Love At First Strike

First Batch of Ear Juice

So… About 2 weeks ago I noticed my ear was a bit swollen and the first thing that came to mind was, “I am not going to get cauliflower ear.” After a few days the swollen part of my ear (top of ear)  did not seem to be getting any better so I played around with it a bit and noticed that there seemed to be fluid in it.  I went on a trip to Texas the next day and that week got my girlfriend, Adriana, to try and poke it with a safety pin.  I don’t think we stuck the pin in that much because all we got was a tiny bit of blood.  When I got back to Bainbridge I picked up a medial needle and syringe and poked it and sure enough, lots of pretty clear fluid came out and a touch of blood.  I thought, great, glad that worked.  About 24 hours later the ear seemed to be filling back up with fluid so this time I drew the liquid out with the syringe rather then just poking a hole and squeezing my ear.  As you can see by the picture I took, there was quite a bit of fluid and that was only half the amount from what I was able to get out of my ear just 24 hours previous.  Over the next couple of days I went on a trip to NY and sure enough, the ear filled back up with fluid.  I was able to acquire a insulin syringe and needle from my long time friend June who had just gone though a bout with cancer and had some unused ones in her medicine cabinet.  I got back to my fathers house and was able to draw about 2 CC of fluid out of my ear.  This is when I decided to do some research on Cauliflower Ear.

Here are two articles I found.  I have post the links to the original sites as well as excerpts from each of the articles. Looks like a trip to the Dr. or a bandage on my ear is in the near future.

Medicinenet.com Article on Cauliflower Ear

http://www.medicinenet.com/cauliflower_ear/article.htm

KidsHealth.org Article on Cauliflower Ear
http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/cauliflower_ear.html

I worked out today folks… It has been a few days but my Dad was going to the Kingston, NY YMCA and I tagged along with him and hit the gym.  Little did I know that I would be roped into playing 6 games of handball with him too.  So this morning, the day after, I have two sore hands, my shoulders are sore, my back is sore, I have scrapes and bruises on my elbows, forearms and legs but I feel like a million bucks.

First I hit the free weight room and did 50 reps of thrusters and squats. Those thrusters really made me aware that I had not lifted weights in a week and how I felt this morning when I finally got up at 11am EST only cemented that fact in my head.  I also did some pullups, dips and cleans but didn’t really keep track of them.

After the weight room I walked up to watch pops play some handball with the other senior league members… HAHA, Just kidding Dad.  Kinda…

They needed some youth, speed, strength and agility so naturally they looked out to me and asked me to come play a few games.  I thought about showing them up and then decided I did not wish to steal my fathers thunder since this was his home group game.  I decided to play as if I had never played before, because I have never played before.  I made sure to keep their mental toughness and egos strong by completely missing shots, falling on the ground, hitting the ball to the opposite court and knocking into other players for no reason.  I am happy to report that I fully succeeded in making them feel wonderful about their ripe ages.  In all seriousness, I had a great time.  I think I played pretty well for someone who has never played a game in his life and it made me want to play more.  My hands were so red and hurt that at times in the game I didn’t think I could hit another shot.  Tons of fun and I will play with them every time I come back to visit.

Great overall workout and even though I am sore this morning I feel healthy and great.

In staying with my whirlwind life the past couple weeks I got home Wednesday night, had Thanksgiving dinner and then flew out to NY to see my family on Friday night.  I did not sleep on the plane so when I got to NY at 6am I was pretty spent.  Got Upstate by 8 and didn’t make it to a bed till 7-8pm that night.  Then my sleep was broken but hey, you can rest when your dead right?  Anyhow, it is now Monday and I am here for one more day.  I love seeing the fam but can’t wait to get home to my normal schedule and routine of working out, working and then more working out in the form of MMA.  See you guys then.  I plan on going for a 5 mile job today.  Wish me luck…

Today I did half of the Filthy Fifty.  I was a little loaded up with turkey, mashed potatoes, fried potatoes, green beans, etc…  I was surprised that I went to work out at all but I had not really done anything in the way of working out while I was in Texas and I knew that it was gonna be the same when I went to NY the next day.  Here is the workout I did:

WOD: Filthy Fifty
50 Box jump
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings (35lb/26lbs)
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows

I was a bit slow during the workout but it was nice to get something under my belt.

From Friday November 20th through Wednesday November 25th I was on a mini vacation.  I just happened to be meeting up with my future wife too.  I did not do much in the way of working out besides a 5 mile run one day and some situps and pushups on another day.  It was well worth the break and I will be on a NY trip from the November 28th-December 2nd so there will not be much in the way of workout posts then either.  I will keep you updated but I think this is a good time for my body to rest.

