bro-n-sis
Originally uploaded by renfield
heathfullness
Ran this morning. Six AM. In the rain.
No, that is not a tribute to Hemingway, but it was excellent. Besides being a decently long run, it was also not terribly humid, and the rain kept me at least feeling cool if not a bit moist.
So I am basically running on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.
Other days just doing 15 minutes of jumps and various exercises, though I am certainly liking running more than jumping. Maybe I need to wear shoes when I jump (even inside, on the carpet.) Jumping is just getting...boring. And kinda hurts; shins and ankles. Not real pain hurts, but it's annoying.
Running, though, seems to be much easier. I run really slow and controlled; don't do any kind of jarring heel striking and generally avoid getting all twisted up, and I like the change of scenery. Not really running hard enough to get into an endorphin-fueled runner high, but I find my mind tends to wander carefree, very much like when I am sitting zazen. And since I am not pushing myself to lung-busting pain levels, a good 45 minutes is totally doable.
I certainly enjoy it more than an hour on the running machine at the gym, even listening to excellent tunes.
Hitting fighting on Wednesday, and Thursday at lunch, too, and trying to get to at least Monday yoga class at lunch. I can now do a head-stand. Monstrously practical! What I want to do is be able to just balance indefinitely in a proper hand-stand (only hands on the ground; no head) and once I've got that, I will bust out the awesome hand-stand push-ups. And then I will cure cancer, and then we're done.
No, that is not a tribute to Hemingway, but it was excellent. Besides being a decently long run, it was also not terribly humid, and the rain kept me at least feeling cool if not a bit moist.
So I am basically running on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.
Other days just doing 15 minutes of jumps and various exercises, though I am certainly liking running more than jumping. Maybe I need to wear shoes when I jump (even inside, on the carpet.) Jumping is just getting...boring. And kinda hurts; shins and ankles. Not real pain hurts, but it's annoying.
Running, though, seems to be much easier. I run really slow and controlled; don't do any kind of jarring heel striking and generally avoid getting all twisted up, and I like the change of scenery. Not really running hard enough to get into an endorphin-fueled runner high, but I find my mind tends to wander carefree, very much like when I am sitting zazen. And since I am not pushing myself to lung-busting pain levels, a good 45 minutes is totally doable.
I certainly enjoy it more than an hour on the running machine at the gym, even listening to excellent tunes.
Hitting fighting on Wednesday, and Thursday at lunch, too, and trying to get to at least Monday yoga class at lunch. I can now do a head-stand. Monstrously practical! What I want to do is be able to just balance indefinitely in a proper hand-stand (only hands on the ground; no head) and once I've got that, I will bust out the awesome hand-stand push-ups. And then I will cure cancer, and then we're done.
taiyaki snack
taiyaki snack
Originally uploaded by renfield
Managed to get to bed at 5am and stay there until almost 10am, at which point I simply had to take the Tonchabeast out. We hit the park, then Appi, then the Hills, and finally the slide park, before meeting P and Mo for some well-deserved sushi dinner.
ramen
ramen
Originally uploaded by renfield
And this is were we ended...
The day started early, with a short run before breakfast. Then I gathered my gear and headed to the Chuo City Sports Center. Nearly 400 competitors at this year's taikai, but things proceeded amazingly well. I had nothing to do in the AM so just watched and chatted and generally stayed out of the way.
After lunch I had to judge 4th and 5th dan competition, and then immediately grabbed my sword and hit the floor to compete in the final 6th dan group.
I managed to beat Sudo-san and even Hoshina-san (both 3-0), got my ass handed to me by Hashimoto-san (0-3), and then beat Yoshida-san (2-1) for 3rd. Hashimoto-san went on to beat Sakaguchi and finally took first.
I felt pretty good for not having trained at all for the past few months, and not seriously for at least a year.
My ryoguruma was atrocious, though. Gosoke commented on my total lack of appropriate timing, rhythm, and understanding of the fundamentals for that one, so at least I have something I need to work on.
After the taikai we had a quick chat with Denshobu and then accompanied the aikido posse to Taimeiken for the banquet. After killing the awesome food there we headed to the bar around the corner from the dojo, where the Italian team celebrated loudly before heading home, and then the German team celebrated quietly as the German team crushed The Netherlands to get to the World Cup finals.
