Qi Peng Hui on a nice sunny day

I’m becoming more familiar with the schedule with Yuan Min’s class so i knew without even checking that they would be at the track today. Luckily today’s weather was beautiful: blue skies, not too hot … not too cold … just right.

As I pulled up to the track the kids had already started jogging around. I waved to Yuan Min who was jogging around with the older nanquan girl and after parking my scooter and locking things up I walked to the track. He told me to warm up and then go 5 times around the track. There were quite a few groups out today, mostly sanda kids going through their conditioning (they must have the strongest lungs in the world) or doing drills of punching or kicking pads, or just getting brutalized by their coaches with endless amounts of body-breaking activities.

So I did my ligament stretching and joint warm-ups and got to jogging. I was able to jog for 200 meters to start, but after that I had to pace myself, so I would jog the straights (100m) and walk the curves (100m). So, 2 KM of that, which isn’t too bad. I haven’t run in a long time and it felt good to be back on the track.

Gratuitous shot of an athlete's six pack

In fact, I don’t think I’ve been on a track since sometime in the spring. At least 6 months ago.

By the time I had finished my 2 KM jog/walk, the rest of the kids were already neck deep in to their conditioning exercises. I did a bit of stretching to work out some stiffness in my calves. While I had been going around the track I noticed them doing calf raises along the fence, so I thought it good to do those as well. 4 sets of 50 for a total of 200 calf raises. After I finished with that Yuan Min told me to join the group.

They were doing lines of conditioning exercises. About 10 meters back and forth in an endless parade of motion. When I joined they were doing low walks — sort of like a duck walk but your legs don’t go below 90 degrees — quite brutal on the quads. They did 5 lines of that. Then 5 lines of bunny hops. They repeated that whole rotation about 5 times so a total of 25 laps (or 50 lines) of each (100 total lines). I joined them in on their 3rd pass so I only had to do 2 and a half rotations, but even so the bunny hops really did me in. Especially after 200 calf raises. By the end I was only able to do about 20 bunny hops before walking a bit and then continuing with another 20.

pushups at the track

A bouncy bunny, I am not.

After that it was time for a different routine. This time it was some fast high-knees and sprints. We would take turns standing next to Yuan Min doing high knees as fast as we could. After a few seconds he would clap his hands and we’d have to turn around and sprint as fast as we could for 25 meters. Then walk back and do it again. There were 9 of us so by the time you go back to where he was you only got about 15 seconds to rest before you had to go again.

We did about 10 or 12 of those. I paced myself again. Every 4 of so I had to take a break for 1. So I did 80% of them, which I felt was pretty good considering my physical condition.

After that it was time for more running. He split everyone up in to two groups of 4 (he told me to sit out this one) and had them do 400 meter sprints (one lap) around the track. After their first rotation I felt the need to participate so I ran along with the little kids group when it was their turn. Of course I was way in the back, but I actually ran the whole 400 meters, which surprised me. But y’know … a good surprise.

Two of the kids had to run a LOT

As a group they did about 4 of those, or about a mile of sprinting. While they were running around I spent the time walking through my choreography and cheering them on with a lot of jiayou‘s.

Two of the kids apparently weren’t doing too well, so he had them keep running 400 meter sprints for the rest of the class. He had the older nanquan girl monitor them. She would start them off on their run and when they got back she would give them about 5 minutes to rest and then have them run around the track again. This continued for about 40 minutes. It didn’t look very fun.

One of them, Xin Rui, (the nanquan girl who I embarrassingly thought was a boy for a long time) was running almost as slow as me, so I think it was meant to improve her endurance and stamina.

Meanwhile the rest of us got to do some work along the fence. First hand-stands, holding ourselves there for about 2 minutes. I couldn’t last that long but I did as many as I could. 5 sets of those. Then we did some pushups with our feet elevated. I opted for planks instead, but I was still shaking quite a bit with those. About 3 sets of them, while the rest of the kids did their pushups for 5 sets. Actually, after my 3rd set Yuan Min told me to take a break.

Little nanquan girl running sprints while another boy walks back to the starting point.

Then we were told to follow Yuan Min to the starting line for the 100 meter dash. He had Qi Peng Hui stand at the 30 meter mark. We were told to do frog leaps for 30 meters followed by a long step sprint (hard to describe) for the remaining 70 meters. Since the long-step sprint was hard on my ankles he said I could just do a normal running sprint.

Let me tell you … running a sprint after doing 30 meters of frog leaps is no picnic. (30 meters is about 30 frog leaps, in case you were wondering.) The first time I was spent, but still okay. The second time, however, I could barely walk back and my feet were dragging as I walked back to the start of the line. He told me to take a rest and I didn’t feel compelled to argue with his logic. Truth was I was sucking some major air so he probably realized I was close to the end of my rope.

The rest of the kids did 5 rounds of that in total.

