An all-round good training

I decided that those smoothies I came up with were worth doing, and so, I now try to keep some fruit at home, some frozen berries and also canned fruit. It is a good thing to be able to get something so filling in the stomach right after training, and the mix of ingredients once again gives relief from muscle soreness. Thus I make a new smoothie every time I go to Kali Sikaran practice, and have a sandwich after every iaido practice. It seems to be working out rather well, so far.

We all train for different reasons. One of mine is, very clearly, that it makes my body stronger, which I definitely approve of. For various reasons. Once, I worked hard at it because if I was to be superior to my tormentors in school not just in mind, but also in body, well, I'd have to work for it hadn't I. So I did. Then my knees got in the way until I discovered iaido, and...
It occurred to me many years ago by now, how much better I feel after iaido, and it has at times been the only thing that kept me going. I get edgy and skittish if I am unable to go to practice or train something. It is oh so easy to just sit still and try to fill my mind with something, to make it not go haywire or hurt. But practice, oh, once I get into the swing of it, there is no thing as good for clearing the mind and giving me the strength to go on, as training!

Iaido is particularily good for cleansing the mind. Kali Sikaran too, it seems, has the effect to clear my mind and calm me down somewhat. It is social in a wholly different way from iaido, and I seem to crave that. We may hit, punch and kick at eachother, but it is always done with respect and in the interest of mutual benefit. And I get to use my muscles to the very end of their strength - and that, often, is just what I need. With the way the public transport runs now, I also have about half an hour extra after training has ended, and I use it for extra exercises and stretching, and some socialising, and perhaps a bit accidental extra practice.
Yesterday I found a new nice tool for training - I think it is called the "t-rex", and the basic idea is two handholds on one string each, and then there's all manner of things one can do with those. The core-strengthening exercises were particularly brutal, and therefore, I must of course feel the urge to get one myself. My shoulders, too, had a nice time of being savaged and thus strengthened. I do appreciate meeting others who train, and especially martial arts. One can always share and learn from eachother!

To me, iaido and Kali Sikaran complement eachother in just the perfect way for me. I am overjoyed at the snow outside, and will definitely be exploring the area behind the house to see if I can find some nice fields to make tracks along, now that it's stopped being all thawy and icky again. I cannot run, as the way they keep the roads here... argh. Honestly, making them all spongy and sploshy, instead of letting them get hard and fast, so that one can run properly! But I can run in the apartment - yes, indeed, I discovered this after I returned after the holidays. It's not a big apartment, but if Nelson Mandela could run two kilometres every day in his tiny cell, then so can I in my apartment... All right, so I do not run every day, but the point is that I can, and I do, just to assuage my burning desire to run outside.

I like a good overall training. I love "finding new muscles", so to speak, and to learn how to work them, too. It does require cold showers afterwards, healthy food and after-practice eating, and good stretching, but once one gets into the habit of actually doing some sort of working out, one can just keep adding more if one likes.

So, like I said - the things I practice complement eachother quite well. Do you think about this aspect of your training at all, do you do it without thinking, or is it perhaps something you ought to think more about?
And - what are your methods to avoid muscle soreness, if you get it at all?

Return to power

Dear me, but I have let this blog fall asleep. Well, there was a lot going on, and I had rather better things than sit down and type...

The Kali Sikaran Christmas camp in Gothenburg was a blast, of course, and the ensuing soreness was glorious. I struck up an old friendship again, the person who once mentioned the very thing of Kali Sikaran to me in the first place. That was really nice, and we are a rather good team as far as practice and sparring goes. It was clear to me that my talent this far lies mainly in unarmed combat, "chaining" techniques, knives or improvised weapons. This is a nice thing as the movements for one can usually be used for the others as well... Karambit was inordinately fun to learn, although apparently it is not a very good idea, juridically speaking, to protect yourself with them in a real-life situation... (Open-palm slapping however, is, to my great pleasure, as I have also proven to be quite adept at using open hands rather than closed fists if applicable).
It was also rather cool to see the advanced classes and those I did not participate in - and there were a few, and oh, how hard it was to choose at times! Good fun, all in all, and great to have many different partners of varying skill levels and body builds.

