Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Hiking... and duct taped boots....


Okay. Just got back from Goat Mountain. Got back meaning 3 days ago. So yeah.

I haven't updated this, well there's much to write. The hiking was good for me. Came back home and weighed in at 205 lbs. 27.5% fatty according to my scale.

So let's recap.

13 July - 4.5 Mile Hike to base camp. 200' loss/ 700' gain. I carried a 38 lbs. pack. It was a good hike at a moderate pace. Overall a good day.

14 July - 3.5 Mile Hike up, 3.5 Mile hike down. 1000' gain.

15 July - 4.0 Mile Hike up, 4.0 Mile Hike down. 1300' gain

16 July - 3.5 Mile hike going, 3.5 Mile hike back. 500' gain.

17 July - 2.0 Mile hike going, 2.0 Mile back. Minimal elevation gain/loss. Boots falling apart, in desperate need of duct tape. So duct taped them.

18 July - 1.5 Mile hike going, 1.5 Mile back. Minimal elevation gain/loss

19 July - 4.5 Mile hike from camp to parking lot, 200'loss 700' gain. Carried 38lbs pack. Hiked at a very brisk pace. Great workout.

20 July - Hiked to top of Small Si. Easy day hike Probably 2.0 mile hike up/ 2.0 mile hike down. 1000 feet gain? Don't know I'm sure I could look it up. Not a bad hike.

That's when I needed a new pair of boots. I hate buying new hiking boots. After 3 hours at REI, finally found a pair that fit me just right. Total Cost 180 Bucks!

Decent workout. Overall did a total of: 49.5 miles of hiking during the last week. Not bad. I really think this should help me lots on my cardio workouts. I just need to work on strength training.

Well. Next post should be about Dragon Boating Upper Body workout yesterday. And then afterwards, I'll write about tonight's judo practice.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Friday Morning Workout, BMI and Weight Classes

Well, I'm wicked sore from last night's workout. Just a general bruised feeling. My calves are still tight and sore. The usual finger bruises on my arms. Some mat burn on my head. A slight bruise on my temple where you place the knee on the head to rotate the body. And random bruises here and there. Basically, another normal workout bruises.

And so, this morning, I decided to take it easy (read wimp out). I did 30 minutes elliptical with my heart rate bouncing between 100-105 bpm. I drank some cranberry juice this morning. I need to get some bananas. The cranberry juice I got is too sweet, gotta get the "light" cranberry juice, or just cut it with water.

I need to go swimming or something. I have a 8 mile hike tomorrow with a 35-40 pound pack. So that's the main reason of taking it easy. I may squeeze in a quick upper body workout later in the day, but today I have a full day of packing, laundry, mopping, cleaning, more cleaning, so I'll do my upper body workout after my Field Day of my place.

Next week I'll be missing a lot of workouts because of my weeklong trip to Goat Mountain. I'd enjoy some sunshine and lots of hiking; etc... It'd be a change of pace and should keep me relatively fit.

Oh, and I weighed myself this morning. 208.5 lbs. This is in comparison to my 220 lbs. weigh in at the Western Judo Tournament about a month ago. My goal is to get in the -90kg weight class which is 198 lbs. Right now I'm -100kg, and before that 100kg+. During the winter, where I went through a judo hiatus

According to the BMI index, I'm a fat body.

http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

32.7 BMI index. The NIH says I'm OBESE! Want a jelly donut? To get to the recommended 25 BMI. (Normal Weight, well the top of the normal weight for my 5'7" height). I need to weigh in at 159 lbs... or 72kg. Thats a whole 2 lower weight classes. Let's see the weight classes are:
Men: -50 kg -55 kg -60 kg -66 kg -73 kg -81 kg -90 kg -100 kg +100Kg

Uggh. 159 lbs. from 208lbs. I have to lose a whopping 49lbs. WOW!

