Over the weekend L caught some sort of bug. By Monday it had passed on to me and it hit me hard. Sinuses were congested and my throat felt rough and irritated. I can deal with those symptoms though; I’ve had worse from some bad allergy attacks.

The worst thing about being sick is how weak it makes me feel. It isn’t a feeling of being tired or exhausted because I do have the energy to get up and go. The problem is that the energy doesn’t seem to go where I want it to go. Almost like when you don’t have enough water pressure for your shower; the water is still flowing but since it isn’t flowing strong you’ll need more of it to rinse the shampoo out of your hair.

I have noticed that this feeling of weakness has bothered me more now that I’m practicing a martial art. My Arnis has made me more comfortable with my body and with what it can do. This makes it easier to gauge just how sick I am because of how much less I am able to do.

All of this must sound like common sense but it’s something that just occurred to me today. You have plenty of time to reflect when you’re recuperating in bed.

L and I woke up at 6:00 this morning to exercise. While L decided follow one of her awesome DVD workouts I decided to run through a couple of class drills instead.

I started out with trying to do 50 burpees as fast as I could. That took me a whopping 20 minutes which is pretty bad considering this guy can do 100 burpees in about 5 minutes. I’m thinking of it as a goal to work towards.

Next I ran through some stick drills including:

• 50 forehand diagonal strikes (#1 Strikes)with each hand
• 50 backhand diagonal strikes (#2 Strikes) with each hand
• 50 overhead horizontal fanning strikes (abanicos) with each hand
• 50 vertical fanning forehand strikes (Witik) with each hand
• 50 veritcal fanning backhand strikes (I think they are also called Witiks but I’ve heard them go by the name Flicks as well) with each hand
• 50 head level horizontal figure eight strikes with each hand

I need to work on my figure eights as they are noticeably slower than the rest of my stick work. The rest of the drills were pretty fast but I could always use a bit more speed. I do think I am consciously going a bit slower because there isn’t much room in this apartment to swing a stick around. L would kill me if I accidentally decapitated one of our new house plants!

All in all a pretty good morning workout.

Today in class our Guro decided to work our cardio. After a couple of footwork drills she had the class running laps around the dojo. While we’re running each student takes their turn in the middle of the dojo to do a set of strength training. We don’t stop running till everyone has taken their turn in the middle.

After that Guro set up the pylons on the mats and had us running zig-zag patterns around them while working our freestyle stick work. So now you not only have to worry about your feet but you’ve also got to keep your arms moving as well. This was much harder than I thought it would be and I could really see how doing a lot of this would help with your co-ordination.

Running has never been my strong point. Having a nagging knee injury doesn’t help with it either. But today I think I managed to keep up a pretty good pace. I was breathing well and watching out for my knee which made it through the entire class without bothering me too much. I was starting to get a side stitch near the end of the second set of zig-zag laps but I managed to keep it from flaring up by controlling my breathing.

All in all we did a good 30 minutes of cardio training and it felt really good. I think I’d like to add more cardio training into my exercise routine as well as I’m sure it would help keep the old blood pressure down. I don’t think I’ll take up jogging but I might look into swimming at the local Y. Anyone else have any suggestions?

I am currently sitting at 230 lbs. The lowest I have been was around 218 lbs which I hit during my training for the WEKAF World Championships last summer. So I have gained back a solid 12 pounds since then which isn’t a surprise to me.

My diet has not changed much these past 6 months but my level of exercise has. Prior to the tournament I was training a good 5 days a week. Three of those days were hard training days with the rest of my class. Now that the big competition has come and gone I am back to my regular schedule of 2 days of regular class and only one day of hard training.

I am comfortable with being at 230 lbs. I was at this weight for a long time after losing a 30 pounds before. Prior to the WEKAF World Championships I was even resolved to being this weight and wasn’t to worried about it. However, now that I know I can make it below 220 lbs, being 230 just doesn’t cut it anymore.

So the goal is now is to hit that 220 mark again. I think it is reasonable to aim to hit that goal around the end of March. After that I would like to see if I could actually hit the 200 mark but I know that would take some big changes to my diet and exercise routine.

I think blogging about this will help me keep on track, so expect more posts about this in the future. I probably won’t be as detailed as 60 in 3 but who knows. Maybe a weekly weigh-in post is just what I need.

