Shooting Stars

A blast of golden sparks played across my vision and cleared as quickly as it appeared, but for those few moments I was completely vulnerable.  As usual I would have loved to see all that in slow motion.  Probably a really cruddy block on my part; letting a hooking punch slip through and bang my chin.

This is what it felt like anyway

I've been off for a month and my practice has only been kata.  There hasn't been any exercise except for the occasional long walks on windy Scottish vistas.  Upon my return from my vacation I tried running, but I was only able to eek out a weak 2.5 miles.  So when I finally make it to class it turns out to be fight night.  Reed Sensei is getting ready to go to tournament this weekend and needs to get his head right, so that means we all get to practice a bit.  Thankfully we all had our teeth protection on.  The first time I've put mine in for over five years!?

To prep for fight night we have to warm up fairly well and do a bunch of speed drills coupled with a few tips on strategy.  And they we were ready to go.  Alas I was partnered with Reed right away and my glaring errors came to light.  The worse thing I do is stop fighting when he gets a good hit in.  If whoever is acting as judge doesn't see it then they don't stop action and I could get a good shot in, but I end up there getting tagged a second time because of this bad habit.

Something to work on should I ever go to another tourney.  I'm also very slow.  Or fast with really bad form and technique.  Sigh so much work to get back where I was. 

Yesterday I ran almost three miles.  I far cry from my big 5 before I left.  I'm hoping to run five on my birthday (Tuesday).