johnsjar

In spite of how wrecked and sore I was, MM and I went to the Elmwood dojo. My knee is still snapping and popping like crazy, albeit it is better than before. It’s just a very annoying thing, and yet not painful at all. It seems to be some sort of passing phase thing as it has happened a limited few times before only to disappear with time. Now it’s back and hopefully will disappear after a week or so. But it is cause for concern as to why this should be so…

When doing my kata the pop is very loud - loud enough for others to notice. Anyway, yesterday’s lesson was very interesting and useful for me. I managed to clue into some of the flow of the kata, and also I was able to correct some of my poor technique. As to sparring, I managed to improve there as well in that I tried to avoid leaning into it and other things. I’m still far from perfect though. Very far, to be sure.

But it’s not like I haven’t been told a hundred times how to do something. It’s like there was a *ping* in my brain that allowed me to suddenly put it into practice. I’ve always known that someday there would be a brain *ping* and I’m happy that it happened yesterday. There will be more. Continuing my recovery from the August 17th marathon, today I plan on doing an easy 11 km run. I have not been entirely successful in finding information as to how long it takes bones to heal from impact shock, and to rebuild even stronger, but I’m thinking it is on the order of 3 to 6 weeks.

I feel pretty good about things right now. The only downer is that there are no more Devon lessons until end of September.

Another sleepy recovery “run” today of 8 km. I’m taking it easy as I recover and heal up from the marathon, and karate will probably delay that a bit. Another couple of weeks rest for me before I begin to think of ramping up for the half marathon in Devon, assuming they actually hold that race again. I have not heard anything from them yet.

As we are heading to the States for a couple of weeks I have to think about keeping active during that trip too.

No rest for the wicked…the food thing is working out well SO FAR, however it is very difficult getting the amount of food input down to what I actually need rather than what I want, or what I feel I need. Yup, this is the hardest challenge ever for me, even harder than quitting smoking 8 years ago.

Wish me luck, I’ll need it.

The last class of the summer season in Devon consisted of 100% black belts and…us. New belts and certificates were given out to the black belts who ranked higher in Toronto in both karate and kobudo.

We went through an extensive warm-up then practiced the x pattern using various blocks and punches, followed by a break, then the awards were given out and we continued on with kata and sparring.

Now we have only Elmwood on Thursdays plus of course, whatever we do on our own at home. Classes will begin for the winter season towards the end of September back at the school gym in Devon.

We will miss the beginning as we might be in the USA for a few weeks.

Oh yah, there is one other thing I have to add. I really suck at sparring. I lean way over and expose myself to attack and I make huge googly eyes and telegraph my every move. I know I suck, but I think if I fix just a couple things I can make a huge improvement.

In an amazingly-blazingly fast 1:40 (a 9:05 pace) I did…11 km. OK, so I was slower than a dead goat. So sue me. I guess my body decided that it was going out for a run on a Sunday so it must be going to be a huge run…let’s flood his system with insulin because as always he must be guzzling Gatorade. Not. I crashed big time and felt like a diabetic with no sugar for about 4 km. And it was hot.

Now that I’m done whining, I just calculated how fast one needs to run to finish the Grand Cache Death Race. In 24 hours over a 125 km course you have to run an average of 11:30 minutes per kilometer pace to finish. “Eleven and a half minutes per kilometer???” you exclaim incredulously. Yes, I say. But before you think you could crawl that race before lunchtime, don’t think for a minute it’s as easy as the nominal minimum pace would indicate.

Almost anyone could keep that pace, and with training almost anyone could walk 125 km in less than 24 hours. Unfortunately in the real race you will encounter a hill or two, and some pretty tough terrain. On the uphills, you think it’s hard. Reaching the top and finally cruising downhill your relief at the ease of going downhill gradually turns to consternation at how much harder it is to go downhill than uphill. Then you are relieved to reach some flat ground. But don’t look up, you’ll just see another hill. We are talking Rocky Mountain elevation changes here in all kinds of weather, plus you are as self-sufficient as possible. You need to carry a lot of things with you including headlamps for running in the dark. You need to cross the River Styx (actually the Smoky River at Hell’s Gate), but if you don’t have that coin to pay the dreaded Charon, the ferryman of the dead, you are stranded. They don’t call it the “Death Race” for nothing. It’s only a matter af time before they build a cemetery atop one of the mountains and call it “Boot Hill”. Or maybe “Running Shoe Hill”. Oh, COME ON people - work with me here, I’m trying to create a myth.

If I have never run any part of that course myself, how do I know anything about it? Well, I don’t, however as a Geological Assistant (many years ago) I have hiked a lot of mountain carrying packs of rock samples and I worked all summer in the wilderness in the Northwest Territories, plus I’ve hiked the West Coast Trail (recently) so I know a bit about wilderness hiking.

Besides, isn’t everything you need on the internet? *hee hee snicker*

Cool. I can hardly wait.

In the first lesson since the marathon, we went to the Elmwood Dojo last night. I loved that class as it was a small one and all about Kata with the Bo followed by karate Kata. We got there a bit early so after a warm-up I had a chance to practice my kata foot work. I am getting better at ending up in the same place I started from.

Marilyn and I were shown some Bo technique. We were able to practice the entire kata enough times that I think we actually remember it enough to do it at home.

I’m feeling a bit sore from wielding that heavy stick around, but I think I’ve pretty much recovered from last Sunday’s marathon and should be back running again this Sunday. Next race should be a half marathon in Devon October 14th. If we were not going to the states for a few weeks, I’d be doing the last 5peaks too. Oh well.

A news headline that the tree line was moving north toward the arctic inspired this post. Comments raged between people who despise big oil for causing environmental meltdown, and those who say it’s just part of a natural process. Both sides pick factoids from the internet to support their dogmatism.

Arguments about global warming aside, the fact is that humans have directly and indirectly caused massive ecosystem changes. The ecosystems of the planet will never be the same. We can never make North America, for example, like it was 300 years ago when buffalo roamed freely. We can never remove imported species from the Great Lakes. In the same way if the caribou are threatened by the tree line moving north they will likely not be able to survive as well as they survive now. The reason is that they are not free to move. Man is here to stop them. Man will not allow species to move freely into new habitats. To my knowledge, this has never been a factor before.

The great responsibility we now have is to debate and decide which species we allow to survive, and which species we allow to die. Which species do we allow to evolve? Many species have become extinct, and others have changed and evolved into new ones. The difference today is that we are interfering in this process. Polar bears are endangered for example, but do we allow them to die out, or do we go to extreme measures to somehow preserve them? Given the huge changes in ecosystems and species of the geologic past, how is it that we feel we must keep the planet exactly as it is now forever? The new factor is our huge technological and population impact on the world.

Can we simply allow a species to die out given that we are also denying the chance for a new species to evolve and fill the now empty niche? Is the new species homo sapien?

We have a lot of very difficult decisions to make. Let’s not pull obscure facts from the internet and use them to defend dogmatic opinion. Let’s try to agree on how we are to control nature since this is inevitable.

It seems there was a camera problem and a lot of the pictures were lost. I wanted to get some nice pictures of Edmonton’s beautiful river valley and skyscrapers but…I guess next time I need to have a professional photographer…how about it Lisa?

Waiting for the start...

Waiting at the back of the pack...

Just a few seconds now...

MC John Stanton, founder of the Running Room in black near the left start pillar...

My pace group...can you tell it's hot?

The half way point near the University of Alberta Experimental Farm

Am I in PAIN???

It really was hot!

Crossing the finish line and heading for the misting tent.

Finish Line Professional Groupie, Morgan!