According to my Tanita fat meter, I have 28% body fat. In March, I was weighing at a fat astounding 232 lbs, at around 33% body fat. Yeah I was a wicked fat body when I stopped working out from December-March. A wicked, fattening, long long time of fat inducing video gaming time. Never, ever, get into an online game, it's bad, very bad. I remember playing 2142, Counterstrike, and Star Wars Galaxies. I had the overall LCD glow of a gamer, with whacked out sleeping schedules and a diet consisting of diet Pepsi and Hot Pockets. Sure, I could do all this nifty stuff in a game and be all e-tough. But it's totally useless in real life and you can't make cocktail conversations out of it. Example: "hey baby, I'm a level 90 Commando..." Yep. Big whoop-dee-do.

Anyways, I digress, luckily my fat ass isn't growing as much and actually is starting to show signs of, dare I say, reduction. You know fat asses are like credit card debt. It's so easy to build up, but so hard to take off.

And yeah, last post I talked about getting to a good core workout. I'll get to it that soon (TM).

Well, it's kinda disheartening to really look at the BMI index. I thought losing 24lbs. in 3 months (April-May-June) wasn't that bad. I was losing 8lbs a month or 2lbs a week, which is a fairly healthy weight loss. It's a start, I guess, and should actually make choices every day, to be healthier. So for 50lbs. I need to look at 25 weeks, to get to that healthy weight. Basically 6 months, roughly. So, by end of January, I should look at being at a decent weight. It's a long road ahead. But what really motivates me is going to practice. After Tuesday or Thursday practice, I just get pumped to know that I need to work on specifics, and there's instant gratification. Like last night, I wasn't as winded in randori and didn't flop over like a rag doll, which is a bonus for me.

Also everyone in the dojo are in relatively good shape. Most sport six-packs and are fairly well defined. That and the constant reminder from the senseis that making it to practice is just one part of a whole judo program. You must workout during the week, to keep your stamina, strength, and flexibility up. It's one thing to lose in a match because your opponent has better skill and technique. It's another thing to lose if you are not in shape. You just haven't trained hard enough.

Morning rant over. I just have to put my words into action.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Juji and more juji.

Ah, the nuances of being a brown belt. Uggh. So yeah I'm the senior kyu for the senior class, and yet, I don't know the fundamentals of bowing, and starting the class. I know it's embarrassing. But it was always someone else's responsibility, and not me. Sooo...

1. Kioske.
2. Seiza
3. Rei - To Kano
4. Rei - To Yudansha

That's starting.

Ending is:

1. Kioske
2. Seiza
3. Mokso
4. Yame
5. Rei - To Yudansha
6. Rei - To Kano

I forget how you say to face Kano or to face yudansha, but everyone does it automatically, so I'll leave it at that. I'm sure I'll get told again. I'm not very good with japanese words; eventually I'll get it right.

Yeah, it's bad, but I'm writing it down so I don't forget. It's weird being one of the "senior" students. Well usually there's about 10-12 black belts. 2 Brown Belts and 1 Green and 2-3 White Belts. Sometimes I'm just myself and Ferdinand (white belt) on the kyu side.

The workouts are a grinder. But it builds character, it's not your typical judo class. It's fun to roll around with most people on the national roster. There maybe a handful of black belts that are not on the national roster at one time or another.

I actually like it. I feel like that I'm still needing to polish up my technique after every class, and there's always something to strive for. Once I get somewhere, where I think I may be getting good, they up it a notch. It's good. I'd rather be a small fish in a big sea than the biggest fish in a tiny pond. I know that if I get in a good technique (once every couple of months), then I'm progressing.

So onto juji, and more juji.

Ahh.. I was browsing through youtube. This was the technique we were working on.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3QtK-SA7l6w



Check out 0:35.

We worked on this technique and variations for awhile.

Then we did 4 rounds newaza randori. I was odd man out for one round.

And 4 rounds tachi-waza randori. I was odd man out for one round.

Newaza, I was working on positioning. I need to be tighter in my armbars, and rollovers. Seriously, my fat gut is hampering my ground work. I'm not as twisty and nimble as others. I gotta look at focusing on some core workouts. I hate working core, and I need to. I'm the typical gym guy. You know, the one who works on the "vanity" muscles. Back to newaza, I did have a successful guard pass tonight which was cool. However my 3 attempts at getting an armbar didn't quite materialize. I just need to practice more, till I get more comfortable at it.

