Kung Fu Black Sash Year II

Last year you all followed along as I worked in "cycle training" from January to June and tested for my black sash in Kung Fu.  It was the most intense physical activity I had ever pursued and I learned so much going through the "cycle."

This year the cycle has started again.  From January to June we will meet once a week for a 2-hour intense session that will test our endurance, strength, and stamina.  This year I will be working to earn a progress stripe toward an eventual 1st degree black sash.

Because of a snow day, and a day I had to miss, I have only attended one cycle class thus far.  And that one class was somewhat of a disaster.

I had let my Kung Fu slide and had only attended class a couple of times in December.  In the past, when I had taken a couple of weeks off, it wasn't too hard to get back up to snuff again.  But this time I had been out a couple of months.  Don't know how that happened.  I guess "I'll go back next week" just kept turning into another and another week, and before I knew it I had put on a LOT of extra pounds and had lost a good deal of conditioning.

So, I was pretty much dreading the first cycle class.  I already knew I was going to modify everything, and kind of hope that I could kind of "hide" or something (although that really is not too possible in cycle class).  It turned out that half-way through the class I began to see stars and started feeling really queasy.  I had to drop out of the class.  My Sifu took me in the back and gave me freezing cold water shock therapy on the back of my neck.

The thing that struck me, however, is that I had always discounted anything I had accomplished over the years in Kung Fu.  I always felt like the weakest and least in the class.  But as I experienced how much more difficult everything was that had once seemed easier, I realized that everything I had accomplished up until then really had been something.  Maybe I needed to have it taken away from me before I realized what I possessed.  I made a decision to from now on never minimize any physical accomplishment, no matter how seemingly small.  I also made a decision to not compare myself to the others.  (I actually thought I had not been comparing myself to the others, but just the fact that I had minimized what I could do meant that I had been comparing myself all along without being conscious of it.)

SO ...

I made a little plan.  A little plan to use the time during the week between cycle classes to get myself back into condition.

Yesterday, I went out for my mile-and-a-half run, and then I put myself through the conditioning exercises and some basic Kung Fu drills: punches, stance-work, etc...  Just the very basic stuff, to get my body moving again and my joints and muscles headed in the right direction.  Although we do 60 jumping jacks during cycle class, I only did 10 at a time on my own.  The same thing for the pushups, crunches, etc... I did a few.  I'll just gradually increase the ones I'm doing at home, and somehow grit my teeth on Saturday mornings to get through the more intense version.

Tonight's plan was to get myself back into some Kung Fu classes.  I chose to go to the Intermediate/Advanced Forms class.  My plan for this first night back was to take it easy.  The real goal for me was to just make sure I showed up.  That would be enough.  I didn't need to kill myself or anything.  Just show up. I would stand way in the back in the back row, and I wouldn't go all out.  I would modify, and do less of the conditioning, slower jumping jacks, etc... (Just for the first couple of weeks). I would shrink and try to make myself as inconspicuous as possible, even make myself totally invisible if I could.  Maybe I could do it this way for a few weeks and by the time anyone noticed I was there I'd be all back in shape!

Well, sometimes the fates have another plan!

When I got to class, my instructor called me and some other black sashes to stand up in front to be "role models."  I winced and protested a little,  indicating that I was in no condition to be standing up there in front of everyone.  But he insisted.  He gave the class a little speech and said that we were a family and you don't feel embarrassed in front of your family ever.  Ever!  If you are just getting back into shape, he said, that's okay.  We have to leave our egos out of it.  Period.

So, that was the lesson for the night.  I did not get to hide in the back.  I had to be who and what I was at that given moment in time and I had to be where I was at right up in front of everyone:  all the purple sashes; all the red sashes; the brown and the green.

And after that ...

It was testing night!  Oh my gosh, no!  I had returned on testing night!!

Each small group had to get up and do Long Fist I.  I had not done Long Fist I for at least 6 weeks.  Did not even know if I would remember it.  "This is going to be just great," I thought.

