Had the following book recommended (well, got lots of recommendations from various places, but this book seemed more of the “beginner’s manual” that is appropriate):
Odds are it is available through interlibrary loan for free. Get it through your local library and see if it works.
Myself, I’m off to work, then going to try to find myself a work-out partner for returning to training this January.
Soldog: No apologies needed!
Elaikases: Thanks for the link. It looks like a good book. I do have one BJJ book, but another wouldn’t hurt! It would be great if I had someone I could roll with (outside of class time) for extra practice. Looks like that’s going to be hard to find though.
Last week got away from me. Too much stuff going on and not enough time or physicality to get everything done. Unfortunately, I have to pace myself and choose my path carefully each day. If I don’t I won’t be able to get anything done at all.
Monday MT:
Good class. Lots of practice on switch kicks and combos. Fifteen minutes of sparring at the end. Had some good partners and some just plain weird ones.
Lift: Full body for now. Not enough time for splits.
Tuesday:
Run 40 minutes.
Stretch
Wed:
MT class:
More kick work. Sheesh. (Hard on the hips and calves) The other token female was 15 minutes late getting there and by the time she walked in I was already paired with a newer guy. Dan is just a little taller than me, but easily a good 225 lbs. So we’re doing pad work. I go first, then it’s his turn and he kicks me so hard that I get rocked back about three feet. I’m still holding the pad and moving into his kicks, but he’s knocking me back several feet every time he connects. I take about four kicks in a row like this and start looking for a different partner. That’s when the other female walked in. We paired up and Dan paired up with another guy more his size. Later, the guy who took my place said Dan kicked the crap out of him, too. OK, so I felt a little better about making the decision to repartner.
BJJ:
They did a 30 minute Q&A session. More applicable to the guys who have been taking it longer. Then we rolled. I tried to work on the few things I sort of “know.” I hate being a rookie.
Hit the trail on my hubby’s horse. (3 hrs.) I was pretty spent, but the day was ripe for the picking and I couldn’t let it slide by. I’ve been trying to ride some of the trails that I haven’t been on in several years. I’m going to be taking a friend out this fall and I think it’s a good idea to refresh my bearings. Landmarks can change out there (I don’t use GPS!) and there’s nothing I hate worse than getting way out in the woods and getting lost or discovering you can’t reach your destination because of some barrier or obstacle you didn’t take into account. We had a really nice ride. He’s a moody boy and he was pretty feisty. That jacked my back to the point where I couldn’t lift later. Hey, I think I did plenty!
Thurs:
Lift
Stretch
Friday:
Elliptical: 30 min intervals
Heavy bag: 15 min
Stretch
Sat:
Run: 40 min
Heavy bag: 10 min
BJJ: Didn’t go. I’m about two weeks out from the kitchen renovation so I’ve been packing and moving furniture and stuff around all day. The back was fried. No point in going to class when I know I’ll just be tired and sloppy. But it bugged me that I didn’t go.
Sunday:
Getting ready to hit the trail with my hubby. It’s a nice day. Might lift or run if I’m up for it when we get back. Later we’re going to a small local fair to watch the horse pulls. I might even get a little crazy and have an ice cream cone …
Cappy
[quote]Capacity wrote:
I might even get a little crazy and have an ice cream cone …
Cappy
[/quote]
Get crazy! It’s in the air. I had shrimp and grits last night and am shooting for a hotdog and a beer for lunch today.
You had a good week Cappy.
OK, shoot me. Fair food is crap. You fantasize about it, which makes it seem much better than it really is. We went for a 3+ hour ride … very nice, but not a walk in the park kind of trail. By the time we hit the fair I was starving, and nothing even looked good. Yeah, it smells great, but you KNOW it’s all going to be crap. All fried and none of it’s really any good.
So no, I didn’t have ice cream. Hell, that’s probably not even the real deal. I had a burger and iced tea. I watched all the people stuffing their faces and decided to pass on anything else. The pulls were great. Brought back a lot of memories of hitching pony teams.
Today was a day off. I was going to drive into the city for MT class, but decided to pass and take a day off. No run, no ride, no lift, no stretch, no class, no nothing.
