Pneumatised!

Friday, May 5

Nathan and I went to the gym. For some reason the weather was making me feel gloomy, and though I wanted to stay home, I went to the gym anyway. We did our usual exercises, but because the gym closes at 9 p.m. on Fridays we did not have time for the cardio machines.

Leg lifts
Pull-ups (aka chin-ups, military and parallel)
Dips
Leg press
Hamstring flexor (called seated leg curls)
Hip adductors
Hip abductors
Chest press
Seated row
Bar pulls (I think this is called the lateral pull-downs; it works the muscles next to the scapulae on the back)
Shoulder fly
Shoulder lift (this is called the shoulder press)
Back extensor
Pectoral fly

Free weights:
Situps (on a incline bench; worked out the obliques as well by doing double punches during the situp)
Bicep curls
Squats with weights
Push-ups

Saturday, May 6

Saturday is the start of the black belt test training. First, there was a colour belt test, then a black belt meeting, and then training. We practiced our patterns and one-step sparring techniques. For second dan, I need to know fifteen one-step sparring techniques, all the colour belt patterns and the first black belt pattern, Koryo. Fairly standard stuff. Tomorrow, we have one hour of training.

The test starts July 8 at 8 a.m. I have adjusted my countdown timer accordingly. So, on a nice, bright Saturday morning, I have to be up and ready to run a 10k. That’s kind of a good thing because I wouldn’t want to be running outside at high noon in the summer here. After the 10k, we head back to the do jang for the rest of the test, which I’m told includes 1000 skips (after a 10k run, skipping might be a little harder than normal). On the 8th we finish at 5 p.m., and then continue on Sunday where we have to perform some stuff at our BBQ picnic in the park in front of an audience. Lovely. People get to come by and watch. Not sure what time it will be, but I think it’s around 9 or 10 a.m.

Anyway, hoping tomorrow (er… today, since it’s 3 a.m. already) I’ll get some more practice in.

BB,
Cassandrah
Your local black belt
Brigid’s Flame

MM,

I missed gumdo class, but made it in time for taekwondo class. I can’t believe there is now only nine weeks two days left until the 10k run and the black belt test. Eek! I really need to get some more training time in. Official black belt test training starts on Saturday. Every weekend from then on is booked with training time. During the week, I’m going to try to get some running and gym time in on top of the taekwondo training. I expect I will be very busy soon. Since I needed a break from writing so much, I decided to finish reading that Robert Jordan book I put aside while I was absorbed with writing those reiki manuals. It will be hard for me to write while in the middle of the crazy training coming up, so I figured I’ll be reading more in the next little while.

After taekwondo class, I went to the gym to get in some weight training. Below is a list of my exercises:

Leg lifts
Pull-ups (aka chin-ups, military and parallel)
Dips
Leg press
Hamstring flexor (called seated leg curls)
Hip adductors
Hip abductors
Chest press
Seated row
Bar pulls (I think this is called the lateral pull-downs; it works the muscles next to the scapulae on the back)
Shoulder fly
Shoulder lift (this is called the shoulder press)
Back extensor
Stomach flexor

Free weights:
Pectoral fly (lie down with weight in each hand, arms extended; pull hands together at arm’s length in front of chest)
Two shoulder exercises (no idea what they are called; someone showed them to me)
Situps (on a incline bench; worked out the obliques as well by doing double punches during the situp)
Bicep curls
Squats with weights

I was suitable tired after all the exercise and headed home.

BB,
Cassandrah
Your local black belt
Brigid’s Flame

MM,

I bought a new TV on Thursday and spent most of the weekend enjoying the LCD screen – TV just looks much more pretty, even the boring shows. Ah, well, wasted no time in renting some good movies to watch on it – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and King Kong.

So, I took some days off of training and just relaxed a bit – also did a little bit of cleaning up. Would you believe it took me nearly half a day to copy some files from about a hundred 3.5 inch diskettes? Damn! Anyway, that is done and now I have about a hundred old, but usable diskettes to give away to Goodwill or anyone who wants them.

After the weekend, I was itching for a run. I ended up running a good mile and a half yesterday (Monday, May 1). My time was 12 minutes 33 seconds.

Today, I making myself go to gumdo and taekwondo class. Need to get out of the apartment today.

BB,
Cassandrah
Your local black belt
Brigid’s Flame

MM,

I decided to do a two-mile run today. With less than eleven weeks left to go for the 10k, I thought I should increase the distance and thereby, increase my endurance. Basically, I ran the normal one mile route and then ran back. My time 17 minutes 38 seconds (8 minutes 43 seconds for the first mile and 8 minutes 55 seconds for the second mile).

After I came home, I ended up practicing some candle begi. For some reason, I couldn’t concentrate well on my test for it and only managed to snuff out one candle with the sword. I think I just get distracted by having people watch the test. Anyway, the sword practice was good for me to do.

Tomorrow, I should go to the do jang for gumdo and taekwondo class. (Hopefully, I can get some work done tonight though.)

BB,
Cassandrah
Your local black belt
Brigid’s Flame

MM,

After all the gumdo training last week, I decided to take a few days off and let my body recover. (I managed to get some more work done on my reiki manuals and curriculum.) Today, I felt I needed the running and the gym more than the do jang. So, Nathan and I headed out to the gym tonight.

First, we ran 1 mile to Yonge at Bloor. It was a little cold today, and I could feel it in my lungs. Because I have allergies, the phlegm seems to freeze up in my lungs and stomach in the cold. Thus, we running in the cold, I sometimes find it a bit hard to breathe. The only thing I thought of that helps is to occasionally breathe out of my hand. The warm air helps loosen up the phlegm. In any case, I did the run better than I expected in the cold weather. My time today was 8 minutes 31 seconds.

