Negative into a positive

Still not feeling 100% and rather than moping about because I am missing training I am going to take my instructors advice and do something related to the MA. Tonight I am going to do some research into the history behind the use of patterns in Okinowan Karate as it was something Rich mentioned a few weeks ago in class and it sounds like an interesting subject to explore a bit more.

Due to my stomach problems I haven't done any exercise and my appetite is all over the place, I am trying to keep a positive mental attitiude but each day lost due to either work or illness is a day less to train or work on the things I need to achieve. I was reading a fellow black belt candidate's forum posts yesterday and I share her frustration and concern that time is slipping away, as I am away tomorrow in Newcastle I am again going to use the time away for a positive action so will look at taking my pattern breakdown folder and do some work on that as well.

I get concerned, especially when I cannot do my exercise as I know how easy it is to get out of a routine and how much effort (especially at a really busy time of the year both personally and professionally) is required to get back on track. Will need to ensure I am on the forum as well to try and keep in touch with the other students.

Good, Bad and the Ugly

What a day today has been, it didnt start off too good, my bad stomach of last night has got worse and shall we say, accidents could happen :( I had to carry out a dismissal this morning and I havent had to do one for years so I was a bit apprehensive and it wasnt helped that I went to the wrong hotel first of all so then had to bomb it up the M1 to ensure I was there with time to spare. Once the deed was done I then had to get back home to crack on with all the work I wasn't able to do that morning.

This afternoon brought some really good news and is something that has a real bearing on what I believe is the black belt ethos and something that has given my journey to black belt a real positive lift. My thoughts on what makes a black belt are very much aligned with my Instructor, Richard Olpin, in that a black belt isnt just about focussing on the martial art itself, it's more about the whole person and the effect they can have in a wider sense. To that end a number of months ago I applied to join the board of trustees to Wales's largest homelessness charity, Shelter Cymru, today I was informed that I have been accepted and will be formally confirmed within the next 2 weeks. This is something that I am really pleased about as I have worked at the front line of housing provision in the past and homelessness is something I have strong views about, I hope that I can assist in making a small difference to vulnerable people in Wales by being part of the board at Shelter Cymru.

Shelly is just cooking dinner for the girls and the smell is making me feel very sick... I won't be at training tonight as accidents are a real possibility and I wouldnt want to mess my uniform up :(

Feeling rough

Not feeling too good at the minute, have very bad stomach pains at the minute, was going to do my cardio tonight and some free weights but just sitting down and taking it easy, feel very weak and not having a good time...

Off the rails...not quite

Training was good yesterday night, it was good to get back into class after missing all of last week, also managed to get in some exercise so was really tired by the time I got back early from class. Coudln't stay for the Masters session as I hadn't been able to spend much time with the family so had to get back.

Today was a nightmare from start to finish, late getting into work due to traffic and then a really long day of meetings was made worse by the fact that the A46 was closed so a massive detour later via Chippenham I managed to get home after 9pm. As it was so late the cravings kicked in and I ended up having a chinese takeaway so its only my fault if I end up not losing any weight again this week. It was a tough day today and that I think added to my ease of slipping into some poor nutrition so I just need to get a grip of things and get back into the swing of things.

Bad weather blues

It must be a jinxed month, I have been having really good successes I feel with my fitness but getting on the scales this morning the bad news was another pound back on! I have of course understood that this week has again been one of those weeks where customer dinners have meant a couple of nights where my nutrituion isn't what I would have wanted it to be. However I have kept the level of exercise, to my mind, quite high, this worries me as what would have been the story if I hadn't of maintained the fitness sessions! This is after a very gruelling 25 mile X-country bike race yesterday that resembled the Somme, the mud was atrocious and even with special gripper tyres I was skidding and sliding all over the place (it was great fun but extremely hard work) This has been a couple of weeks on the trot where the weight has crept back up so I will have to work extremely hard to maintain the plan getting me to 12 1/2 stone for the fitness test. I may have to revise this figure anyway as it is becoming plain to me and to others that I am putting on a lot of lean muscle compared to the challenge I did 2 years ago, where I lost 2 1/2 stone. At the current weight I am, compared to then I am much leaner and noticeably thinner so perhaps it is the increased muscle that is starting to effect the results I am seeing (more likely it is having Shelly's steak and ale pie the night before I weigh myself :))

Missing in Action

Wow, just noticed that I haven't posted since my rant on Sunday, basically I have been really busy with a conference and exhibition the last 3 days so its been a whirlwind kind of few days. I was lucky that the hotel I stopped in had a gym so I was able to get a good cardio work out in and a strength and weights set the Tuesday evening. Yesterday moring was meant to be an early morning cardio session to blow the cob webs out but I had had such a lousy nights sleep that all I wanted to do wa crawl back into my pillow, so that's exactly what I did!