Grant told me some workouts with a sandbag that will work the core. Just lifting twisting, etc... to work the obliques, etc... Yeah, I need to do more medicine ball, ab, oblique, leg lifts, and the like. I think I'll go to home depot and get myself a $2.50 bag of sand. You know the ones that you put on the back of the truck. I'll talk to him some more about his actual core workout.

As for standing randori, I think I'm getting the hang of grip-fighting, and ended up to be the focus on one of the 3 minute rounds.

The thing I'm lacking on, is my lack of commitment. Yeah, I hate commitment, in my real life, love life and other things. I gotta commit to an attack and follow through. I tend to do a lot of feints, which is mainly shin kicking, instead of really going for a kouchi, ouchi, de-ashai, or myriads of other foot sweeps.

I also need to work on my combinations. I only have a one or two combination repertoire and after awhile, most people know that I like to do kouchi, ouchi and seio. My harai gosh is decent, my drop kata-guruma is pretty good. The thing is the set-up and execution.

Thing is I tend to telegraph what I'm about to do. There doesn't seem to be any surprises on my bag of tricks. I also need to move more in a circle and actually do dynamic judo rather than static judo. I tend to move forwards and backwards. Should actually vary it more.

Ah, one thing I did learn, is left-handed players don't like to be held in a left handed grip. I really should practice my left side judo. And I seem to be more successful on the left. It just feels more comfortable, and most people don't mind giving up the left hand side.

Anyways, it was a good practice, and it felt good. I think I was able to soak in more this practice as I wasn't as tired, and not focusing on surviving the round. I was actually on the offensive at times.

That's the thing, I really need to build up my stamina, so I can attack, attack, attack. Defensive judo sucks and drains my energy.

I really need to think 2-3 moves ahead, and not just survival mode. I think I'm starting to get it, as there's more strategy in judo than I ever imagined.

Anyways, it was a good practice and it has left me thinking more than ever.

Easy Wednesday.

Today was a rather easy workout. Did 40 Minutes elliptical, backwards. My calves are sore. Did ab crunches.

Okay, yeah I'm still sore from yesterday. Thought take it easy. And I blew my diet. I had a hot-pocket, an almond soy latte and two scoops of Baskin Robbins ice cream over a sugar cone. WOW. That's insane amount of sugar and calories. UGH.

Tomorrow should be better. I just need some recovery. I just been going at it non-stop and don't want to get burnt out. Okay, so it's excuses...but hey, I made a choice, and now will live with it. Oh my that Ice Cream was DELICIOUS! And that hot-pocket. yummy.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Tuesday Night Judo Practice

So today was a nice day out for Seattle. 80's bluest skies you ever seen. Anyways, I wasn't going to let this sunshiny day slip by without doing some outdoor activity. And so I went for a quick 30 minute run. Did the Fairmont hill run, which basically consists of a 1/2 mile long hill that has about a 300 foot elevation gain. So basically a quick 2 mile run with a 1/2 mile straight aways with a stretch at the end of the 1/2 mile straight away. Did a nice easy pace. Picked up the pace at the end of the Fairmont hill run. Basic 30 minute run. It was good to get the blood flowing and at the last 100 yards, I sprinted. It felt good.

So showered. Got my gi bag ready and headed to practice. I was a bit late, so changed quickly just in time to do the line up.

Anyways, practice consisted of a warm up of judo soccer. Yeah, it's a fun different warm up that you play soccer, tackle, pin, dog pile your opponents. It's the way soccer was meant to be played, with full contact and take downs.

That was a good warm up and got the blood flowing, then did ukemi drills, then uchikomi. I still have some more techniques to work on such as my osoto gari. I wasn't pointing my toe, and really need to make contact. My combos were so-so, but needs work.

The technique shown tonight was 3 different rolls into a juji gatame from a guy who is turtled.

It's hard to describe. I'll describe it loosely and it's better if seen. As I'll butcher the technique in words.

First one was your standard roll.
Second one was the one where you go high, create space underneath and roll, catch the arm and into a juji.
Third one was the "Rock and Roll Armbar" grab the arm for the armbar, lock it in, twist, grab a leg, then roll into position.

