Back from Hiatus

I haven't posted here since around Thanksgiving when my schedule went crazy. Since then I had end of semester crunch, E and I have been to New York, Spain, Morocco, Switzerland, the new semester started, and I've settled back into training mode (the weird spring semester version). So, back to my Thursday routine digest:

FEB 01 2012

Obviously, I’ve gotten off track in logging here. I’ve been trying to maintain my logging at Fitocracy, but it is far less detailed than the posts that I make here. And so, today I’m back on it.

I’ll start with Sunday of this week and catch-up for this week and then start regular logging again. So…Sunday.

Sunday is our normal conditioning day with Coach. He killed us on this one. We started out with running in place, jumping jacks, etc. The normal warm-up kinds of stuff. But he kicked in really quickly with the hops, burpees, jump split-squats, explosive jump and jacks, etc. My legs were ready to fail and I could barely get up in my last burpees when he changed pace and had us grab small dumbbells. From here we began punching continuously for about 20 minutes. My shoulders were past failure and I could barely hold my arms up in resting/fighting stance. Everything hurt. Everything was beginning to cramp. Arms, shoulders, calves, small core muscles. On to push-ups and planks. Then we switched to duck walk races, push-up races, etc. The plyometric push-up wheelbarrow races were a godsend after all the other stuff. I don’t know why they felt less terrible in comparison. At the end, we ran sprints. And my entire body was torched.

Monday, I was feeling the effects of Friday’s lifting session followed by Sunday’s conditioning. I came into striking class in the morning and got to work with Lefty D. We were working on flows to strike-kick combos and counter kicks. Working with a lefty who is focused on striking primarily was good work for me. I had run 4.5 miles to warm-up and by 10 minutes in was loosening up.  I’m gaining comfort and balance with my legs, but it’s been a while since I kicked regularly, and there is some serious motor program building and refinement going on.

Today, I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck. I headed into the gym for my private. Coach had M working with me for the full hour. I was drilling moving around, controlling with my jab, counter jabbing, set-ups and follow-ups, parrying, parry-counters. All good. A LOT of leg movement and my left shulder was still torched and aching badly. After an hour of drills, we all bagged up and headed to the park for sprints. M, A, P, BR, and I all raced back and forth across the field running wind sprints for over half an hour. By the end, we were all grateful to hear “time.” I was pushing myself today and only M was able to consistently stay ahead of me. That being said, I got the feeling that A wasn’t pushing very hard. When he turned it on, I couldn’t catch him.

I feel rough. Feed, rest, and back at it in morning.

DEAD LEGS? JUST ADD KICKS!

FEB 02 2012

This morning M, E, Coach and I ran together. Marcos and I had dead legs from the previous several days of training (including yesterday’s sprints). We decided to keep it short at 3 miles instead of our normal 5. Even so, we were sloooow. When we got back to the gym, I stretched for 10 minutes, skipped some rope, and shadow-boxed to try to stay warm and not tighten up.

When we started striking, it was clear that my legs weren’t through the grinder yet. I got paired with P, and traded leg kicks inside and out for sets of 20. We then did some combo kicks to the leg and ribs, and some straight kicks before working on kick parries, and counters. Painful as it was, I didn’t bruise.

When I got home, I banged out 40 push-ups and 100 crunches for a silly Fitocracy quest.

FITOCRACY QUESTING

FEB 05 2012

Today Coach cancelled conditioning. He suggested that we rest, as many of us were pretty beat up this week and he apparently is planning to push us next week. Of course, I had a couple days off due to full faculty crits and Moby Francke’s visit, so I didn’t take his advice and instead used the day off to make a workout routine that would satisfy a gang of Fitocracy quests.

I’m not going to log all the ridiculousness, but what I did was make a list of the exercises to satisfy 10 quests. Wherever there were repeats of an exercise, I kept the highest rep/set/weight requirement and deleted the lesser ones. I ended up with about 20 activities that E and I knocked out in about an hour. After that we ran 2 miles with the dogs (dual-purposing exhausting the canines and satisfying a quest requirement). In the end, we satisfied 10 quests in a single workout. And then I slept like I’d earned it.

BACK TO THE RITUAL

FEB 06 2012

Today M and I met for our morning run and were back to the 5 mile pre-training run. We were slow (about 9:08 pace) but got a good sprint for the last 1/8 mile. the weather has been beautiful for morning runs along Bayshore.

Coach murdered us in training. Bag drills without breathers for rounds wherein he would change pace, combos, intensity, speed, etc by calling out changes. After pre-exhausting us, it was time for flow drills to take-downs, clinch-knees, and combinations thereof. As one of us was throwing up and others managing breathing to prevent joining him, we switched back to bag drills for a sprint to the end that left my shoulder girdle feeling like chewed up burger.

Good stuff.

CLIMBING STAIRS IN THE RAIN

FEB 08 2012

I had my private this morning. We switched it up, and I was working close work, bullying with my shoulders and driving into the ropes, etc. After a few rounds of mitts, Coach had M glove up and give me some work. M came hard and was pushing. We were in nearly constant contact, pushing, turning, and taking short shots, turning each other, using the body to close and open space for short hooks, uppercuts, etc. We each landed some nasty ones. I ate two chin shots that has left my jaw unable to close fully. That’s what I get for leading with my head.

After my private, we all headed to the park for sprints. It was raining lightly and had rained last night, so sprints on the grass were out of the question (too large a risk for injury). Instead, coach had us go to the hill and run stairs up and down for rounds with intermittent sprints between the up and down staircases. I felt REAL good on these. To finish us off, he sent us up and dow the hill in duckwalk races. That sucked. A LOT. I kinda liked it.

FEELING GOOD

FEB 09 2012

I felt pretty good today – excepting my jaw which I still can’t close fully. This morning, we had boxing at 7:00am. Coach had us all working bag drills fairly intensely. It was round after round after hard, fast, and intense punching with the usual screams of “turn your hip” and “right hand up” and such.

After we finished, M and I went for a 2.5 mile run with Coach (about 8.5 min pace) to stay warm. Sprinted the last 1/8 mile and still felt strong. At 9:00 we started up MMA training with the MMA team. More bag drills followed by partner drills of continuous punching exchanges with intermittent shots and kicks countered by short combos and kicks. Did some fighting forward and backward kicking and counter kicking. I worked with New D, so I got some work with a natural south paw. Nice.

After work, I met Erica and we did 3 miles of road work. Slow pace (about 9 minutes), but steady and felt nice to be out in the cool air along the bay.