Pneumatised!

Wednesday (September 7), I went to the do jang since I hadn’t been in since last Thursday. It was closed for 4 days for a special training camp (mostly sparring, which I can do, but rather not spar all the time as the likelihood of injury is greater). Tuesday, I missed my gumdo class (too tired from staying up all night working on this site!), but practiced the candle snuffing later that night and had a good workout for my biceps and triceps that night. So, Wednesday I finally made it into the do jang.

I helped teach patterns that day and worked with 5 white belts (4 of which are testing next Saturday for their yellow belt… oh, I’m so proud of some of them having taught a few of them so far). Then I took the next taekwondo class and helped a new person get used to the class (it was her free trial class and obviously her first class).

After the do jang, Nathan and I met up for some track running. We did two warm-up laps with a break between. Then I did 4 laps together for a 1 mile run. My time was decent and what I expected it to be. For awhile now, I’ve been able to do a mile or a little over a mile in 10 minutes on the treadmill at the gym. Wednesday night, I did the mile in 9 minutes 55 seconds. Then Nathan and I headed home and did some stretches.

Thursday (September 8 ), I went to the do jang again for gumdo and taekwondo. I finally learned the second sword pattern. Today, I’m going to see if I got it right as Fridays they have more time to teach us our patterns. I will also have to learn the third dueling technique and third pattern. Taekwondo was good as usual. Always lots of cardio and kicking. After the class, I practiced my new sword pattern and ended up having to help some taekwondo blue belts with their pattern. Finally, I went to the gym to get in some weight training especially for my knee as it was starting to act up again.

Here’s the list of weight exercises:

Leg press
Hamstring flexor
Hip adductors
Hip abductors
Pull-ups (again military and parallel)
Dips
Chest press
Bar pulls (works the muscles next to the scapulae on the back)
Pectoral press
Shoulder fly
Shoulder lift
Back extensor
Bicep curl
Tricep extensor

As the gym was closing soon, I had to stretch first and then head home. I skipped doing pushups and situps as we do those in taekwondo class AND my arms were still quite worked out because of the candle snuffing I did on Tuesday.

This afternoon, I did a mile run. I decided that over time I should be able to do a mile run almost everyday as a warm-up exercise. Of course, today it was a bit of a workout, especially for my lungs (I felt like I couldn’t breathe too well today and was feeling choked even after I got back home). As it turns out, running from my home to Church and Bloor streets and back is 1 mile. As it’s a nice warm day, I thought it wouldn’t be too hot, but I did get quite hot running outside in the sun. It was also extremely busy for some reason on the sidewalks so I kept having to dodge people the whole time. I also had to stop running at one intersection to wait for the light to change, but I just ran in the spot doing knee-ups to keep the cardio up. In the end, I did the one mile in 9 minutes 18 seconds which is considerably better than Wednesday night (though, one could argue that I was probably more tired on Wednesday after taekwondo class). So, I was pretty happy about the time even if I still felt like I couldn’t breathe too well after getting home. It feels good to know I’m improving – even just a little at a time. 😀

Cassandrah
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