Morning Karate

A few weeks ago my karate studio, 5280 Martial Arts, opened up a Tues/Thur morning class. It was to boost business, and give a few other options. One of the senior students that teaches is free during the day as her kids now are both in school, so she offered to teach it most of the time, with our shihan teaching here and there.

I've been considering it as an alternative for me since getting down to town at night is tough, and there are times Delaney needs a break when I don't. With the need to have the Prius tire checked again, and us thinking to have dinner out, this seemed like a good day to try.

So I grabbed my stuff, including running clothes, and headed down this morning. I arrived about 15 minutes early, and went for a short run around the block. I'd mapped out a 1.1 mile course around a few blocks and ran that. I'd taken a sweatshirt, and a hat down there, but it felt warm when I arrived so I didn't use them.

Mistake.

The run felt good, a nice jog getting me moving. I grabbed my stuff and walked in, finding 2 of the other men from the night classes that have flexible schedules and 3 other women that have kids in classes. The women were new and I was expecting a lot of basics and a light class.

One thing I've learned is that you get out of class what you put into it. We could do an hour of front punches and I could have no sweat, or I could be exhausted. It depends on the level of effort I put into each thing.

I started hard, and regretted it a little. As we went through basics, we did a lot of repetition. Pushing hard means that I was tired when we moved to some self defense. We stopped at about 45 minutes and did some CORE exercises with 6lb balls. Sit ups, tossing a ball around, and then some movement stuff. It didn't seem that hard, but I know that I'll feel some of it tomorrow just because I'm using new muscles. We also finished with some yoga-like exercises, holding a position off the ground for 30s-1min and it was hard. I literally had a small puddle of sweat under me at the end.

A good class, and I think I'll do them at times.

I did start to feel sick later. My chest got tight, and I wish I'd run with a hat on since I'm still fighting this cold.