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Day 626

📌 Daily Floss
📌 Counting Victories

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Programmes:
- Day 30 Ten I really dislike superman stretch. But still -
- Day 12 Core Strength
- Days 28 and 29 Pathfinder+ For the last week, the weather forecasters have been saying that there's 100% chance of its bucketting down tomorrow, but I had to do a half-hour walk. Tomorrow is another running day, and I did not relish the idea of an additional 30 minutes on the treadmill. As today was an absolutely beautiful day (that cloud burnt off and it was quite sunny. Honestly!), I did my walk today, thereby doing two days in one. I'll have the day off tomorrow so that I finish the programme at the end of the month.
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Challenges:
- Day 7 Touch Your Toes
- Day 28 De-stress
- Day 28 Daily Push-ups
​ Poomsae coach challenge - 10 burpees, 10 squats, 10 push-ups, 10 sit-ups x 10. Round 5. I am NEVER doing this again!!

Day 625

📌 Daily Floss
📌 Counting Victories

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Programmes:
- Day 29 Ten
- Day 12 Core Strength I had been looking forward to today. Felt like this was a bit of a rest day, but my abs were sore and tired and I was tired and so simply couldn't do it. On the upside, I still have it to look forward to tomorrow.
- Day 27 Pathfinder+ This was so hard on the knees! They were already tired and a bit sore after the running, and this was a killer. Why couldn't everyone have just linked hands? Oh, plus optional subquest because I didn't really have to use my knees!
​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Challenges:
- Day 6 Touch Your Toes Still finding it difficult to bend down because of that hamstring, but I am pushing more on the leg swings to increase the height and am now often getting the right foot up to about head height with no real difference in discomfort. Previously I've stopped when the hammy nagged, but it doesn't nag louder that bit higher. The left leg hits me in the shoulder, but I think my knee may be a little bent. And I use momentum, not strength to get there.
- Day 27 De-stress
- Day 27 Daily Push-ups
Poomsae coach challenge - 10 burpees, 10 squats, 10 push-ups, 10 sit-ups x 10. Round 4.
ZR 5k training. Wk 3, WO1 = 43 minutes, 3.91km. Sudden ramping up of things! This week's workout is: 5min walk, 5min free-form run, then 1min run, 1 min walk, 10 knee lifts (high knees) x 5, then 8min free-form run, 2min stretching, 8min free-form run. My legs felt tired and sore and so did my abs, so I really wasn't in the mood. After the first walking, I did only 2min run, then 1min walk, and 2min run. I just didn't feel warmed up enough. I was determined to do at least the first 8min set of running as usual, but gave myself permission to reduce the speed come the second set. Instead of stretching, the option was just for walking. We do this at training too - after sprints, we do very gentle walking for a while, so I dropped the speed to only 2mph for those couple of minutes and just relaxed a bit. I started off the last set at my earlier faster slow speed (if that makes sense!) but after only a few seconds, I cranked it up to my now-usual speed of 4mph, telling myself that I could reduce the speed at the half-way mark. But at that mark, I felt I could keep going. It was hard, though. The last two weeks, the most running I had to do was 12 1/2 minutes in total. This (if I continued to run all the free-form running) was 26 minutes. Now, for people who habitually run, this must seem like nothing, but for those of us whose running is limited to chasing down the chickens in the backyard, well!

I think today the hamstring turned a corner - so to speak. Suddenly I noticed that it wasn't quite so sore when I was sitting. The physio had said that it had been strained in a very awkward spot (right at the top) so essentially every time I sat down, I was sitting on an injury so of course the darned thing would hurt! And being a hamstring, well, they take their own sweet time to heal. But today, I felt that it wasn't quite so bad. I'm looking at restarting one of the stretching/splits programmes I did last year but only at beginner level. I need to try to recover some of what I have lost, and I also want to keep up the flexibility of the rest of me, including the other leg.

I'm afraid even martial arts exams have been messed up these days, do your best, that's all

Oh Gosh ... what is there to add, but ... CATS!

Your dedication to the art really shines trough as does your knowledge of it- im sure it went well! My only "real" experience in belted martial arts was from kickboxing as a youth, so cant really comment on grading as an adult (and i find belts and dans confusing in martial arts xD) but that sounded real stressful xD anyway nice going, keep it up

Thank, Mamatigerj

Day 624

📌 Daily Floss
📌 Counting Victories

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Programmes:
- Day 28 Ten
- Day 12 Core Strength
- Day 26 Pathfinder+ I knew adding another survivor would be a bad idea. I was very tempted to let someone starve today! Of course, because I'm such a hero, I didn't, but hey, why couldn't one or more of the others have given me a hand?
​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Challenges:
- Day 5 Touch Your Toes
- Day 26 De-stress
- Day 26 Daily Push-ups
Poomsae coach challenge - 10 burpees, 10 squats, 10 push-ups, 10 sit-ups x 10. So that's round 3, only two more to go.

