2006 Workout #65: Hell Hath No Fury Like Hamstrings Scorned…

For the past week and a half, something has been happening to my thighs. I don’t know if its all the Sochin, or the warm weather, or the somewhat abrupt focus on stance length and depth, but my hamstrings have been reminding me that they are not happy.

It started out after Wednesday night’s blowout workout in Mapleton last week. Tightness after the workout, knots in the morning. Tightness so noticeable that the tendons that wrap to the sides of my heels were hurting. This lasted several days, and the knots and tightness have been intermittant since then.

I could only get about six mediocre Sochin done before class. My legs were cramping off and on during these kata, so I wanted to play it light because I knew Sensei Quinn’s workout was going to be tough. And it was.

We did kihon (basics) for the entire first class, I noticed that my kicks were feeling very good but at the pinnacle of my extension outward I would feel a slight burning sensation, almost as if a drop of acid had been allowed to run briefly along the back of my leg. It went away as quickly as it arrived, but it was concerning to say the least.

The second class we did some three to five time and slow sparring. My turn across from Sensei Quinn was for the three to five time attack. We had some good exchanges, he didn’t have much to say to me at that time. recommended that we ask Sensei Quinn for some pointers after class, he couldn’t recall much to say to me since we’d just got done with a bunch of free sparring. This certainly wasn’t from a lack of fault on my part, I think the free sparring with other was just more resident in his mind. I told him that I wanted to free spar with him a bit before he went back so I could get some pointers before he leaves again. So I’d better eat my Wheaties next Thursday.

The rest of the sparring went well… and I had our normal go around, as did and I. I got across from Garls-san and caught him unexpectedly with a front kick that backed him up a bit, I knew it had hit him when we wasn’t tensed in his stomach. Those always tend to take the wind out of my sails, he’s a tough guy. We haven’t done a full class (and I mean full… second class started at 7:40) on sparring in quite awhile and it was very refreshing.

We finished the class with some of Sensei Quinn’s sparring drills… it is apparent to me now that my half-front facing position has been more of a 1/4 facing position. Adding the extra “pull back” to my punching techniques actually makes them feel powerful and effective. Funny how that works out. and I had been working on a series of lessons relating to hikite (pull back). It reminds me now of the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey where the monkeys (us) slowly realize what horrible weapons they can wield. I half expect Also sprach Zarathustra to be playing in the background whenever Sensei Quinn is illuminating a point to us.

All of that goodness aside, I don’t feel too terrible about having so much work to do and being away from the dojo a bit this week. My legs need to heal, so I may take the path of least resistance this weekend too. I’m seriously hoping this is not first signs of the folly of attempting 2000 Sochin in one year.

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Sochin Counter
Accomplished / Goal == Percent Complete
830 / 2000 == 41.50%
Average Kata per Workout: 14.31
Estimated Workouts Remaining: 82
Workouts that gained more than 1%: 20