Out again

After being away for one week, I'm off again. It is working OK so far with my requirements as I am making an effort to go to the gym every day. Food is a different matter. We are hitting restaurants for all meals and that is not that healthy. At the end of the I was making an effort to choose healthier choices.

The one thing that I miss the most is training with my family. Missing the kids classes and the black belt class. This has been on my radar for a while anyway. Trying to figure out how to train more with the girls.

Well, I have another week to figure it out.

Personal Goals

Finally I have some time to think about my goals for next year. It is harder every year to figure out new goals. Most of the time, I just want to continue with the goals I've already set for previous years.

Anyway, while I was thinking about my goals for next year, I was thinking about what I have this year. It is obvious to me that this year, for different reasons was not as successful as previous ones but when reviewing my personal goals, although I did not (yet) meet my expectations, I did make very good progress with it.

Festival of Trees

I was not really into the Festival of Trees demo. I felt sick and tired for few days. My legs were hurting, my shoulder was hurting.

So preparing and waiting for this demo was not easy for me.

But I think the demo was a great personal success. While I was performing my forms, both hand form and weapon form, I was able to make contact with some of the audience. I usually do not do that but this time I did. It was kind of fun looking into someone's eyes while swinging the sword. :-) Also with the dragon - the sequence where we are "attacking" the audience was a lot of fun as I was able to look the audience in the eyes.

I was watching a video of the dragon dance and there was a kid who was clapping like crazy at the end. That also made me happy.

I think that overall it was a great demo, despite of the fact that I was not into it to begin with.

Change

I always liked structure and order in my life. Change was not a welcome thing. I have recently changed the gym I am going to. I have been going to the Tri-Leisure for almost 10 years. I had my routine and I was used to what I do. 2 weeks ago I switched to a different gym in Edmonton. There are lots of challenges when going to a new gym. I was looking around trying to find specific machines and it feels weird in there. I hope that I will get used to this gym but I also hope it will shake me routine and force me to change my exercises. I've been getting out of shape lately. I am trying some new exercises now and I hope I can get my cardio up.

Away.

I was working local for the last 14 years. Yes, I had the odd trip to Denver or Vancouver but it was rare and did not disturb my training.

Today I'm entering a new era. My new project will require me to travel frequently. Sometimes more than once in one month. How will it affect my training I do not know but I'm sure it will have an affect on my presence at the kwoon.

Do we have enough medals?

The Tiger Challenge is different for me. For me, most of this event is happening before the first match starts.

Creating the slides for the TVs, checking to see if there are enough medals, ordering the trophies, preparing the sign-up forms, preparing the divisions and arranging the schedule. This is all happening in the days and weeks before the Tiger Challenge. This year I also wanted to get the Dragon dance with the Lion dance.

Every year has its own challenges. As in previous years, there were some difficulties with setting the divisions. But this year I was mostly worried that we will not have enough medals for all winners.

Anyhow, the day has arrived. We had a great team of people arranging the kwoon for the event. I think that it gets easier every year as we already know what to do... The Dragon Dance and Lion Dance was really good. I want to thank the dragon team for being able to pull it off in such a short time but especially to thank Mr. Kohut (Nate) who did not hesitate to come and join us.

From my perspective, the event went much smoother than previous years. I think that the score keepers this year did a great job and everything was as planned. Well almost.

It was Mr. Kohut (Simon) who said something like "this was not supposed to happen". It looked like part of their fight choreography but Mr. Thompson was actually down. Luckily we had a trained medical individual and we made sure Mr. Thompson is OK. It was a great relief to see him continuing to help with score keeping later that day. Very scary but I am so glad it ended OK.

Thanks for everyone who helped in anyway before, during and after the event! It is always a very stressful and tiring day for me but also very rewarding and fulfilling day.

Dust

That is all I can see whenever I go running with Sharida and Kobe. Once in a while they will stop and wait for me but the minute I catch-up, they will start running leaving me in the dust again.

I was never a good long distance runner (and long means more than 400 meters...). I had been better than what I am now few years ago. I even did a 17k run once (that was hard). Running for long distances but I know what my goal is for this coming year of IHC. I'm hoping to improve my pace and to be able run 5k or 10k without feeling I am going to die.