I'm not confused. I'm just well mixed.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Getting Ready


For those who have been following me on Facebook, you all know I have my 2nd degree Black Belt test this Saturday.  It has been three years in the making...and several weeks in the panicking.  Not that I have anything to panic about.  Yeah right, this is me.  I can make a mountain out of a molehill if I decide to put it on my obsess and freak out about it list.

Anyway, I have known that the test would come.  We were eligible to test last December but decided that since the loving husband had to devote so much time to his Hapkido test in August and with his fall work schedule full of out of town trips, a December test would really be difficult to get ready for.

Why?  Well that would be because while it is fairly easy to get instruction/kicking time as a color belt coming up the ranks, the advanced techniques required for the next Dan (rank) are only taught to those with a Black Belt, usually in a separate class.  Since the loving hubby and I live in the Sioux Falls area and our school is based in Brookings, that meant special trips when said classes were held.  We have childcare at the gym in Sioux Falls, there is no child care in Brookings.  There were quite a few times when one of us would make the trip for class and the other would be home with the kids.  The other factor was that our instructor lives in another state so she would only hold the classes one or two times a month depending on her schedule and the weather.

Fast forward to about six weeks ago and the loving husband and I were in one of those wonderful Black Belt classes when the head instructor of the Brookings gym (not our instructor) announced that the date for testing would be May 12.  Yep, panic time.  Thankfully, we had started to practice our stuff so it wasn't like we were totally up a creek. 

As far a practice goes, well that has been a more interesting route.  When the hubby and I were color belts, we got a lot of kick time during class and only needed a few outside practice hours to get our stuff down.  As our Black Belt test neared, we spent as much class time as we could kicking and asking questions from our instructor.  There were still quite a few outside hours we spent though.  Fast forward 3 years.  The loving husband is now one of the class instructors and I am a loyal and faithful helper.  He spends his class time teaching techniques and holding pads.  I don't have to teach, I just get to hold pads.  We now spend very little class time kicking and a truckload of outside hours practicing. 

Since I knew there was going to be a May test, my goal this winter was to start getting into shape.  I had grand plans and great intentions.  I confess to spending January and most of February happily munching on chocolate and forgoing anything that would constitute exercise.  Well, I did do a little here and there but there was no intensity to my actions.  I was fat and out of shape and knew it.  By the end of February, I decided that I needed to pick things up a bit or I would not be ready in May.  I did decide to try Zumba and that was a lot of fun.

One of the reasons for my work out reluctance was the fact that I am not a huge fan of running and while I was trying to get my run on, it was very very uncomfortable.  I switched over to elliptical with the plan of training my body to exert itself without the abuse of running.  That did seem to work but by mid March, I was really really struggling.  The harder I pushed myself, the more sore I became. Both muscles and joints were in a constant state of sore and it got to the point that even a few minutes on the elliptical felt like I had done a 20 minute workout.  I also had incredible fatigue.  The soreness and fatigue started to affect my attitude and I was really struggling to focus on learning the stuff I needed to learn.

Fortunately, I had made an appointment to get my hormones re-checked.  I had a problem a few years ago with wacky hormones and figured that it might be a good idea to have them checked again.  The initial blood tests showed I was very low in Vitamin D.  I started taking supplements and added a multivitamin and that really helped me.  I also changed up my workout routine and focused more on strength training and less on the cardio. I purposely gave up Coke for Lent and cut the chocolate out almost completely.  Those seemed to help quite a bit.

Last week, I finally got the rest of my test results.  I do have a hormone imbalance and it was a main cause of my workout woes.  Thankfully, I now have the medication to correct the problem.  I'm hoping that in a few months my body will be back to "normal".  I will also try harder to keep a work out routine.  Maybe not as intense as I have now but I admit to feeling better when I leave the gym than when I entered.  I still hate running and sweating though.

Oh and for those who are wondering where I am finding all this time to work out.  I have three free hours Monday through Thursday when the kids are in school so I have been using that time to work out. I squeeze it in between grocery shopping and other errands. 




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