Then he walked down to the end of the 100 meters and had Qi Peng Hui join us at the starting line. He was going to have us run 100 meter sprints. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do, but I didn’t want to just stand around, so I joined in with the last little nanquan girl as she did her run. I was able to keep up with her, but probably only because she had been working waaaaay harder than I.

His body language says it all

When I made it to the end of the 100 meters Yuan Min told me it was 5PM and I could go. But he was also nice enough to say “You did good today”.

“I still have a ways to go, but I think it’s better than before.” I replied.

“Compared to the first workout” he added “you have improved a lot.” and then we both chuckled at the thought of how out of shape I was just 6 weeks ago.

As usual, I could only snap photos and videos when I was able to take a quick break, but you can see a bit of the scene here. Some of the pictures turned out nice since it was “magic hour” and the sun was about to set.

After I went back to my office I realized that my legs had really gotten worked hard. Harder than I think I’ve worked them in many many years. Walking required me to keep my legs straight, because if I bent them too much my quads didn’t have the strength to hold my body up and I would start to fall forward. Almost total muscle failure. Its really going to be sore on Wednesday!

Oh, by the way, I got a message from Wu Ya Nan who is on his way back from his first place win in Taiji Jian at the World Wushu Games in Turkey. He’ll be back tomorrow and so I will hopefully see him around on Wednesday in the wushu guan. I haven’t seen that guy in over a year so it will be nice to reconnect.

Until then … jiayou.

Related posts:

1. WTV #13: Solo Practice
2. WTV #14: Alone at the track
3. WTV #10: A tumblin’ we will go

The Plan

My plan is to incorporate a mixture of cardiovascular exercise (running), muscle strengthening (pushups and situps), basics training (taiji basics and stance work) and anaerobic exercise (wind sprints).  Of course there is stretching in there too, but I generally do some stretching whenever I exercise so that sort of goes without saying.  My time frame is one month (4 weeks) starting October 18 until November 14.  Here is an overview:

Walk:Run

Since I am a bit out of shape I’m gradually going to increase my ratio of running to walking so that by the time I go back to wushu I am able to run a mile (1.6 km, or about 12-15 minutes) without stopping.  That might not seem like much to some of you, but trust me – based on my current physical condition that is a good goal for me.

You can see that on November 6 it says “City Wall”, which is actually the annual run around the city wall that Xi’an holds every fall.  Ruhi and I are going because my school is paying for our participation in the event and it is a good way to get 5k of walking in to our day.  I’m guessing we will be primarily be walking, but technically this will be the first foot race I’ve been in since my 400meter sprint during that Junior High School track meet in 1984.

On the right side you can see the total distance covered each week.  Its in kilometers so for you non-metric-minded people, just divide by 1.6 to get the mileage (1.6 km = 1 mile).

Wushu

Actually, this should probably say “Taiji” since that is primarily what I’m doing.  I have a set of Taiji basics that I learned from Li Jing and Hao Zhi Hua back in the day and I go through the sequence (about 5 different ones) however many times it says. (x10 = ten times)  I do this because the slow movement and stance transitions are really good for strengthening my legs and joints; especially the knees.

Stance

I alternate between mabu-gongbu transition training and frog leaps (FL).  I’ve found that doing these helps build my stance transitional power the fastest, as well as build up good leg strength.

PU/SU

These are push-ups and sit-ups.  To be honest, I’m rather weak in this area and even doing 3 sets of 10 pushups is a challenge when first coming back.  So I am trying to build up these weak areas since the core and the chest/tricep areas are ones that I will need to be ready once I return to wushu.

Sprints

In the last week I start incorporating wind sprints in to the routine.  They’re a great way to build up endurance and anaerobic capacity.

* * *

I have actually put together a plan for the next 6 months, but I review and adjust my approach each week based on what happened, so there is no reason to show you that yet.  The basic idea is that it incorporates a general increase of wushu classes over the course of 2 months, from 2 classes a week to 5 classes a week.  It includes an increase in strengthening, flexibility, power and endurance training too.  My overall goal is to get back in to my “fighting” by the end of spring, so that I can take advantage of the summer holidays to possibly increase my training and experience.

Actually, that is an idea that popped into my head as I was writing this, but technically Ruhi and I haven’t made any plans for next summer yet so I guess anything is possible at this point.  We’ll see what happens between now and then.

And don’t forget, I have a bunch of new wushu videos coming your way in the next week or so.  Keep your eyes peeled for that!

Related posts:

1. Returning to Wushu: The 40 Year Old Version – Week 1
2. Returning to Wushu: The 40 Year Old Version – Week 2

I made my way to her dorm room and hung out with her and Zhang Yang as they finished up their packing.  She was nice enough to give me a copy of the schedule for the competition events so I thought I would share it here with all of you.  One interesting thing is that they moved Changquan to the 3rd day.  Usually they have it on the morning of the first.  Anyway, here it is:

I’ve highlighted the events I definitely want to attend with red.  The ones in blue are ones that I would like to see, but may not get much footage of, either because they are concurrent with a preferred event on another carpet, or because I might not be there.  (Those 8 AM sessions are brutal).

