One Last Hurrah

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Kung Fu Training and Health
1

Good ole Suntzu’s birthday was the other day, he had a bit of a party at his house.
I ended up staying there obnoxiously late (sorry rahsaan, know I shoulda left u alone); but i was having a good talk with coach julio.

the party was the first time in a while that i actually watched fight clips and hung out with old training buddies. I realized again how much I want to fight and how much I want to be a fighter instead of just “some guy who trains”.

Over and over again Julio kept saying “don’t quit” and “you have the desire to succeed” and “it will come just don’t give up”.

So here’s the deal…

I may be moving to Fort Worth Texas in 3 months; there’s a pretty good chance, I just gotta get work to sign off on my resume and gotta navigate through the Lockheed Martin HR process.

3 months is probably not enough time to drop below 200 and come in a lethal killing machine; but it is enough to get my wind back, drop a few pounds, and get in reasonable fight shape.

My goal right now is to get ready to compete as soon as I can. I’m doing this strictly based on wind (aerobic & anaerobic endurance) and skills. I’m planning on fighting heavyweight, as suicidal as that sounds. If my coach started out in heavyweight (his best fightweight being 155), then I know I can (best fight weight probably 187).

I’m tired of cowering away from competition because of weight class.
I’m gonna step up and suffer the consequences, coz frankly I just want it that bad.
I’d like to think my 3+ years of experience and serious training should account for something in the ring.

Of course this won’t be easy; I’ve gotta contend with 2 jobs totalling 60 hours a week and a constitution that requires 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night.

Tenatively, the plan is to workout heavy (2 to 4 hours) both days on the weekend and at least 2 or 3 medium (1 to 2 hour) sessions during the week. Right now I can’t handle my old capacity, but it’ll build up the more I train.

Gonna keep my diet in check, but nothing too strict. No starvation or crazy stuff.
Want to eat pretty regular, but keep some of my worse habits in check.
No more late night dinners (after work), cuttin out the candy, gonna drop back on some of the diet soda, and little changes where I can.

I will be doing some light supplementation, including:
-Hot Rox, a little for my apettite, but mostly for my energy levels
-Methoxy7, no special reason, just don’t wanna throw the bottle out LOL
-a good multivitamin (pack), to make sure i’m getting enough nutrients
-zma, to help me with my sleep
-cla, to help with EFAs.
I have a lot of protein powder so i may be drinking one or more shakes in the evenings instead of eating something.

I’ve pledged to myself to stay away from heavy drinkin and smoking the duration of 2006 as well, which should help (I only smoke & drink like once/twice a month anyway).

So there you have it. This blog (thread, not entry) will be my last for maryland, assuming i get the job. Maryland’s been a pretty good run, but I need to make a decent wage without killin myself between 2 jobs. Planning on gettin married, makin babies, and buyin a house over the next year or 2; and i just can’t do that out here. Gonna miss hangin with my boys out here (suntzu, akhilleus, and khun kao charuad); but I been bitcchin bout goin back to texas for a long time. hehe

Alright chums, let’s make one last run!!

2

Saturday

went back to bxf today for a skills kinda workout today.
DANG I’m outta shape!!!

10 min on the elliptical (+3 min cool down of course), setting was 19, kept up a good hard pace and kicked my own azz.

jogged around the gym 10 times, loosening up.
Even this was strenuous, especially the footwork drills: high stepping, etc.

rounds were 3 min with 1 min rest

2 rounds of jump rope. This was killin me. first round i kept flubbin, rope kept catchin my left foot. started holding my hands lower, which seemed to help a bit. Was suckin wind at the end of the second round.

took a round off to put my handwrap gloves on

3+ rounds of shadow. Not exactly sure how long I shadowed, it was at least 3 rounds, but was talkin with my buddy so it mighta been more. I started from ground up: jabs & footwork, then simple combos, then hand-feet combos, then explosive hand-feet combos, and finished up with footwork. Wasn’t too hard, had a lil more stamina on the explosive stuff than i thought.

2 rounds on regular banana bag. This went alright, nothing remarkable. Mighta been longer than 2.

2 rounds on big bag. This may have only been 1 round; but if it was it sure killed me like 2. I really tried to explode with my punches on hand and leg combos. Had a nice little run of explosive combos then started totally suckin wind towards the end.

1 round on loose double end bag. This went pretty nice, it’s and easy bag to time coz it swings slower.

1 round on tight double end bag. this was hard, coz it swings so dang fast. I still managed to tag it with some good combos, though i had more than my fair share of flubs.

