Last month I had all of my goals listed and a breakdown of how I will achieve them by the end of the year. I've learned that it's best to write a breakdown or I get into overdrive and try to achieve them all by March. I constantly work on my impatience with wanting to accomplish everything at once and the realization that there's only so much time in the day. I've gotten better in this area, yet still constantly work on it. Using training as an analogy, it's like finding the balance between training at the highest capacity without over training. Too much of anything leads to less productive results.
I signed up for my first tournament of the year, which will be March 20th. The thought of getting back out there feels incredible. Although the time off during my injury and my dog's declining health and death was well needed, I am looking forward to getting back to my usual schedule of tournaments. Unfortunately, I just broke my pinky toe a few days ago. I was immediately frustrated because I was beginning to feel like I was back in my normal swing of things. The injury itself is not very painful yet the thought of waiting to compete again was very painful at that moment. I still haven't decided for sure if I'm competing or not. The injury is so minor that the tournament is still a possibility, but I will have little time for sparring leading up to it.
It has only been 3 days since the injury, so I'm going to take it day by day to see how it feels. I also remind myself that maybe this year will be similar to last year and I'll be able to compete plenty of times. The only difference would be me competing in the tournaments at the end of the year instead of the beginning of the year. It bothers me to plan and say I'm going to do something and then have something interfere, but sometimes life happens and throws a wrench into the original plan. I try to take in one day at a time and make the decision that is best considering the big picture and not what I want at the moment. I'm focusing on the positive and what I can do at this time. Given the injury, I can still do plenty of weight training that won't interfere with the healing process.
After years of competing, I've learned to make better decisions today than I have in the past especially since I'm an active competitor. There were many times I've competed when it was not in my best interest, yet I was full force sticking to my original plan no matter what interfered. It doesn't mean that things don't get in the way; it just depends on the severity and what I can do about it. It's never perfect leading up to a competition, but I look at all sides of it now. I do believe there are many ways to get around all kinds of inconveniences, yet sometimes the effort isn't worth it considering there can be other options. I look back and realize how some of the decisions about competing in the past were only hurting me. If there are plenty of tournaments throughout the year and I'm less than 50% physically, I feel it's best for me to wait. If I feel less than 50% mentally, I do it anyway. I feel it's safe for me physically and I'll learn something from the experience. I sometimes end up doing better than I originally thought or I at least learn from the experience.
As for my other goals besides competing, I've designed a daily/weekly routine to consistently work at my goals and track my progress. I'm sitting in double lotus for two minutes at a time as that's all the pain I can handle when doing it for now. I'd like to work up to five minutes in each sitting. I also track my hamstring strength weekly on my glute/hamstring training day. I've been working on my book for a half an hour to an hour at least twice a week. I originally tried to write on a daily basis, yet it only allowed for a shorter time period with my schedule. I complete more overall with this new method. I recently taped my new fave five video for triceps, so look out for it next month! Happy training!
-Jennifer Dietrick