It Works....

Oh the excitement! Oh the joy! Oh the enthusiasm! Oh the training that is to come!

I did some striking practice today and found out that finally, seemingly at long last, my body works again. I've trained lightly almost every day since I got back from London, but it seemed that while my head and heart were in it, my body just wasn't. In fact, it intended to have no part in the entire affair. That was a bit discouraging, to say the least, because it made me feel like I was half-assing when what I really wanted to do was get in a rock-solid workout that allowed me to expand upon and review what we covered in the London intensive. Wants aside, my attempts at striking and forms practice up until now have consistently resulted in feeling fairly week, somewhat uncoordinated, and too stiff or sore to accomplish much.

Standing and turning haven't been much better, though they have been better. The problem there is primarily that my left wrist is still too angry to turn properly, which is particularly irksome while turning. I have to say that it's much better today than it has been, but it's been a long road to what I'd call 60%. The best that I can self-diagnose is "repetitive use injury," i.e. tendinits as I claimed. With a hard, consistent effort in self-massage (and a little help from my therapist wife) and a relative avoidance of twisting it too far even when I was training (another source of feeling like I wasn't putting in my all), I've finally made some real progress on it. Furthermore, my toes are considerably less numb than they were, so I think being on the mend is definitely in my future. My calves still don't feel right, but they're another story all together....

In about an hour, I'll have a chance to really go get a good test-run in on striking and forms practices. I'm really looking forward to it and carbing up (on some beautiful multigrain porridge) right now. Honestly, I'm so excited that I can barely stay in this chair. Woot!