Nah… I actually found out about it by you :o
Riots are not all that unusual! Here’s a picture where I was witnessing one near my neighborhood:
Nothing much training-wise today except some upper body explosive exercises that I was shown in Holland.
Painting, eating (I had rooster today!), watched a soccer game (umm… my sister’s team won 9-0… they were pretty easy to beat!), visited some friends… Painted my sister’s cast some more… Filled some applications. Watched more of what John was talking about concerning the riots that are happening in Thessaloniki and Athens… it has actually gotten pretty hectic … it looked like a war zone on tv… I wonder if there will be work tomorrow, I would have to attend the dangerous spot and one student already called worried about tomorrow’s class.
On another note…
Following this past year’s series of “family tragedies”, [including my psych-sister breaking her elbow falling off the bike, me breaking my knee sprinting (:rolleyes: not to mention all the other less dramatic ones… ), my daddy breaking an arm nerve and a thumb in a tire-explosion accident (:eek:) and then right away my psych-sister fracturing her ankle in soccer], my mom decided to bring a priest to the house this Tuesday… (:p:p:p) to bless the house and us by default. :o
Thats really weird cause I have had abstract asafa powell dreams as well…
Your paintings are nice, very rich and full. I’m not much of an art guy but thats how they appear to me.
Thank you Pmoax.
Freakin war zone out there… Classes cancelled, I barely made it out of work.
People should seriously start looking for alternative solutions for their anger-management issues.
Or they could just burn their own cars and houses instead of random ones they find.
No physical training today.
Guilt.
I forgot to post yesterday (Tuesday, December 9th) but nothing exciting happened, because I “only” did isometrics.
Wednesday, December 10th:
- 1 hr kickboxing. Yay… we kicked a lot. << nothing too strenuous
(keeping warm/killing time):
-
25’ easy biking while reading
-
15’ treadmill intervals
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1hr 30min boxing. << taxing
We did a fair amount of jump roping and strength endurance for the first 20minutes or so
Then technique and practicing with partners, pretty intensely. Explosive stuff once you get the technique down… relieving… I found it harder today to “Get in the zone”, my partner didn’t help… he was very very tense. Tomorrow will definately be a fulll ISO day (they bring me back in the zone, so it seems… strange isn’t it).
10min more strength endurance/dynamic exercises in the end.
I AM living in the middle of a war zone after all…
The ridiculosity of it all is pretty interesting… and funny.
My dad drove me to work this week for “safety” and quickness, it has been pretty funny (scarily, the sense of humor over here can get pretty odd =))>> yesterday my dad had to drop me off in the middle of a riot, and today almost in the middle of a rock fight!! (luckily it had just ended). Both times he asked “are you scared?” and I was actually excited to see from up close what was going on…
I’ve been carrying my camera with me… this is a nice documentation of what most stores look like downtown:
And this is what the streets look like daily, before the rioters go mad: (I have a very nice view from my teacher’s office…)
But in the end of the day, it is always nice to dwell on the positives and suck in all the peace that surrounds us, that many might think is hidden someplace impossible to find, but truly is everywhere around us…if we only just gave this “everywhere” a glance and understood the true beauty and fulfilling long term effects.
The pics at the bottom are certainly much nicer. You make sure you stay safe!
Yes. Please be careful!!
stef it’s been a while that we don’t talk, but i’ll contact you soon… i’m very intrested in what is happening down there.
watch out!
Thank you for caring =)
Things have calmed down a bit. There was another fairly large gathering ourside my work window today.
A student was near the “hotter” area today. Rioters are no longer throwing stones as much, but they are taking it out on garbage cans!
A group of teenagers “attacked” the bookstore that sells religious items and books, and they were about to throw away some icons (they are angry with the revealing news that a few monks in Mount Athos were illegally selling properties to make money…), my student got in the middle and actually stopped them, reminding them that faith is faith. (:o ).
It’s 1am, and I will do some isometrics right about now 
. I hate to go to sleep physically unchallenged!
Hi 
so, Thursday December 11th:
Iso’s. Not too many, but enough.
