2007 Workout #20: Exhaustion, thy name is Dalcher…

Tonight’s workout was extremely hard for me. Tonight’s difficulties were clearly a combination of a tough workout and my week of work-related absence, but that doesn’t make me feel much better.

The first class was started in overdrive by , handling strengthening and stretching all at the same time. I thought things were going pretty well when I was able to stay up for the entire duration of hovers, however that was just the beginning of my undoing.

Erbe-san, Garls-san, and I got to take the white belts in for a basic class for the last 20 minutes of the first class and the kids did a great job. We got through their kata several times, and even the new girl. That doesn’t happen too often, I hope she sticks with it.

In between classes, furthered his descent into madness, leading us all in three sets of ten reps of the following: tricep dips, inclined pushups, and squat kicks. I should’ve realized that we were in for some pain when I noticed that Sensei Brewer was watching us go through these lengths with that special thoughtful look on his face.

I didn’t realize how far I had expended my reserves until we started the second class at the pace of a runaway train. Sensei was coming around testing our stomachs (which I handled relatively well), but I utterly fell apart when he started testing stance and connection. The hovers and abdominal exercises had taxed my connective muscles past the point of them responding to stimuli, and the muscles that controlled stance and the punching techniques had been recently burned by the between-classes onslaught. It was embarrassing to be that expended. I couldn’t even keep my stance in place.

Things turned up as we moved to kicking techniques, but not by a lot. The second wind started coming along right around the time sparring started. I was able to get through that, but I wasn’t throwing my A game. After class, I wanted to mix it up with a bit because he’s been wanting to in order to prep for his upcoming Sandan test. We went for around three exchanges and he punched me in the eye and twisted in such a way to tear my contact in half and send both pieces far enough behind my eyeball to make them extremely difficult to retrieve.

Luckily, I was able to get the other half out of my eye once I got home. That was not pleasant.

What did I learn from tonight’s workout? I am strong, but I am human too. Tonight was remarkably taxing, but I did it. I suppose I am proud of that fact.