And as soon as I got back, the very day after, I went to iaido practice, of course. To my disappointment, the holidays, during which I had been rather looking forward to going skiing a ridiculous amount, went... well, soggy. One good long ski tour was had, but then the weather changed for the worse. And of course, bad enough that it wasn't possible to have a good run either, until later, and when I did, well, I borrowed mother's shoes, and had blisters that are still healing (not hurting anymore, though, just... the last loose pieces of skin are falling off). But damn, it went well! I had to slow myself down again and again to pace myself, and not come back home completely exhausted. So, of course, I did have energy to spare when I had completed the run, but... well, I think my lungs still thanked me.

I had a go at being ill in mid-January, to my great unhappiness. It was no fun at all! Just when the training had started up, too!
Buuut, then, I hit the ground running and have been keeping it up since. The muscle soreness is a joy to feel, and this week, there's been a lot of it. The two arts truly do complement eachother well regarding my muscles. My shoulder has not been giving me too much trouble apart from a brief spell around the time I was ill, when I could hardly sleep for the pain in it, and the rest of the neck - I am uncertain as to why this was, but, it passed, and I now sleep with a plastic teeth-protection-bit-thingie. This helps my jaws to no end, and I no longer wake up with my front teeth in a new shape every morning....

For me, it was easy to get back into training after the involuntary hiatus over the so-called holidays. I occasionally run to the train just for the hell of it, or, jog, at least, as I can't run properly in my big boots, I challenge myself in every training session, and I am working on my cutting technique in iai, and, well, whatever is thrown my way in Kali. I have really started to have the various pieces fall into place, even double stick. Today's practice was a joy, with and without sticks. And it's not just me who find that speed is one of my strengths - one of the others grinned and muttered that it'd be far easier to "hit" me were I not so quick. ("Hit" because it was warmup, and all about a light touch to the shoulder or knee, rather than a punch). Also, today I had a truly epic smoothie after the training. I usually only take a sandwich with inordinate amounts of cheese, sausage or something such, usually with salad on top, but I had the chance to mix up a pure-fruit smoothie, and so I did. Strawberries, raspberries, an orange, a banana, an apple... ecologically grown, too, or as locally grown as I could get them - because it damn well tastes better, and is better for the environment too. And, I added a dash of that powder (Gainer or Whey-80, can't remember which and can't be bothered to go and have a look right now) from StarNutrition which I used for a while when I went from pretty much easy workout to four days of hard training a week and very little sleep - it saved my health and I am not ashamed to use it, though I do not use it as a substitute, but rather a complement to the food I eat, a dash of extra help to avoid muscle soreness and promote muscle growth. It's Swedish made, tested for pretty much everything and one of th brands with the best reputation there is, as far as I have found. And if I take just a dash, and blend it into a LOT of other things, well, then I can hardly taste it, and I can stomach getting it down. So tomorrow, I shall see if it has helped the muscle soreness somewhat! I will not overuse it, but, like I said, use it as a complement to give that extra little bit that my body needs. I didn't slack off too badly muscle- or fitness-wise over the holidays, but I am certainly not going to let my evolution stall here...

Over to you, now - was it easy getting back into stride after the holidays, or did you just not stop doing your regular routine?

I hope you're going to follow me yet again, because I am back, and so should you be! Oh, and that enormous blue blotch on the inside of my knee, pay it no heed. That was caused by a well-placed heel, and is now being treated with a very helpful gel, hopefully to be vanished soon...

