Sunday, May 31, 2009

Further Fight Results

1) Swollen left ankle from a roundhouse kick that impacted an elbow directly over a tendon that is limiting mobility of the foot.

2) Sore left knee from clashing (both fighters brought the knee up at the same time)

3) Right glute (butt) pull (minor, but sore)

4) Bruising on ribs, back, and sore belly from getting kicked (kid was strong)

5) Large deep bruise on right bicep from blocking kicks that keeps threatening to cramp the muscle.

6) Right hand hurt (don't know what, but it hurts) from blocking.

7) Blood blister on palm from closing the damned scoring equipment case.

Nothing big, I should be 100% in a week or two, but geeeeze why do I do this? I really should just sit on the sofa, drink beer, and get fat.

Fight

Did UC Open Taekwondo tournament yesterday. Score/Time committee head and compeated in both forms and sparring. My forms division (old men) was VERY close the top three scores were almost identical. I tied for 2nd, but lost the redo in a two to one split. Took third.

In sparring I fought a very strong fast 18 year old. By the end of the first round I was down 3 to 1. With 30 sec left in the fight I was down 4 to 2.
I won! 4 to 6!

And as a bonus, I am pretty sure my ankle is not broken.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Bay to Breakers

Just got back from running the Bay to breakers (1st time!)
12K 7.5 Miles
1 Hour 20 Sec
924th overall
803rd Male

And:

253 Male 30-39 (out of 2867)

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Seen on my Run



Sorry for the shitty quality, was taken from my POS phone.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Monday, May 4, 2009

Bonk

Bonk ( v) To hit the wall.
Long distance athletes get energy from two sources:
1) Fat metabolism
2) Breakdown of glycogen into glucose

During intense activity all of the bodies available O2 is needed for the muscles none is available to metabolize fat and all of the energy used to sustain comes from the breakdown of glycogen. This is a problem as unless the body is able to take in carbohydrates the liver and muscles will run out of glycogen and the athlete can suffer from:
Dilation of pupils
Weakness
Fatigue
Dizziness
Hallucinations

This can occur when the athlete sustains a heart rate above 130 bpm for about two hours without replenishing the glycogen. Depending on the condition of the athlete this is around 15 to 20 miles of running.

In my case it was 17.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Mr. Mehlman's Wild Ride

Ok, so I lost my license. Not forever, just 30 days. I did something dumb (97 in a 65).
I can say a lot about this:
What I did was not worth that punishment.
What I have done over the years deserves this.
What I was going through explains my behavior.
What happened in my life excuses nothing.

It does not matter. I lost my license.
But this is not what I want to talk about.
I have been riding my bike to work a lot even before this. I love my bike. But this means I HAVE to ride my bike. That or take BART/Bus.
It says something that riding my bike takes 1/2 the time of public transit. Ok, it says two things.
But that is not what I want to talk about.

I lost my license, so I have to ride my bike. Even when It rains.
This is what I want to talk about.

My ride is 8.5 miles in the hills.
Or, I can take the long way.
On the long way the first thing I do, is climb up a nasty hill. The long way is 17 miles, and it takes me an hour and a half. The first 2 miles is 20 minuets. That is under the best of conditions.

It was cold.
It was wet.
It was foggy.
I loved it!

Riding up those hills was fantastic! I have never been so much in the moment as this. It was not much of an effort as the rain was cooling me down up the hills. I could hear every possible thing around me and nothing more than a mile from me. There were parts of the ride where I could not see or hear anything that was more than 20 ft from me.

I am not going to try to detail the ride to you. I am not going to try to make you understand the anger I had when I had no more hill to climb. I will not try to bring you to the fear that I felt doing 40 mph in a bubble of fog no bigger than my bike. I am not going to make you understand the drive I had to push through a flat section with the rain pelting my eyes desperately trying to keep the warmth in my body.

I will, however, tell you that the closest thing I can compare it to is the first high a junky feels. But I know I can not chase it. I know I can never replicate what I felt that day. And I also know I can not share what I felt with any one. Neither can I explain it, nor can I get you to share it with me.

I just want you to know that I felt it, that for an hour and twenty five minutes I was truly alive.