The road to Nationals

Well, South Carolina was a resounding success.

I came out the first fight with guns blazing.  One pivotal sequence happened quite early.  I had gotten my foot caught up on a guys shoulder after landing a shot to his head.  He took a couple steps forward towards me and I lost my balance and both feet came up in the air.  I landed flat on my back with a resounding thud and my head smacked against the mat just after.  Luckily we wear head gear, or else that would have really sucked.  I laid there for a couple seconds waiting for the shooting pains up and down my spine that I just knew were coming.  The ref stood over me and asked if I was OK.  When the pains never came, I gave out a quick "woo!" and jumped back up to my feet.  It was on.  I finished off the match and completely dominated the guy, landing a few more head shots and just sticking a foot in his gut whenever he tried to come in on me.

Now, I'm not one for fanciful descriptions and play-by-play analysis, but I went on to take 1st place and qualify for Nationals down in Fort Lauderdale, FL the first week of July.

so yeah....I have a small headache and a slight pain in my back, but nothing more than I get after a normal workout.  I'm going to start trying the every day routine again and see if I am able to stick with it this time.  I had taken the last few weeks pretty easy not knowing how live competition would affect my body.

Well...Its been a slow couple weeks.  My back is off and on and I haven't been able to get any real consistent work in.  However, its too late for anything else.  In the morning I leave for South Carolina to attempt to qualify for Nationals...

I'll fill in more when I return.

Well, I've come to a decision.  Whether or not its the correct one won't be determined until early June.  I'm still planning on fighting the last weekend of May coming up here.  My back pains have been off and on for months now, so I'm going to change up my routine a little bit.  I think I'm going to lay off the lifting for the rest of the month and stick to just cardio and agility training.  Hopefully my back appreciates it, however it could backfire since that will be more impact than normal.  We'll see...

Exercise - nothing today.  I had to work late and my back is still a little sore.  Tomorrow I'm going to run longer than normal - aiming for 3 miles...but we'll see.

Back pain (0-10) - started out as a 5...gradually decreased to about a 2-3 right now.

I have to run and get some grocery type things before "The Riches" starts.  I love that show...and I love Eddie Izzard (in a masculine, he's-a-funny-guy way).

well...this past week has been absolute crap.  Back pains galore.  Enough to make me come home from work and go straight to bed.  Even now when I arch my back and press my shoulder blades together, I get a nice crunching sound and a smidgen of pain shooting down my spine.  I love it.

Exercise - well...not much this week.  I won't detail Monday because that's in my previous post.  Tuesday I woke up with pain and didn't do anything as it got progressively worse throughout the day.  Wednesday night I skipped lifting, but went and did some sparring/drills at taekwondo.  Well, after about a half-hour, my back tightened up pretty bad, so I was done there.  Thursday and yesterday....rest.  Today?  Well, probably nothing again.  I'm out again until Monday most likely.

There's a tournament coming up in South Carolina at the end of this month and I'm up in the air about competing.  I'm probably going to go regardless, but worst case scenario is I'll skip competing and just coach.  If I do compete, its my last chance to qualify for Nationals down in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

Weight - still no official reading...this week has been a scratch.

In other news...I'm most likely not going up to South Dakota until Christmas.  I need to save my money and vacation time for Colorado and Washington DC.

Back pain (0-10) - 3 currently...was up to an 8 or so at times during the week.

I got back on the horse again today.  Went to work and had to give 2 Colonels, a Lt. Colonel, a Captain, two Chiefs, and our 1st Seargent a briefing/demonstration of some of what we do there.  I love pressure...

Exercise - I ran a mile (1.6 km for the metrically inclined) to get warmed up, then played some basketball for about a half hour.  After that, it was weight training for about an hour and a half (chest/shoulders/neck), then some light ab work.  Normally after this, I'll go to taekwondo and spar or do other assorted drills, but my back wasn't cooperating.  Its not terribly bad mind you, but enough to make me say 'fuck it' for the night.

Weight - yeah...I forgot to weigh myself.  I just ooze dedication.

backpain (0-10) - 2 before exercise....5 after

My laptop is still dead.  It starts up but the screen stays black.  I guess I'm not really even sure its starting up...

No matter - today is going to be boring for those outside my little realm of NFL fandom.  Its the draft today and tomorrow - both all day events.  However, the first day is the one everyone watches as that's when the best players are taken.  I plan on watching that most of the day and do some tidying up around the house.  I'm getting a new roommate, so I want to move and rearrange some stuff.  I won't have any time to after this weekend.

so that's it for this weekend, save for a round of golf tomorrow.

Weight - I really don't know exactly.  I don't own a scale and haven't officially weighed myself yet, but I'd still guess somewhere in the 220-230 lbs range.

Exercise - nothing really since that tournament....waiting for my back to calm down again.

Backpain (1-10) - probably a 3.  Its a little sore, but nothing bad...more annoying than anything right now.  I'm going to let it rest over the weekend before subjecting it to further punishment.

First time I tried to turn this bugger on in probably a couple months.  What a fine investment that turned out to be.  I had planned to use it extensively while enrolled in some additional college classes, but wouldn't ya know it...things come up, priorities change, and classes get tossed by the wayside.  So, I have a nice shiny like-new laptap with minimal software installed.  However it does have a nifty built-in webcam that I had planned to make use of.  Perhaps I'll try again later tonight.

My intentions were simple.  I was going to give a graphical representation of my progress while training for competition.  I did farely well last year.  I fought in 4 tournaments (including AAU nationals) and only lost one match total.  Now my back is hobbling me and I've put on a few pounds since my initial injury back in November.  So, if I went back to competing right now, I'd most likely get my ass handed to me, with a side of macaroni salad hopefully.

So yeah, I was going to take a picture of my soft, not-so-tan underbelly and watch as it slowly morphed into something resembling that of a greek god...or at least something that I can show at the beach without too much self-consciousness.

However, my laptop is not cooperating at the moment, so I will leave you with this...  The NFL draft (American Football for our displaced Aussie reader) is this weekend and is like Easter holliday for me.

Throughout the course of this little experiment in regularity, I will post a couple simple things similar to what Oddeo does on his.  Instead of Diet and Activities, I will do Exercise and Level of Backpain.

Exercise - 3 on 3 basketball tournament at work today (and I get paid for this!).  Double elimination and our team went down after three games.  I won the 2nd game single handedly though as I have a penchant for throwing semi-large balls into a hoop from a considerable distance away - so considerable that they award an extra point for it.  I scored all of our points....and hardly any the other two games, so I'm streaky to say the least.  After the third and final game, I was glad it was over...

Backpain - This will be done on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the debilitating I-just-want-to-lay-down pain).  I'd say after playing those three games, it had cranked itself up to a 7.  I'm have now resigned to healing this weekend.  More strenuous activities will resume on Monday.  Though I am going to golf on Sunday...we'll see how the twisting and turning effects the old back.

so anyway...I'm going to get back on my couch and wait for the ache to subside...

It begins here...

I've decided to copy a good friend of mine in charting progress as I try to attain a specific goal.  My goal is simple - fight my back problems, shed a couple pounds, and qualify, compete, and win at AAU Nationals for taekwondo.

This first bit will be short and sweet.  I've got a bit of work to do and the NFL draft is this weekend.

I've been working out as my back allows me to, but the last couple weeks have been hit and miss.

current weight is probably around 225 lbs (6' 3" tall)...I'd like to get down to around 210 or so by July...we'll see though.

till next time...