Also, there is a slight chance that I might not get there until Monday afternoon, in which case I would be missing the Monday morning events.  I’ll have a better idea once the weekend is here what my status will be.

Anyway, I hung out with Xiao Yu and Zhang Yang for a bit.  Pretty soon Xiao Yu’s best friend (who’s name I forget) come in the room to help them bring their luggage downstairs.  She’s super nice and also from Shandong, Dong Ming.  A Sanda athlete who is apparently pretty good because she has her picture up as one of the athletes who were “celebrated” upon her return from the All China Games.  Don’t know if she medaled, but she probably got at least top 8 in her division.

She mentioned that she has a Sanda competition coming up in Anhui on April 8, so she will be preparing for that.  If any of you are in Anhui you can be sure to check it out. (She also mentioned that I’ve lost weight, so what she says MAY be subject to interpretation.   )

Wu Ya Nan met us at the bottom of the stairs and then we walked over to the bus.  As we were walking he said “I haven’t seen you in training much lately” and I mentioned that I had been in Hong Kong for a week for work.  But he’s right and I’ve been reflecting lately about my lack of attendance in the wushu guan.  Once I get back from the competition (hopefully rared up and motivated from watching lots of good wushu) I really want to revamp my commitment to my training.  I need to get in the gym more.

After a while the rest of the taolu athletes came and loaded themselves on the bus.  I took video of the whole thing so you don’t need too many details from me here.  Sufficeth to say it was neat to see them get the send-off for competition.  Now I kind of wish I had been able to go with them on the train, but it is good that I have a few days in Xi’an still since I have a lot to do.

Here is the video for you to enjoy!

One good thing about today was that I went running in the morning.  I was meeting James and Adam at their place so I decided to make it a run and hoofed it over.  Here is the map and distance:

So, not a super long distance, just 2.1 km.  But it felt good to get out on the road again.  I walked back as well, so I guess that is another 2.1 km of walking I can add to that.  I’m going to really try to do more running during this week away in Hangzhou / Shanghai.  Actually, I have a commitment with James and Adam that we each will go running every day for 2 weeks, so that is extra motivation for me to do it as well.

Thats all for today.  There is some wushu classes at the Sports Center, but mainly just a few straggling kids.  I think I would rather focus on getting some of my projects finished so that when I come back to wushu after the competition I can really go at it full steam ahead.  Until then … lots of running!!

Related posts:

1. Competition Prep! T-Minus 1 Week

It has been forever since my last blog.  Well, that is because it has been just as long since my last training.

Well, okay, maybe not “forever.  Technically it was 10 days.  But that is a long time to not be training.  Surprisingly today’s workout wasn’t too bad – mainly because it consisted primarily of running.

Normally running is a hard pill for me to swallow.  i get cramps in my calves and usually don’t have the endurance to go very far.  i presumed that since it had been at least a couple months since the last time I ran at the track that today would be no exception.  But for some reason today’s track run went pretty well and I ended up with a 3 mile total with the following breakdown:

(Run 1 lap, Walk 1 lap ) x 6 = 3 miles total.

Of course, all the other athletes were pulling in a 10k run.  And by “all the other athletes” I mean that it wasn’t just my class running but the Taiji group as well as the youth group.  And on top of that there were two kids wushu groups at the track, as well as a men’s and women’s soccer group, and then top that off with a couple sanda groups and you have one very crowded track.

One of the reasons I haven’t been training too much is that right now is the Baha’i Fast.  Each year Baha’i’s fast for 19 days (which is one Baha’i month) from March 2 to March 20.  That means from sun rise (around 7:00 am here in Xi’an right now) to sun set (around 7:00 pm) we don’t eat or drink.

So, I suppose that I was hesitant to try and go all out at the wushu guan when I knew I wouldn’t be able to drink or eat.  Today seemed like a good testing ground since it was a run and not a wushu class.  I brought a bottle of water just in case I felt dizzy or it felt unhealthy, but I managed to make it without any problems.  Back in the U.S. during the fast my classes were in the evening and I could usually get in a small bite or a power bar before I trained so it wasn’t as much of an issue.  But my training here is earlier in the day and a bit more intense – plus the air is rather dry – so I wasn’t sure how things would go.

My next class is on Saturday afternoon – this time in the wushu guan.  I’ll bring another bottle of water as a safety measure, but hopefully things go okay.

No pictures today, but I managed to do a quick little vlog from the track.  It includes a bit of kids wushu training and wind sprints.  I filmed this after the adult class had already left so this is mostly who was left after the first hour.  Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. WTV #4 – Yuan Min and I
2. WTV #11: Third time’s a (c)harm
3. Two Days of Training