A Good Week, Finally

It seems that I have been struggling for this entire year to get a good routine together. This week was finally one that I think I can build upon. I was able to get out of the roads four times for a total of 12.5 miles. The milage may not be breath taking by any stretch of the imagination but it was a solid start.

When life is chaotic it can be difficult to get things together. When my life became a bit chaotic my running also seemed to followed the same chaos. I am attempting to get things in a more organized framework and hopefully I will be able to follow up on this.

Currently, I am thinking of doing the Philadelphia Distance Run in September. It is a nice half marathon and I haven't done a race since last November. It feels like too long of a break, probably because it is. Here is to getting another number.

Harsh Conditions

I have been laid up for the last two weeks with a nasty lung infection that really laid me low. There was no running and to be truthful there was little of anything that was not laying my head on my pillow. Over the past week I have been able to get out doors again, I even bought a new pair of shoes. Nothing says summer like new shoes.

I have been running in stability shoes but as I was at a water park on Sunday I noticed that my wet foot print does not match the stability foot print. I decided to go with a lighter shoe and see how I do. So I went from the 12 oz Brooks GTS 8 to the 8 oz Brooks ST 4 Racer. A racing shoe, just so I say. I will use it for my speed workouts and on race days. I have done a couple of quick runs and I would say that I like it. I can feel the weight difference but I also would be afraid to go very long distances in the shoe. It says that a half marathon would be fine but I don't think I would do one in them. Perhaps a race of 5 miles or less, 8 miles tops. There isn't alot of shoe there but there is enough.

Here to hoping for a healthier summer than the late fall has allocated me.

Gosh, a hard one

My new found speed has left me a bit more self critical on my run times. I went for a 3.75 mile jaunt on Saturday and it was a killer. Killer I say. The humidity was insane and yet I was determined to get a run in. I stubbornly refused to back off my pace for the entire run and managed to log a 9:45 average time throughout the run. The cost was a bit high. I was hyperventilating at the end of the run and my legs were giving me a bit of a shake. Not good. My inner Viking refused to quit and I paid the price. Earlier in the day I had done an hour and a half of martial arts training.

The combination of being a bit tired when I started and the humidity really dragged me down. It was a short run but I was dead when I was done. I think I am pushing harder these days trying to crack my speed barrier and hopefully reach the 9:00 mile. I am not sure if I will get there but now I am at 4 runs in a row with an average under 10:00 per mile. I am getting better.

Escrima Class

I have been training for a good many years and in that time I have trained with a lot of traditional weapons: Chinese Broad Sword, flute, bo staff, jo stafff, spear and so on. My attention to these weapons has been really limited to say the least. I have always been of the mind that they look nice and they do help to improve your balance and coordination but I found them to be of little practical application. I mean who walks down the street with a Chinese Broad Sword strapped to their back, beyond the legal implications you look like a psycho. So here I am again being coaxed into weapon work again.

I will say that I have finally found some practical application to weapon work. The school I train at has a good deal of knife and eskrima work. I have never worked with eskrima before two months ago. I had seen it done but I never gave it much thought. I admit with chagrin the error of my ways. Eskrima and Kenpo are two twins born of different mothers. Kenpo, the art I study is an art dominated by hand techniques that is filled with slashing techniques where movements work in concert. Eskrima is a Filipino art down with twin sticks to simulate machete movements. The techniques are with two weapons and are also done in concert. To say that I love this new weapon training is an understatement.

The most difficult part of learning the new weapon is the two man training drills. There are a series of drills that are performed with a partner that hone your skills with the weapons. The drills help you to mentally adjust to wielding two weapons at the same time. It takes some time to get used to the idea of controlling multiple weapons at the same time. It seems odd as I have been thinking in terms of multiple weapons for many years; yet with actual weapons rather than two hands and two feet it seems more difficult. I have been having much difficulty in getting the hang of the drills. That said anything worth doing takes effort. I don't mind looking like a fool in the short term.

I do appreciate my instructor's patience with my learning pains, I am sure it isn't pretty. Here is to future competence.

Home Practice versus Class Time

My schedule is ... well ... insane. I am starting my own law practice which takes a good deal of time. I think I am dedicating between 70 to 85 hours a week to work related activities. This leaves precious little time for anything else. What it means is that I cannot get to my Kenpo class as often as I would like. To fill the gap I am forced to do a few days a week of home practice while the rest of the world sleeps.

Moon shining

Feet moving, arms slashing

World Sleeping

I don't claim to be a poet and I know it is a bit off in the 5/7/5 format but there is my Haiku on my nocturnal activities. I digress.