It did not go badly.  I guess all the hard work I had done on Long Fist I over the years had solidified my knowledge of it so that I was able to go 6 weeks without doing it and still had it in me.

All in all, everything that happened tonight happened exactly the way it should have.  The contrast of the actual first night back to my plan of making myself invisible was just too great for it to not be some kind of message to me. By absorbing how things went, I hear the message, and I'm ready to plunge back in.

My plan is to use my blog as a little running journal of my time through black sash.  I will be most happy if you follow along my little journey with me. Stay tuned for more.

Beginning Again -- Part II

About an hour ago I posted that I was going to head out for my first run in quite a while and that I was planning to wear my new Merrel Pace Gloves. because it was too cold.

I stepped out the door but looking down at the shoes I did not feel very good about it.  I had a frown.  "It's okay," I told myself, "you can run barefoot a little later when it gets warmer."

Still not happy.

"You only need to do this because you let it slide.  Before you know it you'll be back in barefoot shape and you can run barefoot all summer."

Still not happy.

"You need to run in these things some time because you can't run barefoot all the time and you're going to have to use these for certain things."

Still not happy.

Finally I just couldn't do it.  I couldn't even take a step.  I had to take the shoes off.

Immediately I felt happy.  In fact, happiness flooded into me.  I had no idea what would happen out there, having not run for so long, but I knew I was back where I wanted to be -- barefoot running.

And waiting for me, like a big beautiful blue reward was this:

It was 35 degrees and sunny!  And my feet never felt cold at all!

What had made me unhappy about having the shoes on? What did I love about having taken my shoes off?

It was that I had missed coming in contact with the ground. I really love to feel the ground.

I do believe it's true about getting that feedback from the ground.  The Merrell's are really nice shoes.  Really great shoes..  I used them to run the first mile of the 2012 Disney Family Fiesta 5K just a few weeks ago -- that first mile on that painful nubby parking lot that I described to you from last year's Disney 5K.  I didn't feel happy about wearing the shoes there either, but it was something that was necessary because I was not conditioned to run on that sharp nubby pointy stuff.

But it seem that no matter how well they make these very minimalist, barefoot-style shoes, there always ends up being a layer between the nerve ending and the feet and the ground.  Sometimes the soles of these shoes are very good, and you can feel much through them, but it is just not the same as that direct contact with the ground. It's just not the same!

I think I now know my destiny.

I think there are lots of ways to run.  I don't believe my barefoot is some kind of doctrine that must be adhered to.  If someone hated it they should not do it that way.  But for me, there is nothing like it.  I won't cease to get a big kick out of the fact that it can be done this way.  After all those years of believing and thinking and just taking for granted the "truth" that I needed some kind of support in my shoe in order to run, I can't stop thinking it's so wonderful that I can just run without any shoes at all.  It's such a feeling of bursting free!

By the way, I also wrote in that post an hour ago that I would just walk/run out there.  But I didn't.  I ended up running the whole time.  Only ran about a mile and a half but that is enough for the first day back.

Beginning Again

Hi there, everyone.

Here I am standing at the threshold of a new beginning.

I have been invited to round 2 of black sash training in Kung Fu.  This time working towards a progress stripe on my belt.  This is an intense, like last year, 6-month training event that ends in a big test and a graduation.  I wrote about my last year's first experience with it here.

This year I'm in big trouble.  I let myself lose a lot of my conditioning -- actually most of it.  Same with my running.  I've put on a lot of extra pounds and I can really feel those extra pounds in everything I do.

So today is day one of enacting the plan to do two things -- get through this black sash training, and run a 5K on Mother's Day with my friend and her daughter.

Today is going to be a running day, but since I haven't gone out there since the 2012 Disney Family Fiesta 5K (which I shall write about later), I am going to just get out there and walk this first day.

I'll walk, and test out a little running, maybe a minute here and a minute there..

