Black Belt Candidate Training Begins….
Today was the first day of Black Belt Candidate Training, it was the conditioning class.
This wasn’t really my first time attending the conditioning class. As Red & Red 1 belts, we went to about five conditioning trainings during the last candidate training session. It was the best thing we could have done. I got to understand how it all worked without being in the limelight. KJN Joe did pay attention to us but minimally which was good. It helped me see how much work I needed to do to make it through those trainings. My saving grace came in when SBN Sandy offered an 8-week boot camp @6am M/W/F which started March 1 to April 23. Boot camp was tough but very satisfying. We did bands on Mon, stations on Wed and weights on Fri. As a warm-up, she had us jog to Sushi Boat & back before we started exercising. I had to power walk because of my knees but I still improved.
During the last candidate session, my time for the 1-mile power walk was over 17 minutes. Today, I completed the 1-mile power walk in 14:33 min!! I’ve set a goal of getting to at least a 12 min/mile or less when we finish in October.
I know I will always be last doing the 1-mile. I wish it wasn’t true but the reality of the abuse I have given my body the last 48 years especially my weight has caused me to have almost no cartilage in one knee and very little in the other and arthritis in both knees. But… the cool part about being last is the team work. No person finishes alone. I had more than 25 fellow candidates and BB friends come join me to the finishing line. It’s very motivating to have that much support.
We then had another 20-25 minutes of push ups, sit ups, squats, walking lunges, burbies and jogging (power walking). I was so proud I actually did better than other new candidates in push-ups & sit-ups (Thanks Sandy). I would then fall behind on squats, lunges & burbies.
My face was the color of a tomato when we were done but on the inside I wasn’t dying.
Now the next hurdle is to make it through one of KJN Joe’s candidate training classes. I still haven’t figured out how to go all out to the level KJN Joe wants and not blow out my knees and not be able to walk. This coming week will be a lot of figuring out for me. We will have training Mon, Tue, Thur, Fri plus sparring one day… then repeat to conditioning on Saturday again –all for almost six months. We test sometime in Oct. (I think)
I’m so blessed to be on this amazing life changing journey with my daughter Raquel and my soul mate Lupe!
Until next time… Cheryl
Cheryl