Update after a while of quietude

It's been quiet here for the past two weeks, hasn't it? It is due to the phenomenon known as "midterms", which had me swearing and whinging quite a lot. Summarize and discuss the Viking Age in no more than two pages? For an archaeologist with a specialty in the area? I made it, of course, but it was a hard task. I haven't been avoiding my practice, though! That weekend did admittedly see me mostly sit still and study, but I took a few walks. Monday saw iaido practice, mostly koryu, and Wednesday also, although, I was the one to lead the beginner's training then, and consequently did not exert myself quite as much as usual. Not that I didn't do anything and just walked around shouting instructions, but it is a natural consequence that one doesn't do as much as a teacher as when one is a student. Tuesday meant Kali Sikaran, with a lot of stick fighting (escrima, if that sounds more familiar to you). I had a bit of trouble, I don't know why, but I felt somewhat craptastic and unfocused, no matter how much I tried. We focused mostly on one or two different "kapkas", I think they are named, which are sequences of hitting that can be used with or without weapons. It was very rewarding, and also, I was amused to feel sore in my torso muscles - I seldom do, but clearly these movements woke up muscles I don't use as much. We finished by an all-on-one, which meant everyone moved around one person with one mitt, and feigned a cross hit attack, to which the "attacked" responded with a certain sequence of blocks and strikes. It was great fun and very rewarding, though my defensive nature kicked in and I think I may have been a bit too good at avoiding getting fenced in at all... which wasn't really what the exercise was about. Next time, I'll try and stay put and just defend myself. Thursday we had one of the most senior Kali Sikaran practitioners there is, as a guest trainer. It was quite different. His charisma and way of leading is quite different from our usual one's. He divided the group, though, with the two most accomplished in one corner, and us other three (and our trainer) in another. It was a good choice, I think, as it meant the other two could really get some extra challenging practice! And I enjoyed very, very, very much to get the chance to practice with out trainer. He is a very good partner, and I find him very skilled at gauging and adapting to the skill level of those he trains with, while never giving an inch and always challenging you. Also, his way of explaining really works for me. The Katalong Guro showed us several long chains of attacks, defenses and so on, and we took them in quite large chunks before putting them together, or using a variaion. Very rewarding, but oh, I felt quite frustrated at my own ineptitude sometimes! Which, I must point out - was a good thing! Because, it reminded me of how one should deal with such setbacks and emotions. Not give in to them, but accept them, and transcend them in a way. Accept, and then grit your teeth and fight. Do, do again, and do it until you can do it correctly. Never sag and give up. Accept your ineptitude, listen to the trainer, try it this way and that, do it slowly and deliberately, until your body begins to understand what you want it to do. So I am very grateful for my ineptitude and frustration! It lead to something good. In the end, we were all quite cheerfully (though, of course, in a focused manner) blocking, attacking, kneeing and tumbling to the floor. It was very interesting, very challenging and I am happy I had the opportunity to train with a different trainer! And of course, the day after I felt a little sore in my muscles, as it should be! That, I expect, will also be the case tomorrow - it seems to take me about two days, or one and a half, to get the after-effects of a hard time's practice. And yesterday, I was the one to lead the iaido practice, and I wasn't a nice trainer yesterday. I started out a little tetchy, but with some good reason - standing around talking to the previous users of the hall in the dressing room is NOT what you should do five minutes into the practice time has begun. So I drove them, and myself, hard. Lots of things that had our legs beg for mercy, and then some more. And I had that as a bit of an underlying theme - use your thighs, and use them well, and use them all the time (I also had a bit of a focus on weight, as I consider 55% on the front leg, and 45% on the back leg, as being the very least of a proper weight distribution you can use in iaido. You want to be pressing forward, prepared to spring and never once let your weight fall onto your back foot). You need to use them to do proper iai, and when we finally went from excruciating (well, more so for them than for me, but I've got a head start) bokuto exercises to ordinary kata practice, I kept nagging them about this. And, I think it worked quite well, everyone did the five first Musou Shinden Ryu kata quite well in the end. But they looked a bit stiff-legged afterwards. It is so very important to use the thighs, and not just shuffle around on the floor. You have to really use those muscles, never once letting your body take the easy way out. In the end, I think the best thing we managed was to straighten a certain issue of balance and weight distribution out, in Inyoshintai. So, I am happy. I have practiced evil-sensei-happy-smile, so I think I'm getting quite good at being one. This weekend saw me travelling, and thus not much in the way of conventional practicing was done, but certainly a good amount of carrying and walking up stairs. No running to trains this time, though, but that is one spontaneous bit of exercise I can really, really do without, for the sake of my mental health. Tonight, it will be Kali again, yay! I hope we're not going to do too much Sikaran, though... my legs do feel what I did to them yesterday. Heheh. ...now that I think about it, my shoulder hasn't been giving me much trouble since yesterday. I must have done something right when focusing for cutting. And though my toe is certainly behind, it often bends and doesn't quite follow instructions, it no longer hurts constantly. I take this all for being a good set of things. What have you been doing these past weeks? Have you ever had periods of practice where you focus on one particular group of muscles?