Got my pattern videoed this afternoon. It was absolutely terrible. I joked to my daughter that it would take 7 tries, and I think I actually exceeded that estimate! Three of the failed attempts were just not my fault, though. It was the cats! The first time, one cat wandered onto the mats and sat down directly in front of me as I was taking long stances forward. My cameraman lost it completely and the camera jiggled and that was the end of that. The cat was shut up in the spare room. Take 2: another cat wandered in and was chased. She hid behind something and I said to let her be if she would stay there. She did stay there - right up until the final station when she popped out directly under my feet! She also was shut up in the spare room. We hunted for the third cat but couldn't find her. Decided that, as she was a fairly inert one anyway, she wouldn't be a problem. And she wasn't. I mean, I think I got all the way to the third station before she came thumping down the stairs and yelled at me! She was then shut up in the spare room. Then I wasn't happy with my performance. And again. And then I stepped too close to the edge of the mat. Etc etc etc. Finally I'd had enough and said that it would do. I cut the bit of the video with the first cat to show that part and submitted it to illustrate what I had to contend with! You know how your voice always sounds really bizarre when you hear it taped? Well, I reckon the same phenomenon was responsible for the way my pattern looked! Not terribly happy with it, but it shows that I know it. So that's all submitted and out of the way.

Part of me loves learning new patterns, but I have learnt four this year so far, and three of those are black belt patterns. I'll try to explain what this means. As a coloured belt, (and I write only from the experience of my club), you do one pattern every term, but the third pattern is repeated in your fourth term and you get a new belt. The ninth pattern is Koryo, the first black belt pattern. Once you have your first dan (or, in other words, are awarded your black belt), it will take a minimum of one year to get your second dan. Two more years and you've got your third dan. Three more years, fourth dan. And so on. This might be a little different - some say the number of years between is the same number as the dan you are going for; others say the years are the number of the dan you are leaving. As a black belt, you do just one pattern at each grading, so you can spend a fair bit of time honing that pattern. As much as I like learning new things, and don't want to be stuck doing the same pattern over and over again, I would love some class time just to work on the newer patterns to get them better. I've even had to learn a little bit of the next pattern because we've done it as drillwork in Poomsae. I don't mean to sound ungrateful or anything - after all, I am in Elite, but sometimes I just feel a little overwhelmed.
There. Whinge over. I know it's just the stress of this videoing. I hate it.

Anyway, I've nearly finished Pathfinder+ and have to start thinking about the next programme. I was considering a running one, but I'm doing the ZR running training now so... Hmm, decisions, decisions.

Good luck to you!

That’s how I feel, too!

Thanks, Fenye Mianevem mavie DorothyMH Fremen It's not that I'm particularly worried about it, but when you're doing a pattern with other people, you can be fairly sure that nobody is looking at you all the time, but when it's a video...

Day 623

📌 Daily Floss
📌 Counting Victories

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Programmes:
- Day 27 Ten I was pleased with how seamlessly I transitioned between the different jumping jacks. Bit sad when I had to stop to do the step jacks. But then I got to do the jumping jacks and transitions again. And again...
- Day 11 Core Strength
- Day 25 Pathfinder+ O-oh, that's another survivor...
​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Challenges:
- Day 4 Touch Your Toes
- Day 25 De-stress
- Day 25 Daily Push-ups
Poomsae coach challenge - 10 burpees, 10 squats, 10 push-ups, 10 sit-ups x 10. Actually managed to do this again. Did it a bit slower than on Thursday because my lats were really killing me yesterday after it! Only three times more.

As well as the pattern, we have to submit a 30-second video of our doing cardio, so I got my daughter to video me on the treadmill, playing with the battle rope (which I've moved outside onto the deck where there is a bit more room), on the exercise bike, and doing jumping jacks (with lovely transitions). Got her to double the speed and make it 30 seconds, and added appropriate music - the first verse of the song I chose was exactly 30 seconds! It's a bit of fun so maybe any giggle they get out of it will make them forget any failures in my pattern.

DorothyMH You know, when I look at what some other people are doing, I feel I'm hardly doing anything at all!

Best luck

Wow you have a lot going on! Good luck with your lockdown video grading. I’m sure you’ll nail it!

All the best for grading

Good luck!