On Running... (random ramblings and observations.)

I have this Love/Hate relationship with running... I added it to the "repertoire" 5 years ago when I weighed less and was in better shape. Figured it would be a nice secondary thing to do beside cycling. Plus I can handle running in winter, unlike biking.

So the hate...
Pain... I have bad knees so I have to watch how I run. Now I'm lucky in that I'm not a heel striker and have a neutral gait (no over/under pronation). But still I have to be careful. I'll walk steep downhills to save my knees and shins.

I suck at it... really at this stage I can go about 12 to 14 min before I need to walk for a minute. I know I'll get back to doing a solid 5k maybe more if I keep at it... but its also a mental thing. O.K. done with the pounding sort of annoyance.

It's hot (at least in summer)... unlike cycling if there is no breeze I can get overheated easily. Hence why I think I prefer running in fall/winter.

O.K. the "Love"

I get to see things... on a bike you really have to pay attention to the road/traffice/etc. Running, I use trails and sidwalks, I actually get the time to look around, enjoy the scenery, etc.

I like the rhythm... though I can get into rhythm on the bike the pounding of the feet adds a little more feedback. Once I'm in a groove it feels pretty good.

Kicks my a** aerobically... Running is very inefficient, in a good way. You end up putting a lot of energy in for not a lot of forward momentum (vs. say a bike where you have all those lovely gears to help you.) So it actually is a good, quick way to get the heart going, get the blood flowing more effectively.

So overall... I'll continue to think of my self as a cyclist first, but will make sure to keep running part of the repertoire as it were.

Tameshigiri

So last Saturday I finally had a chance to do tameshigiri and let me tell you those mats had it coming!

Seriously though... I'm part of a small iaido club of about 4 to 5 members total. We do musoshinden ryu iaido, a fairly common style.

Couple times of year, when it's warm enough we go out to Wisconsin where one of the fellow members lives and practice test cutting in his yard. Makes clean up nice and easy.

This was my first time so wasn't sure how well I would do... in my opinion my cuts suck. But hey that is why we practice. on the 3 matt rolls I did o.k. My kesagiri was so/so (some good some bad). My ichimonji with two hands worked well once I forgot about the target being in the way. Same cut from nuki tsuke not so hot. I did put a nasty gash in the mat, but didn't cut through it.

On the rolls we did that were 7 to 8 mats thick my cut really fell apart. Again that's why we do this it's a good feedback mechanism so we know we are cutting correctly. Sadly it's at that point I bent my sword too, normal hazard of tameshigiri. Luckily the guys who's house we were at had a piece of wood with a notch in it so he was able to straighten it out pretty well. Still needs some fine tweaking but it goes into its scabbard.

Overall a good experience, finally have some idea of how things should feel with feedback as it were... and tempted to try in my back yard in the future... but first need to get a back up practice blade. :-)