Magical Water

My increased water intake, on the advice of Mr. Albracht, was a resounding success. I went to two classes without any resulting headache. This is just amazing, especially considering that I only upped my water intake by about 70%. I'm very optimistic.

It is possible that my condition slowly deteriorates, because the whole problem only appeared years after I started training, and gradually worsened. But at least at present it can be controlled.

Normal intake for the day is about 6 to 8 500ml bottles, of which 3 or 4 I finish before the class, one during the class, rest after the class. My weight is around 95kg.

Class 2008/01/09: The return!

I'm back to the class after the illness over the holidays. I had some kind of flu (not even a cold), and an opportunistic bacterial infection on top of it. It ended with Mr. Young calling me to remind not to slack too much.

Class was pretty physical, although I've only done 2 sets of 10 push-ups each. After the good warm-up, we've spent the class kicking and working on throwing when grabbed and pushed.

I talked to Mr. Albrecht about my horrible headaches. He suggested that it was dehydration after all, and that my efforts to stay hydrated did not go far enough. I aimed 2L per day. He said I need to drink enough "to go to the toilet every 20 minutes". I armed myself with 4 500ml bottles for the evening. It seems that my body's first reaction is to let all the water to go right through the intestines. Dear thick intestines, please intake the water, I need it -- Love, the head. We'll see how this goes in three hours or so. Usually I'm [nearly] dead by 2 a.m.

Class 2007/12/12 (Wed)

Rather energetic class, lots of kicking combos. The #1 is front, pop-up, front, pop-up, the #2 is rear round, slide round, the #3 is ... umm. I had to run intermittently on my way there and back, the outside temperature was about +5C. Thankfuly, wind was weak, below 2 m/s from East.

I got through the night with Advil. It still hurt, but in a dull way deep inside the skull. Seems ok today.

Class 2007/12/05

Tough class today. I had to squat a few times.

Escrima seminar

I'm just back from the seminar on Escrima, the Phillipino stick fighting, taught by Master Max Pallen. It was quite interesting, especially the demonstration match. One curious detail is, during match rounds I didn't see much of any defence, let alone a disarm. Evasion was the main defence.

Class 2007/11/14 (Wed)

The warm-up was energetic today, with shield kicking and rounds of punching. I think I did pretty good, in fact perhaps a shade better than my cohorts Brian and Edgar. It is very unusual for me and so I'm pleased. But I have a terrible secret: I'm going to be sick tomorrow. It was very bad after the last class on Saturday, I spent the Sunday semi-conscious. The onset of headaches begins about 6 hours after the class, nausea usually follows.

Yellow Belt

I received my Yellow Belt today. The test was a disaster, frankly, so this is more of an acknowledgement of my progress than my knowledge of the curriculum. I especially need to know my wrist releases, and Pol Gae 1. But the rest was far from ideal too.

Another thing, I was so swamped with the homework and just work that I started slacking, coming once a week sometimes. I figured that it was going to get better in January.