Friday, April 18, 2008

Board Breaking

Tucker had a Tae Kwon Do belt test last night. I can't even tell you how proud I was of my kid. Every skill from gymnastics, from paying attention, to knowing where your body is, to balance and coordination -- it all just makes him shine in his new sport.

I missed his first belt testing (Tim went, so it was ok!), so this was my first one. Turns out that you get to break a board at your first belt testing. Tucker was DYING to have me go up there, and I was certainly willing. The Grand Master (main guy? I don't know what you call him) told me what I needed to do, and I just went ahead and did it. I got really close to his face as I came through the board (Tim said he looked scared!). What delights me more than anything is that it never occurred to me that I couldn't do it. And Tucker had his arms open wide with a big hug for me after the board break, and that felt absolutely fantastic!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

For whatever reason, this brought tears to my eyes. Not sure if it was because it never occurred to you that you couldn't do it or Tucker being so proud of you. Probably both. Hope you are doing well. I miss you! Stacy

Anonymous said...

Well I personally think, and this is just me, it doesn't look like your obsessive with training, but that you may still be overdoing it a bit.

Thinking about it myself, you did Boxing stuff, then later ran 7 miles, then again loads of resistance stuff, instead of another 7 miles.

You may in my mind as I said, still be overdoing it a bit, and if you're attempting to do 14 miles a day, it might, (if possible), be easier to try and get it into one manageable time window of say 2hrs 20, or whatever you know is within your physical scope.

There perhaps needs to be some kind of point where you say, I may be pushing myself too hard. It's not obsession I don't think, but a willingness to push hard, but possibly not clarifiying for yourself, where the daiy limit might be, as being able to do this, may feel doable now, so therefore if you can why not, but in 10 years, it could really be telling in ways you didn't expect, whereas keeping it solid, consistent but a little less active, caps the exertion rate daily, and maybe what you might physically feel in 10 years, you might postpone for 15-20 years instead, by not overtaxing your body too much now, and increasing wear and tear.

This is not a you should stick to 5 miles a day, or a know your own limits kind of thinking, but allowing yourself to maintain a solid, tough level of exertion, without going over the point of physically acceptable to physicallly detrimental, and therefore not considering the long-term.

You've got an incredibly impressive level of physical ability, and most people your age, aren't capable of half what you are, you should be so, so proud of yourself for that Leslie, but sometimes no matter how hard a person strives to achieve, there must be a point where achievement may come, but later on at some eventual point, with a possible cost.

It could even be a case of too much love for yourself, and in which case you may need to give yourself some tough love and say, no I'm not going to do the equivalent of 3-3.5 hours exercise today, I'll keep it to around 2.5, so you know you're still able to push hard for 2.5 hours, (collective or split), and work yourself big time, but you're not potentially straying into territory your body doesn't need to go, to get the same achievement.

If you adopted this approach, It wouldn't have to mean giving up any aspect of what you currently do, just juggling things, so that one or two things happen a bit less, or you combine the three elements you did, and create some kind of split system.

Kind of like this

Class + run

run + KB

Class + KB

So then you have 3 splits you could do 2x a week, or have a pyramid system. One split 3x, another 2x, and the 3rd 1x a week, and always having 1 full day off.

That way you can do all the things you want to do, but it keeps it more consice on a daily basis, and therefore could achieve the same results with less physical taxation, that's not reversible in the future, like it might be if you were 21.

Whatever happens keep up the hard work. You inspire, and continually impress. Your dedication is second to none. It shows in your results, appearance, and capabilities, and definitely the way you love youself, has a positive impact on those around you, so you have so much to be proud of at 47 years young.

Still that wise head on young shoulders, but don't be too worried sometimes, about evaluating the execution of the very things you use to challenge yourself, and see if they are being executed in a way, you know is fully beneficial now and also long-term.

If you ever do look for such an answer I know you'll find it :-) :-).

GOOD LUCK and best wishes.

Matt