Things I learned:

1. When controlling the arm, hold it close and grab your own lapel so it's tight.
2. Knees together.
3. Keep it tight.

As the sensei explains, it's the little things that make it work. I still need a lot of work on armbars, I'm coming along though. We mainly focused on matwork tonight. And then went to 3 rounds of newaza randori and 3 rounds of tachi-waza. A lot of technique shown tonight. So not the usual grind that is the 8 o'clock practice. Overall it was a good workout.

I still need to work on my standing techniques. My grip is getting better, and I need to throw more. I need more grounding on my foot-sweeps. They're more like taps and not any real attempts at throwing. I do am getting better with my kata-guruma. I like that technique, however, set up is something I'm working on.

Anyways, that's it for now. Thursday is around the corner.

Monday's Upper Body Workout and Judo watching...

So... yesterday was a good workout day. It started in the morning meeting Jen and Ericka at 24 hour fitness for some quick cardio (I was a bit late.) and ab work out. The ab work out was good, still gotta focus on it more. Perhaps do more medicine ball workouts with abs. We did oblique rotation with weights on a swiss ball, crunches and the like. I think a bit more to burnouts would be good, for that good and sore feeling, but I think that Jen and Ericka was just taking it easy on me that day.
Afterwards, they split, and I did some upper body workout. It consisted of:

5 sets - 12, 10, 8, 6, 12 reps.

Dumbbell bench press - 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 lbs.
Lat Pull Downs - 65, 80, 95, 110, 125 lbs.
Dumbbell shoulder press - 20, 25, 30, 30, 30 lbs.

Overall, I felt good. I still need to work my shoulders, my shoulders were wicked tired at the end of the set. Also my shoulder felt funny at the end of the shoulder press. Perhaps watch my technique and go with lighter weights to finish at 30 lbs. After stretching it out, it felt fine.

I was going to do biceps and triceps, however that would've been a bit much, because... I had dragon boating that afternoon. Last thing I needed were fatigued bi/tri for one hour of paddling. Besides, the dumbbell workout worked them out indirectly. Perhaps if it was a non-paddling day I'd be good to go.

Onto... Dragon Boating

That afternoon was a great day for dragon boating. It was beautiful, warm and Lake Washington was just nice. The boat had 10 people, so the usual complement of 22 people weren't there. We practiced anyways, and it was a good practice. It felt great to be paddling with just 8 paddlers plus the caller and the tiller.

I was working on my form. I like paddling as it's a near constant resistance workout that involves your abs, obliques and upper body.So as you can see from the picture, it's a lot of good rotation, working the obliques and some good upper body workouts. I think this is good. It's a lot like the shrimping drill right before mat-work, and this will be good resistance training at that.

Did paddle boating for about an hour, with 30 minutes left side and 30 minutes right side. It was a good workout and I could feel my obliques burn. Today my body has a good soreness to it. It was a great workout. I had to work on my snap and my timing. It's really hard to keep pace and keep excellent form. The hard part is the exit out of the water and snapping the paddle forward for maximum reach. I kinda get lackadaisical and of course when you're tired, you're technique just isn't that good. I was getting into a good rhythm and getting to breathe. I think I did decent in paddling last night as I didn't have to stop at all. Then again, the pace was just constant, so there were no burnouts nor race starts, which really tires me out quick. I also think that since my arms were already tired, that I actually used my whole body, rather than just the upper body for paddling. So overall a good day...

And then... onto Judo.

After paddling, I was a bit chilly and decided to get some Pho to warm myself up. Afterwards it was running around 8:30 pm, which coincidentally happen to be the time that Seattle Dojo was holding practice. Since I was already in the International District, it was only a simple matter of driving 3/4 of a mile there. I was still a bit wet from paddling and I didn't have my judogi on, so I simply decided to stop by there and watch.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2004473068_judo150.html


So Seattle Dojo according to the article is the oldest continuous judo club stateside. I've practiced there once before about a year ago and saw a few familiar faces. It's been awhile though and there's a lot of fresh faces. Yeah article, pretty much sums it up, better than I can.

So, after the article publish, Seatlte Dojo has become popular. I witnessed a lot of new students, with 5 new students joining Seattle Dojo that day. It was cool to see the joy and awe of fresh new students. I hardly see that anymore. There were a group of 3 guys that enrolled that day that knew each other. The "recruits" all had the issued unbleached gi, still fresh with from-the-wrapper-crease-marks. There were a total of about a dozen recruits, which is quite amazing! I hardly ever see more than one or two people start in a club a month, if that.

