Mizblog

The family and I went out to test drive a new 2016 Chevrolet Camaro today. The Thousand Oaks dealership had two of them on the lot – both SS models with the V8 engine, and both with manual transmissions. It had been a while since I drove a manual shift, so I was apprehensive.

First we packed the girls into the back seat. That was rough. There isn’t a lot of back seat back there. Saranya had to sit behind me. Still, we all got in (including salesman Tom) and I fired it up, put it in gear, let out the clutch, and stalled. Oops.

After that, things got better. I was able to merge into traffic, shift up to 4th gear (out of 6 gears total) and finally got onto a freeway on-ramp. The car handled so solidly and smoothly! It was wonderful. I barely had to accelerate and I was speeding excessively. They’ve made the whole city into a 55mph zone. Ick. Anyway, I didn’t get a chance to try out how much power it actually puts down. It felt like rather a lot.

Visibility was poor, but I’m used to driving my 2004 Hyundai Tiburon so poor visibility is a regular thing. The Camaro wasn’t much worse. And it has a heads up display of speed, so you don’t have to take your eyes off the road to see how much you’re speeding. That was the biggest surprise of the test drive, seeing that number pop up on the windshield when I accelerated onto the freeway. It was very helpful.

Got the numbers on buying it, and it’s going to cost about $500/month more than my current car costs me to operate. That’s rather a lot.

Twentieth class! Christian taught us shoulder rolls and technical sparring. I learned some bear hugs!

Sparring was light and technical. I did okay. My body kick defense sucks. I worked on groin kick defense and still got a couple shots to the pills. Got to work harder on that.

Cardio is still an issue. Shoulder rolls were pretty rough. Need way more reps.

Pam taught us. I did focus mitts with Brian, who’s a southpaw. I had to learn to hold the mitts backward. I did okay.

Choke against the wall was good. Brian again. Choke with a push, too.

Gun from the side of the head went kind of awkward but good reps.

Saranya tested for Krav Maga yellow belt and got skipped ahead to the yellow stripe level! She’s been doing really well and her instructors are always coming to me with compliments about how well she’s doing.

Loraine’s class. Started with jumping jacks and shadow boxing. Little bit of shoulder tag.

Focus mitts with some covering and rolling. Jammed my thumb at the very end.

Then we did knife defense, same as Saturday but slightly different technique. Kept the head hard to the forearm.

Didn’t get too sore. The last focus mitt strike I landed was a right cross, and it tweaked my thumb a little bit. The thing is still sensitive. I think I need new boxing gloves. The fasteners on the old ones are crap, and the padding seems to be leaving my thumbs very vulnerable.

I felt very fat. My fat is really forcing its way into my consciousness. I got to watch myself shadow box in the mirror, and it was not very pretty. Time to do something to get rid if it.

Saw Saranya’s yellow belt and certificate. She’s testing tomorrow!

Saranya sewed me up a pillow to put in my thumb supporter so I wasn’t so scared of getting it smacked. It worked!

Class was pretty laid back. Taught by Pam, there were 7 students. I paired up with Mike, the old stinky guy with bad knees and wrists and teeth. Also with Eric, who’s a little guy but he’s really good.

We started with level 1 chokes. Eric kept stopping me to clean up my technique. Props to Eric. I got a lot better under his tutelage.

Next was standing guillotine defenses, then knife around the neck defense, then a stress drill with the knife and all the chokes, and then some wrist releases.

I got out of it without any pain. I’ve got some tired muscles but no injuries!

Saranya also had a class today, and Christian said she’s a “workhorse”. :)

After 55 minutes of cardio and circuit training, I’m beat. Walking is going to be an issue for me next week.

My striking combos were light or into the air, because my thumb is still wrecked. It doesn’t feel like it got worse, so that’s great news.

The bad news is that my shoulders are so weak I can’t do 30 seconds of plank. I need to work those extra while my legs recover!

FOLLOWUP: It took me 4 days to be able to walk normally, and another to recover emotionally. Wow!

I saw Bas Rutten at Sharkeys in Westlake today during lunchtime. He was talking with a couple of littler guys. I didn’t interrupt. He left with one of them in his white Porsche Panamera. I bet it was the BJJ instructor from his MMA gym.