I passed my difficult test. Friday involved a lot of getting tossed to the mat unceremoniously while reviewing self-defense. (LI has a penchant for throws.) Then I bowled a 409, not bad for starting the season. I had two crappy games and ended with a 179 which salvaged my average for the night--including a Turkey!
Saturday was blustery, and after sitting outside watching Mr. B and Mr. G play flag football (2 touchdowns for Mr. G--the first two times he had his hands on the ball!), I geared up to run my final 3 miles. You could blame the chill in the air or the wind for dragging down run times, but I feel okay about my 26:47. Not bad for a gal who was never built for speed. I'd have liked to run more in the 26:30 range, but you can't have everything.
The test was long and reasonably difficult. My basic combos were good, but the spinning/jumping ones were crap. I pounded the mitt work, felt good about my open hand forms and LI and I rocked the escrima form. In fact, we walked off the floor after finishing, causing Mr. O to laugh at our confidence that we passed it on the first try. Our bo staff form looked pretty decent, too. He limited our weapons self-defense to just the gun, which was a bummer since we had our moves all planned out for each one--and I feel best about my self-defense with a stick. I wasn't sad, though. Getting tossed on the ground again wasn't real high on my list. In general self-defense the black belt instructors could attack us any way. People always seem to prefer to do a bear hug grab on me from behind--and lift me off the ground. It may have something to do with my size (or lack of--I'm only 5'3"). Anyway, Mr. O grabbed me first and when he lifted me up, I heard everything along my spinal column crackle and pop. Later, Mr. P Sr. grabbed me with such force he nearly knocked the wind out of me. That portion of the test contributed to my overall soreness through today. The good news is I finally got my wind back and used my inhaler for the last time on Monday--I was starting to feel like Mikey in The Goonies, puffing away on it every couple hours.
We ended with the usual fitness test stuff, including a pyramid drill involving 1:15 of jumping jacks, then dips, then push ups, then mountain climbers, then sit ups, repeated again for 45 seconds each. It looks like nothing much when you type it out like this, but my shoulders were burning. At the end of the test it's tradition for parents to come out on the floor and cheer their candidates on during the pyramid drill. My friend Nicole's husband stood in for me, shouting out encouragement so I wasn't all alone in a sea of people. It was sweet--and another mom occasionally called over to me, "You can do it, Ms. W!" Mr. O presented me with my final star (you get stars to sew on your pants--the karate equivalent of merit badges in Scouts) while the parents handed stars to the kids.
I drove home tested and passed, tired and wired. Naturally, after all that excitement and exertion I slept like crap and Sunday was another Very Long Day out in the wind in the south end zone at Lambeau. What I wanted was to drink a lot of ale, take a hot shower and laze about in bed watching nothingmuch on TV. What really happened: I drank 2 pints of ale, spent quality time with Team Testosterone after returning home, stayed dressed and headed out at 8:00 Sunday night to teach some people how to manage/use a website.
So, except for the Brewers, we're all winners after the weekend in Wisconsin.
I'm going to try and score a video of that escrima form so you can check out my legendary awesomeness. Until then, stay tuned all week for Anarchy Club, A Tale of Yeti Sightings in the Back 40 and A Funny Conversation About Circumcision.
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