Whatever that means…
To be honest, I just ended up doing a 5min wall squat after midnight, my heart rate went up the roof, as usual, I got up, my whole body chilled, as usual, then legs were shaky for a while, as usual, and meanwhile, it all felt great. As usual.
I am mad at the dvd player. I cannot watch a movie without it getting stuck at several plarts…
Speaking of movies… I was going to watch the one where the Earth is about to die, but my sister warned me in horror that it’s one of the worst movies she has ever seen.
Now I am sceptical.
Friday, December 12th:
My calves have been very sore today, and I know it’s from the treadmill intervals on Wednesday, because it’s the only thing I did differently, plus I hadn’t run like that in ages.
I forgot to mention that it felt relatively easy (nothing like not having run in soo so long, and martial arts warm ups don’t really count… ).
I cannot wait until the time I will resume some kind of “organized” training…
This randomness and fun is good… but I don’t know where it’s going.
Only I know where I want it to go…
I think I have trained with my mind more than ever before. I wonder where it might all lead. To be honest, the uncertainty of it all doubles the interest, anticipation and suspense.
But I’ve had enough already!!
Wet day today. No work.
Just painting. It was a cool blue painting, until I threw some warm red today. Time to start heating things up.
Oh yes, the gym:
- 1hr kickboxing. I had a very good partner today, a girl who’s been kickboxing for years. We were rollling and it was all moving poetry, adding pieces every so often, when the teacher said so.
First we practiced jab-cross, alternating.
Then jab-dodge-cross. (ignore my amateur teminology :o)
Then jab-dodge-cross-(L)hook.
Then jab-dodge-cross-(L)hook-®lowkick.
Then jab-dodge-cross-(L)hook-®lowkick-(L)hook
Then jab-dodge-cross-(L)hook-®lowkick-(L)hook-cross.
This feels so nice when you get the hang of it and perform it technically, relaxed, explosively, and FAST.
Then free-sparred using only uppercuts and low kicks. I was given a guy to spar with, and we killed each other…
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45min leisure biking while reading
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1hr boxing =) =)
My favorite.
Whole hour of circuit strength endurance stuff, with 30"-60" rests throughout, intervals were 1 or 2min long.
I was his “special case”, because while everybody else was dying, I was not breathing hard, so he tortured me on technique, and extra MB stuff!!
Saturday, December 13th.
First of all, I look like a Dalmatian dog. Apparently I bruise more than others, or others just decide to hit me harder because I look like I know what I am doing these days? 
-
1hr Kickboxing
It was sparring all the time, “easy with the girls”, until I was partnered with guys and we started killing each other again. So much fun…
“Easy on the faces”, at least… There is some decency in there =)
Taxing session.
Found my favorite boxing coach later =) Great coach, pretty frustrating to talk to, in a good way, always =)
All the beliefs that I have, he views as alienated, and all the beliefs that he expresses outside practice, I view as boundful (or as my father’s :o )…
Makes for some interesting discussions, debating over why I hate the motto “παν μέτρον άριστον” which translates to the saying “less is more”, or more accurately, “all metrication is best” (or something like that).
How can you possibly reach excellence with metrication? Or with less than you could ever possibly handle? Which you’ll never know what you can really handle, until you overestep that metrication…
How can you handle even staring at perfection when you are bound? Let alone try and reach it…
He thinks I am crazy, and going through “a phase”, but I think he is yet again wrong 
Our unconsorted views surely form a nice coach-athlete form of attraction.
- Upper body rebound reps. (3 different exercises, 50 reps each arm)
I think I need a nap now.
Check out my proudest bruise … :o
(I swear this has nothing to do with the riots and rockfights… !! )
Sunday, December 14th.
ISO’s.
8 different exercises. Those lunges took forever… Everything else I was able to hold.
VERY fulfilling painting day. It looks like I’ll paint the night now, plus it’ raining >> excellent creative circumstances =)
Coffee survival tomorrow.
It’s bluer today !!
I was attacked by a brown bear last night in my dream (he came in my room through the roofgarden), and fighting long with him… (I won in the end, by decapitation )
My heart is still beating fast, 5 hours later…
I don’t feel well…
Monday, December 17th
I didn’t do any training.
