Day 1: So you think you're in shape?

Guess again.

I, along with everyone else here, am horrendously sore.

We got up bright and early at 7:15 this morning, which wasn't hard since it was 10:15 on the east coast, and had breakfast before heading out at 8:30 to the University of Washington. What did we do, once we got there?

We fell. And we rolled. A lot.

Hours and hours of falling forward, backward, and sideways. Of rolling forward and backward, of diving onto the ground and keeping the momentum with a forward roll. As difficult as it was on our unconditioned bodies, it was so much fun. Although, I did learn today that backward rolls might not be my thing. Might. But I'll work on that more.

All of the falls were in the morning, we had an hour lunch break, and came back to roll around on the ground, writhing around as if we were in serious pain. We got to finish up the day working on the "picture punch" in the last hour. This is essentially the mother of all punches, and is the foundation for many other hits we will learn and use in the business. I did well on that one, I suppose; we were told they'd tell us if we're doing something wrong, and if they don't talk to us about it, we're doing it right. After Jason, our instructor, initially corrected my form, I received no other comments from the other instructors walking around. I guess I'll find out tomorrow, when we use this hit more and learn how to react to it.

Right after getting back to the hotel we made a run to Sports Authority down the road. Some people needed to get knee and elbow pads, I needed a new backpack. I made a mistake when I was packing to use as a carry-on/day bag my brother's old backpack from the early 90's that we probably should have gotten rid of in the mid 90's. Sadly, I did not realize that, since it had been living in our attic a while, the lining (something plastic-like) had melted into a glue-like substance that fused to a few of my belongings. Luckily, these things were and are able to be cleaned, though it's quite obnoxious to travel across the country and realize you need to de-gunk your computer charger. Not fun. Anyway, I got a new JanSport backpack (and on sale!) that will serve me quite nicely the rest of my days here. It will probably be my rock climbing bag when I get back, too. All in all, it was a physically tough but successful day.