We trained today at HK Ward Gymnasium as it would be normal to for a Saturday training. What was different today though was the extreme heat conditions, tipped at 41°C with low humidity. It made things very different to normal, especially for me.
I had already spent a week in quite humid conditions out overseas for a work related trip, and I was still a bit tired having "worked" a sixty hour week. By the time I had my gi and hakama on, tare and dou ontop, I was already sweating considerably and a sheen was about my arms and hands.
Our warmup was a bit shorter than normal, led by our coach, who also felt the heat and didn't want to train too hard in the conditions. Instead of our normal routine of warmup, footwork then bogu, we spent more time out of bogu than in it.
Post warm-up, I was already in trouble, having problems doing the fifty hayasuburi we had to do, feeling the burn on my shoulders lifting my shinai, and then we started to do sets of thirty-second hayasuburi. Our coach said that we should be aiming for about fifty in each set with good form. We did quite a few, but I was only getting about forty or so each set. I was given a break to do the timing thankfully as he saw I was really struggling, and I was. Water break was given and gladly taken.
We then switched over to doing Men-men-men-men cuts with people in a line using shinais to be the target, then Kote-men-kote-men. That was followed up with thirty second bursts of the wrist exercises hitting between shinai. By this point, I was sweating so much that it was dripping onto the floor, and down my legs that I was leaving footprints of sweat. I wasn't the only one either as there was a lot of footprints about. Another water break.
We then got into bogu. Two rotations of kirikaeshi, then one rotation of kihon men, one of kihon kote, one of kihon dou. One rotation of small men, one rotation of small kote. Then into jigeiko. We had three sets of jigeiko (where I had a rest break as one because I was on the odd-one-out at the end of the row) before we then finished with Ippon matches against our coach.
For me, I didn't really have much energy left by then. I had been hit almost at will by one of the people I was having jigeiko with and I didn't land any decent cuts at all to my dissatisfaction. When it was my turn though, being the last thing of the training, I put in pretty much my all. We had a person acting shimpan, and while several of the cuts that I took I would have thought were points, he didn't award them, leaving me to fight on longer. My normal style is quite slow and meticulous anyway, and it was even more so today with my sapped energy levels. I got one or two cuts in but no zanshin and even I knew that. A lot of failed and dodged cuts, and then I made a weak cut in terms of power but I was so tired by then, I probably couldn't have cut much harder. I think either my zanshin was enough, or the shimpan took pity upon my state and awarded me the men cut ending it.
Once I stopped and came off the court, I actually felt like that sensation before dry-retching was about to happen. While I wasn't fully dehydrated, I felt that I might have had some heat-strain (which is a precursor to heat stroke), and had I pushed a bit more I may quite have thrown up. I didn't go for a second round of ippon matches like three other people did, and then we finished up with training.
Post training, I bought some isotonic drink from the vending machine and downed it pretty quickly. I bought a second and also filled the first up with water for the trip home. I finished the second isotonic about half way home and I was still feeling thirsty, and by the time I was home I had finished about nearly one and a half litres of water. I must say, I have not felt that dehydrated for a while, which strangly was a different dehydration to the dryness from my previous post, possibly because that may have been due more to airconditioning effects than actual sweating.
It was a gruelling training for me, and I hope that if I make it to Picton for Grading, it won't be that hot, as if it is, I don't think I would make it through the grading at all.
I had already spent a week in quite humid conditions out overseas for a work related trip, and I was still a bit tired having "worked" a sixty hour week. By the time I had my gi and hakama on, tare and dou ontop, I was already sweating considerably and a sheen was about my arms and hands.
Our warmup was a bit shorter than normal, led by our coach, who also felt the heat and didn't want to train too hard in the conditions. Instead of our normal routine of warmup, footwork then bogu, we spent more time out of bogu than in it.
Post warm-up, I was already in trouble, having problems doing the fifty hayasuburi we had to do, feeling the burn on my shoulders lifting my shinai, and then we started to do sets of thirty-second hayasuburi. Our coach said that we should be aiming for about fifty in each set with good form. We did quite a few, but I was only getting about forty or so each set. I was given a break to do the timing thankfully as he saw I was really struggling, and I was. Water break was given and gladly taken.
We then switched over to doing Men-men-men-men cuts with people in a line using shinais to be the target, then Kote-men-kote-men. That was followed up with thirty second bursts of the wrist exercises hitting between shinai. By this point, I was sweating so much that it was dripping onto the floor, and down my legs that I was leaving footprints of sweat. I wasn't the only one either as there was a lot of footprints about. Another water break.
We then got into bogu. Two rotations of kirikaeshi, then one rotation of kihon men, one of kihon kote, one of kihon dou. One rotation of small men, one rotation of small kote. Then into jigeiko. We had three sets of jigeiko (where I had a rest break as one because I was on the odd-one-out at the end of the row) before we then finished with Ippon matches against our coach.
For me, I didn't really have much energy left by then. I had been hit almost at will by one of the people I was having jigeiko with and I didn't land any decent cuts at all to my dissatisfaction. When it was my turn though, being the last thing of the training, I put in pretty much my all. We had a person acting shimpan, and while several of the cuts that I took I would have thought were points, he didn't award them, leaving me to fight on longer. My normal style is quite slow and meticulous anyway, and it was even more so today with my sapped energy levels. I got one or two cuts in but no zanshin and even I knew that. A lot of failed and dodged cuts, and then I made a weak cut in terms of power but I was so tired by then, I probably couldn't have cut much harder. I think either my zanshin was enough, or the shimpan took pity upon my state and awarded me the men cut ending it.
Once I stopped and came off the court, I actually felt like that sensation before dry-retching was about to happen. While I wasn't fully dehydrated, I felt that I might have had some heat-strain (which is a precursor to heat stroke), and had I pushed a bit more I may quite have thrown up. I didn't go for a second round of ippon matches like three other people did, and then we finished up with training.
Post training, I bought some isotonic drink from the vending machine and downed it pretty quickly. I bought a second and also filled the first up with water for the trip home. I finished the second isotonic about half way home and I was still feeling thirsty, and by the time I was home I had finished about nearly one and a half litres of water. I must say, I have not felt that dehydrated for a while, which strangly was a different dehydration to the dryness from my previous post, possibly because that may have been due more to airconditioning effects than actual sweating.
It was a gruelling training for me, and I hope that if I make it to Picton for Grading, it won't be that hot, as if it is, I don't think I would make it through the grading at all.
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