Sports Injury.....

Yes, that's RJ in a pink cast! He got hurt during his basketball game last week. Then he extra-injured it during a soccer game. The diagnosis is a fracture of the growth plate in his ankle. He gets 4 weeks in the cast and that will put an end to his basketball season.

Monday

Running: Rest Day :)

Karate: SWAT @ 7:00 and 7:45; Class @ 8:30; tonight was Demo practice. Morgan, Mel and me were assigned to perform a creative kumite. We came up with a beginning; some hand combos, a bunch of kicks, some cool hand movements from Mastik.....but we still need to come up with a "flashy" finish.

Tuesday

Running: 8.35 miles in 1:19:48
Karate: Rest Day!

Wednesday

Running: Rest Day :)
Karate: Class @ 8:30. Since it is "Spotlight" week, there is no Bugo (sparring). We did a lot of ground workouts; how to defend when you are on the ground. Check their legs, offensive forward kicks, technical lifts. A lot of work on the abs!!!

Thursday

Running: 4.06 miles in 38:06
Karate: SWAT @ 8:30, Class at 7:30. Tonight's class was pretty much a repeat of Wednesday nights class. But that's ok because it was a great ab workout.

Friday

Running: 3.04 miles in 28:43
Karate: Rest Day! I almost always go to Friday night class. But I had the kids and I knew they would put up a stink about having to sit through karate. Plus, I really had a bunch of work stuff that I needed to catch up on. So, I took the night off from karate. The kids had friends over, and despite that, I was able to knock off a bunch of stuff from my "to do" list.

Saturday

Karate: Candidate Class @ 8:30

Todays candidate class was a pre-bugo check. Next Saturday's class is Black Belt Pre-Check #2 and will focus on sparring. So today was a "test run". I was pretty psyched; I got up early and ate a good breakfast, got to class early to have time to stretch. Everything was going well. We ran a few laps to start class, stopping at every XXL bag for round kicks and then doing a pretty standard warm up. Then it was time to get into full sparring gear.

Ma'am assigned everyone to 3-person zones. I was put with Terri and Shirley who are both high red belts. I wondered why I hadn't been put with other black belts but I figured when we switched partners that would change. So round 1 was just boxing skills. After that, we didn't switch zones (Hmmmm); instead, we sparred round 2 using just kicking skills.

After round 2, Ma'am had everyone line up. She said she was calling the December candidates; she started with the 2nd degrees (Morgan), then she called the 1st degree black belts (Mel, and the 2 junior 1st degrees) and finished with the high red belts. But wait, why didn't she call my name with the 1st degrees? Am I not on track for December???

I don't even remember watching the bout. My mind was going 100mph; I was upset, I was confused. Am I not on track for December? I've done everything that's been assigned, I've made my run times since day 1; I've done the demos; I doing my SWATS, what could be the problem? Or, was I just fogotten again? I was pissed; I was upset; I was confused. All these thoughts are not very good in light of this week's Black Belt Message ("Black Belts control Their Emotions").

Round 2 of the "spotlight" bugos came and I did get called. Olivia was assigned to spar with me. She definitely had the height advantage on me, but I was able to get in a good number of kicks against her. After bout #2, class ended and it was time for the timed 2 mile run.

Running: 2 mile tmed run in 15:44.

After class, I went to change into my running clothes. I was still upset about being "overlooked" and for a moment, I actually thought about just getting my stuff and going home. But, I knew that wouldn't "fix" anything. So, I changed, puffed on my inhaler, gulped down a goo packet and went outside to get the run over with.

Today was the last day for candidates to make their run time. I had already made my time, but Mel needed to do it today. The run started and I had my headphones in both ears listening to the Black Eyed Peas "Pump It". After I finished lap 1, I realized I was ahead of Mel by 100 or so yards.

It was at this point that I snapped out of my "sucks to be me" funk. Mel needed to make her time and I could help her. So I slowed down and stayed with her for the next 3 laps. I screamed, I shoulted, I pushed, and we finished at 15:44. I was so happy that she did it!!! And Mel was so thankful; but it was all her doing, she had it in her all the time.

After the run we walked over to Vince so that he could write down our times for Ma'am. And sure enough, my name wasn't even on the list. Needless to say, at that point, I pretty much lost it. I've busted my ass for how many months and I'm not even on the list!! WTF??? Thank God Mel was right next to me. She calmed me down. Well, enough of the karate drama..................

So Saturday started pretty crappy. But, it is ending on a Great Note!!! The 11th ranked Gators are right now leading the 4th ranked LSU Tigers 42 to 14. Woohoo! It's Great To Be A Florida Gator!!!

And now, it's time for bed. I have an 18 miler to run tomorrow morning!