Barefoot Fresca and the 2nd Annual NYC Barefoot Run

Oh no!  What have I done?

I let myself get to within a week of the Second Annual NYC Barefoot Run without training all summer and without writing in my Barefoot Blog.

How could I have let this happen?

I have run all of about 20 miles this summer.  All barefoot, of course.

Here's what I figured out I did:  Every Monday, I would "begin again."  It was a summer of "beginning again" over and over again. I went out there faithfully on Mondays.  But during the week I would fail to get out there. (There was a lot going on.)  So, Monday would roll around and I would keep beginning again, beginning again, beginning again ...

It was a little frustrating because I wanted to be doing more, but it just wasn't coming together this summer.

But the good news was that I'm solidly in my bare feet this year.  I have a solid barefoot mile in me at all times, and I have been slowly increasing the distance every Monday. All the surfaces that were hurt-y, pointy, or rough last summer are a piece of cake this summer due to the soles of my feet being in great condition for barefoot.  All my barefoot walking is natural and easy like when I was a kid (last summer it always felt awkward and unnatural.)

Most of all, I just can't even think of putting on shoes to run.  The thought of it bothers me a lot.  I would rather skip running altogether than put on shoes.  Not because this is what I think all people should do or something, mind you.  It is a very very strong personal preference.

Okay, so all this means that I do still belong at the NYC Barefoot Run, right?  Even though I didn't run that far.  Even though I didn't tend my blog.  Even though I lost track of everything happening in the barefoot world? (Well, not everything -- I did buy Barefoot Ken Bob's book when it came out).

But this weekend, all the rock stars of the barefoot world are going to be there, and I had hoped to make a little better showing of myself at the event.  Wouldn't you hope for that if you were coming?  I had hoped to be able to run a few more laps this year (Last year I went around twice for around a 4-mile total.)  The furthest distance I've run on any run this summer has been 2 miles.  That would be one time around the NYC Barefoot Run track.  Maybe I would have liked to be running a teensy bit faster this year, or lost a little weight, or got some cool barefoot runner's tattoo on my ankle or something?

There's no way I can miss this, though. I've been signed up for months and I'm going, even if I have to just walk the second time around.  Really do wish I could run a whole lot farther on Sunday, but this is just going to have to do for this year, and MAKE ME COME BACK AND READ THIS POST before I let this happen again next year!!

I realize my blog needs some pictures, so I'm going to decorate it now with some stuff I made for other blog posts I didn't get to, but intended to, write to you this summer.  All summer long I had intended to tell you about the pair of sandals I got from Zappos which I LOVED and highly recommend for barefoot-loving folks everywhere.

They are called Volcom Knock on Wood Creedlers.  When the reviewers gave a little warning about the shoes having no arch support, I knew they were just what I wanted.

I was a little worried about the ring around the toe, but, like one of the reviewers said, amazingly, you don't feel it at all.  They felt like feathers on my feet and went with a little bit dressier look.

I wore these things ALL summer!  I don't have my own picture of how great the shape of the sole of the sandal is, but it was nice and wide in the forefoot area and a good shape for people who believe toes should be able to splay freely in a sandal.  You'll have to go to the link above to see how flat and thin the soles are.

I was tempted to run in them.  They felt like they feel wonderful running, but I did not think they were sturdy enough to hold out for the running experience.  But the fact that I felt like running in them tells me I might do well in a pair of those running sandals, like the ones Barefoot Ted makes. (Have been holding off on that because I am intimidated by the fact that you have to figure out how to get the tying of them right.)

BTW, I won't get anything if you buy these sandals.  I'm just sharing how much I love them with you like I would share with a friend.  There's probably some affiliate program I could sign up for so that if you click the link and buy them I'd get something, but I'm too lazy to go figure it out, and being that I haven't talked to you all this summer, I want to get this post up there.

Yay! I'm a Black Sash!

Wait a minute.  That's a picture of a brown sash, not a black sash.  I thought she said she was a black sash.

Yes, that is my "old" brown sash you see over there on the left, with all the progress stripes earned over the past year or so.

