seconds, 20 seconds, 10 seconds, of instep kick with switch, then again with pull-back and switch. Then turning kick but just with switch. Some cut kicks then we partnered up and did cut kick -> turning kick, one-on-one, for a while, before we got out the paddles and worked on our back side kicks. Continuing to improve, which is lovely.

Day 840

​ Better Arms Day 4.
Splits app. Day 4 Intermediate.

Poomsae training. The coach is off sick - tested positive for Covid - so we were led by our lad who went to the Worlds. Worked pattern 5. Not to the same intensity as we did pattern 4 last week, but there was a number of things I picked up that I need to improve (gosh, what a surprise... ).

Bit of a quiet day today. Didn't have a good night last night and by the feel of things, won't have one tonight either. Ah, it comes and goes. Spent a bit of time checking out YouTube for arnis workouts. Isn't it funny how sometimes, a word can suddenly seem quite absurd? So I'm looking at twirling, and the more I read the word "twirl" the sillier it seemed to be. I'm sure it's not just me who's suddenly struck by the absurdity of certain words - not their meanings, but their sounds. At least, I hope it's not just me...

Day 839

​ 30 Days of Gravity Day 2
​ Better Arms Day 3.
Splits app. Day 3 Intermediate.

Taekwondo general training. Warming up with some turning kicks to iranians. Then we did some running. After about 5 or so laps, we did three laps faster, and then two laps faster still. Then we went onto the HIIT stuff again, but this time, all exercises were only 30 seconds in duration! I think the GM realised that the minute thing was a little challenging. Let's see if I can remember the exercises: switch-backs, wall-sit, flutter kicks, push-ups, swimmers, push-outs, spiderman planks (foot to hand), then a variant on that where the opposite foot reached tha hand, pre-squats, and sit-ups, but not in that order. Kicking similar to last week - instep kick, first with the simultaneous switch, then with a pull-back and switch. That was also timed. And then we did it with turning kick. Grabbed two paddles and a partner, and we did turning kick with the switch. Finally, we did back side kick to two paddles - kick one and through to the second. My partner and I were both pleased with ours because last year, our back side kicks totally sucked, but this year we actually can do them. They can be improved, of course, and we got some tips to do just that. Had a go (including a kick-hop combo) and were impressed by our brilliance! I really don't feel so rubbish at the back side kick now.

36 flights of stairs so far today. There'll be another couple before bed.

CaptainCanuck I don't think running such trails is going to be a frequent thing!

Nice! You might want to invest in some trail running shoes if you are tackling such routes.

It does seem strange to think that anything in Australia gets more snow than Switzerland. I think if I lived there that I would have to go find some every year.

Thanks for "re-posting", now I can see them.
That sculpture really looks amazing.

TheLibrarian I don't know why that happens! I've reposted them so...

The pictures are invisible again ...

Day 838

ZR5k training. The Lad wanted to do the same walk as we did yesterday so I decided to do my running there. Perhaps not my best idea...
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Anyway, he decided we'd do the circuit five times (which was fine by me), but by the time we started the second, he had dropped it down to three. A little later, he decided that twice was fine and we'd stop when we got back to the car! I'd finished the running training shortly into the second circuit, so did the remaining 1.5k just as a nice walk. This time we went up to the lookout where there was a sculpture, surprisingly entitled The Nest:
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And for those who may be interested, though you'll have to wait a little while for the snow to fall:
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​ Better Arms Day 2.

Some generous person donated to my Climb it for Climate page. How lovely, thank you! Today, I added almost twice yesterday's height. Obviously donations spur me on.

Thanks, CaptainCanuck Fun fact: those mountains you see are part of the Australian Alps, and they receive more snow than Switzerland. Not sure about Canada, though!

Very nice.

You are lucky to live in such terrain, where I live now is relatively flat with nothing on the horizon except clouds.

Day 837

​ 30 Days of Gravity Decided to take my own advice and use a programme on my strength days. This means, of course, that the programme will take quite a bit longer than 30 consecutive days to complete, but then, nothing says it has to take 30 consecutive days, right? ​ I didn't do the wall-sit to failure because that bores me, so I just did it for a minute each time. The Lad decided to sit on my "lap" for part of the second sit. That was fun...
Better Arms Just for fun. (I really need to get another word!)
Splits app. Day 2 Intermediate.
2 x 10 slow eccentric push-ups.
Walk. Went to the Arboretum and did the Dairy Farmers Hill. I had to do a bit of a hill because of one of the challenges I've signed up for this month - Climb it for Climate. I've elected to "climb" Mt Kosciuszko at 2,228m and every flight of stairs I take, or hill I climb, adds to my total elevation (https://www.climbitforclimate.com.au/topnotch-hy). The other challenge is a Walk/Jog Challenge in support of dementia research (https://www.impossiblewalkjog.com.au/fundraisers/topnotchhy) and I think I've elected to do the standard 100k. I even wore the sun visor today when I went out. The whole family went out on the walk because it was such a perfect autumn day.

Looking out eastward over the Lake.

The Ranges to the west (with that wonderful autumn sky).

And this one, looking south-east, has a convenient red cross right about where I live. So you see there are lots of hills around for me to climb!

Ooh that does sound fun. I was doing several Goodreads Challenges but got so behind that I gave up... I’m still behind, but I might keep that one in mind for later.

Good job on your “10”-minute run!

LizardFriend95 There was a reading challenge listed that does sound a bit of fun - alphabet soup. Read one book for each letter of the alphabet, with Q, X and Z just having to be in the title. I actually have a favourite book that starts with a Q and one that has a main title word starting with a Z, so I might do this one too!

Day 836

ZR5k training. Did this on the treadmill today. Actually, as it happened, the app stopped working for me (first time this has happened!) just about halfway through the running drills, but having put my hand to the plough again, I would not be baulked so I walked while I closed down the app and opened another, and then did the 10-minute run as a supply run on Zombies, Run! Actually, I did 11 minutes, but what's a minute between friends? I took that running slower, though, at only 4mph, but I did manage (finally again) to run for the whole 11 minutes, so that's a win.
Splits app. Day 1 Intermediate. Don't know how often I've done this app (and still not achieved my splits!), but I like it and I've only ever come across worse ones, so I'll stick with this.
Primal movement 101 follow-along - 13 minutes.
10 x slow eccentric push-ups. Actually, as they were eccentric ones, I guess they were more "let-downs" than "push-ups"!

Finished the book I started yesterday.

Almost forgot. It's the end of the month so the end of the Choose Your Path challenge. My results:
https://myvision.visionaustralia.org...ers/topnotchhy