Have you succeeded or failed in achieving your goals?
Partial success. The first three weeks went well. I have improved. But here’s my excuses for last week and this week:
1) Extra hours at work – I substitute teach water fitness classes, so I get paid to exercise. Two instructors sick and one taking time off kept me plenty busy.
2) Two days of yard work at a Sensei’s house in preparation for his upcoming move – more exercise!
3) A tournament I hadn’t planned on competing in. I got unexpected $$$ from extra hours at work and I also learned the YMCA would be an absolute zoo that day due to a special event. No brainer – go to tournament, and I’m really glad I did. But participating in the tournament meant I didn’t work on my goals that day. That evening, #4 hit.
4) Some sort of stomach bug has put the nail in the coffin.
Are my stances deeper? Yes. Can I hold them longer? I can’t hold them two minutes, but I can hold them as long as Sensei wants to talk with no problem whatsoever. Apparently Sensei doesn’t talk nearly as long as I thought, LOL! Can I do fifteen consecutive pushups? No, but I can do ten and that’s good enough for class. For now, anyway.
Were there points you wished to improve?
I got bored holding stances, so I think two minutes was a bit ambitious. That said, I love it that I can just drop into a stance and hold it pretty much anytime I have a spare minute or two.
I need to think hard about what I really want. Do I want to hold stances for two flippin’ minutes, unable to relieve the tedium by moving in the stance and throwing techniques because I’m in a small space and babysitting something on the stove? When this goal was derailed, I figured out that what I really want is to do is what’s expected of me in class – stay down while Sensei talks. I achieved that. Pushups – I actually do want to continue beyond what’s currently expected of me in class. Which leads to…
What is your next step?
I’d love to continue with the hundredpushups.com regime. At one of our sister dojos, purple belts and above are expected to be able to do twenty pushups. That’s my next belt, so I’d like to get to work on that before I’m promoted. As soon as this stupid stomach bug clears up…
I’d like to keep up the habit of holding stances. A minute is plenty, and do-able while cooking or if I’m between household chores.
The YMCA cut the evening water fitness class. I prefer the evening class for a lot of reasons (and believe me, they’re not trivial reasons) – in other words, the Y has to pay me to go to the morning classes! I need to come up with my own workout for days when I’m not substitute teaching or in Karate. It’ll be good to get more Karate practice than just bits and snatches here and there.