As my schedule only permits so much time to exercise and maintain my skills when the rest of the world is at work and play, I need to practice at home. During my home sessions, I execute my lists of techniques and kata and try to maintain my form, speed, power and fluidity. Home practice is not the same as the time in class. There is no one there to correct you if you are off which can create an issue if you are practicing incorrectly. Because it is not practice that makes perfect but rather perfect practice. Additionally, Kenpo is about working techniques on your training partners. Without the reaction of an opponent you are not getting all the benefit you could be. Does that make it without merit? No not at all.

I have found my home practice very valuable for a few reasons. First, I get to set the baseline. When working with an opponent you have to adjust for the movements of the individual. When working alone you do not. Of course you have to remember this when you get on the mat. But working alone helps to cement the techniques in your head that isn't really duplicated when working with an opponent. Creating a mental blueprint is easier on my own than when working with others. I know that I have a tendency to try to work everything at once in class: power, speed and fluidity but this is not always the way to train. Sometimes you have to go slow to better understand the techniques. As I am not always able to do this in class my home study allows me to be more critical of the techniques and their applications.

Second, I am able to recover. The style I study comes with a good amount of contact. I like that about it but I need time to recover from it. A typical class comes with a few black and blues and a stinger here and there. Home study allows me to keep up on my training while dealing with these little hurts. When I was 20 I probably could have trained 6 days a week with no issue but at 40 I need a little recovery time.

Finally, (I say finally because I am a lawyer and I always make three points,there are more) I get to choose. Class time runs on the instructors prerogative, home time runs on mine. When I think I need to work on things I get to decide what needs to be worked on. The flexibility to decide where to focus my attention is a great benefit. Sometimes I feel that my kata needs work or I would like to really concentrate on speed or working my techniques in a 2 foot square or I might just decide that I need to work a horse stance and hand strikes for 30 minutes. Where ever I decide to take my training I am able. I appreciate and respect my instructor's guidance; home time is critical time to determine where the work needs to be done. In many ways home practice is about honing your skills where class time is about application. Application is important but you can't cut down a tree very well with a dull axe.

9:39

Running
I wanted to wait a day to follow up on my record breaking run. I think I have placed myself into good speed for some time. I went for a 3.5 mile run on Sunday and ended with an average pace of 9:39. Previously I had always started a little slow to get myself into the running mode. But the problem with starting slow is that it can create a self fulfilling prophesy in terms of speed. So I have been starting faster and that has turned into more speed.

The last three runs my first half mile is at a 10:20 and then I drop that to 10:00 for the next half. I then kick this to below 10:00 and continue to drop it as I go. So far my fastest sustained pace has been at 9:13 but for a guy who has been happy with 10:30 this is great. I am feeling faster these days. I am not sure what the next few months will bring but these are great runs right now. I am taking it a half mile at a time.

Hitting
On my Saturday class, I usually work with the same black belt. He is a bulky guy and hits with force and weight. You know when you have been hit. This last weekend I was fortunate to work with a second degree black belt who is more of a precision striker. He isn't the full body hitter the other man is but his strikes go through you like a shock wave. It is more of a focused power that seems to echo through your body. If this sounds unpleasant, it is; however, that is the intention. I always feel fortunate to work with people who are willing to lay one on me as this is how I get better, even if it makes me a little dizzy afterward.

In other observations, I find that I am progressing in skill but I also find that I am not operating at the level of precision that I would like to. I believe that will always be the case. You are looking good but there is room for improvement. We should always be trying to improve. It is the point after all. I only wish that I could go to class more often.

29.52

I have been getting more speed as of late in my runs. I was going to run yesterday but I wanted to be fresh for my little 5k experiment this morning. One of the things that has gotten me down was that I was not able to crack the 30:00 threshold for a 5k. When I came close last year, I was in truth a bit bummed about it. But now it seems that I have gotten some experience and with it some speed. Enter this morning:

I got up and out the door for a little run in the morning drizzle. I wanted to see exactly how fast I could do a 5k. So I started with my 2 minute walk and then set out on about a 10:00 minute pace for the first mile. Once I was awake I was pushing the envelope the entire time, uphill 9:45 pace, down hill 9:20 pace and so on until I hit the 3.11 mile mark which was at: 29:52 or a 9:37 pace. This was a great feeling. I am happier about this PR than any I can remember right now. Excuse me while I bask in my own accomplishments for a time ... ahhh. Ok, I am done. I am not sure what my running will look like in terms of totals this year but it will be faster. Also, if I didn't run another mile for the rest of the year after today, I would call it a success.

9:45

I have not posted in some time, I am sorry for that I have been quite busy for work and my running has been ... erratic at best. Time demands are what they are. Last night I put work off and went for a run, I needed it. It was a good 3.4 mile loop and I was surprised when the result was a 9:45 average time.

It seems that I am getting much faster when I run these days. I am not sure if it is that I am fresher when I get out because I am running less or if I am just getting more experienced. But what ever it is I am happy with it. I can now cruise at around the 10:00 range for the whole run and manage to pick up some good half miles here and there to sink the entire run in the sub-10:00 range. It is a nice feeling.

