Back to Normal

Yippee! I'm back on the mat and today was a good day to be back. Nice sized class - 7 guys , 2 girls. Nice mix of techniques - some throwing and rolling, some pinning and shoulder cranking stretching. More throwing and rolling. A preview of a nasty kotegaeshi high breakfall (which I have yet to try but am secretly dying to - maybe I should choose slightly different words).

The test is not going to happen on the 30th but that's ok. With the week off due to sickness, I need more time anyway.

The sloth has been banished. The Red Sox are in the World Series. The family is healthy again. I'm giving a talk at a conference on Saturday and it's ready to go. Life is good.

Got to savor this moment.

Curatrix, Thy Name is Sloth

Oh boy, one week of NOT a second of organized exercise (besides chasing the kids around, of course) and I can see how easy it would be for me to slip back in to my old sedentary lifestyle. Time for a leisurely lunch and a chat, what a novelty!

Oh so tempting.

Thank goodness I've got a full schedule planned for next week. Monday, back to running with the guys. Tuesday, back to aikido. Wednesday, time for a nice fall bike ride. Thursday, heading to the main dojo for class with Sensei. Then comes a three day conference which will probably mean no exercise again but I should be back to being hooked on endorphins again.

But what about today? It's already 4 pm. Game 7 of the ALCS starts in an hour and a half. Boston had an absolutely brilliant night last night and has tied it up. You know I'm going to be on my couch watching this game so that pretty much puts 5:20 pm onwards out of the running. M is working on the fence . Does vacuuming the carpets, hanging up laundry on the line and putting away groceries count as exercise? Hmmmm. 'Cause if it doesn't, I really need to get out of this chair and into my running shoes.

Grounded

I've been under the weather since Sunday afternoon. Yeah, I think the cold virus was just waiting for my defenses to drop and then it struck with a vengeance. Staying home from work on Monday helped a lot. Got back to work today and decided that I'd take today off from exercise too.

I'm starting to get antsy and am weighing whether I should go to aikido or swim tomorrow. Maybe a short run? Then the rational side of me weighs in with, "ARE YOU CRAZY?" I know. If this were anyone else, I'd be urging them to wait until they were completely healthy before venturing back into exercise again.

Alright. One more day off. Sigh. But Thursday, Thursday could be the day.

Rock and Roll, Baby

I made it through the half-marathon.

Mile 1: This isn't so bad. Only 12.1 to go.
Miles 2-9: Doing ok, steady pace. Nice, flat course. Two slight dips but the Dish, my dear friend, makes them seem miniscule.
Mile 9.6: Energy gel stop. Energy would be good. Down the hatch.
Mile 9.8: Left side stitch! Go away, go away. Tighten abs and release, repeat.
Mile 11: Want to stop running and walk. Ah! Accelerade stop, good excuse to slow down and grab a drink. Don't really want to start running again. Tom pushes me on - we're almost there!
Mile 13: Is that it? Is that the finish line? My feet are feeling slightly numb but the finish is SO CLOSE.

2:16

Augh! I Should Have Trained More

The half-marathon is next Sunday. This week, I ran the Dish on Monday and Wednesday. Really felt it after the second one. Took a break from running till today when I thought I should at least try to run 10 or so miles so that I don't completely shock my body when next week rolls around.

OMG. It is going to be a tough run. Let's just say that in the next five minutes, I'm going to go grab some ibuprofen, slug it down with a glass of water and head into bed. It's a pity one can't cram for a run like one can cram for a test. I'll have to count on adrenaline and determination to get me through. Maybe M should have a stretcher waiting for me at the finish line.

Aikido on the Road

Things you don't really need to practice aikido while on a business trip:

• a gi
• a dojo
• mats
  

Absolutely essential: a partner

About two or three times a year, the consortium that I work with gathers together from our individual locations across the US and Europe for some old-fashioned face-to-face time. Part of what makes traveling to locations near and far bearable is that I get to hang out with the really great people that I usually interact with only through email or phone.

What makes the trips truly awesome is that I don't have to put my exercise schedule on hold because I can run and do aikido with one of these friends. He's the one that got me back into exercise mode. Every meeting, we'd talk a little bit about martial arts - me with my karate and arnis background, and he with his aikido. In April of last year, after dinner one night, he said, "Go give aikido a try. There's a class right by your work." I came back from that meeting, went to my first aikido class the next day, and haven't looked back since.

We've packed our gis to meetings in Palo Alto, Seattle, Cambridge (UK!), and, now, Princeton. This last trip, we managed to squeeze in two training sessions, about an hour and a half to two hours each. My classes are only an hour long so having a longer time period was a real treat. Though we did have our gis, there was no time to get to a dojo, so, no mats. Hello, grass! My gi has never been so dirty nor have I ever had so much close contact with a lawn. It was so much fun. The look of glee on his face as he swung me around in irimi nage will stay with me for a long time.

Later this month, he comes to CA for yet another meeting. We're trying to see if we can squeeze in a class at the main dojo. My next kyu test falls a few days later, on his birthday.

I will practice and I will be ready. Here's what I need to know:

• shomen uchi - ikkyo - omote and ura
• shomen uchi - nikyo - omote and ura
• shomen uchi - irimi nage
• kata dori - nikyo - omote and ura
• ryote dori - tenchi nage
• tsuki - kote gaeshi
• katate dori - shihonage - omote and ura
• yokomen uchi - shihonage - omote and ura

Go Sox!

The Red Sox are in the post-season again this year. I've been gone from Boston for almost ten years now but my heart is still in Fenway. I could see the park from the window of my grad student lab and after the 7th inning stretch, the gates were opened and anyone could wander in and catch the last two and a half innings (sometimes more). So, sometimes, we did. Boston Beerworks, Polish sausages with the works from the sidewalk vendor, the bowling lanes down the street, the incredible crush of people, keeping score in the park, ahhhhh, those were the days.

The 2004 win was incredible, especially after the ALCS where they took the Yankees down in style.

We'll be watching and listening along with the rest of the Red Sox Nation. Bless their little hearts, our boys are Red Sox fans too. They can name some of the players, they know that Big Papi is David Ortiz and will be chanting 'Mannnnnnyyyy!' with the best of them really soon.

Can they do it again?