1 round on uppercut bag. I was really trying to send the bag airborne with my punches; which burned me quite nicely. Finished up with 30 seconds of knees at the end- was focusing more on knee height than power; but i was still tired by the end.

20 medicine ball crunches on swiss ball. May sound a lil funky, but I was able to isolate my abs real well on this one.

20 medicine ball twists on the swiss ball. I think i like doing this one better on a decline roman chair/situp bench. Didn’t seem to nail my obliques as seriously as it did on the chair.

15 balance board pushups with my feet on the swiss ball. Was shooting for 20, but I’m just not there yet.

This workout looks pathetic compared to my old ones, but in terms of perceived effort, it was definitely up there as one of my better workouts. I have a lot of work to do and a lot of ground to make up. The real tests will come on the weekday mornings when I gotta figure out how to drag my hiney out of bed.

3

weeping right now
owowowow

went down to virginia today.
the meat of the workout was only 17 minutes (though i did like a good 20 or 30 min warm up prior)
i still thought i was going to pass out.
people reading this: if your coaches ever say they’re going to incorporate crossfit workouts into the training, RUN… RUN FAR AWAY!!!

I can barely move right now.
I’m cursing every day that I spent bein lazy.
I don’t like bein this outta shape.
pain is just weakness leavin the body.
I must have a lot of weakness…

well at least i’m motivated to work out the rest of the week. I don’t wanna feel this bad again. i feel useless.

4

good luck, bro. I’m in much the same condition…which is to say none.

working on some things…starting a nutritional anylisis this past week…

5

thanx oso :slight_smile:
i gotta keep reminding myself that the only secret is sticking to it; this isn’t going to be a quick turnaround like coming back from the occasional missed week in the past.

apparently i have the recuperative powers of a 90 year old man.
sunday i went to bed around 9:45pm.
i woke up at 6 and couldn’t move- every attempt at getting out of bed sent the most painful spasms through all the muscles i’m conscious of, as well as a few i’m not.
i lunged out the bed to turn off the alarm (which hadn’t gone off yet), crawled back, and got more sleep.
Around 7:30 I woke up and was in dire enough straits that I thought i was going to have to call out for work, I reached around for my phone, couldn’t find it within arm’s reach, and went back to sleep.
I woke up again around 8:50. This time I actually felt human; a hurt broken human, but at least i could move.
I took my vitamins and got ready for work. By the time i got to my car i was feeling a lot better.
Unfortunately it only lasted till the end of my first job.
My second job was murder, felt like I was going to fall out; but managed to pull it through.

Monday I found out that my work wasn’t going to sign off on my gf: she’s not a citizen and that causes an issue with my job that has to be signed off on.
I was planning on going to Fort Worth anyway (as stated in my first post); but when they told me about their unwillingness to make an acceptance for me that they’d made for 2 others in my office; I realized I had no choice. In no uncertain terms I gave them notice of my intentions to leave in the upcoming months.

I haven’t really liked this job since my 2nd or 3rd month, when my boss started giving me a real hard time. I haven’t really liked working for the government since my second year, when my bills started skyrocketing and my promotion was given to a couple of new-hires. For this position, I don’t feel like i’ve done anything over the last 10 months. According to my bosses I pretty much haven’t done anything, and i’m not sure I disagree with them (eventho my accomplishments say otherwise). I just think this job is/was a bad fit for me, and I’m trying not to let it affect my self image. Hoping my next one’s better.

The deal with giving them notice on monday: that i’d no longer be working there, is that now fort worth is kind of make or break. I’m sure I’ll have other options once I have my resume in hand, but fort worth’s my safest bet and the best one I’ve seen. I just really hope it comes through for me. Not being sure about where your paycheck is coming from is a scarey thing.

After work monday night i came home and hoping to have some dinner, get some comfort from my gal, and unwind from the craziness of quitting. Unfortunately it didn’t go down like that. I ended up going to bed later than I wanted after eating some Cluck U chicken and I don’t think I felt any more at ease than when i jumped in my car to go home.

Today, Tuesday, I’m still hurting; seems like different muscles than last night. I didn’t wake up early; had an eye doctor appointment. At least I managed to fix my satellite radio; which is awesome. My head’s a bit more clear; but still not sure what tomorrow brings. I’m basically waiting on my resume.

I’m going to have to wait until my body’s no longer painfully sore until i workout again. I don’t mind some soreness, but this is nuts. my legs give out if i put too much bodyweight on either one of them. I walk like a zombie. moving hurts.

