Bloodhound

Uh that would be a negatory. I managed to lean forward and turn my head enough to only get it on the ground and a bit on my shirt. It was kinda chuncky and gross too!

Also, what's up man? Did you do any forms lately?

Bloodhound

Running. I've run twice in the past three days. The day in the middle was spent at a cookout in my backyard with North and a mutual friend, along with my grandma, my dog, and a tremendously exorbidant(close?) amount of food. I have also begun practicing Shotokan hand strikes on my heavy bag. Ridgehands, Knifehands and Spearhands specifically. I now have sore wrists and possibly a jammed finger or two.

I downloaded the plans for a makiwara. For anyone reading who doesn't know, a makiwara is a traditional karate striking post. The term makiwara refers to the fabric pad made from rice straw strapped to a carved post. It is designed to help develop proper form as well as increase the power of a punch. It is hypothosized to be better than a heavy bag in this respect in that as you punch a makiwara it becomes harder to move than on the moment of impact. This works the opposite way a heavy bag works.

But on to the title of this post, and the point of me writing it. Tonight I was running. It remains an unknown distance, though I hope to be able to determine its actual length tomorrow on the way home from work. I was nearly home when a group of hoodlums from down the street yelled something to me across the street as we passed. It was a definite challenge. Every fiber of my being screamed to turn and bark something in return, there were seven (approx.) of them, but I didn't care. These bastard harange about the neighborhood and their lttle asshole dog is a yippy bastard. How I would love to tear them apart! But instead of the small voice being the one calling for not fighting out of fear, tonight it was something different. I heard my own voice in my head reciting the fifth stanza of the Dojo Kun I recite before every training session:

"Refrain from violence and guard against impetuous courage."

I couldn't refuse the words I'm trying to make myself live by, so I ignored them and continued on home. I'm annoyed at myself for not ripping them apart, even if I was messed up, it would have been okay if I took a few of them with me. But at the same time I'm proud of myself for rising above my lesser urges. Its kind of a strange feeling.

Bloodhound

Well, at the moment I'm pretty exhausted muscularly, and I just slugged down a huge 134 gram protein shake(910 calories), so I may also be suffering from momentary anoxia! The past few days have gone like this:

4/5
Ran the usual. Still remains an unknown distance. I keep forgetting to drive it on the way home from work to determine its actual length. I also did knife,ridge,spear,punch,kick drills on the heavy bag. A 25x2split. My diet wasn't terrible, but wasn't very great either. I also succame to weakness and ate BK for dinner, had a whopper meal.

4/6
Did a decent muscular workout:
3x10 Goodmornings
" " Benchpresses
" " Military presses
" " Bicep Curls
3x20 Weighted Situps

4/7
Went over to my sparring partner's house and did the following:
Padwork. Worked combinations, if I remember correctly; jab-cross-jab, jab-cross-lead hook, jab-jab-cross-uppercut.
Sparred. The session was shorter than the last time(before winter) only about 30 minute. But I was happy(ish) with my performance. I backed up less, circled more, but was decently ellusive. I landed little, my parter remains as ellusive as I remember, but also still has 2 inches of reach that makes me wary. I was happy with a lead leg roundhouse I threw that he evaded, just barely and got caught on the shoulder. It was a cool moment of, "Dude did I just kick you in the shoulder?" "Yup" "Damn! That was close, haha!"
We also worked clinch and takedowns. I was surprised by just how ignorant I am in the clinch, though I managed some kind of weird arm lock I've never seen. In the takedown section I managed a pretty nice hip toss into side control. I think with some more practice I could be decently good at takedowns. Suffice to say, all the TD session made me want to do was practice it more!

4/8
Powerlifting. Did some research and build a nice but sort of smallish powerlifting routine to try and build some more strength. I lacked the ability on 4/7 to perform a solid double-leg IMO and I never want that issue to arise again. Also since I lack a lot of the technique for groundfighting I want to build strength to compensate until the technical ability catches up.
The routine is as follows:
Sets x Reps
Benchpress
8x8 @ 60% 1 minte rest between sets
Approx 5 minute interval between workouts for weight change and rest.
Shoulder Presses
3x5 @ 50% 1 minute rest between sets
Approx 5 minute interval between workouts for weight change and rest
Bent Over Rows
3x12 @ 50% 1 minute rest between sets
Approx 5 minute interval between workouts for weight change and rest
Deadlifts
4x5 2@50% 2@60% 1 minute interval between sets

All in all it was a nice workout. I'm hurting pretty badly, I think mostly from the pace. I think that after another two or three more workouts like this one, I'll be okay with the timing. Then its a matter of developing that coveted perfect strength:size:speed ratio.

Bloodhound

Alright, at the moment I'm sitting here, getting ready for work but I haven't written in this thing in a little while so I thought I'd put some stuff down. I've been eating somewhat better. That is...less reliance on processed garbage and soda-pop! I wish it was zero reliance, but I'm not there yet and everytime I've ever tried cold turkey, its been epic fail.

My training over the past few is as follows:

4/9
Went out with my friends late as ****, wanted to run, but was too mentally tired to get my fat ass moving.

4/10
Powerlifting. I altered the previous powerlifting workout to be more logical in its design. Since the previous workout was more geared towards hypertrophy than powerlifting. It is now as follows:
Bench Press 5x5 @ 80% 1 minute between sets.
Approx fve minute between workouts for weight change and rest.
Shoulder Presses 4x5 @ 80% 1 minute between sets.
Approx five minutes between workouts for weight change and rest.
Deadlifts 4x5 @ 80% 1 minute between sets.
Approx 5 minutes between workouts for weight change.

I wanted to do bent over rows as well, but my form is imperfect with deadlifts and I wasn't sure my back could handle the strain.

4/11
I ran. I ran so far away-ayay, couldn't get away. Sorry that had to happen! But I ran the usual distance as well as determined its length to be 1.3 miles. Which is less than I would have hoped, but on 11 I ran a greater percentage than ever before, which made me feel much better. I had taken the dog with me on the run, and he got tired before me!

4/12
Bodyweight training. I know that body weight training is exceedingly important, in that it complements powerlifting by providing a certain level of hypertrophy, but provides a huge benefit to muscular endurance. That workout is as follows:
Bicycle Crunches 4x30(per knee, 60 total)
Wallsits 4x30sec full 90 degree recline.
Squat Thrusts 4x10
Pushups(mod) 4x20
Side Jumps 4x20(per leg, 40 total)
I am finding that while I am becoming stronger and more endured. My actual fighting technique is lessening, so I believe I am going to be adding bagwork to all of these workouts for the sake of at least making sure my technique rises in a decently even ratio to my strength.

4/13
Epic Fail on the run. Went drinkin' and eatin' out with the friends and was too tired and in belly discomfort(technical term for all you medical peeps)to really care I did nothing.

4/14
I did some heavy bag work, not as much as I should have considering 13's weak performance. I ended up having to work until 11 and walk home so my feet were a little raw and calloused from by boots so I said ****you to everything and just watched the TUF rerun at 12.

All in all not bad, but the last two days have been absolute BS. I have to get my blobby ass moving!