Yawn.
Can’t wait for tomorrow so I can kick some butt!
Cappy
HAHAHA! Welcome to the “pass club” I was a slug all weekend.
Can’t wait to hear about the next week.
[quote]Capacity wrote:
OK, shoot me. Fair food is crap. You fantasize about it, which makes it seem much better than it really is. We went for a 3+ hour ride … very nice, but not a walk in the park kind of trail. By the time we hit the fair I was starving, and nothing even looked good. Yeah, it smells great, but you KNOW it’s all going to be crap. All fried and none of it’s really any good.
So no, I didn’t have ice cream. Hell, that’s probably not even the real deal. I had a burger and iced tea. I watched all the people stuffing their faces and decided to pass on anything else. The pulls were great. Brought back a lot of memories of hitching pony teams.
Today was a day off. I was going to drive into the city for MT class, but decided to pass and take a day off. No run, no ride, no lift, no stretch, no class, no nothing.
Yawn.
Can’t wait for tomorrow so I can kick some butt!
Cappy[/quote]
My last two times at the Texas State Fair I couldn’t bring myself to eat the crap. I’ve given up on eating the specials now. I actually seem to enjoy it more.
Honestly I go for the smells, that smell is unique to fairs all over America. It’s like smelling KFC, it’s heaven until you taste it.
Ok, I’ll be the one to come clean. When I go to fairs I eat like I’m starvin. Don’t let me near a Bar-b-que cook off. We also have a AA baseball team here. The hot dogs at the stadium are the best in the world. Think I paid for the vendors kids’ college by now. As long as I’m confessing, nothing compares to a big bag of Krystals. 10 of them will just about hold me til breakfast. And stream, don’t dis on the Colonel. Where’s my can of Crisco, I’m hungry now.
[quote]hel320 wrote:
Ok, I’ll be the one to come clean. When I go to fairs I eat like I’m starvin. Don’t let me near a Bar-b-que cook off. We also have a AA baseball team here. The hot dogs at the stadium are the best in the world. Think I paid for the vendors kids’ college by now. As long as I’m confessing, nothing compares to a big bag of Krystals. 10 of them will just about hold me til breakfast. And stream, don’t dis on the Colonel. Wears my can of Crisco, I’m hungry now.[/quote]
Since your confessing… Hotdogs from Bill’s in Washington, NC, The only way they come is peppery white chili, strong onions, and mustard. Whole hog barbecue from this little place called Bunn’s. A cheeseburger from El’s in Morehead City. How I long for the grilled pretzels and cold beer at the old North Wilkesboro Motor Speedway.
Ain’t one thing good for you, but its all good going down…
OK, clearly I’m going to have to start a thread about junk food. It will be interesting to see what people have to say about the subject.
Tuesday:
Did a lot of running around for the upcoming kitchen project. I managed to squeeze in a run (45 mins), but that was it.
Wed:
One of my male dogs had me up at 5:15 so he could go out to puke. He pukes (bile) all the time. It would take too long to list the things I’ve tried to combat this. We think it’s part of his wiring. He was whelped very premature. He gets me up at least 3 times a week to puke, sometimes more. It’s always at night or in the wee hours of the morn. He’s been doing this since I got him at 13 weeks of age. I feel bad for him, but it’s hard on me too, especially when it happens about an hour before the alarm goes off. I just stay up, but I pay for it later.
MT class 8:30
Worked on slips with counter uppercuts and hooks. Good class, lots of drilling. Followed with sparring and using the things we worked on today. Great partner today! Yay!
BJJ:
Reviewed some basics, then drilled them. Partnered with the other female first, then rolled with another guy. He was more helpful and actually a better fit for me than the female. Really pushed my limits in this class today. Very exhausting, but good. Having problems with bad foot cramps. Staying hydrated, but I knew this might be a problem down the line. I seem to be prone to very severe toe/foot cramps. WTF is that all about???
Lift: Chest, shoulders, back, abs, neck.
Wicked tired. Lost a few pounds, but have been eating great. Had an awesome steak last night with enough left over for lunch today. Yum!!!