Stay tuned because when I hit Bainbridge December 2nd it is gonna be on like DONKEY KONG again.  That very same weekend I go for my CrossFit Level 1 certification with Sifu Rick and shortly after that we are going full bore with CrossFit Bainbridge.  Exciting times.  Right now is like the calm before the storm.

Yeah… It’s been more then a week since my last post and I have no frickin idea what I did for a normal workout this day.

I know I went to MMA and we drilled ground and pound as well as did some light sparring where I was teamed up with Sifu Rick.  It is the best working with him because I know that he will not really hold back and give me my monies worth every single time we roll or spar.  I noticed when I was sparring with him how quick and accurate he was with his punches and shots.  On the other hand I was very telegraphed and slow because it is not second nature to me.  I felt like he could probably land shots on me at will.  It was actually a good feelings to be able to assess some of these things because it really helps me to be aware of where I am at and what I need to work on to get to that next level.  Great night.  I loved the sparring and I feel like I am getting better even though I have a long way to go.

Thanks MMA…

MMA Tuesday was just that.  I did not have a chance to do a regular workout with it but I was feeling pretty good from my workout on Monday.  We worked guard passing and clinch work today.  It was really nice because we got to do a few rounds of live MMA training with hits.  When we do this, depending on our training partner we usually do not go all out.  I am personally respectful that different people are at different places in their training or even wanting to do certain things in MMA like get punched…  Not everyone is a gluten for punishment.  As for myself, I don’t think that I enjoy getting hit, however… I do really like getting hit and seeing how I react.  I also like seeing what I can do or will do to defend myself.  Many of the most martial arts teaches are very cool and nice, but not many are very practical when there are no rules.  Example… I love playing guard.  I like to have people in my guard when playing jiu jitsu because I feel it is a pretty safe place, I have pretty good control and I can attack for submissions or a sweep.  Now when you are playing guard in MMA guard isnt such a wonderful place because there is a very real possibility you will have someone throwing punches in your face.  When we are playing MMA rules I want them as close to me as possible which means I have to break down there guard completely or I want them as far away as possible so they can’t sneak a punch through and clock me in my snot locker…

Anyhow, the training was great.  I really love it and I had a great workout.  I did about 15 minutes of jump rope and a couple of Tabata sets before practice but not a full workout.    See you all tomorrow…

Woke up and raced down to meet up with Tony to do a few rounds of sparring.  I did about 15 minutes of jump rope to warm up and then we rolled to warm up as well.  After that we did about 4 rounds of 4 minutes sparring.  Good work, way to start the day.  If I could do that all day everyday I would be in heaven.

My next workout was at Next Step Conditioning with Coach James.  Myself and about 10 other Bainbridge Island Fire Department members worked for an hour doing lots of kettlebell work, snatches, cleans, swings, wood chops, and combination of all of those together.  We also did some wind sprints with resistance bands and an ab workout using the kettlebells.  Lots of sweat.  I will go heavier next time.  I used 20KG kettlebells for 90% of the workout.

I ended my training day with a great MMA workout at my adult class at Bainbridge MMA.  We worked pummeling, pummeling for position and then shooting for the double underhooks and takedown into mount and side control.  We also drilled 4 out of the 5 moves we drilled last week from the guard.  Guillotine Choke, Triangle Choke, Kimura and Hip Bump Reversal.  We first just went through the motions.  Then added some resistance and finally tried to attack them live.  I played in my training partners guard most of the night because I am trying to get better in the guard.  I did really well.

Today I texted Darrick to see if he wanted to workout.  MY MISTAKE!  We did what is called the “Deck of Cards” workout.  Basically there are 4 exercises assigned to each suit of card, diamond, spade, club, heart.  You peal off the cards and for each of the 54  cards (2 jokers) you do that many reps of that particular exercise.  FML for sure on this WOD.  Here is how it was posted on the Killsport Kettlebells website.

Not much spooky about this Friday the 13th.  Went to town on some MMA sparring on Friday afternoon with Tony and before that did a CrossFit WOD with Darrick at Station 23.  Here is the CrossFit WOD I did:

Warm-up:
Suicide Drill w/ 3 burpees
7 rounds

WOD
For time:
800m Row
21-18-15-12-9-6-3 reps of:
Wallball
KB Swing
800m Row

After the CrossFit workout I went to Bainbridge Family MMA and sparred with Tony a bit.  We also did some jumping and diving drills with the kids.  The sparring was great.  We are trying to amp it up while at the same time get some good hits in so we can work out fitness conditioning as well as condition ourselves to live movements and reaction time.  Hope to spar some more on Monday after the Tabata Class.