Snow and its benefits for my legs

Oh, but I do not feel in the right form at all for the national Iaido Championships in a month's time! My ticket may be booked but I feel as if I've just been going through the motions for so long now... as if there's no fighting spirit in my iaido at all. My body responds, my shoulder aches, but even that is nothing new... It is good, being able to help others, but this is for me one of those flat parts of a learning curve. Still! It will be lovely good fun to see all the others again. I hope. As long as I can take a breather in a quiet secluded spot somewhere, now and then.

I did go through the ZNKR Seitei gata on Wednesday though, and that was just as well. I haven't done so in quite a while. There's not much about them I like, but I need to be able to perform them well, and I daresay I have got a bit smoother action going on in some of them at least. I got a lovely bit of muscle soreness from Monday's practice, too, so that felt kind of good; I did something right, I guess.

Kali Sikaran saw me find out once again that something must be awry with my blood pressure. I'm a bit worried. Father is having is pacemaker "restarted" soon, so it does run in the family, and I don't like at all that I can keep up a good pace, and then, if I stop... suddenly, I go all weak and light-headed and feel faint. It is especially prominent when boxing or something similar. I figured it must be the breathing, so I made sure I breathed correctly.
It wasn't.
I feel very weak and insufficient. It gets me down when my body does not do as I order it to.

But, for all that, I am happy I went to all the four evenings of practice, and my body seemed to like it. I still can't get anything near visible "abs", my body may have them but they don't show, but that's all right... I look hot enough if I look in the mirror anyway.

I feel I need to work more on stretching - I am trying, but it seems so futile. Maybe fifteen minutes of stretching will do me just as much good as fifteen minutes of practice a day?

I also checked the time it takes to get to and from public transport, and I've found that there's not much difference in what route I take, or whether I catch the bus or not, at least not time-wise. So I might just walk a bit more often than I already do, though the road is fairly uninspiring.


Lastly, I missed Saturday's practice, because I was busy walking, striding, gliding and running around in a forest still miserably full of melting April snow. Now, I love snow. I do NOT love melting April snow that underneath it has branches and twigs, so that, when you step into what would, if the snow wasn't MELTING, perhaps have you sink a few decimetres in but now sees you bury your foot up to the knee or even the thigh, and get to what ought to have been the bottom, your foot just goes through that blasted layer of twigs so that you in fact sink up to your waist.... well...
Anyway. I was away larping, and because of the character, I did not huff, puff, bend or take easy shortcuts body-movement-wise. I strode, straight backed and certain, wherever I walked. Didn't matter if a pile of snow had me slipping down a slope, I was straight-backed, slightly smiling and perfectly balanced anyway. Ice was like a welcoming, red-carpet type of ground, as if made to carry me where I wished without slipping. Snow was merely something that bent to my will and flowed around me. Only at the very end... But those two single times, I ran, and ran, and ran, not being able in any way to care about what the snow hid or how deep it was, and even when once or twice I fell, it didn't stop the momentum forwards at all. I just kept on. It felt incredibly good, to feel the body working, and to be able to just bull rush forwards, not caring one bit. Part larp magic, part muscles is what took me through that.
...and today, I woke up with somewhat sore and stiff legs! In a good way, of course. So, it was a good workout too! Five hours of being straight-backed told me I need to think about my posture in everyday life, too! It all inspired me to find new ways of training that might reach certain muscles that can add to the strength of others that I use in my martial arts!

No questions this week - just a profound hope you've hade a good week and are looking forward to the next week as much as I am - at least when it comes to training!

Donning the ears for a forest jaunt

There were no posts during the weekend as I was oot and aboot, running around in a forest with pointy ears and pretty clothes. That is, I was at a live (action) roleplaying game in the forest outside... well, wherever. This caused a perhaps unexpected amount of physical exertion. Why, you might ask, you were just out playing like a kid, which proper grownups don't, and pretending to be an elf? To which I'll just answer, well, whatever you say, dear. I had to bring a proper canvas tent, a small pyramid-shaped one which have served me well for many years, and the pole for that. Arrows, a bow, a big military medical duvet, a cloak, clothes in abundance (I did enough freezing when I first started running about in the forest ten years ago to have learned my lesson), things for eating and staying clean, shoes, accessories... etcetera. All in all, it is quite heavy and quite unwieldy. All to be able to keep the appearance up of being a travelling elf. My companion on this jaunt carried the food, since I had the tent, to even it out a little. Now, last Thursday, it seemed like a perfectly sound idea to drive myself hard when doing jabs, crosses and uppercuts. The next day, having to carry around a lot of heavy luggage, it seemed less so. So my arm- and back-muscles are quite happily exercised. Why I mention this, one of my favourite pastimes here, is because I am seldom stationary for long during a larp. Especially not as this character, who is a wood-elf (think Legolas, if you are a beginner in these matters). So me and my friend ran whenever we didn't necessarily have to walk or sneak, and of course we ran barefoot style. It looks light and effortless, and it is far less risky when running on wet, uneven ground with lots of roots sticking out. I am not certain how we managed to never trip or fall, and even though we each slipped once or twice, no one was there to see us. And we didn't just run effortlessly and quickly, but quietly, too. We're still a bit confused as to how we made it, but, that is the magic of larping kicking in sometimes. On paths or off them, didn't matter. And we preferred the forest to taking the road, even if we did at times have to cross it. Sneaking in that forest required its muscular strength, too, since it is by necessity something one has to do quietly and with full bodily control. If you feel a branch about to snap under your foot, you need to know how to balance, on that foot or the other, or help out with a hand, to avoid it. And this forest was not a good forest, it was a so-called "cared-for" forest, that is, one that is with regular intervals invaded by big machinery and the ground ripped up and has a lot of old branches lying around making it look very messy - and hard to walk in. And homogenous regarding the species of trees. But enough about that. So, despite not going for a "proper" run or any such thing, I certainly did a fair share of exercise over those three days. And that is an important thing to remember - even everyday things, or hobby things, can be seen as exercising your body. Not necessarily strengthening it, but keeping it strong, and using what you have already got, and, being a reason for building more so that you can use it. Running in the forest is always a joy, too. Next up is a post on motivation. Have you got any particular thing you do which you consider an informal part of your training regime, such as always walking in stairs instead of taking the elevators?