My first Power Day

Blog 8

Chinese word of the day:  Chuang-means-Sore

British word of the day: Rubbish-means-terrible

Woke up this morning pretty tired, stiff, and chuang….SORE!   Ran like usual. Today I was so sore, so told myself I am NOT going to run the whole thing. But, from the beginning of the run, I started running with a classmate and for some reason when I thought I wanted to start walking, I just couldn’t say, “Hey I’m going to take a break and walk.” Seemed a bit “weak” to say that so I ended up running the whole way.

Went to Wing Chun class after the run. I got taught another 1/8^th of the form. Hopefully by Friday I can get the rest down.

                Afterward I went to my room to rest and eat the two eggs I snaged from breakfast. I ate the whole thing this time.   Aunty Oli said to eat the yoke part too, so today I did.

Then after a nice break I had Baji Class. I got taught the rest of the first level Baji form. This Friday is grading and if I feel confident I can grade and level up!  None of my friends here that I asked were able to ‘grade up’ their first week.  I hope I feel confident by tomorrow and if so I will try to grade upin Baji but I’m not sure about Wing Chun. When I was practicing my form Shifu Gou came over and walked me step by step with each move so I can understand each movement.  This style, Baji, looks a lot more internal energy than the hard kick boxing moves in the San Da classes which is the style my roommate does.

Lunch tasted amazing as usual. Nothing new on the menu though.

The 2 hour break after lunch is amazing. I sat down at my computer to email a few family members and talk to a few friends. When I stood up to get ready for class my legs felt like they were dead and after lunch was POWER TRAINING.  I asked my roommate what power training was and he said “it’s hell”. So I didn’t know what to expect but all I knew is I was going to pace myself.

When I went down for the afternoon run my class had to run a mile longer due to the fact its power training time. I ran the whole thing but when I past the tree which is the end of the regular run there was a hill. I walked up that hill. I had time, since  everyone was still behind me except for  four people ahead of me. Once I got over the hill, I took off running again. On the way back…walked up the hill again.

When I made it back to the academy we all headed inside for POWER STRETCHING. One tip my roommate did give me was when it was power stretching time “…DON’T SCREAM. The Shifus push harder if you scream. “ So we got into class. Warmed up as usual. Then we had to do 200 ‘high knees’ non-stop. If we slowed down Shifu Gou would yell at us and say, “Faster!” After that we did 50 leg sweeps each leg. Then we had to hop on one leg three times and kick with the opposite leg, hop again with the same leg and kick without letting the other leg hit the ground. That was dreadful!

When we got to the end of the room, which is about the size of two basketball courts going long ways, we switched legs. When we got back to the beginning we had to do ‘duck hops’across the room. Then we had to do ‘wheel barrows’ front and when we go to the end we switch with our partners. Well, my partner was too tired to go back so I can to go twice!

After that we each grabbed a mat. Had to stretch. First we did the splits with a leg forward. Shifu Gou would come around and pull our front leg further. I can’t even describe the pain. My classmate Rodney told me before we started “when Shifu comes along don’t stretch as far so it won’t hurt as much.” Good idea? Wrong!  I saw Shifu coming and I brought my leg back a little bit. I don’t know if he noticed or just wants me my leg to be snapped off my hip, but he pulled my leg further than everyone else!  After that, we did “butterfly stretches”. We would have a partner push our backs down far and then when we were low they would stand on our knees to push down more. I got really low on this one and my partner pushed my knees all the way down to the mat. Once we finished we had to do “plank holds” for six minutes on our knuckles. We usually do two minutes in class on our knuckles but six minutes on this ‘power day’ was unbearable. Once we finished that, we had to do 30 pushups but alternate from fist pushups to finger pushups. Then we did a lot of ‘abs’ and a final ‘split stretch’ where our partner pulls us forward while they kept our feet spread apart. After class I sweated so much I felt like I just got out of the shower.

I could not wait till dinner time. I was starving. I even ate a couple protein bars of mine. I was so hungry for dinner even though at breakfast I had filled my bowl so high with food my friends were teasing me that I can’t fit all that in my stomach. I sure proved them wrong.

After dinner I was so tired I couldn’t make it to my mandarin class because I’m so sore I couldn’t… really.

When I first arrived at the school, my classmates asked me if I was on the first, second, or third floor. I said third floor and they all said “good”.  Good because in the winter the third floor is the warmest. That maybe so, but after training I can’t even make it to my room! Even walking down hurts!

So now I’m finishing my blog then getting an early sleep.

Goodnight everyone.

-Scott