It's cold and I have a pair of Merrell pace gloves.  It's not THAT cold, and last year I would have gone out with bare feet, but just to get me out there, I'm going to use the pace gloves.  I don't like it, but I think it would be best because if I'm more walking than running it is colder and my feet are more in contact with the cold ground.  When I'm totally running there is less ground time and they are less cold.

I'll let you know how it goes.

How to Love Your Body

Just read a blog over at Livestrong where the author talks about getting an e-mail from someone who said "I hate my body." ("Cut Through the BS")

Now, you all know that I am an overweight barefoot runner.  There are a lot of people out there who might think I should hate my body.

But I don't.

I used to hate my body, but now I don't.  I love my body.

I don't believe that love is a REaction. I think love is an ACTION.

I wrote a post about "How to Love Your Voice" over at my Avocational Singer Blog.

What I wrote over there is about how the example of the loving actions a mother takes on behalf of the child she loves can serve as a template for how to love our voices. I highly recommend you check the ideas out in that post because it also can serve as a way to understand how to love our bodies.

An example of loving or hating one's body based on a REaction would be something like this:  I look in the mirror and I approve of what I see -- meets my conditions for acceptability -- and then I feel love for my body.  Or I look in the mirror and don't approve of what I see -- doesn't meet my conditions for acceptability -- and then I feel hate for my body.

A lot of people want to run because they are hoping that running will be a tool to shape them into the kind of body that they can love.  They come from a place of not loving their bodies, and wanting to transform their bodies so that some time in the future they can love their bodies.

But I would like to assert here that it is love for our bodies that transforms.  We have to start with the love.  Love that is put into action.

Using the same analogy as loving our children, we can treat our body as that "child" of ours that we love.

We don't force our children to do unbearably difficult exercise, stand over them and holler and get them to repeat laps and reps.  We try to find something they enjoy and have fun doing, like take them to the playground and let them swing from the monkey bars,  so that they don't even realize that they're getting exercise.  We sacrifice our time to bring them to the playground after school and on weekends, because we want them to have that benefit and not just sit inside and live a sedentary life.  We want them to breathe fresh air and hear the rustle of the leaves in the trees and feel the wind on their cheeks and the warmth of the sun because we LOVE them.

We make sure they go to bed at a decent hour because we want them to feel good.  We know they will be able to function better in their day at school, be in a more cheerful mood, thus eliciting more positive responses from the people around them.  We know their immune systems will function better.  We make sure they go to bed because we LOVE them.

We bring them to the doctor when they are sick and remove them from activities and let them lie on the couch and color and watch TV because we want them to get well.  We take care of their injuries, and make them stop activities so that they can be whole again to enjoy those same activities to the fullest.  We do that because we LOVE them.

We make sure we shop for the kinds of foods that will build and repair their growing cells, tissues, muscles, bones.  We provide nutritious meals for them.  We let them have treats, but within limits.  We don't starve them, beat them, deprive them.  We give them good things in a good way so that they can grow.  We go to a lot of trouble to feed them this way because we LOVE them.

Well, if you replace the word "body" for "children" in the preceding examples, it might be easy see that it is by loving actions towards our bodies that we will have the greatest impact on them.  They will be formed in the most optimal way.

By loving ourselves this way, we don't have to wait until some transformation that turns us into something lovable, because we can be lovable as we are right now.  Not a future lovable.  A NOW lovable.

Bunker Roy: Learning from a barefoot movement | Video on TED.com

Wow, did you know there was a Barefoot College?

The philosphies of this Barefoot College are very intriguing! Just like there have been companies in modern society convincing us that we have to wear a certain kind of shoe when we run, there are universities telling us we have to have a certain kind of education and a certain type of degree to make it in society.

Bunker Roy: Learning from a barefoot movement | Video on TED.com

After watching the video, I looked up the college web site. Here it is.

I am sure that most barefoot people will find this really interesting.