Cappy
On the foot cramps, are you getting enough potassium. I found that when I was training seriously, if I wasn’t careful, I sweated out so much salt that my potassium levels also dropped and I got cramps. A little bit of what is called “lite salt” (a mix of regular salt and potassium salt) seemed to fix that for me.
When I wasn’t working out quite so hard, a banana did the same thing.
I get foot cramps too while exercising. Mostly when doing standing overhead pressing - which I find just weird.
Water, sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium seem to be the 4 main tools against cramps. The first is for nutrient transport, the sodium/potassium is for nerve impulse propagation and the last two are involved in the actual chemical process that tenses/releases the fibers in a muscle.
I had some issues a while back. Stretched plantar facia tendon thingy. The foot doc put a support in my shoe, then I changed my brand of shoe about 9 times, learned I needed to sleep with my feet off then end of the bed…
I don’t know what was the silver bullet, but between sleeping with my feet off the bed and an damn expensive pair of Red Wings the cramps have disappeared.
Thanks for the suggestions all. You pretty much covered the same stuff that I thought about. That said, I had blood work done about four months ago because I thought I had an electrolyte imbalance, but everything was fine.
I suspect that’s because I eat a varied, nutritious diet and I supplement with a multi vitamin and mineral just to be safe. I also take cal/mag, so it shouldn’t be that.
I tried eating a banana a day for about a month. Didn’t do squat.
I used to wear orthotics in my running shoes, but they didn’t make much of a difference. I’m very picky about wearing the proper foot gear for the right activity. I own multiple types of foot gear, but the cramps seem to happen weather I’m barefoot or shod.
They are so intense that if I have one while driving a car I have to pull over immediately. My toes literally curl right up under my foot. It’s pretty ugly stuff.
Once I’ve had a full-fledged cramp it’s almost impossible not to keep getting them repeatedly over a period of a couple hours. Sometimes I can nip them in the bud, but I have to act fast or it can become a real problem.
I’ve had this goin’ on for several years. In fact, it’s how I met my last training partner. One day (about nine years ago) he saw me writhing on the floor of the gym. Every time I stood up and took a step or two, I’d suddenly hit the deck again.
He finally came over and asked if I was OK, which opened the door (in a very round-about way) to a partnership of two years.
But I digress …
I appreciate the suggestions.
Today:
Power walk, incline, 45 minutes
Stretch
Too hot and humid for agility practice.
Cappy
Does foot cramping coincide with problem days of your back? Or completely unrelated?
[quote]skidmark wrote:
Does foot cramping coincide with problem days of your back? Or completely unrelated?[/quote]
Skid:
Completely unrelated … to the best of my knowledge. I say that because the back issue is a 24/7 thing since 11 years ago, and pretty much a daily thing for at least 8 years before that. So it’s kinda hard to tell, you know? I’ve been prone to foot cramps since my early teens. I have strong memories of having to pull off a ski boot off mid-slope to try to knead out a severe cramp. I do wonder sometimes if the back surgery and subsequent damage did something to the nerve impulses that run to the feet. I did have pretty bad foot drop in my left foot for about 2-3 years post surgery.
Both feet are prone to cramps at random, no rhyme or reason or pattern to it, but never both feet at once. I very seldom get calf cramps, but on occasion I’ll get hammie cramps or a hip/glute cramp … especially when I’m mounting up to ride. However, those cramps are nothing like this. The foot cramps don’t seem to respond to anything and just keep cycling back once they start.
Cappy
Had? So the foot drop got better? I’m dealing with some of that myself right now. It seems to be slowly getting a bit stronger, but very slowly.
Y’know - it just occurred to me that my foot cramps happen much less when I wear my chucks taylors more often, which keeps more of my foot in contact with the ground. I don’t like to go barefoot, because I have knife blades for feet, they’re so skinny, but the chucks are almost as good as.
I used to run around in mocassains as a teenager and never had foot cramps. It’s only when I started wearing running shoes, cros trainers and dress shoes that the problem started.
