It was even better apparently because it was a fast skipping rope…

So that is ok then, I can do fast skipping at 7am…perfect 😛

Ok…it actually wasn’t as bad as I thought, and I could keep it up for longer than I expected 😀 not sure how long I did in a row without tangling my feet mind you, probably 2 mins. Then seemingly because I didn’t trip up and fall on my face, Matt decided to make it harder. I had to swap from foot to foot, 2 or 3 skips on one foot then swap to the other foot and back without stopping or falling down…surprisingly I managed it, for a short time, after a couple of false starts!

then came the cable machine oddness…there was a point where the exercise was introduced to me in the following fashion “now you are going to do something strange” I was not surprised!

I had to do:

Dead lifts + rows which is odd with a cable machine because you are being pulled forward so you have to engage your core,

Kneeling twisty sideways pulley things that were a little bit like wood chops only kneeling.

Backwards lunges with the cables attached to my ankles.

Sidesteps with knee lifts both outwards and inwards with the cables attached to my ankles (Cables attached to my ankles apparently someone thinks my balance needs work…)

An exercise where you lift up with one arm and pull down with the other at the same time (this was the odd one) with one cable thingie at the top and one at the bottom.

A similar exercise where you push and pull with opposite arms, with the cable thingies about shoulder height on each side.

Then a small amount of handstand practice, and some corresponding wrist flexibility exercises. I was actually brave enough to do my walking up the wall backward handstand thingie in the gym, I held it longer than last time too 😀

After all this, it was time to start the Thai boxing 🙂 It was awesome, because we were early we had loads of space and could move around much more than normal. (I knew there was a reason for getting up before 6am!) We put together more super long combos (I still feel odd using super in this context…as I write it I feel sarcastic but I am trying not to). They were awesome and worked really well, on the occasions where both of us remembered them at the same time, which was more often than you might think considering it was early morning! It involved quite a few kicks and new closer range knees which involve grabbing the shoulder and kneeing round into the side. It all got quite aggressive (although I denied it) but was awesome fun and quite hard work!

I also noticed how many people surreptitiously stopped what they were doing to watch… I guess it is more obvious in a mostly empty gym right out in the middle 😀

We did some kicking drills too and had a conversation about how I once got kicked in the ear by the (then soon to be) European champion women Savateur  in our weight category.

To finish off we did some pretty odd looking (but effective) stretches 😀

You might think Day 159 would be complete by then…but it was only 8am…and it was wednesday..so of course there was dancing in the evening 😀

Not as much dancing as I had hoped as it turned out.

We were practicing for the story for Sunday’s dance out, so a lot of time was spent working out those dances and the transitions. Unfortunately I only know 1 of the dances in this particular story so only actually did 4 dances. It was important to get the story sorted mind you so that is how it goes sometimes 🙂

The story is that of Herne the Hunter (more info)

In a twist to the original story for one night only the hunt was invaded by a hipster christmas elf…Who I don’t think will be able to make it on Sunday…

The dances I got to do were: Avebury ring (x2), Maiden Castle and Fanny Frail. I did make up for it my doing my own stepping and jumping around in the background…I can only imagine that it was very helpful and artistic…

Now…Day 159 Complete 😀