I told you in the other post that I was being given a second chance to get my black sash.  That "second chance" meant that I had to show up tonight for sparring class, get changed into my gear in 3 minutes or less, and spar whoever was there.

Apparently all the tall men take the sparring class.  I had to fight 5 tall men who punch and kick pretty hard and, frankly, seem to take all this fighting rather seriously.  If I had been able to spar at the black sash test last Friday I would have been in the group of people my height and mixed men and women.  Plus I would have been fighting people who were tired -- not fresh and springy -- which really makes a difference, I tell you.

I got changed into my sparring gear with a minute to spare.  Guess the practice session I had earlier this week served me well.  Despite my careful calculations and accounting for everything, there are always going to be some surprises.  I got changed in the dressing room where all the ladies from the previous class were in there changing and trying to talk to me.  I had to explain -- with a mouthpiece in my mouth -- while changing that I was doing this for my black sash. "Ahm dng dsh fr mah black ssh."

That didn't phase them.  They kept asking me questions.

The other thing -- ha ha -- that I didn't account for was the velcro from my shoes sticking to the rug!!!  You saw me practice outside where the velcro didn't stick.

Nevertheless, all was well.  As I said, I finished with a minute to spare.

As soon as I got out there, the instructor made everyone form a circle and he put me in the middle.

Here's what I wrote to my friend about it:

"The most I had ever sparred was 3 people in a row, but tonight I had to do 5 and it was really hard.  After I got past the 3rd one, Mr. R., my instructor, told me "This is where you have to push through."  I felt like I was sprinting up a mile long hill.  After number 4, he said, "you have to do one more."  He looked me straight in the eye.  I felt like I was dying, but I looked him straight back in the eye and said, "okay, let's go."

Later he told me that when I looked at him and said "let's go," it was what he had been looking for.  And that's what makes you pass the test."

What's funny about this is that this is the kind of intense workout level that I have avoided my whole life.  I felt really winded, like I was doing sprints, or running hills, which are two type of running activities that I don't usually engage in. This was what I was doing during cycle training when my lips turned blue.  I was literally seeing stars at the end of it.

The other funny thing about it is what I told you in another post.  Fighting was about the last thing on earth I ever thought I'd learn to do.  I am a peace-loving person who does not like violence at all.  I was kind of in shock to find out that all this Kung Fu was showing me how to fight.  I have always been the kind of person who had no interest in fighting and I am truly here by accident (if there is such a thing as accidents in this life).

Well, to make a long story short, I did it.  Err -- I mean -- I DID IT!!

And the ritual is that the brown sash is removed and we don't wear a sash until graduation -- which is tomorrow.  I am so-o-o-o happy that I'm going to be moving on to the black sash classes with everyone else and not be left behind.

And now I'm even thinking maybe I'll try running some hills or something.

If at First You Don't Succeed -- Practice!

I'm getting a second chance!  I suppose that means I should practice!  I guess that means I have to put on shoes!  (Grumble, grumble, complain, complain.)

I thought that it would be enough to practice during class each week over the past six months, but it is obvious that practicing a little at home might have been a good idea.  Since getting into sparring gear in 3 minutes is what cost me during my black sash test, it might pay off to do a little homework now.

First up:  The video below shows that I clearly can get into my gear in under 3 minutes -- with 30 seconds to spare as a matter of fact -- at least while I'm fresh.



Next Up:  Knowing My Left Foot From My Right
Because of the delay to get to my bag -- at least, by my estimation, a 20-second one -- there was no room for any errors.  One thing that happened was that when I put the first shoe on, it was on the wrong foot.  I think there has been a question in my mind whether these shoes have a right and a left or whether they are both the same.  For once and for all I should check this out.

This way?

Or this way?

Okay, after a few minutes I figure out that there definitely is a right one and a left one. (the first picture has it right).  But there definitely IS something weird about these shoes.  One of them has a different shape than the other.  It is narrower and comes more to a point (the left one, btw).  No wonder I was confused, but since I had never really studied them, and only got to know them "on the fly," it has actually been helpful to figure it out once and for all.

The next part is the elastic bands.  I thought I had figured out to come around the outside first, wrap under the instep, and then come back up and cross over the top.  But for some strange reason sometimes I found myself having gone the wrong way the first time and had to reverse it, costing precious seconds.

