Entry #718

Figures I have a broken keyboard on my best training day of the year. Will try to be as thorough as possible without driving myself mad from editing every word error.

Met up with George and tried to get into the gym. He's not a member so it was a no-go. We got him in last time on a free trial thing, but the same lady was working today and she recognized him. Should have worn a disguise. Went to the tennis courts instead. Took turns having one man box, the other evade. Allowed countering. Went pretty typical.

George expressed frustration at not being familiar enough with boxing, so we sparred using whatever we wanted to, with just kicks. He wanted to stay on a straight line, TKD style I guess, but I told him I move laterally a lot, so he shrugged and said okay. I quite enjoyed doing this. I took the Muay Thai stance I learned at AKA and continually hit him with shin kicks. A couple of times I nearly hit him in the groin, so must watch out for that. Make a clear mental distinction before hitting: high or low. Not middle.

Made an attempt to grab one of his kicks and he said they don't do that in TKD. I told him I'll do it if I find a really obvious opportunity for it. To be honest, I was getting annoyed by all these arbitrary settings, but whatever. He landed good shots, which I blocked. Much of time they missed from me simply moving to the side.

Eventually he noted that the shin kicks were starting to bother him. We stopped by that time. I, myself, took several breathers to ease out cramping in my legs. I felt pretty good about it, but he said it wasn't very productive because of how different our styles are. We had a small exchange on this.

Afterwards, we went  on about a four-mile run to the park and back. I warned him that my ankles have been hurting on just a quarter of that distance because of my weight, and that I've mostly been doing HIIT to condition them. He said it's fine, we can stop when they do. So we started. I adopted a slower pace than him from the start to conserve my stamina, so he was getting a bit ahead of me, but slow and steady, I reasoned. Turned out to be a good idea. I made it all the way to our destination, the park dam. Didn't expect to make it half that far. Ankles felt perfect and I wasn't out of breath at any point. Biggest problem was cramping in my...quads? Weird. I don't usually cramp just from running, and when I do it's in my calves. It came within the first ten minutes, but I ignored it and it went away. On the way back, though, I stopped to go to the bathroom and the pain was so bad I could barely walk. I fought through it again. George remarked that he had a cramp, too. We walked up the hill away from the park and then jogged back to my place. Jogging was okay, but walking was nearly impossible for some reason.

I block too much with my forearms: