I sparred with Chris, a brown belt, and with Rick, also a brown belt, and a little with Juan Molina, who we don’t get to see nearly enough. MM sat out the second hour due to her lingering illness, but I managed to stick it out. I am not sick, but I’m probably fighting off the flu as well. I’m taking Echinacea capsules which is supposed to boost your immune system. According to research it does have a significant good effect. It’s worked so far.
After some structured sparring instruction, we did some free sparring. I am improving but have much to learn and practice yet. Rick managed to back kick me right in the face, but I just shook it off and continued on. He hit me pretty hard, but certainly not with full force. Any one of my fellow karateka and certainly any higher belt could drop me like a stone if they wanted to, but they would have to hit me pretty hard to do it since I can take a lot of punishment. I guess I don’t have a glass jaw, ha ha.
I still am wasting a lot of energy and oxygen, but I am better than before. Next Tuesday’s class should be good and I’m looking forward to it. I wore my tensor braces on my knees again even though my knees feel okay. I will continue to wear them for a while to make absolutely sure they get a chance to heal up perfectly. I have to work early tomorrow so I can’t go running until I get back. I could if I got up early enough. Maybe I should get up early and get it over with. I’ll try to anyway.
My confidence is growing and I feel a lot more comfortable about approaching my very first tournament. I have no illusions of victory, but I will be very happy just to show up and make an effort. That battle is with myself, not with others.
Today I cleaned out my eavestroughing and removed the elbows to clean them out because they were jam packed with rotted leaves. Should be good until next fall again. I’m really glad the snow is holding off because I’d like to get a lot more done around the yard. I can do a bit more Sunday after work, but Monday I have to reconfigure the networks at a client’s office in the morning then I have to go to the Stony Plain Coop with my partner to try to figure out why their network keeps cutting out. That job can’t be done until after 5 PM.
After that I should be free for a while so I can work on the company books and get caught up there.