And here is why!!

Will you just look at that?

Well, I'll be!

Both straps are attached in the same direction.  It's not reversed.

I had been assuming they would be mirror images of each other, and that if I had to wrap around the outside on one, it would be the same with the other.

But this homework I'm doing is revealing some strange things about my equipment and my assumptions.

Here's a video to show how it all really works!



The Final Up:  The Glove
If you remember my sad story, when we were called to the floor, I had all my gear on except for the glove.  As I was walking to the floor, I tried to slip the glove on quickly, but two things prevented me.  One was that the glove was curled closed and needed to be "opened" first.  The other was that I had forgot there was a hand strap in the glove so  I went straight for the fingers and missed.

So, here is a video of me settling on a glove technique.



That's it.  That's all the homework for today.  Sorry I can't show you me doing some fancy Kung Fu spinning hook kicks or flying leaps.  It turns out that is not what being a black sash is about.  Being a black sash is about doing homework like this, and practicing things in slow motion and being less than awesome most of the time as you break things down and work things out.

Kung Fu Black Sash -- A Second Chance

I'm getting a second chance.

I was called in for a meeting with Sifu tonight.

He gave me a choice.  I could come in later this week on the one night that was available for this, take the kung fu class that night, then gear up for sparring and spar whoever is there for the sparring class that follows.

Or, I could wait for cycle training next year.

My choice.


I have already told you -- and I told my Sifu tonight -- that I already feel that I succeeded.  I feel that I succeeded with my goals and objectives and my training.  I do already feel like a black sash, because, like they say all the time, it's something you define for yourself and you possess it within you.  It's not the piece of material or the recognition or award.

So, now, after having had to process what happened at the test, I can have one more chance.  If I pass later this week, then I can be a black sash at the black sash graduation this weekend.  I can stand with my classmates who all started with me four years ago,

I can lay any doubts I have left to rest if I test later this week.

Or, I can wait a year.

I have to let him know tomorrow (which is now today because I didn't post this last night).

Everything Matters -- The Importance of Small, Functional Fitness

A couple of days have gone by and with it plenty of time to ponder the moment of fail during my Kung Fu black sash test.

There might be some who will say I'm over-analyzing with the blog post I'm about to present, but I do not think that I am.  There are some important lessons, details, and revelations in the minutia and I hope that case will be made as I present my thoughts in the words and photos that follow.

Basically I failed my black sash test because I couldn't dress myself.  This may seem like a trivial reason to "fail" after being able to handle apparently tougher physical matters, but I have come to believe that it may not be so trivial after all.

For a while now, I've been on the track of considering what basic functional everyday fitness means to our lives.  I've written about this a couple times on this blog, and most recently as I've been posting the little beginner routines I've found and have been using as warm-up routines. (See "The Joy of Warming Up")

Here I would be mastering these awesome Kung Fu forms and stances and various other Kung Fu physical feats, but little functional fails in my daily life would make me sit back and think.  For example, after kung fu class I would come home in the evening and when I got ready for bed, I would notice that I had trouble crossing my arms and lifting and pulling my t-shirt off over my head.  I was lacking in flexibility and even the simple strength to accomplish this basic task of undressing without some effort and struggle.  I would think that maybe I should rep that, or find some exercise that would develop that needed motion.

Another time I would notice a "fail" would be when trying to put on a pair of shorts.  I would have trouble balancing on one leg and lifting the other leg to insert in the leg hole of the garment.  Another fundamental physical task, needed by us all, to maintain our daily lives.  Having the strength, coordination and balance to dress and undress ourselves effortlessly should be a kind of functional fitness available and enjoyed by us all.  Simple and obvious, right?

Dressing One's Self is Important
When my son was in kindergarten, I was still assisting him getting dressed in the morning.  The "master teacher" at his school told me in a conversation that it was important for me to let him struggle with dressing himself because he would be developing strength in his fingers and arms and motor coordination skills.

And at the other end of the spectrum, sometimes the elderly lose the strength and balance and flexibility they once had that made getting dressed so easy at one time in their lives.  They often end up needing assistance getting dressed.

