Day 3 and 4

Monday was a very painful day. I took all five classes and by the second I felt trashed. I mean this in the sense that while I enjoyed myself immensely I had to struggle not to crawl off the mat. (I’m being slightly dramatic) Anyway. The first class I trained with Doug, who was very helpful and gave some great advice about iriminage. The second class was the kicker. I trained with Luke Machado, who has been an uchi-deshi for about 10 years, I went full throttle the whole class. Luke certainly seemed to be enjoying himself. I saw him smirk a few times. By the end of that class I had major gi-rash on both of my forearms from shihonage and my face stayed red for twenty minutes afterward. Great fun, until I stopped moving and stiffened up. Then the next class I trained with Sanji. We kept a good pace going. The class after at 5:30 I managed to convince Donovan to train with me. I was just tickled that he turned down a black belt for me. He didn’t talk a whole lot, which I expected, but he really helped me on kokyu-dosa. The last class I trained with Yoanna who I believe is French. She was very nice and I remembered her from the Christmas Seminar, so she has been training for at least that long.

Today in The morning class I trained with Doug Carey again who gave me some nice advice about shihonage. Then the second class I trained with Miguel. We stayed active the entire time. Miguel is a great person to train with, because his pace is about where mine is. At the 1:30 class with Sugano Sensei I trained with Enrique. He is a black belt. He was very nice and helped me when I was confused, but otherwise just let me train. I didn’t feel as sore today as I thought I would. I might take one more class after this one, but I’m not taking all six today. Sanji told me along with Doug C. that I shouldn’t overdo it because I might get injured or sick. I must say I agree with them. Last night I barely had the energy to go to the grocery store and fix some spaghetti for dinner. Maybe the classes were easier today or perhaps I’m just getting my “new york legs under me.”

Tonya