Recovery Takes Freakin' Forever

Today

My son takes his laptop to the gym Child Care room today because it's mostly toddlers and he claims that he doesn't have great games on his phone. And since the gym offers WiFi, why not? I'm in a mad rush to get my stuff stowed away in the locker room, warmed up, and then taped and wrapped. This all takes time. Two hours just isn't enough if you plan to do an hour-workout. There's just no time for anything more, especially since donning and stripping off gear also takes time. I need the moleskin to keep my knuckles intact, the tape keeps the moleskin intact and protects my fingers from the edges of the gloves, the cotton wraps support my tiny hand bones and keep the gloves snug. As you can see, the one-size-fits-all pink gloves look enormous on me. But they're not big gloves. And just as I've put all this protection on, I have to methodically take it all off.

The 10-minute warm up on the elliptical feels good. I don't even wear my ragged blue hoodie today because it's a reasonably warm day for March. My sciatica's not bothering me either. Wahoo! I haven't yet decided how many rounds to do. It depends on how much time I have left, how much time I take between sessions. And how I feel.

I'm not lacking in the strength department as I catch sight of Power numbers that reach into the 300s. I've never seen that before, and quite truthfully, I didn't know the machine could register that high. But this is just the Beginner rounds. I'm sweating by the end of 5 rounds, and I debate whether to pull a round from each subsequent session. Naw. Let's go for 5 at Intermediate. I do forget to change the database so I'm still 55 years old, not that it makes much difference. Intermediate is a lot harder, and faster. I still suspect that the machine's software is glitchy, and using the Advance pacing for some of the Intermediate rounds. My Power and Accuracy ratings drop, but not because I've missed any Strikes. I'm not taking this personally.

By the Advance round, I'm really tired. I don't have my usual stamina so I cut down to 3 rounds. I've also blanked the machine a few times, which means I've probably missed a few blows here and there. By the time I'm done, the clock tells me I only have 30 minutes to strip off all my gear, shower and change. It's actually not enough time, especially since I'm particular with how I put all my stuff away. The most-time consuming part is dealing with my hair. I really miss the wash 'n go aspect of having a Pixie cut. At some point I'll get fed up enough to chop it all off, but then I'll have to deal with maintenance trims. Too much work!

Wednesday Workout 

10 min elliptical
13 rounds Nexersys Follow Me

Photos posted for actual stats:

5 rounds Beginner
156% Power is pretty awesome!

5 rounds Intermediate
Still maintaining Power and Accuracy

3 rounds Advance
Damn I'm tired!

Abbreviated for the Long Weekend

Feel like I'm getting soft!

I turned off all my alarms last night so my son and I could catch up on our sleep. Our district has no school today and we just barely make it to the gym while there is still Child Care available. Other towns have all of next week off. We just have Monday. I can't figure out this school schedule thing. That means there's no kung fu class next week because they follow a different school calendar. Oh well...

I'm determined to whack the machine again today, only not whack quite so hard. Because we're there a tad late, I also have to cut my rounds back otherwise I won't have time to shower and change. Unlike other people, I refuse to get in my car smelly and sweaty. It's too cold to drive with the windows open. This morning our outdoor thermometer sensor decided it was too cold to register any degrees at all. Once I brought it inside the house, it matched the balmy 61F that is our "room temp". Yeah, we have a cold house, but that's what sweaters and socks are for. And a wood stove.

I don't cut back on my 10 min cardio warm up because that'd be courting trouble. Warm ups are critical for injury prevention, and to properly activate muscles, i.e., enhance your performance. I do drop two rounds from the Beginner rounds, because they are, in fact, warm ups. I also pull my power because my knuckles are still a touch tender from Tuesday. Occasionally I forget to ignore the phantom strikes, which decreases my Accuracy. The machine thinks I'm just punching randomly! I can always tell a round had phantoms because the data display shows that I've struck many more times than it requested.

I'm getting better at the Advance Level, but that doesn't mean I don't completely screw up a combination. I've finally learned to keep my eyes on the display panel while kicking or punching, relying on my peripheral vision to determine my targets. Moving my eyes off the center panel costs me a lot of time, and I lose accuracy trying to refocus on the commands that flash on the upper right screen. Because some combinations are very similar, I have to have enough time to actually read the words in those commands. Jab Jab Cross Power Kick looks a lot like Jab Cross Lead Hook Lead Sweep if you don't actually read the commands!

I don't have enough time to strip off my gloves, wraps, and tape in order to do a set of pull ups so I skip them. As it is, I barely have enough time to shower and change. My son is the only child in the room, but I'd already warned him that there probably wouldn't be anyone else there. We do a few errands, and then head home. My sciatica bothers me especially in the car but I haven't gotten around to putting a tennis ball under my right glute. I guess there's a use for old tennis balls after all.

My husband ordered a "new" refurbished laptop for my son and my son is excited to open the box and boot it up. It's Valentine's Day weekend, and President's Day weekend all rolled into one. I get a surprise package... flowers from my hubs who's suppose to be coming home tomorrow from Boston. I'm happy that he remembered this year. Not sure if we'll go out for a meal, but I like the flowers.

Friday Workout

Elliptical Training

Warm Up

Calorie :   91 CAL
Distance: 0.82 mile
Duration : 00:10:00

KickBoxing

Follow Me

Lap/Rep :  13 Lap/Rep
Duration : 00:52:00

3 rounds Beginner
10 more strikes than called for; 
Power considerably less than Tuesday's rounds

5 rounds Intermediate
Huge amount of extra strikes (677/631) due to phantoms. Data shows improved Accuracy as the % of strikes comes closer to 100.

5 rounds Advance
I completely missed a combination in the 4th round and that killed my Accuracy score. But overall, I see improvements so I'm happy.