And the fact that getting dressed and undressed requires effort, coordination, flexibility and strength is evident when there are really important people, like Kings, who end up having a valet or butler to assist him in getting dressed.

In light of these reflections,  this weak link that manifested itself in my failure to "dress myself" in my sparring gear within the required time is not trivial, nor meaningless in a quest to live a better life by freer and more effortless movement.

I'm going to examine one of my functional weaknesses in this blog post (even though there are a number of other ones as well).  This is one of my main ones, however, and I think this has been giving me trouble when I gear up quickly for sparring.

Weak Link:  Hip Flexors
I had three main areas of concern going into my black sash test (besides stamina and endurance).

1. Worried about stopping during the bicycle crunches during the conditioning segment
2. Worried about losing balance when doing crane stance
3. Worried about taking too much time to put my sparring crotch protection piece on

There is actually something all three of these tasks have in common, and another thing two of the tasks have in common.  All three of these physical tasks involve the hip flexors, and two of them involve balancing weight on one leg while using the hip flexors of the other leg.

1. Bicycle Crunches

It wasn't my abs that failed on these, they were pretty strong.  It was the hip flexors.  Doing these bicycle crunches are great for helping strengthen them through reps.  Being overweight meant that I was working with a high level of resistance.  High resistance, lower reps.  That's why the fail. These bicycle crunches came at the end of 3 rounds of conditioning exercises and it was tough.  I improved so much, but maybe not enough to last the whole amount of time.  I didn't know during the testing period whether I would get the best results from doing them every day, or three times a week.  To me, they were like weight training, and they say to do weight training 3x a week, but maybe that was the wrong approach and I would have made faster gains if I had done them every day.

  2. Crane Stance

Right here you see that in crane stance the hip flexor is raising one leg while remaining standing on the other bent leg.

Being overweight means that I need much stronger hip flexors to lift my leg.  It doesn't mean I can't do it, but it does mean that the strength to do it needs to be developed.  It took me a long time to be able to raise my leg this high.  In the first couple of years my foot was just about an inch off the ground.

That is area number one of the test where I could have had a "fail."  During our cycle training, if someone put their foot on the floor while we were doing this, we had to start at the beginning of the stance routine again.  I felt bad in the first few weeks of our training because I was one of the people who caused us to begin again a few times.  But in the later weeks of training I improved on this greatly.

3. Stepping into the sparring gear crotch piece.

There were two leg holes here.  In order to get this on it was necessary to use the hip flexors, while standing balanced on one leg and insert the foot into the hole.  The elastic bands made it tricky, especially if the foot got caught on one of them.  The openings look big enough for the feet, but they were slightly smaller, making it necessary to point the toe to get the foot through the leg hole.

I had considered  sitting down to put this and my sparring shoes on, but there are other problems with my being able to get up off the floor quickly.  I ascertained that I was losing less time doing it standing by going through the whole process of sitting on the floor and getting up from the floor (Maybe I'll do a whole post on the functional daily fitness ability of being able to spring up from the floor easily and well.)

Here we go.

This ain't gonna' be that easy!

Ugh!  Huff !  Puff!  Costing me precious seconds!  Costing me my black sash!!

First on my Kung Fu Fitness To-Do List -- Strengthen those Hip Flexors!!
Those of you who have been reading along on my blog know I was already on to these weak links in my physical conditioning.  I was already on the road to correcting the hip flexor issue because that warm-up routine I wrote about from Project Elastic Steel includes exercises for those hip flexors.

In fact, it's possible that because I was doing the Project Elastic Steel routine along with my cycle training in the last few weeks, I was improved enough to succeed on the crane stance and the bicycle crunches during my test.

The realization of these little weak links came a little late in the game while I was training.  Maybe I did too little too late for this test, but one of the great gains I made by putting myself to the test of this very tough cycle training is that I discovered things about myself and I'm smarter now and know exactly what I need to do and can do to improve.

I hope I've convinced you that this was not an unimportant or trivial aspect of the test.  I still think it's a shame that it cost me so much because I did so well in other areas.  I was, after all, capable of doing it, at least to the minimum required.  Nevertheless, it is all good to know!

