Slight Injury

Thursday's Fun Run didn't go quite as planned. The route of the day was HillyMan. I came in at 32:27 (I think), which was okay-not-great. My PR on that course is under 31:00. It was the hills that got me - I managed to keep up with IronDad most of the way but he pulled away on the climbs and was too far ahead to chase down by the time we got back to the last half mile, which is flat. IronKid of course finished in under 27:00, but there's something wrong with her. LOL.

Unfortunately I twisted my ankle at the beginning (HillyMan starts off on the grassy park), so I couldn't run on Friday. Luckily it was only suppposed to be an easy four, so no big deal.

Saturday was the Northeast Open. My first event was empty-hand kata. I was going against a blue belt (surprising, but like me he had three years of training), and a brown belt (much closer to my rank). I took first by a hair. Coming in a close second, surprisingly, was the blue belt.

Weapons held an even bigger surprise. The only other person competing was a green belt who got bumped up to my division. I did the best Toye No Sai in my life, but she won. I was a bit shocked, to say, the least, but they must have scored us on a steep grade. After taking first in my last event I wasn't going to complain.

My last event was sparring, which didn't go nearly so well. They basically threw ALL of the over-18 females together. My first round fight was against the girl who ended up beating the second-place girl 5-1 in the final bout. I literally didn't score a single point on her. She was so good (not to mention a foot taller than me) that even Dr. Z. was like, "I don't know what to tell you except that she was a phenomenal fighter."

Sunday was 400-meter repeats at the track. I could only do four before my ankle gave out (I wanted to do five), but they went well - 1:34, 1:35, 1:37, and back down to 1:36. That's right - a negative split on the FOURTH. Sweet.

Dr. Z and I then did four laps around Mirror Lake later in the day. It took about 1:35 or so, but went very well.

Today's easy run was great. The double track workouts are really paying off because I ran four miles in 34:37 and it felt easier than ever.

Well, that's about it. Tonight is Karate - probably kata since Wednesday was sparring. Tomorrow will be tough - a 1600 meter time trial at the track followed by a Sundowner in the evening. Phew! Good thing I have Wednesdays off!