Beast Mode, Day 1 -- Training to prepare for a lunar perigee Super Moon

First of all, just in case you don't know: the current full moon is occurring at lunar perigee (use Google or Wikipedia or something if you don't know what that means), and lots of hee-haws are calling it a Super Moon and predicting all kinds of calamity that is very unlikely to have anything to do with the lunar perigee, which happens a little more than once a month, just because it coincides with the full moon, i.e. the moon is on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun, a coincidence that happens roughly once every 18 years. The only calamity that I'm aware of is Beast Mode (what I'm calling my ramped-up training right now) Day 1, which was pretty hard.
I started the day off with more excitement than momentum: I got up early to train before breakfast, managed about a minute of standing strengthening, and then sat in a chair thinking about how much working out would suck at extra-early in the morning. Then I had breakfast.

A little while later, after working a little, I busted out some training: standing strengthening in Lion representational, Phoenix representational, Lion Shocking, and Phoenix Extending, and then I turned, half in Lion and half in Phoenix. I rounded out this first phase of the day, before some more work, with several (about 20 total on each side between the two forms) repetitions, at power, of Interlocking Dodging and Interlocking Transforming and then 100x tracing the saber in each hand, broken up as needed to maintain proper form.. I think I'm starting to get the hang of the transforming variant of the Phoenix Interlocking form, but it's still a bit outside of my grasp being very new and very foundational in that it's something of its own entity, strategy, and method.

After a bit more work, I got back to some training by pulling out my GymBoss, which is a solid interval timer that, for the cost, almost anyone that trains anything seriously should consider getting. This was an experiment to test out a new method of driving ourselves in our group training sessions on Monday nights -- timers are ruthless in dictating how your training will go. They have no compassion. What I did was Lion Sweeping basic strikes, single action and in combos, using the interval timer to count three solid minutes of action (approximately 70 strikes per side for single-action striking, at cadence) with one minute of rest, to "take a break and get some water." This was all done in the standing- in-place method, for what it's worth. Nine repetitions of that routine (35 minutes, some 700 strikes per side) later -- out in the 80F sun, no less, for the first time in months -- I was convinced that it is pretty hard but would probably be better at 4 on, 1 off, or with a shorter break (45s) for my level of conditioning in basic strikes. Capturing sweeping, though, was doable but no picnic at 3 minutes.

Then I had to work again... this time giving a rather demanding massage, so that's relatively physical stuff. Immediately after that was over, I was ready for my "Real Ultimate Power" conditioning workout, five repetitions. This is somewhat on the hard and strength-centric end of my conditioning workouts, most of which center of HIIT (high-intensity interval training) of some variety, usually blending strengthening and exhausting exercises at a high pace to really challenge my body. Here's the routine, which is the first attempt at formulating this workout to be what I want it to be:
Part I:

1. Deep squats, usually to "tripod depth" with my knees either in striking-width, shoulder width, or together (enfolding form width), using only body weight for resistance and done as quickly as possible while maintaining proper form: 50 repetitions. Do not rest before the next exercise.
2. Body-weight rows (reverse pushups, using this convenient dip station), done as quickly as possible while maintaining proper form: 10 repetitions. Do not rest before the next exercise.
3. Push-ups, done as quickly as possible while maintaining proper form: 20 repetitions. Do not rest before the next exercise.
4. Knee-hug sit-ups or hanging knee raises (on the dip station or a pull-up bar), done as quickly as possible while maintaining proper form: 15 repetitions. Do not rest before the next exercise.
5. Pull-ups, done from a fully extended hang on every repetition: 5 repetitions. Do not rest before the next exercise.
6. "Interval skipping" mini-HIIT: Using the GymBoss set to 10s of rest and 30s of action, lightly jog in place during the 10s rest periods and engage in high-intensity skipping (as if jumping rope, e.g.), doing rapid high-knees, or jumping up to touch the ceiling as many times as possible (plyometrics) during the 30s. Three rounds (2 minutes). Take a quick sip of water if needed before continuing, but minimize rest time as much as possible.

Phase II: Super-Tabata

• Disclaimer: I don't know if this is even that good of an idea. It's an experiment, and it's very, very hard. The Tabata protocol is a 20s of action at maximum effort, 10s of rest a no effort, advanced interval training method, repeated for 8 sets, or a total of four minutes. After experiencing a workout featuring a similar, but harder, structure a couple of nights ago, I coined that structure "Super-Tabata," although I don't know its effectiveness at achieving the same goals as the Tabata protocol.  Set the interval timer for 5s rest and 15s of action and do 12 rounds (four minutes) according to the Tabata formula: full effort for the 15s followed by 5s of complete rest (not long enough!). The exercises I used are burpees and mountain climbers, interlaced. It sucked majorly.

The conditioning workout I call "Real Ultimate Power" features doing Phase I as a circuit a number of times (3 for me tonight) followed by Phase II -- Super-Tabata once followed by Phase I as a circuit another number of times (2 more for me tonight). It was stupid-hard and took about 50 minutes, giving me just under two hours of Yin Style training and just under one hour of conditioning today.

I'll be trying to keep an almost daily log of my workouts during my "ramped up for China" period, which I'm terming and tagging as "Beast Mode," which is tame compared to what's going on in Huairou with He Jinbao and the intrepid gang that could make it to the intensive, but I'm doing it while working and living my usual life.

Feel free to add commentary, particularly if you have questions or try the workout (or parts of it) and want to comment on your studliness. I'd love to hear it!