Kung Fu Black Sash Test Results

Right off the bat I have to report the sad news that I did not pass my black sash test.

It wasn't because I wasn't awesome, because I did an amazing job on the test and I was stronger and better than I'd ever been.  All my training strategies kicked in the way I wanted them to and I knew all my stuff and felt amazing during the test.

So, why didn't I pass?

It was on a technicality..

It was that bleepin' sparring gear that did me in.

Here's what happened.  There was a mob of black sash people at the test because some candidates from another school came and were also part of the test.  It was crowded.  Our sparring gear was lined up in black bags ready for the moment when they told us to gear up.

As I explained in another post, we had 3 minutes to get into the gear.  I had been having a little trouble with this. I always seemed to get everything but one piece on each week when we practiced.  One week it would be the mouthpiece.  The next week it would be the helmet.  Another week it would be a glove.

But the past couple of weeks I've been making it all the way within the 3-minute time frame so I thought I was good.  And, in a way I was.

When the time came to gear up tonight, a mob of kids scrambled to their bags which were piled layers deep in front of mine.  I simply could not get through the bodies to my bag.  There was a delay.  I am sure I lost a good 20 seconds at that point.

But I still would have been good.  I put my shoe on, and thought it was on the wrong foot, so I took it off again, but found out it had not been on the wrong foot.  But I think that shoe thing cost me the valuable seconds I needed.  Losing that 20 seconds at the beginning meant that there was no leeway for any mistakes.

When they called time, I still had one glove to go.  I was holding it in my hand.  They called us in to the floor: "Everybody on one knee."  At this point, I thought I could still slip it really quickly, but then Sifu said the fatal words:

"Nobody make a move."

So, there was no way I could slip the glove on without moving, and I felt that I had to obey what he said.

Next he said,

"Anyone who is missing even one piece of equipment, leave the floor.  You cannot participate in the next part."

Very sadly I rose from the floor, walking off fully geared up except for the glove I held in my hand.  "This can't be happening," I thought.  "It's not real.  I have so much energy left even though we've been at this for hours.  I am so ready for some rounds of sparring!"

But, tragically, it was happening.  And it was happening to one other kid too, who also had been prevented from getting to his bag.  He was crying.

I stood there in my gear, looking like a forlorn Kung Fu panda, just watching everyone spar.  It took a long time.  I think I stood there over an hour.  I felt like I was in some surreal movie.  I just stood there in my sparring gear thinking "Maybe he will change his mind and call me over to spar after all."  But it never happened.

Once they got through the sparring, there was just the 5-minute horse stance to get through.  We had now been there for over 4 hours.  I stood with everyone even though I already had been told that I did not get my black sash.  But I did the horse stance anyway, and I felt really strong and springy, like I could have done a 6, 7 or 8 minute horse stance.

So, it's a really weird report I have to make.  I can't really say I failed in my training or plan because it all worked wonderfully.  I can't say that I didn't know my stuff because I did.  I can't say that I choked because of nerves, because I was amazingly calm, in control and having a really great time.  I can't say I didn't have the stamina, because I was going strong after several hours and lots of hard physical work.

The only thing I can say is that I don't have the sash.

It's feels sort of like not getting the T-shirt at the race (although that's never happened to me at a race, but this is how I imagine it would feel.)

Countdown to Kung Fu Black Sash Test -- Eve of Test

It's 10:13pm and I should have been in bed 13 minutes ago.  Today's plan:  Get a good night's sleep.  But I couldn't go to sleep without checking in with you all.

I spent the day mentally preparing myself for sparring by imagining different scenarios and envisioned myself taking care of it all neatly and calmly.

That's about it.  No working out.  No running -- It was way too hot.

I am really glad I am not nervous at the moment.  I HATE that nervous feeling. It interferes with being able to feel the fun of all this. I know it will come back, but right now I'm pretending like the nervous feeling will not come back.  Even if it does, I'm enjoying every minute of being at peace right now. And every minute of not being in pain.

So, as soon as I finish typing these words to you all, I'm hitting the sack.