2009 Workout #41: Back in Pekin (last Tuesday)!

Last week I had the good fortune to find myself back in Illinois.  I did make it to karate in between the massive amounts of family visits, get-togethers, and hanging out with my niece.  It was a good workout, however I have found that the excess of red blood cells that I am afforded when traveling from high altitude to low allows me to work out at a furious pace… one that I was suffering from for the rest of the week.

The class itself was great: a classic Sensei Quinn butt-buster.  I have missed the simple pleasure of the kihon march, working on refining the fine points of techniques without the explicit complication of a giant combination to remember.  It was also nice to get to train with the old crew… bitterbirds, shadowbushi, Garls, Oedewaldt, and Erbe all showed up.

Sensei Quinn let me lead warmups, and in between classes I offered to open up the second class by showing a few of the “Combinations of the Month” from our training here in Colorado.  I opted for two combinations, one from Workout #40 and one from Workout #38 with a variation that I saw Sensei Tarrant working on before class.  It seemed to be predictably difficult for most everyone in the class, but we had some fun with it.  Enough fun, in fact, that I sufficiently lost track of time and ate far into the second class.  It was nice of Sensei Quinn not to put a stop to my rambling, I sure was having fun.

The remainder of the class was free one-time sparring, which had the attacker announcing the target and the defender blocking and countering.  I had a few decent exchanges, however my callouses were not used to the tile floor and I split a huge blister on my left big toe.  Thanks to some tape donated by Oedewaldt-san, I was able to strap the skin back in place so I didn’t lose a quarter sized patch of my foot.

As I mentioned before, I felt great after the workout but my muscles really suffered the next few days.  I know I’m somewhat out of shape, but this was a bit extreme.  I’ll count the whole thing as a success, especially since I got to beat up on bitterbirds a little!  I’ll be home for Christmas to repeat it all again, hopefully this go-around I’ll be able to see Sensei Brewer and Sensei Hartman.