hotKarate is less busy. It's the end of summer, and I've had two weeks in a row with no students on Friday. I don't actually mind that, because I do understand that it's August and people are wringing everything they can out of the summer before the kids go back to school, but I need to start taking advantage of that time to practice. I actually have quite a bit of new black belt material that needs touching up.
The fall tournament is in 98 days, so I need to practice for that, too. Kevin (my instructor) recommends that I do a fairly long form called Honsuki; apparently it has 100 moves. I have the first 25 or so, and I already love it. I'm very excited for this one. He also suggested that I do our spear form for the weapons division. Few people do that form, and he said that the last time he competed in a WMAF tournament, he won with it. I'm less excited about the spear form, mostly because there are a couple of pivots where I stick to the floor because I wear rubber-soled shoes on a rubber mat. It makes me feel awkward and I dislike that.
Honsuki having so many moves, most of them hand strikes, makes me concerned about my upper body strength. I don't want to lose my juice before the end of the form. Without regular mandated PT, I've lost a lot of strength, and I need to remedy that. So I downloaded a 30-day fitness challenge app, and I intend to start Monday. Luckily for me, there are "easy" push-up and crunch challenges, because the standard challenges culminate with so many reps it'll take me an hour to get them done. I have 98 days, so I'll be able to ramp up as needed.
I really hope I can stick to the fitness challenges. I want to be stronger. It's time to start supporting my sore joints with stronger muscles (though I should probably add a glucosamine supplement as well). I won't be able to keep up and survive a test for my second degree black belt, whenever that happens.
Killed the battery on my bike the other day by leaving the key switched on; my mechanic was able to salvage it for me and it's running better than ever. I even reinstalled the battery while wearing a dress. It's ridiculously inconvenient not having anyone nearby who can help me get both my vehicles back where they belong (because of course this happened while anyone I could possibly ask was out of town), but my mom is amazing and came to get me at the dojo and then came out today to give me a ride to the office so I could pick the bike up. It was a beautiful day, but I couldn't wait to get home and take my boots and jeans off.
So yeah, that's pretty much my life. Time for bed.
