Sleep deprived no more!

I finally got a good night's sleep last night. The previous 3 nights I really hadn't slept well at all, and what sleep I had managed was little more than a doze. I'm not sure what made me so restless; perhaps a combination of heat and other stresses.

Sleep deprivation is not a good thing. The world starts to look like a very strange place when you are mentally knackered. If I'd had the energy yesterday I would probably have been quite grumpy!

I wanted to train on Monday night but I knew I was too tired to concentrate, or even drive there. I didn't even feel like picking up a kettlebell :=(

Last night I though s0d this for a game of soldiers, necked enough valerian to floor a cow and went out like a light. So I'm back and fighting fit this morning. Today I intend to get through the work I was just shoving round my desk yesterday!

Successful weekend

As I write this the rain is 'fair stotting' down - bit of a change from the stunning summer weather over the weekend! It was fab to see such great weather but it was perhaps not entirely ideal for the Edinburgh marathon on Sunday. Sadly one relay runner collapsed and died and lots more were unable to finish. A colleague was running his first marathon and although he finished with what I reckon was an excellent time, he missed his targetted finish time due to keeling over with cramp at mile 24.

On the positive side, T'Other Half PB'd his 5k at the Edinburgh Park Run despite the heat on Saturday morning. This time he came in at a very respectable 27 min 20 sec.

At 6ft 2in (and most of that being leg lol) he should be a good runner!

His Park Run meant there was a bit of a queue for the car on Saturday morning! Basically as soon as he got out, I jumped in and zoomed off to the Combat Ready gym for the mop-up krav maga grading.

I confess that I actually dithered about even going along for the grading right the way up until I got in the car! I was reasonably confident about the material but I wasn't so sure if my overall fitness levels were up to the demands of the 3 hour session, especially in the heat. Because of the other things going on in my life just now, I feel my training has been much more sporadic than is usual for me. I was also not sure whether or not the hurty bits were going to let me down. Once I got there and we got going with a bit of skipping, my brain flipped over into Let's get it ON mode and I was fine.

Once we'd warmed up (oh the irony ....) and stretched off we headed straight into the seminar part of the session, reviewing the material we were going to need later.

We covered:

• getting up from the ground
• striking combinations on the pads
• releases from front, side and rear chokes, headlocks and chokes on the ground

We also looked at:

• front 'stomp' kicks
• back kicks

Once we covered the relevant material we took a short break to re-hydrate then it was into the grading proper. We started off with the fitness test, which covered a combination of kettlebell and bodyweight drills.

We were then tested on a variety of padwork combinations and 'situationals'. Of those, one of the toughest had to be repping out 10 burpees to your partner's count. When you came back up from the tenth you had to defend a slashing knife attack! That was slightly challenging for the old cardio-vascular system!

We then spent some time 'slow fighting' and working all of striking and defensive tools. I actually really enjoyed this bit, although it was a challenge not to speed up! Clearly I still really love to fight lol.

We finished off with getting up from the ground quickly and safely, then they totally finished us off with one last physical test! The gym floor is covered with alternately colooured jigsaw mats. 10 of these were measured out and you had to jump into the first and do 1 press up, into th second and do 2 press ups etc, all the way up to 10. On the way back it was jump and 1 squat, all the way up to 10.

Then we were done! Literally :=) Quite honestly, my tshirt could have walked home on its own ....

But we all passed! Which was fab. We all worked so hard, and I think it's something we all really earned. Hope it's not so hot next time.

Kung fu

Was the only student at chi kung and kung fu class last night. It's a small class anyway, and the other students are currently tied up with either holidays, work or exams and studies. It makes for a shorter but more intense class!

We rattled through the usual chi kung stuff, had a short break then went on to kung fu. The structure of the class has changed a bit so that we now start with footwork, practising stances and movement. Last night we covered using the drag and glide steps to move in the bow and arrow stance. We also covered open step and pivoting, working both solo and partner methods. Finally we covered some defensive movements.

From footwork we went onto striking, practicing front and rear palm strikes and front snap kick from the natural poise. We worked these on the pads as well, looking to ensure that foot, waist and arm all move at the same time. It may take a wee bit more time to get that whole kinetic chain working smoothly!

We finished off with some more chi kung practice.

I do like the kung fu class. It's very traditional, emphasising the slow building of skill rather than a headlong rush to acquire 'techniques'. I do sometimes have a brainfart in the middle, defaulting to movements hardwired from other systems. I've noticed that particularly with the front snap kick. In Shaolin kung fu this is delivered as a real flick from a high chambered knee with the toes pointing down. Other styles I have studied would tend to use a low pushing style of kick which would impact with the ball of the foot. I'm still really having to think about this kick!

Sifu is very gentle in the way that he corrects your mistakes, which is nice. He has trained other styles as well so understands where a lot of these are coming from. I find it a very positive experience. It's surprisingly demanding physically though, even though it's a very different training emphasis from say krav maga or MMA.

Weird!

Got to work this morning to find my ID badge and its holder bent, like seriously bent. It was fine when I took it off at home last night.

Needless to say it didn't work this morning! Our ID badges are also 'smartcards' which have building access control, print management, cashless purchasing, car park and gym access built in. It being broken certainly made life a wee bit challenging this morning. Security printed a new card for me but I'm still not sure if I've got all my accesses back yet ....

So what happened to my card between taking it off last night and putting it on again this morning? This is the question ....

Riverdance??

Got woken up about 0400 this morning by a foot in the bum!! Swiftly followed by another. It's not the first time my Other Half was booted me in his sleep. Most times I just move out the way, this morning he was *annoying* me, and in the absence of plates, I delivered a swift back kick to make him turn over. Was just dropping back off to sleep when his feet really started going. Honest to whatevers, it was like lying beside a prancing leprechaun! Another quick back kick - harder this time - and he was over onto his other side. No wonder the cat was on my side of the bed last night!

So I asked him this morning what that was all about. The first time apparently he was dreaming about fighting someone, the 2nd time he was running away .... Allegedly.

Balancing things up

My quads had a fair bit to say after the spin and a half earlier, so I thought I might balance things out a bit and hit my arms and shoulders. So I broke out the kettlebells for a quick clean and press session. 100 double presses with the 8kbs, broken into sets of course.

The 16s were calling to me, but common sense prevailed. I suspect my downstairs neighbour would be less than pleased if I dropped one ....

Spin. And a half

So it was lunchtime spin today. 3 regulars plus A N Other. Lot of resistance work to start, which was quite frankly interesting thanks to my *still* hurty calf. I'm not so keen on the standy-up bits at the moment, but I toughed it out.

Then it got really interesting. The last four tracks were designated as sprints (WTF? We'd already had at least 2 sets of sprints by this time) - but to make it more interesting we each got the stopwatch and a chance to call the shots. Recipe for disaster if ever there was one, to be honest lol.

Anyway, first track was 3 sets of sprints - 20 secs on, 20 secs recovery. 2nd track was increased resistance, and 3 sets of 30 secs on and 30 secs recovery. Then it was my turn. Nae faffing with resistance, just 20 secs on and 20 secs off all the way through. Then it was The Rush's turn. OMG - whoever thought giving him a stopwatch was a good idea! 10 secs on and 5 secs recovery all the way through! Burst just doesn't even come into it!! Even the instructor was an interesting colour by the end of the track - but it serves him right.

The guys all laughed at me when I got back to my desk cos my face was about as red as my hair!