Reno Time

It is renovation time at the kwoon and everyone are working hard cleaning, building and cleaning. It is great working side by side with everyone.

The problem I have with this week is that it wrecks my schedule. I usually practice every morning and this week I find it very hard to wake up on time. Today I dragged myself to the Tri-Leisure and I'm glad I did. I was ale to do some reps and felt better. I'm also using this week to give my shoulder a rest. I hope it won interfere with my training in the next few months.

If you did not come to the Kwoon to help out, remember - this is a project the I Ho Chuan is supposed to lead and participate in.

Sparring

You guys might look at me and say - he is a big guy, he has no problem with sparring. He loves sparring and that is why he is in sparring class.

Is that true? No.

I shy away from confrontations. Sparring is not my thing. It took me a long time to minimize the fear involved with sparring.

Why do I keep coming to the sparring class? I need to improve. I want to feel more comfortable with it. I want to look at myself in the mirror and say - "you did it".

Today we had a class with 7 sifus and only 3 students. This is a ratio of 2 to 1. What a great opportunity. I want to encourage all of the I Ho Chuan members to come to this class. Starting in September, commit to come for a class. Give a try. I'm pretty sure you will not regret it.

Worst week so far

This week was bad. Very bad.

Starting with my work - I had very hard time dealing with some of my clients and I was feeling like a chicken without a head running around and being thrown eggs on. I'm so happy the week is over and don't want Monday to come.

I also have a very aching shoulder. It affects my training and I am scared I'm pushing it too much. How do I know how much I should rest and when I can push my self again?

I'm also lacking sleep and I was not waking up when I was supposed to, missing 2 training mornings. I'm happy I still made it to class this week (8 classes so far this week). It seems like the only time I was able to train this week.

Tomorrow we have the forms seminar and I am nervous (yes, ms. Gibbons, you are not the only one). I'm not doing well when so many people are watching and judging me. I want to learn but I'm not comfortable with the public evaluation afterwards.

The Hobbit

I was watching the Hobbit last week with my oldest son. At the end, after surviving the rock giants' battle. fighting the goblins, running away from the gollum and almost loosing the battle with the orcs, the wizard sent a butterfly message to the giant birds to save the dwarfs and the hobbit and bring them closer to their destination.

We asked ourselves - why didn't he called the birds earlier? They could have taken the dwarfs and the hobbit and bring them all the way to the end.

At first I answered: if that happened the movie would have been very short and boring. Then after few days I thought - it is not the final destination, it is the journey that is important here to teach the dwarfs and the hobbit what they are capable of and what they are really fighting for.

Ready to get dirty?

This weekend I'm going to run in the Mud Hero race. I did it last year and it was lots of fun. This year I think it will be more fun as we are running together with a group. SRKF group. We are also camping close to each other and I'm hoping we can spend some time together as well.

When I'm thinking of why I'm practicing Kung Fu, one of the main reasons is friendship. I hope that the connections we are making with other Kung Fu members will be stronger and continue after Kung Time as well.

Bootcamping

Finished the bootcamp which was pretty hard for me. I was really pushing myself. The day after we were driving 6 hours to Saskatchewan. Needless to say that my muscles were aching. I was able to do most of my reps during our camping vacation which was one of my goals for this vacation. Now I need regroup and get ready for the next challenge.