Colourful toe

I now sport a toe which is turning into all kinds of different colours. It is the next to smallest on the left foot, and, interesting to me, it is the one that most often fails me when I do iaido and need it to slide across the floor without bending. What happened was that during Kali Sikaran practice, practicing Sikaran (kicking) specifically, I did a bit of a clumsy movement with my left foot when kicking with the right leg, and the toe felt a bit as if it cracked. It's probably not broken, though, even if it hurt. But then, a lot of things hurt. I thoroughly enjoyed today's practice, it felt good to use my whole body, and my shoulder feels a bit better than it did yesterday. I think it is very beneficial that I vary my iaido practice with something else, in many aspects. The warmup consisted of easy and relaxed kicking, and built gradually from that. We used mitts for some technique practice, and gradually even I started to get some sort of semblance of good kicks, for a beginner. I kept training after my toe went wonky, of course, I just found some tape and taped it together with its neighbour, though I had to refrain from standing on my left leg, and had to use it exclusively, for kicking. When practice was over, I was sweaty and happy, and was given two fighty stikks, that is, rattan sticks (or bamboo), that are used in other aspects of Kali Sikaran. I shall sew a bag for them. I ate a sandwich with cheese, smoked ham and mushroom, and drank a lot of water. This is necessary for me, I cannot simply have a banana or two. I also showered in cold water, and, speaking of which, I have not felt any muscle pains from yesterday's iaido, possibly in part thanks to doing the same yesterday. During the day, I ate my customary youghurt bowl, a well-mixed bowl of bulgur, sweet corn, haricots verts and meatballs and another small youghurt, plus some extra stuff. I know that my practice of iaido has left me with a good set of muscles, and it seems it is easier than I feared to get them back after an extended period of rest. Also, it helps me in general during Kali. My most frequent sparring partner this time was a shorter but probably a wee bit older woman, who went from absolute nothing to, well, Kali, and passed "quit smoking" on the way. She, and many others, visibly struggled somewhat as the exercises became more and more demanding, and while I certainly felt it, I did not falter as much. This makes me very happy, and spurs me on to try even harder! Well, that must be all for today - look at the timestamp for when I post this... I intend to attempt the thing called "sleep" now.

A more detailed look at an iai practice

Tonight's iaido practice was a rather intensive one, and for me it was a bit like going back to another club in the way it wasdone. Warmup started with a bit too quick a run for my tastes - it is supposed to be a warmup, and one starts slow, and then builds on that. But I did not lead it, so I had to follow. It was a rather good, all-round practice, with a lot of cutting excercises. About 200 cuts were made, with our iaito, only in excercises, and not counting warmups or kata. After running and abit of limbering up, we made the regular owing and mokuso (a sort of meditation for focusing) and so on, and then we did warmup cutting. Here, again, the pace was too quick in the beginning, but I must also point out that my sword is rather heavy, and I cannot cut as quickly as I ought to, at least if one looks to the combination of heavy sword and my injured shoulder. Cutting can be done in many ways. From standing positions, to turning and cutting. It is good to make certain one varies it as much as possible. The kata for this practice was, to begin with, one from the Zen Nippon Kendo Renmei (ZNKR) Seitei set of kata, number six, or ropponme: Morote-tsuki. After several repetitions (which was very good, as it allowed me to focus on it and go deeper into what I was doing and how and what I could do to make it better), we moved on to koryu, Musou Shinden Ryu Shoden kata, the first four, which are all from a sitting (seiza) position. I have been doing them for quite some time now, another there for as long if not longer, and the others for varying degrees of shorter time, between a few years to merely a few weeks. Why can iaidoka always practice with eachother? (More or less). Well, because regardless of how far you have come, the basics are always worth coming back to, again and again. And because there is no such thing as "leaving old kata behind". Now, there are many things to take into account when doing those seemingly simple kata. They are the four first, why would they be so complicated? Doesn't that sort of thing usually wait? No, not really. They contain several very important details. How you draw your sword is a basic skill, to do the essence of iai, and then protecting yourself when you lift your sword from nukitsuke to kiritsuke position... and so on. And the timing, especially - you cannot simply wave your sword around, you have to think about when, exactly, you do so. And the more you learn, the more you think, before something just fades away and becomes second nature (after which of course something new takes up the thoughts), and the more you use your muscles. Koryu requires more energy than Seitei kata, and I usually come away sweating quite profusely (which is uncommon for me!). The practice finished up with some cutting exercises again, standing still and moving, and then the usual wrapups. I took care to shower in cold water, as it really does make a difference (thank you Matthew of Genbukan Edinburgh for that insight!), and do some stretching. And eat a reasonably dark sandwich loaded with thin slices of ham, cheese and mushrooms. And then a half flapjack I had left since Saturday. And that, my readers, is why I am all cheery and babbling away. Before practice, I was half sick with terror and wanted to run home and hide again, but as soon as I get moving, it all falls into place!

