Monday, March 19, 2007

3 Things

1. You can totally tell a difference in a week where you've eaten decently and worked out and a week you've skipped meals, eaten junk, and worked out. I still maintain that a good diet isn't eating less often or cutting everything out (except for health reasons, of course), it's eating smarter and more balanced. This week was a good week.

2. In the past two and a half months I've studied tkd, the big lesson I've learned is that the body is tougher than you expect. It's not unusual to look down and notice my knuckles bruised and bleeding during class, without ever feeling a thing. However, knife strike board breaks, if you don't hit with the right part of your hand - the side of the palm - Really Hurt. Yes, it deserves capitalization. My hands aren't feeling so good so the pics are a little blurry:

Bruised (and earlier bloody) knuckles:
Bruised and swollen fingers:
Bruised and swollen wrist:
'Nuff said. Ouch.


3. Self patterning sock yarn can be really weird: Fortissma Socka Colori. Some dyelot number for color. Maybe it's the gauge, but you'd think the two different fake Fair Isle/Intarsia sections would repeat as well, but no, this is going to be interesting. No knitting tonight, though, I'm going to go finish watching Digging For The Truth and put more ice on my hands...

ETA (the next morning, now that I can type): I did end up knitting more on the sock last night. I turned the heel and started the gusset decreases. I realized I could not just sit on the couch and watch tv - I had to be doing something. I think it actually helped - my wrist and fingers didn't feel as stiff, although my pinky and wrist were still slightly swollen and very bruised when I woke up this morning. Cute Green Belt was watching - I was practicing the board breaks after class - and passed on some words of advice from one of his previous instructors as I came limping off the mat: It only hurts if the board doesn't break. I also got to partner with a new white belt, and he was fun. The whole group of new white belts were there again tonight, as well as Orange Belt Kid. When did I become the person to ask questions to in that group? Oh, and we did this kicking drill where you balance on one foot and round kick to the front, then turn 90 degrees and kick, then turn another 90 degrees and kick without putting the kicking foot down. I think they said it's part of the second dan form. I learned it's much easier to balance left/kick right than balance right/kick left. I figured the dominant foot would be easier to balance on, but apparently I was wrong - again! =)

5 comments:

Brittney said...

Seems like you were working on an upset knife hand break...that bruise resembles the minor one I got from my last board break. :-) It's a great technique, but your right if you hit wrong it hurts! Hope it heals soon.

KT said...

Yeah, knife strike break. Ugh. I finally got to where I couldn't do the knife strike anymore and Sir had me do a hammer hand break instead. It would had been better if I didn't already have the bruising from the knife strike! One of my friends there just got her red belt and she told me once that breaks just always hurt until you can do them correctly. That's something to look forward to!

Coleen said...

Um... OW! that looks seriously painful!

KT said...

After keeping it on ice occasionally throughout the day, it actually looks worse than it feels. My pinky hurts a little and is a little stiff, but other than that, it just looks impressive now. I love purple and blue and green, but not under my skin!

AR said...

Ouch! I missed Digging for the Truth! I forgot. I sure do get a lot of google hits for it now, though.