I know things will turn around, I just gotta stick with it. Once I can handle a reasonable load of good intensity, it should probably be another month before I consider my endurance on track. It’ll be at least 2 weeks to a month before I can handle more than 2 to 3 days a week.

diet wise i’m not great, but far from my worst. I’m taking baby steps as far as that goes. Gotta gradually step into healthy eating, if i try to go cold turkey i get sick. More shooting for eating “normal” than cutting back a ton; learning how to eat more regularly instead of pigging out- and then i’ll gradually improve the food choices.

6

Felt awful today.
Went to bed a lil later than i wanted to last night.
woke up a good hour later than i wanted to.
I was hurtin and feeling just plain ill.
I took a shower and didn’t feel any better; in fact i almost fell out when i was drying off.
i called into work and didn’t even get outta bed till like 5 or somethin- still really not doin anything.
was reading a book earlier but my head started killin me.
it’s more of just feeling ill- slight sore throat, headache, general body ache.
The muscles ain’t quite as sore as yesterday and monday, but still not great.
Maybe it’s the flu…

As soon as I get better I’m back in the gym.

[EDIT: And I just puked]

7

pork choppa – when you get here, let me know. houston is only a few biscuits away.

8

My folks live in houston and i was just down there in september; sorry i didn’t hit you up. I’ll definitely make sure to hollar the next time i’m there.

Was still nauseous today, dry heaved a bit in the morning.
Managed to hit up my main job; though i was hurting the first half of the day; but i still skipped the second job.
just took a couple hour nap; woke up to the sound of my dog falling off the bed (think he rolled over in his sleep, poor little guy) and i feel better.
still a little nauseous, still a bit sore, but instead of lethargy, i can imagine actually getting off my seat.
Let’s see how i feel tomorrow; don’t wanna rush into anything coz i was feelin pretty bad most of the day.

9

Been having a lot of headaches with work about my gf.
Last night was a bit of a crisis as she needs to have an address different than mine until i’ve got some sort of waiver.
Luckily, we found her a new place to stay and get her mail.
I’m pretty darn sick of government life, this cr@p shoulda been handled 2 years ago.

Back to the kung fu school tonite around 5 and I think i’m feeling up for it.
If I’m ambitious i’ll hit up my gym around 3 or so for an hour long workout.
I’d probably get more done in an hour at my gym than 3 hours at the kung fu school to be honest.

10

had a good 2 hour workout today.
maybe not my hardest ever, but for where my conditioning is right now, it was d@mn near perfect.
tabata intervals hurt.
fun tip of the day: pushing wave masters back and forth across a short carpetted floor is a bit like sled dragging and a real good workout.

11

had a pretty good workout today.
my feet and ankles were hurting so i only did so much jogging; but still had a long warm up between shadow and everything.
They were doing another crossfit-influenced workout today; I was cringing at the thought.
Today’s workout was rep-based instead of time which was even more intimidating.
The first exercise was more painful than workout, so after 11 reps (was shooting for 21) I went and shadowboxed for a few minutes.
I felt bad about quitting so i modified the exercises I couldn’t do, to actually be able to do them, and then jumped back into the fray.
I managed to get all 3 sets of rep-goals on the various exercises; albeit modified for my outta shape azz.
I still can’t do chinups. I think I got 5 or 6 with a slight assist, and 3 natural (on my 3rd set). Once I maxxed out, i would do a max-effort negative before switching exercises.

did 6 rounds of touch sparring and 3 rounds of good-contact sparring.

like i said, i had to modify what we were supposed to do, but once i found out what i was capable of, i made a good workout out of it.

got a long way to go if i ever wanna get in good shape.
biggest problem with working out will be dealing with the outside influence of work, which seeks to rob me of my peace of mind as well as my time.
this is just a very bad situation for me, and i know in all likelihood things are going to get worse before they get better. doing what i can here.

12

actually made it into the gym tonite.
3 days in a row…
it’s probly a sign of the apocalypse…
even had a good workout too.

10 min warm up on the elliptical- didn’t push it too hard, but still got my heart rate around 180 for the duration and got a good sweat goin.

3 min rounds

3 rounds of jump rope (still difficult at the end of the second, but at least i made it and i was doing a better job of keeping the rope going).

3 rounds of shadow boxing (spent a lot fo time on my front kick and just tryin to get combos flowin again)

3 rounds on the big bag (tried to go max power the first round, 2nd round i went through my various kicks, 3 round was more combos)

3 rounds on the small bag (worked a lot of front kick here- following up with other attacks)

3 rounds on the regular banana bag (worked leg kicks, combos, and spinning techs)

1 round on the slip bag

1 round on the peanut bag- it was way loose, so i was throwin kicks too and really workin my head movement in response to the bag

1 round on the “loose” bag- i call it “loose” cos it used to be the loose one, did a lot of hand combos, kept it goin pretty well.