[quote]skidmark wrote:
Had? So the foot drop got better? I’m dealing with some of that myself right now. It seems to be slowly getting a bit stronger, but very slowly.[/quote]
Yes, I had severe foot drop for a long time … at least a couple of years. It’s gotten much better, but I have to watch my step when I hike. It’s still quite easy to stub the toes on my left foot, which really hurts my back. I had a very hard time getting used to using a treadmill again, but I’ve adjusted.
I honestly didn’t think the foot drop would improve beyond a certain point, but it has, so don’t give up the faith!
[quote]Y’know - it just occurred to me that my foot cramps happen much less when I wear my chucks taylors more often, which keeps more of my foot in contact with the ground. I don’t like to go barefoot, because I have knife blades for feet, they’re so skinny, but the chucks are almost as good as.
I used to run around in mocassains as a teenager and never had foot cramps. It’s only when I started wearing running shoes, cros trainers and dress shoes that the problem started.[/quote]
I think there is an awful lot of shock absorbers in foot wear today. For example, I hate to have to change my shoes to squat, but it’s a good idea given how “cushy” cross trainers are.
Cappy
You got me to thinking about how I used to get cramps like that from time to time. It has been a long time, but I’m wearing a lot better shoes than I used to wear.
I’d forgotten about those in the calves and feet. I still get them once in a while (like when I went skiing for the first time in forever, as I was trying to get the boots on).
Easy to let slip my mind for the other types of cramps.
Hmm.
Lifting is probably going to have to take a bit of a back seat during the kitchen renovation. (Starts Sept 17th) I’m doing too much lifting and moving of things to lift weights and take MT and BJJ classes too.
In fact, the week the contractor starts I may have to bag the classes too. I’ll probably need to be here in the morning when they arrive to get the lowdown. I suppose could take the classes at night, but I’m not good for much at the end of the day.
I have no idea what’s going to happen while the builders are here working. My house is very small. It could get ugly. Maybe it would be a good time to run up the road and try out that new gym that just opened up? I think they gave me a free week pass. All I have to do is find it …
With that said, I didn’t lift Friday. I don’t like to lift the day before BJJ if I can help it, but I was still thinking I might lift until I got involved in scraping off an old wallpaper border and washing walls.
The border was at ceiling height, so it was a lot of up and down a very tall stool. It was one heck of a long shoulder/grip workout. Just for the record, I hate wall paper of any kind. In my experience it always turns out to be a bear to remove somewhere down the line.
Incline power walk: 45 mins.
Stretch
Saturday:
Incline power walk: 45 minutes
Stretch
BJJ:
The champ wasn’t there tonight. Teaching at a seminar somewhere else I guess. Our other instructor is a hoot. He’s 45, 6’4" and 250 lbs. Can you say, “Squashed like a bug”? Hell, I can’t even close my guard around him!
Still, he knows his stuff, he’s got a wonderful sense of humor and the patience of a Saint. Bruno is the best! In fact, Bruno is the one who urged me to give BJJ a shot.
Worked on a bunch of stand-up defenses for rear attacks, some tosses, sweeps and ways to escape certain wrist/arm holds. There was a 20-ish girl there that I was able to partner with. She’s a former wrestler and plays semi-pro football. (Gonna have to go watch that!)
She was great and was able to give me a lot of pointers and stuff to work on. We drilled for half the class, then rolled. I still don’t know enough about what I’m doing to get very far, but I’m strong and aggressive and sometimes that’s just enough to keep my head above water!
On a side note, there was a new guy in BJJ so it was nice not to be the token idiot for a change. I’ve noticed that most guys come to MA with some sort of basic (intrinsic?) knowledge of how things should work.
Some have better “skills” than others, but from what I’ve observed they all have a lot more going for them than the average rookie female. Now I’m going to suspect that’s because most guys have had some sort of experience wrestling and/or fighting growing up. Or they’ve had friends who did, and showed them a little something about it.
Maybe I’m way out in left field, but that’s what I think. Guys just come to this stuff having tested themselves somewhere along the line. Most women don’t.
I mean, I simply can’t recall ever getting down on the ground and crawling all over one of my friends … or siblings. Well, there was that time I got into it with my older sister and knocked her on her ass … but that aside, I don’t remember doing anything remotely like this.
Cappy