Bad-dream-day turned out good though. Class was fulfilling… nothing like a class, and especially two 45 year old students saying "Stefanie, don’t leave us… ".
:o
Tuesday, December 18th
Iso’s
Wednesday, December 19th
Morning Iso’s
Night Iso’s
[i]I would like to mention here, that since I started doing iso’s this past February2008,
I haven’t been sick once, not even a slight cold. I am curious to see how long this lasts
Hopefully forever and ever.
I skipped boxing on Monday, and today. I know it sounds unhuman, but I prefer Isometrics these days.
My leg is still black… :rolleyes: It hurts a bit when walking, but it’s so cool, I wore a skirt to work. You don’t get bruises like that every day.
I attended a friend-Biologist’s dissertation presentation yesterday, it was very interesting, discussing/analyzing the life of a previously unexplored shell species (Donatella something).
I am “biologically fulfilled” for the month.
Oh, but I still gotta (wanna) finish the “Biology of Belief” book !! And my “books to finish” list is getting larger and larger…
I argued with my editor today. He is an asshole. :mad:
(is swearing momentarily allowed here?? It is a rarity when I do it, have mercy :o )
And after not biking for nearly a month, following the theft of my beloved bike and my personal bike-depression/grieving, I decided to bike to work again today.
My timing is impeccable. It started raining heavily and I arrived to work half hour later looking like a hedgehog.
[And this time my bike rests on the third floor, right beside my office, in the teachers’ room; a very nice decorative element, if you ask me… ][/i]
So let’s add this to today’s physical activities:
25+30min biking
Thursday, December 18th.
> ISO’s (20 minutes)
> and a 5min wall squat hold right before bed… I love going to sleep with my heart rate up the roof :o (no comment…)
Friday, December 19th.
> ISO’s (20 minutes)
> 1hr kickboxing. We did circuit training today, I didn’t really get tired.
> Joined an “abdominal class” for another hour to kill time, but it felt so stupid doing crunches and floor hypers for an hour… This probably sounds snobby! But hey… it’s my journal, and that’s how it felt :o
I didn’t take off, because I was chatting with that same trainer the other day and he would probably feel hurt…after all he was happy to see me in his class =)
> 1hr boxing.
I temporarily have lost my boxing zone. I can still find it momentarily, but I think I have already lost interest…
My mind is elsewhere…
We did technical combinations with real hitting and defense. Nothing strenuous, except maybe for the last 15minutes of circuit strength endurance training.
(Remembering myself from summers of kickboxing and tae kwon do training, or training martial arts in the States (muay thai and brazilian jiujitsu, capoeira and kung fu), all done parellel to track, I can surely say one thing: that I get FAR less tired with strength endurance type workouts.
Strange…
[i]I took a one hour nap this evening… I had this wonderful dream where I was doing two legged plyo hops around an outdoor red mondo track, and I was literally flying up in the air and landing lightly, all done in slow motion, but I was thinking “wow, my knee doesn’t hurt!!! :)”.
It’s STILL in my subconscious … :mad: [/i]
And yayyy… I am 4kg lighter since 3 weeks ago. (trying to subtract as much BW load as possible before I resume sprinting again !!! And obviously maintaining/improving good strength)
really no comment LOL
Saturday, December 20th
May I take today completely OFF?
Thank you :o
Painting deadline Tuesday… because my friend is going to Athens that day, and he will deliver it personally.
This better get done, and it’s giving me trouble… I better have some colorful dreams tonight.
And my bruise is looking lovelier !!! What a fascinating color transformation this is…
I’d have thought it would have cleared up more than that by now.
Don’t scare me, I’m good: :o
“When you first get a bruise, it’s kind of reddish as the blood appears under the skin.
Within 1 or 2 days, the hemoglobin (an iron-containing substance that carries oxygen) in the blood changes and your bruise turns bluish-purple or even blackish.
After 5 to 10 days, the bruise turns greenish or yellowish.
Then, after 10 or 14 days, it turns yellowish-brown or light brown.
Finally, after about 2 weeks, your bruise fades away.”
(http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_body/skin_stuff/bruises.html)
I’m on day 7 today !