From Yonge and Bloor, we walked underground to the gym at Manulife.

We started with the following weight training exercises:

Leg lifts
Pull-ups (aka chin-ups, military and parallel)
Dips
Leg press
Hamstring flexor (called seated leg curls)
Hip adductors
Hip abductors
Chest press
Seated row
Bar pulls (I think this is called the lateral pull-downs; it works the muscles next to the scapulae on the back)
Pectoral fly
Shoulder fly
Shoulder lift (this is called the shoulder press)
Back extensor

Free weights:
Two shoulder exercises (no idea what they are called; someone showed them to me)
Situps (on a incline bench; worked out the obliques as well by doing double punches during the situp)
Bicep curls
Squats with weights

After the weights, I did 20 minutes of cycling while Nathan did 20 minutes of the elliptical. After, we did some push-ups. I do a variation I like to call “Master Kim push-ups” because I learned them from him. Basically, what you do is get into your standard push-up position with your hands beside you at chest level. Instead of extending your arms like in normal push-ups, you lift your whole body off the ground with just your hands and your toes, and then you bounce up and down on the arms keeping the elbows bent at 90 degrees. These were hard to get used to at first, but once you get used to the position you’re supposed to hold, it gets easy to do 100 of these. You know you are doing these properly if at the end of 100 your triceps are sore because that’s what these work out.

After the push-ups, we then stretched out and headed home.

Ten weeks four days left until 10k and black belt test. One week four days until our first training day. We supposedly need to attend twelve out of eighteen special training days, which run every weekend until the test. I guess my weekends are booked starting next weekend.

Oh, and check out the countdown timer after my signature. It’s cool. A lot of seconds until the test. Now, this is amusing to me. At 1.3 kicks per second (or one kick in 0.76 seconds), in 6,332,567 seconds (the countdown time left as I did this), if it was possible to keep kicking for that long 😉 , you could do 8,232,337.1 kicks.

BB,
Cassandrah
Your local black belt
Brigid’s Flame

MM,

My gumdo test was yesterday. Yay, I’m a green belt now, and I get to learn some new patterns. I ended up taking class first and then we did the test right after class. I was tired, but quite happy to have that over with.

I didn’t go to the do jang today. I figured I deserved a break.

Eleven weeks left until the 10k and black belt test.

BB,
Cassandrah
Your local black belt
Brigid’s Flame

MM,

I managed to get to the do jang Thursday for gumdo and taekwondo class. I was tired though. I got about four hours sleep. Since it was Thursday, we did a load of speed kicking for taekwondo. My legs felt so heavy for some reason. Probably just recovering from all the exercise this week. Ah… I remember now, it used to be like that when I was at the height of my crazy taekwondo training. I used to train Monday, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. By Thursday, my legs always felt heavy, and then sometimes I would take sparring class on Friday. Strange though, because I don’t think I’m as slow as I feel on those days. Anyway, I did gumdo class first, then taekwondo, and about 40 minutes into the taekwondo crazy kicking class, I was starting to feel light-headed. Not good. So okay, while the Master is explaining our next drill, I just kneel down to the ground for a bit to let the blood flow back to my head. I still wonder how I managed to get through that class with only four hours of sleep – and after gumdo class too!

Tomorrow… er, tonight I guess, since it’s around 5 a.m. now, is my gumdo test for green belt. Yay! I get to learn new stuff after I test – that is always good motivation to test. Though, I think people should only test when they feel ready and when they know their stuff well enough. Well, it’s been six months since my last gumdo test, and I have been practicing off and on, so I think it’s about time. I just really hope I can snuff out two candles with my sword.

I suppose I should get some sleep now.

And yes, 11 weeks 1 day until I have to run 10k and test for my second dan. Time is a-ticking.

BB,
Cassandrah
Your local black belt
Being healthy is not a life goal – it’s a life 😉
Brigid’s Flame

MM,

It was such a nice day today, I decided that a run would be a good idea. I decided to go for a mile and a half run. I got a little too warm with the sun still shining strong, but it was better than being too cold. My time today was 12 minutes 30 seconds – my best time for the mile and a half so far. This works out to 8 minutes 20 seconds for a mile. Not bad. I will try to run a mile and a half more often as it is now less than three months until I run the 10k and test for my second dan black belt. Hehe… I have this joke in my head that my black belt is waiting at the finish line. 😉

Starting on May 6, I have black belt training scheduled every weekend. I expect I will be ultra-busy and will need uber-rest in the upcoming months.

Today’s official countdown: 11 weeks, 3 days left to go.

BB,
Cassandrah
Your local black belt
Being healthy is not a life goal – it’s a life
Brigid’s Flame

MM,

I went to the do jang today. I had to go for gumdo and taekwondo class. As it turns out, I get to test for my next colour belt for gumdo on Friday. 😀

I also have to get ready soon for the black belt test in July. I can’t believe in less than three months, I have to run a 10k. Eek! I should go for a run tomorrow. I need to run a good 1.5 miles.

Taekwondo class was good. Same old kicking stuff, but more advanced kicks these days – lots of tornado kicks. 🙂

Anyway, I have to pay for my black belt test and my gumdo test. I promised myself that I will go train on Thursday for gumdo and taekwondo. Friday, I will take the gumdo class before the test to warm myself up.

After gumdo and taekwondo class, I stayed around to practice my gumdo stuff some more. People are so distracting in the do jang sometimes. A little more training, a little less chatting would be nice.

When I got home, I practiced some more candle begi on two candles.

Anyway, tomorrow I should try to get a run in. I also need to get some more work done. I’m a little behind, I know, but all in it’s own time. *sigh* Just too much to do again.

BB,
Cassandrah
Being fit and healthy is not a life goal – it’s a life
Brigid’s Flame