Due to the busy week I have done nothing martial arts related at all which ties a bit into my Sunday rant, even though I knew this week was coming etc etc I still get frustrated with myself, which is odd because the rational part of me is not trying to focus on the 'get the black belt, get the black belt' kind of attitude but at a deeper level my basic make up of going all out, not quitting and striving to succeed is causing me grief. Hopefully a good muddy x-country bike race on Saturday will switch me off for a few hours and allow the old grey matter to recharge a bit.

Training should be good tonight and hopefully will be able to get 45 mins of theory done, will just have to wait and see.

Is next week going to get any better than this one?

What a week, the only real positive to come out of the week has been my dogged refusal to give up on the cardio sessions this week. I have just been totally unfocussed this week and everything has gone to pot. I have retreated to my comfort blanket of computer games which is really anti social and usually means my sleep patterns are screwed up.

Just a general feeling of listlessness and prevarication about the smallest things, might just be a mid training blip but makes it really difficult to pull out of a tailspin when you haven't got a brilliant support network. Don't get me wrong Michelle is great but home is home and I can't keep relying on Rich all the time as he needs to spread himself out across all the students. Again I re-iterate, THIS IS WHY I AM DOING THIS BLOG. We all get together (if we are lucky) twice a week for over an hour of training, to the students who just want to turn up and then leave it at the threshold of the Dojang I say fine, we all train for different reasons, but this is a plea to the other students who have a desire to go beyond merely attaining a belt or rank and who want to have a lifetime journey with the martial arts. To those students I say ANY CHANCE OF SOME SUPPORT?

I am not looking for pats on the back etc just a level of interest and encouragement/ enthusiasm for the hard work Shirley and I are putting in. This blog is as much for you as it is for me, I have been very disappointed by the complete radio silence on the Academy forum this week and again, especially when I have not been able to attend class, just makes me feel isolated like this, and when you get into a spiral of cant be bothered it is very difficult to pull yourself out, this is wher eyour support network steps in.

I am genuinely interested in how other students find their training, what they like, dislike, what concerns they have and what makes them tick. As Rich bangs on about constantly when you are surrounded by positive people you all feed off each other and achieve much more. The forum should really be your first port of call if you are unsure about anything connected with your training as it has a record of the past 5+ years of student questions and discussions. 2 years ago a core group of about 6-7 students embarked on a personal challenge and for around 6-9 months the energy on the forum and in class was unbelievable, this led me to get a massive success personally and really made me want to carry on with my training in the years to come. I wanted to be around people like that and to get that buzz again.

Sorry if this post offends anyone, that was not my intention, it was merely to remind everyone that we don't study a glorified aerobics routine, we are martial artists and therefore have decided to rise above the mediocre and really achieve something worthwhile in our lives. Please get involved with the forum at the very least, it will take a couple of minutes to post a question or reply to an active topic, give it a go, you may be surprised how addictive it can be.

Soggy Saturday

What a crappy day its been. The weather has meant I have been stuck in the house with loads of screaming girls so I retreated  into PC Gaming only coming up for air to cook dinner and to do 30 mins on the runnung machine. That was good as  I managed to take another 5 secs off my mile and a half so down to 10 mins and 53 secs so that was a result, even though I am still feeling really nonplussed about everything at the minute, perhaps I miss the sun!

Still not feeling it

Been radio silent for the last couple of days because I just haven't had anything remotley positive or interesting to say. Weds night I went out with my team and had a good Thai meal, I did do some basic reps before going out but my heart wasn't really in it, did avoid temptation on the booze though so I suppose a positive.

Thursday was a real pain as a late finish meant I missed training, as I was thoroughly pissed off I decided I was at least going to get something from the night and got on the cross trainer for 30 mins, it did mean thought that I didn't eat until later and suffered for it as my stomach was not happy.

Still feeling in a bit of a fugue, hopefully will wake up tomorrow feeling a bit more positive.

Just don't feel like doing anything

As the title of this post says, just don't really feel like doing anything today. Work is really dragging today and to top it off I need to stay overnight. It wouldnt have been so bad if the Hotel I was booked into had a gym or a pool but it doesn't even have that so I won't be able to workout tonight, which is just adding more to the general feeling of meh! Days like this are rubbish as you can't work up the enthusiasm for what you are doing but you feel really bad about not achieving anything. Not a lot I can do, will do some reps when I get back to the Hotel room just as a statement of 'no matter how crap I feel I will still do something!'

Who says they don't like Mondays?

Interesting day today, managed to oversleep, was only by 20 mins but really woke up feeling refreshed, oddly this was even after being woken up by next doors dogs barking at 5am. Had a couple of meetings today which meant I was zipping about in the car a bit and then a medium drive back home in the afternoon, all was ticking along nicely until my answer machine called me and played a message from a new member of staff who only started with me last week. Unfortunately her father had died that morning and she was just letting me know, it's things like that, that do bring home some of the personal petty worries we fret over sometimes, like "oh I didn't get to do my press ups last week' kind of thing.