A shorter post

Friday, it befell that the weather was unclement. This was just as well, as I needed to do some studying, but before I knew it the day had gone and I fell asleep. This made me all the more happy to have a bit of a walk on Saturday, though today again was mostly spent still. I travelled, though, which always has me weary if it is the early morning ferry.
I had some muscle pains, especially in my back, of the good kind, after the kayaking. I forgot to shower in cold water, of course...

But one must persevere. And I do like running, and I do dislike heavy boots on my feet if I have an alternative, so I strapped on my sandals and took a bag and jogged down to the nearest grocery store. It's not far, only about five minutes, but it lifted my spirits somewhat, and when I was going home I took a nice detour out on a gravel road winding across some fields. I felt much better for it. Unfortunately, we now turn to a rather darker part of the year, but this was enough to give me back a bit of energy.

Never turn down an opportunity for exercise! Is there an ordinary stair beside the escalator? Use it instead! And if there isn't, then walk up the escalator. When carrying grocery bags, one can use them for simple strengthening exercises, lifting and sinking them again - while walking. Or, jogging both here and there, for fun and profit. Walking an extra stop instead of riding the bus or train all the way: that is, if it isn't ridiculously far.
There are so many opportunities, and they all add together to form quite a nice habit.

Forest jaunt with nice company

I have found that, since a few years, the worst of my muscle pains comes not the day after, but about one and a half day after. However, this time it was because I forgot to shower in cold water right after iaido. That helps to get the blood to carry away the leftovers from the muscles, which helps to avoid muscle pains.

Today, thus, was consequently a day of feeling a bit stiff and rather pleased with myself that I did. Eating got a bit jumbled, with breakfast being lunch; that is, late, and dinner therefore came early. After that it was time for a jaunt out in the forest. I had company, who is rather unfit (but working on it; has strength but not yet stamina, since it's not been too long since said person finally got the right cockatil of medicines to combat their asthma), so I was literally jogging in circles a lot of the time, doubling back along forest trails. We started out with the asphalt road before heading up into the quarry and the forest. All in all it was about forty minutes of running, perhaps fifty, with a few minor pauses for walking here or there where the trail was too tricky. Afterwards I did a rather short and easy set of crunches, core, back and shoulder excercises, and then, stretching. And showering in cold water (well, at first, then I had some that was a bit warmer).
It was particularily nice having someone to occasionally chat to, and to help said person keep going and not stopping, as is so easy to do when one despairs of ever getting some kind of constitution back!

My left knee was beginning to act up about thirty minutes into the jaunt, so I walked downhill (it's a rather long and uneven stretch) and took it easy for a couple of minutes, until I could jog on flat ground again. It doesn't hurt very bad, but as I have said - I am going to take it easy for quite a while so as not to sink this ship before it's left port. It's been many many years since I could run fast and far.

As to the blog name, "Fleet feet, pointy ears", it partly has a nice ring to it and of course also stuff behind it. I feel so joyous being able to run again, and I don't run with a thumping motion, but even when running quite slow, I seem to float along, looking quite fleet despite the speed. And, of course, if you look at the famous works of the nowadays well-known John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, the elves there are known for running fast and far and light. They even walk on top of snow - something which caused me great joy when a decade ago I saw the movie version of "The Fellowship of the Ring", that they had incorporated. Note how the character of Legolas runs in those movies - lightly, on the balls of his feet rather than heavily and lumbering on his heels! So, like an elf with pointy ears, I run, and I run best when I am in a forest on a winding path.

Perhaps on Sunday I will tell you a bit more about why I am so careful about starting out slow, and why I couldn't run for so very long. Until then, run easy, run smooth, run careful and run joyful!