At this point, the owner of the bar (who also owns several other places, including the awesome yakiniku joint Batten) was roaringly drunk and took me, Presley, and Urabe to his restaurant for some well-deserved meat and ramen.
By now the sun was rising and it was time to call it a day!
too much fun
Had too much fun yesterday; spent the day in Ginza. First resupplied the furikake stock and then walked all the way down to the original Mitsukoshi to check out the Okinawa Festival, which was mobbed but not nearly as crowded as the ochugen madness happening on the same floor. Damn some people take their summer traditional greeting gifts seriously!
Walked back to Ginza and stopped off at Azabu Tailor to pick up my suit pants (I now have pants that fit!) and order a black suit before heading back to the station to get on the bus and head home.
Ended up going to sushi for dinner in Roppongi Hills before heading back, and wouldn't you know it, the Mighty Mo wasn't sleeping much and had a lovely fever this morning with a nice cough, so I skipped my early Monday meeting and took Ton to school and P stayed home with Mo.
Sophia was back from China and came to school today. Ton was really happy to run into her on our way to school in the morning, so I guess it wasn't all bad.
At the gym during lunch I ran for an hour at 7.1 klicks and hour; I have decided I will increase the speed one tenth of a klick every week until I am running at 30 klicks an hour for a full 60 minutes, at which point I will quit my job and will go kick ass at the Honolulu marathon or something sufficiently awesome.
Walked back to Ginza and stopped off at Azabu Tailor to pick up my suit pants (I now have pants that fit!) and order a black suit before heading back to the station to get on the bus and head home.
Ended up going to sushi for dinner in Roppongi Hills before heading back, and wouldn't you know it, the Mighty Mo wasn't sleeping much and had a lovely fever this morning with a nice cough, so I skipped my early Monday meeting and took Ton to school and P stayed home with Mo.
Sophia was back from China and came to school today. Ton was really happy to run into her on our way to school in the morning, so I guess it wasn't all bad.
At the gym during lunch I ran for an hour at 7.1 klicks and hour; I have decided I will increase the speed one tenth of a klick every week until I am running at 30 klicks an hour for a full 60 minutes, at which point I will quit my job and will go kick ass at the Honolulu marathon or something sufficiently awesome.
midnight run
So my new thing this week: running. Ran every day except for Thursday. Mon-Wed I did 7 klicks @ 7 klicks/hour, so I spent one solid hour on the running machine at the gym.
Thursday I went to dageki class at fighting so no running.
Today I spent 13 hours straight sitting on my butt, so after my conference call ended and I finally left the office at 10pm, I took the bus up to Roppongi to order pizzas for our big townhall meeting at work next week, then walked home.
Thought about doing various exercises but once I got home I just put on some shorts and a towel on my head and went out for a night run.
Humidity much lower at night, slight breeze, and no worry about getting too much sun. Not entirely sure how long I ran; maybe 30 minutes? Went up to Azabu-jyuban, through Roppongi Hills, down Old TV Asahi Dori past the Chinese Embassy, down to the bottom of Arisagawa Park, past Hiroo out to Tengenjibashi, up Meiji Dori almost to Furukawabashi, and then home.
According to teh internets, this run is just about 4 klicks.
Conclusion: running at night is pretty damn keen.
Thursday I went to dageki class at fighting so no running.
Today I spent 13 hours straight sitting on my butt, so after my conference call ended and I finally left the office at 10pm, I took the bus up to Roppongi to order pizzas for our big townhall meeting at work next week, then walked home.
Thought about doing various exercises but once I got home I just put on some shorts and a towel on my head and went out for a night run.
Humidity much lower at night, slight breeze, and no worry about getting too much sun. Not entirely sure how long I ran; maybe 30 minutes? Went up to Azabu-jyuban, through Roppongi Hills, down Old TV Asahi Dori past the Chinese Embassy, down to the bottom of Arisagawa Park, past Hiroo out to Tengenjibashi, up Meiji Dori almost to Furukawabashi, and then home.
According to teh internets, this run is just about 4 klicks.
Conclusion: running at night is pretty damn keen.
not exactly what I had in mind
not exactly what I had in mind
Originally uploaded by renfield
I asked the super to FIX the cabinet door not abscond with it!
fathers day awesomeness
fathers day awesomeness
Originally uploaded by renfield
tie-shaped-card and decorated tie from ton, keith haring key-chain and world rubiks cube from P.
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