It was a good refresher on dojo etiquette, proper bowing, etc... And some instruction on tying the belt. They did some ukemi drills, and one ukemi drill that we don't usually do. The front breakfall. We hardly ever do front breakfalls. We do spend quite a bit of time on ukemi, rolls, cartwheels, and the like.

Since there were a lot of new people, this class was more of an instructional class on the basics, and a lot of things were going on quite a bit. Two black belts were practicing the nage-no-kata, and it was actually interesting to actually see it in practice in the dojo rather than on a few demos that I have seen. Now that I'm a brown belt, I should eventually learn nage-no-kata. Eventually being a key word, since earning a black belt really isn't a priority of mine, and besides that, it'll be another half decade or so before I'm qualified to do so. I actually need to ummm, win some tournaments perhaps? I really don't think I'd deserve a black belt until I can get onto the national ranking roster. I think most black belts I roll around with are on the roster at one time or another. And Tracy from my club didn't get her black belt until six months before the Olympic trials. And she won the trials in her division, so. Yeah, that's my gage. And seriously in comparison, I am nowhere in that level. Really being a brown belt, sounds cool, however I know far less than what I'm supposed to know. Sure I can tell what the 40 classic throws from the Canon of Judo looks like, however, executing them is a whole other story. I still am not that proficient in mat-work as well, and was really thinking of taking some submission wrestling classes, or bjj classes to supplement that hole in my game. I digress...

Seattle Dojo class format was.

1. Intro
2. Warm-ups.
3. Ukemi from laying, to sitting, to standing.
4. Squats while saying the japanese numbers 1-10.
5. Rolling Ukemi
6. Matwork warmups, shrimping and the like up and down the mat.
7. Matwork technique. (Basic holds: kesa, yoko-shiho, kata, etc...)
8. Holding the pin with resistance.
9. Ne-waza randori
10. Standing uchikomi
11. Standing technique. Ippon Seio, Morote Seio
12. Standing Randori for colored belts/ Ukemi instruction for white belts.
13. Closing
14. Ukemi when leaving the mat.

In the meantime after the warmups, a couple of people were practicing nage-no-kata on the side.

It was cool to watch another club, and to think about judo that day. I got judo practice tonight. Looking forward to it. Anyways, I should go do a short run or something.

Anyways that's about it.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Thursday Night Judo Practice

Last night Mark taught us a cool combo. It's a forward/backward throw. Go backwards so your opponent goes forward, throw for a morote seio; hanai/harai goshi your opponent will go backwards to prevent the throw. Now, do a modified kouchi gari. This time with the kuzushi down. He likens the classic kouchi gari is going forward. This modified one is with the kuzushi down. He likened the classic one as a tree falling, and this modified one as a building implosion.

I like this new technique/modification. For a bigger guy like me, it's fairly simple and straight forward; and; it's a valid throw to get into newaza.

Newaza last night was less than successful; I'm not getting the initial control outright and was fighting defensively. I need to spread out my base and make my holds/chokes tight. I was going for chokes last night; and were more of a nuisance more than good technique.

I still need to work on attacking from a turtle. I did work on the rollovers last practice, however, in randori, still not quite working.

Did about 3 rounds newaza. 5 rounds of tachi-waza. I had to sit out for 3 rounds because I was gassed, and 1 was I had a bloody nose. Which, figures... It's the few times that I do wear my white gi. And I bleed all over it. Do I get a bloody nose when I wear a blue gi? NOPE. When I break out my white gi, inevitably blood gets on it, and I have to use Tide Stain remove to get the blood out.

Bah. Anyways.

It was a good practice.

Oh, and one thing I noticed. I did my best judo at the last round of the night. Not that I was able to throw somebody. But I was actually moving, using leverage. I know weird? I was just too tired to try to muscle my way and plow through a semblance technique, and actually had to use kuzushi and leverage. It just felt good and actually felt that I was really doing judo as opposed to a brawl. Which practice seems to me like most times... Well that's what my body feels like.

Well that's about it. Going to run today, just some light cardio....