nosy... (with icky pics)

So, as most of you know, my poor nose was broken during Krav Maga training on the 4th of March, and got it snapped back into place on the 11th. I'm not going to get into the details about what happened. Getting too hung up will only make me unable to continue training. Things get crazy and out of control sometimes. The experience will only help me in future fights anyway. I'm going to be way more careful about getting both arms pinned down or otherwise occupied, so that someone can punch me in the nose. Anyway...

I know damn well I can be somewhat vain. While I'm not the kind of penguinette who must put on make up and fancy clothes to go out on a grocery run, I do, for the most part, care about my appearance. This does not mean that I deny my bad hair days, or, in some cases, bad nose days. So, I thought I'd show the few photos I have of my nasal misfortune. I actually wish I had more photos, including a photo of the freshly broken nose. But I don't...

Here's how the nose looked at the end of January:



Here's the only photo I have of my nose being on the other side of my face. Husband of feitpingvin wasn't really willing to take any photos of me and I was in too much of a state of confusion/pain/WTF to pester him for it. I took this with my mobile phone after getting anesthetic strips stuffed up my nostrils by the evil ENT doctor:



And here is the nose after he snapped it back into place – all swollen, with blood dripping out:



The nose is starting to look normal again, although I'm constantly looking into mirrors and paranoid about it falling out of place again. I suppose I'll post a new photo at some point... :-)

Krav Maga update...

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...

battered and bruised

We had a seminar with *the* Eyal Yanilov today, from 9 am to 5 pm. OK, our lunch break was for an hour and a half, and we really didn't start until 9:30, but we ended after 5 pm. The last thing on the agenda was kind of a mind-over-matter 10 minutes of nastiness where we had to hold a certain position for those 10 minutes... ugh... and everything in between, well, it was up to us really, but in my usual style, I tried to get the most out of everything, and now my body is feeling it...

I'm happy though. I learned some new things. It was nice seeing Eyal again. He's an excellent instructor and has a pleasant sense of humor...

The bruises on my arms are a bit strange. I look like I've been bitten by a lot of very large mosquitoes...

midweek report, rants, raves...

• I can't stop eating pepperkaker and clementines...
  
  
• Martti Ahtisaari of Finland received the Nobel Peace Prize 12:49 in Oslo today. Congratulations!
  
  
• Last night was the last formal Krav Maga training until next year. Grading is tomorrow, but not for us. We have to wait at least a year until we are allowed to go for G1. This is a good thing, because I'm nowhere near ready for G1 grading now...
  
  
• High to very high intensity training is quite nasty when you have a cold. I was hoping last night's training would be relatively "easy" because of the upcoming grading. I was wrong...
  
  
• Aside from the pepperkaker and clementines feeding frenzy, I've been quite indifferent to food and drink since getting food poisoning about three weeks ago. Nothing really tastes good anymore, for some odd reason. It seems like the only reason I bother to eat at all is because I need the kcal for training, and pepperkaker and clementines aren't really optimal for that...
  
  
• So unlike Oprah Winfrey, who is now well over 90 kg if you follow the tabloid press, I have managed to keep my weight stable. What's up with that woman anyway? Always a drama. And always excuses... "I hate exercise," "I have a thyroid problem," "I'm so stressed," blah blah. With expensive (and apparently useless) personal trainers and chefs at that. Is it really so difficult for her to admit that she simply loves good food, and thereafter live the lazy gourmand lifestyle she wants to live, and tell everyone who doesn't like it to piss off?
  
  
• I really need to find some winter tops and sweaters, but it seems to be impossible to find anything I like this season...
  
  
• Not too long ago, I was made aware of a BIRD CAM from Brazil. It is one of the best I have ever seen. I am so addicted to it!
  
  

the stick of pain

You know you're in for a training from hell when the instructor says that he's going to whack you with the stick of pain if your tempo (when doing drills) is too slow...

It was a good training though :-)

Yay! Krav Maga!

We just had our first training of 2008. Good fun :-D

At the end, we did this interesting variation of the bodyguard drill. The drill involves three people - the bodyguard, the atackee, and the attacker. Normally, the attacker attacks the atackee and the bodyguard tries to do anything to keep the attacker away from the atackee. This time, the bodyguard had to hold the attacker at the hips and prevent his/her movement that way. It kills the evil legs...

Heh, the instructors were also selling these Krav Maga calendars, and we bought one. I should take it with me to my new job when that starts ;-)

hmm...

Check out The Travelling Penguin as I have put lots of stuff there lately.

In case you're wondering about my shoulder, I'm out for the season. That is, no Krav Maga until January. I do go to physiotherapy once a week and it's helping a lot...

Not much else going on other than I really miss South Africa...

owie

Well, I'm damaged goods for the next few weeks. Some asshat decided to do an entirely other defense against a headlock than what the instructors told us to do. I was literally picked up and thrown hard on the mat. Pro-wrestling style, only for real. Right on my left shoulder. All 67 kg. of me. That really hurts...

What the fuck is it with young boys and their need to "improvise" like that? Do they think it makes them look talented or something? Sure, it's cool to pick on the little penguinette, but if he gets into the habit of doing crap like that and has a larger opponent, then he's dead meat if he ever has to execute that defense...