"The Barefoot College"

Barefoot Running Loot

I didn't tell you in my writeup about my time at the 2nd Annual NYC Barefoot Run that we got a little goodie bag.  It feels a little weird to "get" something at a barefoot run because it makes it seem like any other run.  Everybody kind of expects to "get" something nowadays when they go to a run because that's the way it's done and is part of the fun.  I, for one, love having the T-shirt because wearing it in my regular life, at least at this point, is a bit distinctive.  All the other run T-shirts kind of blend all together until they all look like the same T-shirt.  But, in these early days, a Barefoot Run T-shirt is a little unique.

But the whole structure/format/setup of the barefoot run caused one friend of mine to raise a philosophical objection.  She wanted to come to the run only on Sunday, but could not attend all the events on the preceding Saturday.  The fee for the whole weekend was $75.  She wanted there to be a "race-only" fee.  She asked the organizers if this would be possible and they told her no, that the $75 fee applied to participate, whether you were only coming to run the race or not.  After that, my friend wrestled with whether she wanted to pay $75 to just come around the island two times and get a T-shirt.  She decided it was not a good use of her money, and besides that, she found some kind of discrepancy between the fee and the idea that running barefoot was "minimal" and can be looked at as a means to objecting to paying the high prices of the scientifically designed running shoes offered by the big running shoe companies.

My friend raised these objections to me.  Well, I faced the same fee dilemma, also not being able to attend the seminars, talks, workshops, partying and book-signings on the preceding Saturday, but reasoned that I was making a donation to promote a good cause.  I saw it as a contribution to making an event like this possible, a way of supporting the movement in general. My friend's minimalist argument is not lost on me, but there are SO many other aspects of barefoot running to enjoy and so many angles to come from that I don't feel that I'm compromising some kind of principle or anything by paying the fee.

I had intended to share my thoughts about the forward lean aspect of barefoot running.  But, as you can see, I played around with my photo today, and I think it's enough for today to just talk about how I was enjoying the loot from the NYC Barefoot Run.  I shall have to save my reflections on the forward lean for a future blog post.

Barefoot Fresca Goes to the 2nd Annual NYC Barefoot Run

Since I took the photos, and told you all I was going, it would make sense that I write up my experience of the 2nd Annual NYC Barefoot Run for you all, even if it is a bit late.  This post might start out a bit uneventful, but keep reading on because I'm saving the highlight of the day -- when I got to meet a very special barefoot blogger -- for the very end.


I had the most wonderful time in the world.

But the night before the run it wasn't looking so good.  Got a weather update for the run in my email and here's what it said:

"We have access to a building on Governors Island that is just off the ferry.  If it’s raining hard, we will set up the run out of that building ..."

 and

"After getting set up indoors, we will make a go at a run in the rain.  Afterwards, people can return indoors."

To a fair-weather barefoot-runner such as myself, this did not sound very appealing at all.  Every time I imagined what it would be like in that building after running in the rain with all those wet sweaty barefoot runners, I thought "ugh!"  Yet, to not do it would be to miss out on the gathering of like-minded souls.  And it would also mean I would not get to meet one of my barefoot blogging heroes, whom I had been so looking forward to meeting.

Waking up Sunday morning, however, it was not looking too bad.  Unlike last year, at the 1st Annual NYC Barefoot Run, I did not have any companions joining me.  I had to make my way over by myself.  I decided to try driving in, because I wasn't sure if the buses were going to be running regularly on an early Sunday morning.  I was very nervous about parking, and when I got to a certain point on the West Side highway, the police redirected traffic through Manhattan.  This little detour made me a bit late.

So, I caught the last ferry going over to the island.

Amidst the air of celebrity -- whom I think the organizers were referring to as "the Kudus" at this event -- I felt like a very small and insignificant barefoot runner.  So, I felt a little more useful when asked to help carry some boxes coming off the ferry. (See in the photo, the guy with the backpack carrying the box.  He, like me, was a Box-Carrier.  Boxes got loaded on to the little rickshaw).  It made me feel a little more important!