2 rounds on the uppercut bag- last 30 seconds continuous knees

Felt pretty good today after workin out.
I kinda like goin at my own pace instead of tryin to go bawlz out; coz i have an easier time building up when I’m not getting so sore. eventually my own pace will become significant enough that “bawlz out” won’t be too big a stretch.

Tuesday off.
Gonna shoot for wednesday.
Have to work next weekend, so i’ll probably miss sunday; but still should be able to hit saturday evening.

13

Wed Thurs and Friday didn’t go the way i planned.
I kept forgetting to bring my clothes.
Couldn’t get my stuff together to wake up all early.
Working saturday and sunday so i didn’t do friday either.
today (saturday) work was brutal.
word is that GWB’s droppin by work this upcoming week; so you can imagine how my cleaning job went.
I’m hurtin.
Hopin tomorrow (sunday) goes better.

Gonna give another shot at working out in the mornings; coz i need to do something.
at least i’ll be moving soon, one way or another.

14

Today (sunday) was another 8 hour cleaning day.
i did a lot of heavy lifting and a ton of mopping.
i can barely move, so i don’t care, it counts as a workout

15

Good work

Pork Chop,

Not very many people choose a purpose for themselves, then actually live up to it. If you want to be a fighter, be a fighter! Keep sharpening yourself against your dreams, and you’ll be a lethal killing machine in no time.

Keep us updated on your progress, and good luck!

“Every act of self-discipline increases your confidence, trust, and belief in yourself and your abilities.” – Brian Tracy

16

thanks :slight_smile:
i appreciate all the support i can get.

i realized this weekend that i have the power to wake up at 6
i’m going to try to use that for morning workouts; bit more confident I can do it now

trying hard not to just write off the rest of the time i’m here in maryland- giving up till i get to texas. but i do know that once i get there i’m going to be able to accomplish a lot more.

Gotta get my diet in check this week too.

17

You, sir, are a better man than I. :cool:

18

this morning i woke up at 6 and took my dog for a walk.
the lil bugger’s the worst jogging partner i’ve ever had, he doesn’t wanna run- doesn’t even wanna walk.
tonite i skipped second job to tell my apartment complex i was moving.
when i came home, i saw the gf passed out on the bed and got real sleepy all of a sudden.
we woke up an hour or 2 later and she wanted to go eat, so no gym.
gonna get to bed soon so i can try the gym tomorrow morning.

19

bout an hour after i wrote that blog last night i started puking.
takin the day off from work.
it’s almost noon and the idea of food still makes me cringe.
i’m laughing at how sad this is getting.

20

I played it safe.
I took Tuesday and Wednesday off from both jobs.

When I went back to work Thursday morning I was surprisingly fresh.
I even went to go work out Thursday night:

10 min on the elliptical, not my best performance, but my heart rate stayed pretty much over 185 the whole time, so I wasn’t crying about not burning more “machine calories”.

3 rounds of jump rope - midway through the last round my jumprope broke.
3 rounds of shadow
3 rounds of big bag - focused on big blasts, with some work on openings & follow ups
3 rounds of regular banana bag - worked on combos, some spinning, some high kicks, was completely burnt by the end.

Working out after both jobs is 10x harder than after 1 job or no jobs.

Friday I was a bit tired.
Janitor job dragged a bit, but not too bad.
Wasn’t as sluggish as I used to get.
so friday night i worked out again.
i was pretty drowsy driving to the gym too.
so at the gym i just did:

25 min cardio on the elliptical. Was trying to go easy, to change up the pace. Heart rate stayed over 170 the whole time. Wasn’t the most calories I’d burned in 25 min on there, but it was respectable and I was pretty tired.

I finished up with abs:
3 sets of 15: sit up chair, medicine ball situps w/9 pound medicine ball. Light medicine ball, but i hold it out above my head, arms straight as I can, and don’t let it pass the plane of my head.
3 sets of 10: sit up chair medicine ball twists, w/9 pound ball. Again, light ball, but this isn’t easy. The last set i did slow reps.

I was pretty well burnt after this as well.
I may still be fat & unfit for a while, but at least I’m trying to do somethin about my fitness level. Food-wise, I’m just doing what I can.

Still applying for jobs. I’m out of here March 23, regardless of whatever happens. I’ve got a bunch of prospects, I’m just stuck in the waiting game. The next 4 weeks will probably be rough, but at the end of it I should have something, or at least the knowledge that I’ve hit worst case scenario. lol