Posted 10:00 PM by spitgirl
YOU SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND, BABY

Blogger was doing some funky stuff yesterday but it managed to save my entry correctly! So here you go, two special posts revealed in one day, posted from two different days. I'm going to have to make this a quickie because I'm trying to be a good girl and go to bed early. Given the incentive I've gotten in today's workouts, I don't think I'm going to have any problems going to bed. Just getting up tomorrow morning is going to be difficult...

So this morning I woke up with a stiff tricep but it isn't doing the poinging that a regular pull would give you. I decided, however, to stay light on it and not do any pushups today. Speaking of pushups, I'm not going to say they're getting any easier, but I'm certainly seeing a lot more definition in my arms. And speaking of Wednesday, it was stairs, and I realized just how much the double effort of going to many workouts was having on my body. I'm slightly slimmer (okay, most times of the month I'm slimmer, but that's not something I want to get into on a public forum) and trimmer, and there's nothing quite like feeling like you're in shape to make you feel like you can really strut like you're worth a million dollars.

That being said, though, I decided that because I'm going to have to miss Friday evening, Sunday, and Monday's evening workout (if not both of them), I should double my training earlier on in the week to make sure that I tide myself over for the interim. Since this was kicks week, I didn't see any problem with my triceps. On the transit ride up to campus, I started dreaming... what would it be like to lead warm-up? I would have such a fun time, and though it's fun doing Luce workouts, it just isn't enough cardio for these old(er) bones to warm up. For some reason in TKD by the time the younger kids are flagging, I'm starting to get energized and passing them left and right - but at the beginning when they're speeding by me, I'm the one that's stiff and trotting along at half their speed.

So I walked into the office and point-blank asked Dr. Ur if he would mind if I led warm-up today. He thought I'd be a wimp about it (after doing semesters of Laura warm-ups? Where she just sits there and pummels us for 20 minutes of hard cardio? Ummm... no.) but I convinced him otherwise, so he agreed. As it turns out, it was probably just as well, since I was the only colored belt (note: ONLY) that was there during bow-in. The other people who were there were all white belts. So I had my little gaggle of eight white belts jumping, bowling, high-kneeing, sliding, and running all over the place. And then I led some niiiice stretching and some basic kicks. Then Dr. Ur took over and whooped some butt giving us some turning combinations, including a very unrealistic (but very fun) outer crescent to roundhouse with the same leg to turning jumping crescent kick. Each time he'd give us some new combination, I had my four white belts looking at me, asking me to break it down for them. I was trying to work it myself and here I was teaching white belts... but Dr. Ur insists that it's a lower level class, so it's my responsibility to help.

We also ran stations, which was around the outside of a ring. Do kicks until first paddle, jumping front kick. Do more kicks until second paddle, roundhouse kick or narabang. Do more kicks until third paddle, and axe kick or jumping axe kick. Then do more kicks until the fourth paddle, and do a flying side kick. More kicks to first paddle. My legs were starting to numb from all of the kicking...

By the end of the workout, I was starting to feel some pain. Oof. I told Vera I wouldn't be running stairs, but she decided to keep all of the brown belts to work on spin kicks instead. Wow, that was intense. Imagine an hour and a half of working nothing but spinning and turning kicks. She set up stations, and we went through all six of the stations - starting from spin heel kicks while your partner does crunches, fast reps of roundhouse (20 fast front roundhouse kicks to a paddle, switch partners, then repeat with other leg), trading spin heel kicks, doing hip stretches and then spin-heel kick kicking part... working more stations with partners (I got Sarah, yay!). In the most amusing comment of the day, James Gill commented, "Elaine, it's just not right that your spin heel kicks look better than mine." Yeah, right, James. My spin heel kicks have more problems than I can conveniently count.

So Sarah and I worked spin kicks and turning kicks, and then we started working with different partners in lines back and forth, things like retreating turning back kick, all the while using your partner as a test dummy - slowly aiming and then touching and then pushing. Each time I got tapped I would ki-hap a little to make sure I didn't get the wind knocked out of me by accident. This, of course, happened, as Scott kicked a little too hard and actually really nailed me in the gut. I ki-hap'd, but Scott was suddenly apologizing... Vera found it amusing, and started referring to me as "Unh!" (replace that with grunting noise), but I didn't respond to it in time.

I don't think I've ever worked spin heel kick longer than I have the later workout. But it was definitely a necessary workout, and I'm glad I had the reps and hope I can get more later. I need more workouts that whoop my butt like that. Especially if it makes me slightly thinner. :D