Next was the 15- minute walk over to the part of the island where the race was going to start.

I remember how last year I was all worried about an extra 15 minutes of walking, since I was trying to save myself so I could run twice around the island.  It felt good to know that 15 minutes of walking was nothing this year and would not take away from running (even though I was only planning to run one time around, about two miles).


Instead of the incredibly blue skies and beautiful sunshine from last year, the sky was overcast and gray:

There wasn't a lot of time beforehand for me to connect or talk to people because they were already gathering for the group photo.  If you go to the 2nd Annual NYC Barefoot Run page and look at the group photo, you will see me -- maybe.  Count 8 people in from the right -- about 3 rows back -- and you'll see me standing there in a blue shirt. (I'll tell you a secret.  I chose a bright colored blue shirt because I hoped it would help me spot myself in the photo because last year I couldn't see me.)

This year we were delighted and surprised to kick things off with some beautiful singing -- the singing of The National Anthem by a barefoot-running singer named Melissa.   (If you are on Facebook, you will be able to hear her singing by clicking on the link.)  Melissa had been the sweeper, who had so kindly run alongside me at the "Born to Run" Barefoot Run I had attended summer of 2010 when I was first starting out as a barefoot runner.  I had learned since then that she was a singer, but now I got to hear her for the first time and it was a thrill to hear her beautiful mezzo voice. It was really cool to have such a professional kick-off to the event.

After allowing a couple who got engaged at the event to head out first in the Luna Rickshaw that was being pulled by Barefoot Ted, we all set out on our merry barefoot way.

As I started out, John Durant, who is the co-founder of the Barefoot Runners New York City Meetup group, fell in step alongside me.  What did we talk about?  Why, the weather of course.  How happy we were that it did not rain after all.  I think he left me with the deep philosophical reflection on the fact that when they say 60% chance of rain we always forget that there is a 40% chance that it will not rain.  He is always a very profound guy.

Now, John Durant was very kind to run at my very slow pace for a bit, but I am sure that he could not have continued at that pace forever (nor continue to come up with profound weather statements for much longer).  He needed to get up to speed and head on his way.  Nevertheless, despite how slowly he may have felt he had been running, it was a little bit faster than I usually run.  Due to that fact -- having set a bit faster pace -- I actually found it a little hard to get around the island for the two-mile run I had planned.  Remember, I have not trained that much this summer, so I haven't got much more than 2 miles in me at this given point in time.

As I struggled along, kind of thinking that I might need to stop and walk, which I actually did for a few paces, I spied ahead of me on the path someone who was running a little more slowly than I was (not too many of those out there).  As I was about to pass her, I realized that she was running more at the pace I am accustomed to using, and that I would be better off slowing down to her pace.

I fell in step alongside her and found out it was Marilyn, whom I had met last year at the 1st NYC Barefoot Run, along with her husband John.  They had come from out of state again this year.  Last year, only John had run, but Marilyn had recently taken up barefoot running herself, and this was her first time running at the NYC Barefoot Run.  She remembered me from last year, and we fell in step with each other.  She became my "pacing partner."  John, her husband, came along with us and took some photos:

At one point, back there by that little brown building, my contact lens fell out.  I had a really tough time with sweaty hands and the wind, trying to get it back into my eye.  Marilyn and John were really nice and stood blocking the wind for me.  After several attempts, I managed to get the contact lens back in my eye.

After finishing my one time around, John took a picture of me under the finish line:

Okay, so the run part was over.

Now the highlight of my whole day occurred.  I finally met fellow blogger and barefoot-running mentor, Barefoot Josh.  I felt like I knew him already because he is exactly like he seems on his blog.  I love the fact that even though Josh is a very fast barefoot runner, he makes no judgments and condescends to help the struggling poor little ones find their way into the world of barefoot running.  We had a great, although too short, little chat, and I left that day thinking that as fun as it is to merely go out running barefoot, it is also great fun to meet other people who like to run barefoot too.