Honest to Blog

Duncan/Dave,
I said I'd blog about my soreness for you, and I try to keep my word. So here we go.

WARNING: This comment will involve discussing my butt.

Track and Field week has, thus far, been grueling. The sport fusion class on Tuesday on the surface didn't seem that hard. I mean, how bad can it be to long jump and do a few squats? We've been doing two weeks of leg stuff, and I'd already recovered from Karate hell, so what's the big deal? Well, the big deal is that I evidently only started using the muscles of my butt for the first time ever on Tuesday.

By that night I felt like my butt was made of stone (at least, on the inside).

Wednesday's Sparta 300 was actually a great reprieve for me. I loved it. Pushups and front kicks and abs, oh my! But my butt was, for the most part, in blissful rest. Still sore that night, I believed myself to be in recovery mode and on the way to normal walking again. Oh how wrong I was.

Thursday, we did the EXACT SAME WORKOUT AS TUESDAY! On an already sore butt, this was the workout equivalent of water boarding. My rear thought it was going to die after every 2 minute station. Whenever I walked all the rest of that day, the sensation was similar to having crudely chiseled rocks stuffed under the muscles of my butt. It hurt to sit. It hurt to stand. It hurt to walk.

However, though I was in pain I was sure that I would have another two days to break up the gravel in my butt cheeks and recover. But what a shock I got today, when we were directed to do "Jane Fonda Pushup Position Sidekicks." This entails being on hands and one knee and lifting the other knee out to the side, holding it up there, and kicking rapidly with the lower part of the leg. On each side we did this for 30 seconds, then 10 slow kicks...then 20 seconds, then 10 slow kicks...then 10 seconds, then 10 slow kicks...then ten more slow kicks on their own. That's 100 counts per leg. Or, you can think of it as sticking your finger in a light socket, and having all the pain and voltage just go to your ass.

Anyway, I am actually really enjoying the class, and love being pushed. So although I bitch and moan about it, this has been a great week.

There you go Duncan/Dave. I love the class and my butt wants to assassinate you. :-)

-Me

The new president.

Before Watching the inauguration of Barack Obama today, I found myself pondering expectations. I was wondering if he will live up to the expectations history will have for him. I was wondering how I would feel watching GW leave office. I was wondering whether his speech would meet my own expectation that he inspire a country, while bringing together the often oppositional ideologies of its people. The pure weight of the moment seemed heavy on my shoulders, and I wondered at how any man in Barack Obama's position could bear such an immense and amorphous burden. I was nervous for him, and for us all.

However, after watching the hordes of Americans there at the National Mall, and seeing the exhilarated calm that they wore on their faces I am not nervous any more. As a nation we are in the throes of turbulence on many fronts. From the economy sinking, jobs leaving, allies scowling, air choking, schools stumbling, health failing, and our leadership ignoring... We have been born anew.

Has Barack Obama brought us into a new America? Has he carved out a bright future for my unborn daughter? Have the clouds parted and sun broken through on all of our failing governmental and societal ills? No. At least, not yet. Those things may not happen tomorrow, or even in the next four years, but we are none the less born anew as a nation. A young, vibrant and eloquent African American is now our president, and whether or not we reach the lofty goals set before us, we now have lofty goals. We have not only been given a direction, but have been asked to make it happen through our own hard work, sacrifice and dedication. Those three elements have been the fuel behind overcoming struggles in the past, and they will carry us forward now.

Proud to be an American and full of hope.

-Me

Me...Occasionally.

So, I have had multiple fail attempts at blogging. I'm just not that consistent, and evidently folks like to read up a lot. I also have a baby blog that I don't post NEARLY often enough to. So why start another blog? Well, it occurs to me that I would like to have the chance to occasionally (read: have low expectations people) write down what I'm doing/going through.

On Monday, I started the Ultimate Body Challenge with Academy of World Taekwondo
Now, I have been pretty active for a long time and assumed that this would just take me up a notch in my fitness. I needed to do so because I have been adding sympathy weight from Angela's pregnancy and frankly been uninspired at the gym. However active I might have been, and whether or not I spent 5 days a week lifting weights and doing an hour of elliptical machine, this UBC thing is tough. REALLY tough. Basic training may be more mentally demanding, but physically I don't think I hurt as bad. Not only is it working me out harder, but I'm eating waaaay less, and am not hungry. Eating 5 meals a day is actually awesome, even if I did dread switching to it. I also haven't had bread or pasta in a week, and I won't for another nine. Last but not least is water. I drink about 96 ounces of water a day now, and pee about every five seconds (slight exaggeration there, but only slight).

I'm really enjoying how I feel. I enjoy feeling tight in my stomach, sides and legs. I enjoy (usually afterward) the 6 AM classes. The only thing it might be missing, for me, is a weight lifting portion. My arms aren't all that worked out during these aerobic and sport fusion classes, and I'm missing good 'ol fashioned bicep curls.

Anyway, this is me...occasionally.