I wish I was just an inch or two taller. It would make getting into my apartment building and my office so much easier.

Right now I have to thrust my butt in the air and against the sensor so that the security cards in my wallet can be read. The movement is almost like a Muay Thai knee strike but much more awkward looking.

I could always just take the wallet and the security cards out of my pocket, but where’s the fun in that?

I ain’t sayin’ that you have to burn the rope to win in this little flash game called You Have to Burn the Rope, I’m just sayin’

Capiche?

Via Joystiq

• Video Game girls in over the top animated fight sequences
• Where’s my reality show? via Turbo
• Bitch be tripping balls!
• L (Thank you!)

At the start of the month I could barely do three. Earlier this week I was able to fire off twenty in succession. I feel pretty good about that. The idea of me doing twenty normal push-ups a few years ago was just a fantasy. Now it has become a part of my regular warm up routine before class. That is something to be proud of.

Next up: Mantis Push-ups! You can blame Urban Beatdown for this post.

The results are in from my sleep study a few months ago. They diagnosis is not a surprise to me but the severity of it is.

My doctor has confirmed I have a case of Obstructive Sleep Apnea. When I am a sleep the muscles in my throat relax and block my breathing passage, keeping me from breathing. As my body notices the lack of oxygen in my system it reacts by trying to wake me up. This constant back and forth between starving for oxygen and being semi-awake keeps me from having any sort of recuperative rest while I sleep. It also puts a lot of strain on my heart and pulmonary system.

The severity of a patient’s sleep apnea is measured using a “number of apnea incidents per hour” index. A number less then 10 is considered light, while anywhere near the 30-50 range is high. My index comes up on the high scale … very high. The average length of my apnea incidents was around 15 seconds, with the longest going on for over a minute. This was all a shock to me, but would explain why I never felt rested and had to fight off sleep during the day. How could I get any rest if I’m barely breathing a third of the time?

Luckily this sleep disorder is treatable. I was prescribed a Continuous Positive Air Pressure (CPAP) machine to wear while I am sleeping. The machine consists of a face mask connected to a small air pressure regulator via a long tube. It helps me breath through the night by applying a constant air pressure in my nasal cavity and breathing passage, forcing the muscles in my throat open all night long. It is a pretty expensive device but OHIP covered part of it and my company’s insurance plan should cover most of the rest. All costs aside this baby is worth every penny, especially if it is going to keep me alive.

Wearing the mask while I sleep isn’t so bad. The machine is quiet as well; not silent but no where near the volume of Darth Vader’s breathing. When I am using the device, I no longer snore and I barely toss about in bed anymore. I am not fighting off sleep at work anymore, especially in the afternoon when it used to hit me really hard. Generally throughout the day I feel more energetic. I still feel a bit sleepy here and there and would love a good nap in the afternoon but I’m hoping those will go away over time.

The only problem I have seen so far is that it takes me forever to actually get out of bed. Before the CPAP machine when I woke up I would be wide awake and able to hop out of bed and start my day. Now, waking up is a long process, including a groggy period when I’m semi-awake but not able to do anything more then roll over and go back to sleep. I think that when I was suffering from apnea I was never in a deep sleep so waking up was never a hard thing to do. Now that I’m getting that much needed deep sleep, it is taking a lot more effort to get me out of bed. I am not complaining though, I’d gladly trade in early morning alertness for a good nights rest any day!

I am hoping that by treating this sleep disorder now, I have helped to prevent more serious health problems in the future. Also dealing with this apena may reduce my high blood pressure, another health issue I have been battling with over the years. Ultimately losing weight will help get rid of both these problems, so my focus lies there. I’ve already a few pounds but there is still plenty to go. At least now I’ll be able to get a proper nights rest while I am working for that goal.

I’m back!

Well I was actually back this weekend but the full force of a summer cold hit me exactly two hours after my airplane touched down at Toronto’s Pearson Airport. Spending the next two days in bed with a fever is not exactly the home coming celebration I had in mind.

Alaska was wonderful, beautiful weather, fresh air, scenic landscapes all around. I saw glaciers, eagles, seals and whales; icebergs, lumberjacks, salmon and totem poles. Plenty of pictures to be loaded up to the website as well.

Now that I’m back, anyone care to tell me what I missed?