Well, the trip to the doctor wasn't wasted as I also got a refill on another prescription I needed a refill for. I have some lovely Naproxen to kill Ms. Stomach. I even got to go to the x-ray place and get some funky pics taken of my evil shoulder...

After this episode, I'm rethinking this d-i-e-t thing. I have to go see a sports nutritionist to find out why I'm not losing weight/fat. Then again, if I gained 10 kg, it would be more difficult to pick me up and toss me around... :)

grading

I graded tonight, even though I said I wouldn't. We both decided this afternoon to grade. We were very apathetic about the whole thing...

We're both P4 now :-)

My injuries, in particular my evil finger, weren't bothering me too much. And I was able to execute the most difficult thing in our pensum - defense against an overhead stick attack - almost perfectly. I couldn't be happier about that...

My Little Toe of Doom would like gifts. Lots of gifts... ;-)

Little Toe of Doom VIP Protection AS

(AS is the Norwegian version of Inc.)

We were at a Krav Maga seminar yesterday; the theme was protection of third persons. Our guest instructor was a guy from Sweden...

Anyway, we were mostly outdoors (and I have the tan to prove it) and we did a lot of technique work (with and without weapons) and then drills where we use what we learned. I was the only female attending the seminar and consequently the smallest person there. It was rather amusing protecting guys who were a bit bigger than me against guys who were a bit bigger than me. But things worked out nicely. I was able to use a lot of (other) dirty Krav Maga tricks when I was too small/weak to get the techniques we had just learned to work properly. It shows I've learned something during training ;-)

The place where we had our seminar is a place where the police do a lot of "practical" training. There was a building that had these "apartments" set up. Our last drill was protecting someone while that someone was going through the rooms of the apartment, with lots of attackers waiting. (We all switch roles, of course.) It got really crazy in the end. Good fun. Especially when it was much cooler inside the building than outside in the sun...

Today was spent outdoors as well... first at a sort of food festival or farmer's market or something... I got to sample lots of sausages and cheeses and I bought some ecological salad and lots of fresh herbs... and then to the botanic gardens to take some pictures... and well, here I am now :-)

public service announcement

In case you ever decide to chase after me with a knife, don't. I'll kick you. One way or other, I'll kick you. Back kick, side kick, turn around and roundhouse kick, I'll kick you. And if you start stabbing me with that knife while chasing me, I'll turn around, break your arm, and mash your groin with my knee.

Yep, that's what we did in training tonight. Defenses against psychos chasing you with knives.

We trained outdoors too, so we had plenty of space to run around. And most of us were in plainclothes; I was wearing tight jeans. (Another PSA - groin guards under tight jeans are reeeeeeeally sexy.) It was hard enough running around on grass with tight jeans, let alone executing the kicks. I managed most of the time. I think. Next time I'll wear a skirt...

Another interesting thing we did, at the beginning right after our warmup, was tumbling on the gravel path. I've done tumbling on the mats and on the grass before, but not on gravel. Worked out fine, as my tumbling technique is actually there. I saw that some of the others were having a hard time of it though.

For the last thing we did, I let to guys punch out the RoF. One of those 2-against-1 drills where the 2 attackers hit your torso at 50%. I let myself get hit, as I could have easily fucked up my finger again doing the defenses. It's kind of a good thing to build up "resistance"/"tolerance" anyway. RoF was not amused...

The weather was a bit chilly, but actually perfect for the intensity level of what we were doing, and there were still enough other people out walking, walking their dog(s), jogging, whatever, and when they passed by us, they would stop and gawk. Excellent ;-)

Oh, as I hinted to above, it was a damn physical training. We were literally sprinting back and forth, being the attacker or the defender, not stopping until the instructor told us to stop. We also trained for a little over 2 hours, as opposed to the usual 90 minutes. I'm pleasantly exhausted.

Now it's time for some well-deserved organic sparkling wine :-)

the legs are evil and must be punished...

Lately, I've been training plyometrics quite aggressively, as part of my strength/power training routine, to supplement Krav Maga. Sometimes I do plyometrics-only, sometimes in combination with weights. I'm really enjoying these exercises, especially for the variety factor, but dang - they can really punish the legs! Especially after 3-4 sets of 15-20 reps ;-)

I had a really good killer squats+plyos workout this morning. Neither my legs nor the RoF were amused. I'll be feeling it tomorrow and Wednesday hahaha...

It's too soon to determine to what extent this is benefitting Krav Maga. I still have the damn finger injury, and it's really cramping my style. I can't train properly. (It also makes things difficult to do upper-body work.) Bah. And training starts up again tomorrow, after a long Easter break. I wonder what we'll do... hmmm... if it weren't for the damn finger, I would want to do a lot of ground work. Wrestling and throwing off attackers who are on top of you and the such... perhaps with weapons... good fun...

Anyway... how are your legs doing today?

getting drunk without the booze...

At the end of last night's training, we did this rather intoxicating drill. We got into groups of three. The first person (placed between the second and third) had to roll (sommersault) to the second person, the second person attacks and the first person counterattacks, and then rolls to the third person, who attacks, and the first person counterattacks and rolls back to the second person... this goes on and on until the instructor says stop and switch... the first 2-3 rolls were ok...

Then the dizziness, the drunken feeling hit... woohoo...

Maybe I should try some rolling around along with some beer and wine tonight hehe...