Supporting friends

Sunday was gradings and the last official event at our club.
Its been a while since I've attended a grading since I stopped going to technical class and usually I would spend this time at the gym. But this one was going to be a grading with a difference.

Gerry has been a receptionist at the club since I started and has always been very supportive of me. On many occasions I can remember the times I felt down, depressed, frustrated or negative about my Taekwondo, we would talk after class and she would rest my mind with reassurance. She has been like my own personal psychologist without even knowing and over time we have become good friends.
Gerry is part of the womans only class which is run entirely by woman instructors and held during the day. There is no men allowed in the hall at any stage during this class.
I believe she is our most senior member at 50+ so when I heard that part of her grading would be open to the club I wanted to be there.
It was an outstanding performance and at the end of it everyone was cheering. Congratulations and thank you Gerry, you are truly inspiring to the rest of us.

The club has closed for the next month while we are on holidays.
As it would happen my hamstring feels good enough to train and I'm super eager to try to catch up on some of what I missed over the last month but I'm also aware that I have to ease back into it.
So for the following month I made a small list of goals which I want to achieve.
The three areas I'm focusing on will be injury prevention of the hamstring, core stability and increasing my cardio so I've come up with the following:
1. To continue the strength and conditioning rehab program on my hamstring ensuring I prevent any further injury.
2. To really work on my flexibility and increase my range of motion through my hips and groin. This essentially means for me to be able to do the splits.
3. Speaking with my physio Adam, I've just started a Pilates course with him which we will tailor to my specific needs for Taekwondo. This will build my core strength and improve my balance.
4. To maintain and increase my cardio fitness I aiming to do our bag routine which consists of 100 front kicks, 100 roundhouse kicks and fifty cut/push kicks.
5. Finally I will be doing short sprints to simulate sparring.
All in all I have a busy holiday plan ahead of me but Im feeling really enthusiastic about it so bring it on!