Gone in a Flash Part 2

 The extreme weather we had over the last couple of weeks (minus the last few days) changed my training, as I needed to adjust to the very warm temperatures. Working in air conditioning during the day, to going home with no air conditioning brought almost zero training at home. My body couldn’t acclimate that quickly. Then we had a few units of our air conditioning at work stop working on Monday night last week. Upstairs was 38 degrees, and my office was at about 32-34 degrees. Stuffy with the humidity made doing anything physical too uncomfortable. So training numbers were low. Now that we’ve had some reprieve training is going back to normal again. 

Not only has this past couple of weeks seemed to flash by, but of course we also experienced the devastating losses in our beloved town of Jasper. A home away from home for many of us. Don and I were married there. It was an emotional week for me not only thinking of all the homes, businesses and wildlife loss, but we have family there as well. A cousin was on a back trail horse trip, and from what we knew of the area, he was safe from the wildfires, but with so much different information coming at us, it was stressful. Finally on Friday morning he showed up at a hotel another cousin works at, safely. Sadly he lost the home he lived in most of his life, and the home he shared with our beloved Auntie, who passed away a couple of years ago. It breaks my heart to think of the special mementos lost. 

My boss, who was born, raised and lived her whole life in Jasper until moving to our branch 3 years ago also lost her childhood home her parents still lived in. Her son who is an officer in Jasper was one of last to be evacuated, as he was rescuing animals left behind. He only got out a short 40 minutes before the fire ripped through town. So not only was she worried about her parents being safely evacuated and all the travel they endured over 2 days, but the awful stress of her son getting to safety in time. Thankfully everyone is now at her home safely, as they look to how to move forward. 

Although these situations are not happening to me directly, sharing in my family’s grief, and being a close knit group at work, I certainly shared the stress and devastating losses of the week. Being the emotional person that I am, sleep was affected, and tears were shared. Thankfully no human lives were lost, and buildings can be rebuilt. So many memories will live on, and many more memories will be made. I am so very thankful to all the first responders, the people that came forward to help, and still are. We humans are resilient, and after a period of grief we will pull together and rebuild. 

Kung Fu classes once again became a reprieve for me, and helped to ground me. With not so extreme weather now, my training schedule can go back to normal, with some extra numbers to catch up. 

I realized I forgot to post my numbers earlier, not that they changed a bunch in the last couple of days!

Push ups- 16,650

Sit ups - 17,150

Form reps - Hand 315 weapon 265

AOK’s - 910

Sparring (modified) - 355

KM’s - 854

Blogs - 28

Gone in a Flash Part 1

 All of a sudden it’s 10 days ago I wrote my last blog. Part 1 Gone in a flash is about the days that just seemed to fly by in the last couple of weeks. 

Keeping this one short so as not to miss my weekly blog. A more in depth actual blog to follow this weekend. 

Push ups- 16,500

Sit ups - 17,000

Form reps - Hand 315 weapon 265

AOK’s - 894

Sparring (modified) - 355

KM’s - 842

Blogs - 27

6 Months

 It has been a little over 6 months since my surgery (Jan 10th). Some things are going well, and I feel others are lagging, or not coming along as quickly as I had hoped. I keep a consistent pulse on the personal requirements I set out for myself, and I am ahead of plan for some, which is great. I was hoping to be further along in my movements, pressure on my knee, and twisting, but these all seem to be taking more time. 

I continue to push limits, and continue to learn when I’ve pushed too far. The setbacks for the most part are shorter time frames, so I’ll take that as a positive. The surgeon originally told me recovery to pre injury could be a year or more, and some movements may never come back. I took that with a grain of salt at the time, but am slowly learning I am not my 20 year old self any longer lol. 

Thursday’s class brought the most ‘combat’ I have done since I injured my knee a year and a half ago. Not that we were going full out on our technique’s (thank you for your understanding and patience Sihing K Csillag. I truly appreciate it, and do apologize for your old, broken partner!), but I certainly felt the effects with quite a bit of swelling over the next few days. Soreness matched, not only with my knee, but in several areas. This truly shows what I have lost since injury, and much work needs to done. I can say that only a month before I injured myself I was in the best shape of my life (for that time) and am sad at how quickly that can change. 

Life can hand you lemons, and the lemonade can take a really long time to make, but I keep squeezing and I will get there! 

Push ups- 15,875

Sit ups - 16,200

Form reps - Hand 300 weapon 260

AOK’s - 850

Sparring (modified) - 300

KM’s - 778

Blogs - 26

Summer Plans

 ‘Summer’ always seems to start for me with the Canada day demo. It seems from there on out it’s full bore ahead to take advantage of the nicer weather days. June is usually busy with getting my gardens done, and July means all the outdoor plans we drew up over the winter and spring are on the go. 

We have been ‘planning’ a pergola for several years now, but time and money have thwarted the plan year after year. The partial build has been in the backyard for so long it feels like just an odd part of the yard. We were fortunate to come across a good deal for the wood for a half of the pergola and we seen it as a sign. This is the year! For half anyway lol. We’ll see how the construction goes, and funds left at the end of it if we’re able to do the other half this year, but at least we’ll have a half. Our backyard is south facing and gets very hot, so this will be a nice way to be able to enjoy our outdoor space.

It’s always great family time together with our projects and usually a lot of laughs. Sometimes some silly or painful mistakes lol, but we’re doing it together. 

Push ups- 15,000

Sit ups - 15,435

Form reps - Hand 275 weapon 245

AOK’s - 824

Sparring (modified) - 275

KM’s - 739

Blogs - 25