When I got back I decided to stretch out with a good blast on the treadmill so made sure I got a protein drink down me and jumped on, today was a blast. I felt really good and decided from the get go to push myself again so set the treadmill to 8 miles an hour from the start, after about 7 mins I had a good rythm, the breathing was good so I decided to kick it up to 8.8 miles an hour, I kept this pace up and came out from the 1.5 miles with a time just under 11 mins, 10mins 58 secs to be exact. That is a real result and is giving me a massive buzz, something that traditionally I have been very poor at is something that dare I say it, I might actually be enjoying!

On another matter I totally cocked up today, I went to Holland and Barrets meaning to get some Carnitine and ended up getting some Creatine, one I wanted to help with lean muscle and weight loss, the other is for strength building but does retain water so isnt so good for taking the weight off, doh!

A day to remember

This weekend has been a nice relaxing time which is great as the old batteries were getting a bit run down, didn't do too much yesterday, got up late and then managed to arrange a short notice bike ride, typically my mate turned up we jumped on and I noticed a flat on my back tire. Rather than give up I picked the bike up and ran into Wotton to get the tube changed, 10 mins later we were on the road for a good 15 miler. My friend Dave has also just embarked on a fitness campaign and he has just started getting into a gym and swimming regime so I will probably need to up my game in a month or two as his results should be pretty good with an organised regime of cross training. I have been finding the 15 miler easier of late but yesterday was so cold that my muscles really didnt get a good opportunity to warm up, and that was with pushing Dave to some 1/2 km sprints, but he said he enjoyed getting pushed and we completed it in 1hr 15mins which was 25 mins better than the last time I went out with him on that route.

Today I am off with Eleanor (my eldest daughter) to the remembrance service so time to polish the medals and remember thos epeople who make the ultimate sacrifice to allow us to enjoy the way of life we currently have. To continue the theme of relaxation I am going to run through my patterns this afternoon with Ele and ensure that I am comfortable with them.

Feeling odd continued

After posting on Wednesday I got to thinking why I might be feeling out of sorts. With the increase in exercise over the last few weeks and the focus on strength and stamina my body is most likely complaining by bringing on some aches and pains. Having never really thought too much about what is needed to support a really aggressive fitness regime I have started to think more about bringing sports nutrition into my daily routine. I asked Rich (my instructor) for some advice and he directed me as a minimum to go for a protien drink, he also suggested I take a look at the Maximuscle website http://www.maximuscle.com/ which had some really good training and food plans. So today I am going to take the plunge and get a good protein drink and start taking it 3 times a day to support my training, hopefully I will see the benefits over the coming weeks.

Training last night was really good as it is always a balst to have a session on leg strength and jumping kicks, one of the key things I picked up last night when it comes to any sort of turning or reverse kicks is the concept of target acquisition. The idea is that if you keep your focus on the target and as you turn, get the target back into focus as quickly as possible it enables you to get strikes in much more effectively and also can reduce the disorientation or dizzyness you might expect.

This week has been pretty good so far, was disappointed in not being able to get to training Monday night but the positives are still my cardio training and hopefully the introduction of some sports nutrition will help to to continue and build up on these activities and support my goal of increasing my strength and stamina.

KAIZEN!!

Feeling odd

Think I might be coming down with something as I was feeling very run down last night, decided to get a good nights sleep but have woken up this morning still feeling funny. Had a good chat with Rich and Shirley last night, was really good just to look back on the last month and think about the successes and the challenges faced. Having to make sure that I don't let things slip as I have just over 4 months left, which on the one hand is over 16 weeks but will be arriving before I know it.

Due to how I am feeling I will decide wether or not to do some exercise this afternoon, just need to make sure I don't overextend myself.

Too good to last

As I suspected the past few weeks have been good as I have been able to get to all the sessions in the week and get some good training in but today was a pain as a meeting originally scheduled until 5.30pm went on until much later. I was so annoyed that by the time I got home I had decided to not let it be a negative and got straight on the running machine to at least salvage something from tonight. The problem was I hadn't had the opportunity for a decent lunch so my energy levels were really low, still managed a sub 12 min mile and a half so that is my positive for the day. Will look at maximising training opportunity tomorrow night instead.

Some thoughts so far...

I was hoping when I started this blog to get some interesting comments and interaction from other students in the school but perhaps that was rather niave. I think people believe that doing training is more of a personal thing and that we all just get on with it. I would like to state that I personally believe that training in any endeavor worthwhile of your time and efforts usually involves a strong element of teamwork. This belief is borne out by many things in my life but especially mith my 10 years in the military, it is only through personal effort that challenges are started but most likely it is down to the encouragement and support of others that they are completed successfully. Even the solo yachtsman or woman has a support team that helps them through the rough times, the times when they just want to jack it all in and go home, that is what I believe is going to help me through my journey to black belt. I have many challenges in my life every day, busy job, hectic family life and to make sure I keep the motivation high for my training I need the support of others, I try to support and help others in the school and this blog was designed to show the personal thoughts, the successes, failures highs and lows of 5-6 months of quite intense training to achieve something worthwhile. As you can probably tell the frustration is coming out in this post.