I will do my best to get out there a couple more times this week.

Sometimes you have to Take one...

Martial Arts schools can be a funny thing. You really can find a school that suits almost anyone's needs. There are schools that will work you out hard and teach you nothing practical and schools that are incredibly realistic. I will say that you can always find what you want given a little search. Personally, I like a little contact. Well why mince words, I like a good deal of contact. I don't feel like a class is a good one unless I have taken some decent shots to the body, arms and legs and been violently taken down a half dozen times. Beyond waking you up, I think it is necessary.

I had a conversation with the "theory of the clash." Well I call it the "theory of the clash" I have run this by folks in other arts as well, notably a good friend who will be testing for his black belt in Danzan Ryu Ju Jitsu. In martial arts you have to be used to being hit. If your art is a grappling art, I am sure that being slammed and thrown is equivalent in my mind. Realistically speaking you cant take strikes to vitals but taking some body shots and other non vital strikes is necessary for development. My "theory of the clash" is simply this, if you are in a confrontation and you can take the initial assault you will most likely survive the encounter. I will qualify this to exclude confrontations with deadly weapons.

Some people will shy away from the largest men at their schools as being too dangerous to spar with. I say forget that notion. If you can work with the largest man at the school you will gain great benefit in your skills. I like to work with the hardest hitting men at my school. It is simple they make me a better fighter. Last week I was fortunate to work with a man who really is a stone wall cleverly disguised as a human being. He hits like a piston and you feel it. After that class was over, I knew that I had genuinely worked my techniques and that they worked. I feel you won't know the answer to the effectiveness of techniques until you start doing them with conviction. Not a conviction to injure but no one is doing much of value unless you are taking some shots. If you don't how will know you can when you are actually in a situation.

Test You Say

On the 28th of March, it was raining. So I decided that my daughter's tee-ball class could be put off for the day. But that said, I thought that it would be a perfect day for a private lesson at my Kenpo school. I gave my instructor a call a little before 9:00 am and was lucky to catch him. When I asked him about the lesson he said, but you have a test today. My reaction was "I do?" I knew I was getting ready for a test but I did not know I was testing this month. "Uh, OK I will be there". He must have thought I was some sort of dimwit that morning.

Kenpo tests can be grueling affairs that can last many hours and have a bit of a rite of passage feel to them. I will let you know that this one was not too terrible. I arrived at about 11:00 and the test started at 12:00. This was a very large test. We started with random attacks. This is probably what makes Kenpo what it is. Respond to a random attack and counter attack. We spend the next 20+ minutes on these basics along with more set techniques. We have very strange names for our techniques that will remind people of bad kungfu movies. These are things like "Gathering Clouds" and "Dance of Darkness" and "Bowing to Buddha". Mmmm, it looked like Kuan would win until Qian bested him with his secret Bowing to Buddha technique. I digress. The point of the techniques during the test is to guage your execution at as close to full speed as possible without seriously injuring your partner. There is generally contact in Kenpo, it isn't a knitting class after all, you just have to keep an eye on the level of contact. My partners were both seasoned and I thought they did quite well in their own right.

I have a tendency to sweat up a storm once I get going. I think this has a good deal to do with the effort I like to put into martial arts. The test was no different. Once we finished with our techniques it was on to sticks and knives. American Kenpo has an affinity for the Filipino stick arts and we train with them in conjunction with our open handed techniques. There is a good deal of compliment to the slashing hand techniques of Kenpo and the machete based Escrima arts. It can be quite beautiful to watch people who have practiced a good deal use the sticks. I thought the level of skill at this part of the test was excellent. The thing about sticks is you need some room so I did get to watch a bit. But I also had to help some folks who didn't have partners so I was able to not only be evaluated but was able to practice a good deal.

The test concluded with Kata. Kata is the traditional part of martial arts and is a dance like set of movements simulating a fight. Some of the more modern MMA arts are critical of Kata is not preparing one for an actual fight. There are responses to this but I will save them for another time. Suffice it to say that Kata has been practiced for hundreds of years and has been used to hide techniques of particular arts. At its heart Kata is a demonstration of grace, power, coordination, execution and determination, it is all of these things simultaneously. I am sure the average person on hearing this might have a bit of an incredulous look ... but that is the goal. I have to say that my kata was a bit off, I have been starting my own business over the past month and my practice has been off. I think I did well but my focus was about 15% off the norm and my ideal of perfection was not close in my mind. We are our own worst critics, my instructor was fine with my performance.

This concluded the test. I felt fairly spent but fairly positive about the whole thing. I passed and as I try to reach black belt again, I am one step closer. I am now a green belt in American Kenpo. Life is about the journey not the destination. In my mind the rank is not nearly as important as the experiences necessary to pass these guide posts.