Husband of feitpingvin and I had grading on Tuesday, and passed. We're Graduate Level 1 now. I have a shiny new blue patch and a gorgeous new diploma. The diplomas for graduate level are far prettier than the ones for practitioner level :-)
It was an extremely difficult grading, both physically and mentally, and I'm lucky I passed at all. Seriously. I just "wasn't there" the way I should have been. I kept faltering on the techniques (though I was able to execute them in the end). I was feeling really tired the whole time. I was also very thirsty the whole time; this had never happened with my previous gradings. But apparently I did well when doing some rounds of kickboxing, including rounds against guys who graded to Graduate Level 5. Boxing is something I really struggle with, especially due to my eye issues, so I'm kind of happy about this...
The ordeal lasted for three hours, and aside from a few short breaks, it was very high intensity all the way. I'm still very exhausted, and my muscles are very sore, especially my shoulders, triceps, and quads. I haven't really eaten properly after all of this either, because both of us are too tired to cook, in addition to not really having much of an appetite now, which is not helping in the recovery process. At least we've had some recovery beer hehe...
18.6.09
1.6.09
freaky fuschia five fingers - so far so good (I think)
A little while ago, in some conversation with one of my net buddies, I learned about the existence of Vibram Five Fingers. Being the kind of freaky person I am, I was immediately fascinated by them. Husband of feitpingvin was equally fascinated (you see how perfect we are for each other haha). We wanted to know where I could get them in Norway. It turned out it was not possible to get them in Norway, so we turned to Denmark, as husband of feitpingvin and I were going to go there for a long weekend anyway...
I got in touch with the importer in Denmark, and arranged to meet him the Thursday of our arrival. It was the weekend of the Copenhagen Marathon, and the organizers had a big tent set up where participants could get their numbers and various vendors could sell their wares; this was where we were going to take a look at the Five Fingers! We weren't sure whether we'd buy them or not, as we didn't know whether we'd like them or if they'd fit properly. But once we tried them on... wow! They were amazing! And they looked so freakishly cool! Plus there was the added bonus of the Copenhagen Marathon discount. Each pair cost 500 DKK. Husband of feitpingvin and I got two pair each - the Sprint (freaky fuschia for me!) and the KSO.
When we bought the shoes, we were told that we had to start by walking with them for one hour, and then two hours the next day, and so on, until our feet and legs got somewhat used to them, before we started running with them. So I did that, and enjoyed how they felt on my feet, how they seemed to have a positive effect on my knees and hips, how they provoked reactions from random people... (WTF? OMG! LOLOL!)
On Friday, I ran with them for the first time. I took it easy, as I had just done a relatively heavy weights workout...
It was interesting. I started with a five minute "warmup" and then did two sets of 10 minutes (with 2 minutes walking between that). Very slowly, in order to pay attention to my technique, you know, to make sure I didn't land on my heels and all. I noticed that my calves and ankles were working a lot more than they do with regular running shoes. I also felt every damn pebble and stone... ouch ouch ouch! That was rather rough. But in all, I thought that the whole experience was a positive one.
(Of course the å fy faen de skoene! comment I got from some random person made me smile.)
The next day (Saturday), I ran for 30 minutes. It was much easier today, despite being a little sore from yesterday. I was able to run a little bit faster this time (albeit still quite slow), in addition to running non-stop for 30 minutes. The pebbles and stones weren't so bad this time. Running itself was still rough on my calves and ankles, but in a good way. I didn't notice any problems with my knees at all - a very good thing as I've been having problems with them. I felt quite good during and shortly after my run. Of course, towards the end of the day, I was really feeling the effects of the run in my calves... au aie ouch!
I rested on Sunday. Well, not really. I did a rather brutal weights/strength workout on Sunday. I couldn't do calf presses because my calves were in so much pain. Husband of feitpingvin eventually gave my calves a massage before I went to bed, and I was screaming in agony the whole time. I probably sounded like a pig being slaughtered. Our windows were open (it's been friggin' warm these days). I wonder if anyone called the cops to report that a woman was being abused...
(By the way... any advice on how to receive massages? I'm not good at this. I really can't deal well with them, but I know that sports massages would be good for me. Urgh... )
Today, I ran for just under 30 minutes. Average speed still quite slow, around 10 km/h. The pebbles were not a problem this time, larger stones were nasty but not as nasty as on Friday. But the pain in my calves just got to be too much in the end, although it wasn't too bad at the start. Hmmf. I know this will get better, as it's muscular pain, and muscles get stronger eventually. But hmmf, they won't get better today. They're still killing me. I think I just might drop this type of running until I'm done with Krav Maga grading... urk...
I got in touch with the importer in Denmark, and arranged to meet him the Thursday of our arrival. It was the weekend of the Copenhagen Marathon, and the organizers had a big tent set up where participants could get their numbers and various vendors could sell their wares; this was where we were going to take a look at the Five Fingers! We weren't sure whether we'd buy them or not, as we didn't know whether we'd like them or if they'd fit properly. But once we tried them on... wow! They were amazing! And they looked so freakishly cool! Plus there was the added bonus of the Copenhagen Marathon discount. Each pair cost 500 DKK. Husband of feitpingvin and I got two pair each - the Sprint (freaky fuschia for me!) and the KSO.
When we bought the shoes, we were told that we had to start by walking with them for one hour, and then two hours the next day, and so on, until our feet and legs got somewhat used to them, before we started running with them. So I did that, and enjoyed how they felt on my feet, how they seemed to have a positive effect on my knees and hips, how they provoked reactions from random people... (WTF? OMG! LOLOL!)
On Friday, I ran with them for the first time. I took it easy, as I had just done a relatively heavy weights workout...
It was interesting. I started with a five minute "warmup" and then did two sets of 10 minutes (with 2 minutes walking between that). Very slowly, in order to pay attention to my technique, you know, to make sure I didn't land on my heels and all. I noticed that my calves and ankles were working a lot more than they do with regular running shoes. I also felt every damn pebble and stone... ouch ouch ouch! That was rather rough. But in all, I thought that the whole experience was a positive one.
(Of course the å fy faen de skoene! comment I got from some random person made me smile.)
The next day (Saturday), I ran for 30 minutes. It was much easier today, despite being a little sore from yesterday. I was able to run a little bit faster this time (albeit still quite slow), in addition to running non-stop for 30 minutes. The pebbles and stones weren't so bad this time. Running itself was still rough on my calves and ankles, but in a good way. I didn't notice any problems with my knees at all - a very good thing as I've been having problems with them. I felt quite good during and shortly after my run. Of course, towards the end of the day, I was really feeling the effects of the run in my calves... au aie ouch!
I rested on Sunday. Well, not really. I did a rather brutal weights/strength workout on Sunday. I couldn't do calf presses because my calves were in so much pain. Husband of feitpingvin eventually gave my calves a massage before I went to bed, and I was screaming in agony the whole time. I probably sounded like a pig being slaughtered. Our windows were open (it's been friggin' warm these days). I wonder if anyone called the cops to report that a woman was being abused...
(By the way... any advice on how to receive massages? I'm not good at this. I really can't deal well with them, but I know that sports massages would be good for me. Urgh... )
Today, I ran for just under 30 minutes. Average speed still quite slow, around 10 km/h. The pebbles were not a problem this time, larger stones were nasty but not as nasty as on Friday. But the pain in my calves just got to be too much in the end, although it wasn't too bad at the start. Hmmf. I know this will get better, as it's muscular pain, and muscles get stronger eventually. But hmmf, they won't get better today. They're still killing me. I think I just might drop this type of running until I'm done with Krav Maga grading... urk...
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