Workout on the Deck

Variation on my current standard workout on the deck:

* 60 Hindu Squats (Still being very careful to do them slowly and controlled with my back locked in place).
* Alternating 2 TKD patterns with 25 of each of 6 different types of pushups (Military-shoulder width, wide, regular, diamond, decline, and Hindu, in that order) for a total of 13 TKD patterns and 150 total pushups.
* Also, before each pattern I did the first 6 moves of Eui-Am.

A Run After a Crazy Work Week

I managed to leave work by 5 and had time for a 45 minute run around the horse farms.  Then I finished up with my TKD patterns on the deck, while the cats hunted under by the pine tree and a doe ate some fallen apples 30 feet away.

Home Early From Work

I got home early from a training class at work and had time for a 56 minute run through Hartwood and up Church Lane before my first round of kid transportation duties kicked in.  Church Lane is so steep coming down that it's hard to build up any steam even after getting on the flat.

Fitting in the Evening's Workout

The season for summer/early fall evening road runs is coming to a close.  I'm normally trying to squeeze a run or something into the dusky hours, but now dusk is earlier and earlier, and after Saturday it's going to be another hour earlier.  (I do some evening running, and there are some places where I'll run in the dark, but, after 2 badly sprained ankles, I don't do road runs at night anymore.)  Which is my way of saying that, with all the other stuff I had to do (transport from musical practice, transport to soccer, transport from swim practice, go shopping for Beth's birthday dinner), tonight's run just didn't happen.


I ended up with the following workout in the drizzle on the deck:

• 50 Hindu Squats (I'm being really careful with these.  Every time I start increasing my reps I've been getting lower back spasms, so I am being very careful to do them slowly and controlled with my back locked in place).
• Alternating 2 TKD patterns with 25 of each of 6 different types of pushups (Hindu, Military-shoulder width, wide, regular, diamond, and decline) for a total of 13 TKD patterns and 150 total pushups.
• Also, before each pattern I did the first 6 moves (all I've been taught thus far) of Eui-Am, the first of our third degree black belt patterns.  I found that this is a good way to learn new patterns - I alternate the new pattern with each of my earlier patterns, ensuring that I do it many times each day.  So, with Eui-Am, I will be doing it (or what I know of it) 13 times each time I do my patterns.  I've found this to be a good technique to more quickly learn new patterns.

Halloween Workout

I originally thought that tonight's post would be a short one.  But I was wrong about that.  Tonight was our annual Halloween workout at Taekwondo.  Here's how this year's version worked:

First some candy was dumped in the center of the gym.  The students were given collection bags and had to line up at the two baselines.  Then, it was off the the races, with each person sprinting to the center, taking one piece of candy, running back, and putting it in his bag.  This process was repeated until the candy was gone.  The well conditioned were rewarded with more candy.

Then, each person had to sort his candy.  50 Hindu Squats were done for every box of Nerds.  I only had 1 box.  Our assistant instructor was happy that he didn't like Nerds and had no boxes.  More about that later.  Then, 10 pushups were assigned for each piece of chocolate candy.  I had 3.  Then, it was 10 crunches for every piece of Laffy Taffy.  I had 11 of them.  Then, it was one Taekwondo pattern for each piece of otherwise uncategorized candy.  I had 2.

After a water break, we then had to line up near one of the walls.  More candy was spread out.  Time for balance exercises.  First, we had to hold a right front snap kick in position, with those who could do it the longest getting a piece or 2 of candy.  Then it was the left front snap kick.  Then it was a right side kick, followed by a left side kick.  And a few other balancing exercises.  I ended up being one of the final 2 standing after the last exercise, so the other winner and I ended up splitting the rather large pile of remaining candy.

Then, we had to get in a circle.  One person had to stand in the center, while those on the outside each had a turn to pick a piece of candy and throw it to him to kick.  A successful kick resulted in the kicker keeping the piece of candy and getting another piece from the thrower's bag.  A miss resulted in the thrower getting his candy back and taking a piece from the kicker's bag.  This went on until everyone had a chance in the center.  The game was made a bit more difficult for the black belts, who had to do kicks from multiple directions in quick succession .

Now, about our assistant instructor and the Nerds.  Since he didn't have any after the initial collection, the side objective of the workout was to ensure that he ended up with as many boxes as possible.  At the end, he had 25 boxes of Nerds, and was given a take-home assignment of 100 Hindu Squats for each box.  We wish him well with that.

Absolutely Beautiful Fall Day

Well, I might not have otherwise run today since I did yesterday, but it was absolutely the most beautiful sunny Fall day, so I did a 54 minute run, finishing up coming through Hartwood.

Quick Morning Run

Actually, I didn't run that quickly, but I needed to fit in a run in the morning before leaving late morning for the Clarion vs IUP football game. About 40 minute easy run through Hartwood.

P90X Kenpo X

It was kind a dark rainy early evening when I got home from work today, so I reconnected the DVD player and did the P90X Kenpo X workout. First P90X workout in a while. It was pretty good. I had intended on doing Ab Ripper X afterward but I felt that I got a lot of core rotation from the Kenpo X so that was probably enough for for today.