Kung Fu - My First Class

Well, guess what Michelle and I started tonight? We attended our first Kung Fu class at Magic Fist Kung Fu in Huntington, WV. Mike and Jenn are attending as well, and have actually been going for about a month. And so, just like that, we are off on our quest for awesomeness. My thoughts after the first night are positive. I really enjoyed the class, and the instructor is attentive and knowledgeable, and seems to be a really nice guy to boot. I have to tell you that I have never, and I mean never, stretched that thoroughly in my life. We stretch standing, seated, against the wall and in all manner of directions. The funny thing about it is that before class tonight, I'd have sworn that I could not touch the bottoms of my feet if they were out in front of me with my legs straightened, but after the stretching I could. My hamstrings were quivering and my thighs were burning, but you know it was a good pain. :) As I sit here, I'm still sore and I can only imagine how sore I'm going to be tomorrow and the next day. So, we started learning a lot of things tonight. He spent a little time on several basic techniques. If I recall everything it was a basic kick, a sidestep, dodging a punch, disarming a knife at your throat, deflecting and disarming a knife attack at the body, and part of our first form, which he explained was not so much for striking and blocking, but more for teaching your body how to move to strike and block. All of it was at half speeds and basic, but that's fine by me. I'm going to need slow and basic for a few months. :) I'm considering the addition of a 2009 Goal, but I don't know yet. I need to attend a little more and see, but I might just add "Attain a White Sash in Kung Fu" to my list. That's usually the color earned when you know the very basic stuff and can demonstrate it. I've done some looking into it, and it looks as though it takes an average of 4-6 months to reach that rank (for the average person, working at it and practicing), but I really know next to nothing about it at the moment. We'll see. :) Anyway, good time tonight. Excellent workout. Very sore. Definitely going back. :) -J

General Update

I have just a quick update on a few things for those of you following along. It's a big week in the general goings on leading up to the crazy (I mean AWESOME) summer of 2009! 1. Fitness: In the world of fitness, things are now underway. Today I bought a new pair of Saucony running shoes and Michelle and I rebooted our runner's training with Couch to 5k. I linked it way back in 2008 when we started for the first time. This time we're going to try and repeat the program with a couple of differences. This time we're in pretty decent shape to begin with, and also we're doing it faster with a goal of running the Memorial Day 5k in Ironton and posting a much better time. It shouldn't be too hard to beat last year's time of over 37 minutes, but I'd like to beat the Jingle Bell Run time of under 29 as well. More on this as it develops. 2. The AT 2009 Expedition: The planning has begun. Our long anticipated week long hike on the Appalachian Trail looks like it'll be taking place the first week of June, barring any scheduling trouble or unforeseen circumstances. Michelle and I are heading down to Tennessee this weekend not only to see my grandparents who are up from Florida, but also to make a quick trip to a couple of good outdoor/backpacking stores for a little outfitting. We're going to get the rest of our footwear (socks and liners and such) and also our cookware. I have my stove, but I need a little better mess kit. We're planning on scouting out some of our food as well. There are various other essentials that Michelle has on a list that is pretty long, but hopefully not all that heavy once they're loaded on our backs. :) I'm thinking I'll probably post my complete gear list once I have everything together in one place. After the hike we'll do a comparison and I'll see what I can eliminate for future hikes. 3. Ninja Skills: Beginning the first week of April, Michelle and I will be joining our friends Mike and Jenn in a Kung Fu/Self Defense class in Huntington. We have never taken any kind of martial art, and thought it would be fun to try, not to mention a good thing to help with fitness and protection. Who knows, I might have to wrestle a bear in June! Michelle has expressed some interest in Bo Staff. I for one think it would be the coolest thing on earth if Michelle could just go nuts with a Bo. Just like Donatello!! 4. Japanese: I have finished lesson 11 of 30 on my Japanese I course. I did a quick review of lessons 1-10 just to make sure I had a grasp of most of the material, and I feel like I am definitely improving. Slowly but surely this course is increasing my flexibility with the language. Also, I picked up a used copy of "My Japanese Coach" for Nintendo DS this weekend and I've been working on my vocabulary with it. It's a neat little program that teaches with word games. There is a good dose of Education about Japan itself. The program is actually designed not only to teach you the language but to be a travel tool as well. It includes a fairly large dictionary and phrase book, as well as a sketch pad in case you jut have to draw something to get your point across. There you go. I know there were other things I was going to update, but I can't remember. I should write them down somewhere. I've been thinking about getting a Moleskine notebook for that purpose. Blog ideas, random thoughts and such. They're so nice in that display at Borders. So earthy and Bohemian. I think I need one. Alright. I'll get one soon, and then you won't have to feel so cheated when I can't remember all of the details that I meant to impart. :) Later! -J

General Update

I thought I would make a general update along with my pottery post. A lot of things have been going on and you, constant reader, deserve to be informed! What kind of blogger would I be if I didn't tell you all about everything? Let's start with how the running thing is going. Michelle and I have continued our pursuit of fitness. In fact, we joined a local gym for the winter months and ran a week and a half ago in the Jingle Bell Run in Huntington, West Virginia. I posted 28 minutes and 42 seconds (This was the accomplishment of another of my 43 Things as well! To run a 5k in under 30 minutes) and placed 114 out around 180. Michelle was about 10 seconds and three people behind me. It was 25 degrees and snowing. 5K in the cold and snow is definitely a new experience for me. Next year, and I will run it again next year, I plan on having a full balaclava. My face wasn't working when we finished. I raced the guy who placed 115 neck-and-neck for the better part of two blocks. At the end I had a little more than he did and pulled ahead, but I went to congratulate him and such, and as I was shaking his hand all I could get out was "Conssazhhalahyan...goofinsh." It was then I realized that my jaw muscles were too cold to function. I have to say that I had a good time with the other crazies, running in the snow. I've always prided myself on being a little odd, and I think this falls right in line with that assessment. Ok, what else...the novel! Not too much to report here, with the exception that I have done some work WITH it, but not exactly ON it. See, the last two times I have started to write, I have ended up working on the world building and magic system. Two things that Brandon Sanderson touched on at his signing in Dayton. I started thinking things through and ended up realizing that I needed to understand the world I was writing in a little better before I could progress much further. It is tricky to write in a world of your own making, because you really can't take anything for granted. Everything from the geology to the political climate can effect your writing. (Robert Jordan is perhaps the best world builder I have ever read. I don't intend to go into nearly as much detail as he did, but I love the idea of it. I get the feeling that when RJ wrote about a broken teapot, he knew when it was broken, and who did it, and why, even if he never told you.) Most of the writing I've done in the past two months won't be in the novel itself, but it is the framework on which the book must rest, and for that reason is it very important. Possibly more important than the book itself. Let me leave it at the fact that Merrick is progressing, however slowly, but progressing nonetheless. In other news, Michelle and I actually went on our Vesuvius Backpacking Trip! I think I can be brief and just say that we had a great time, and found our equipment to be sufficient for the kind of weather we'll be expecting on the AT, but the trip itself really deserves its own entry to do it justice. Though, you can view 39 pictures from the trip with comments by going HERE. You know, looking at the gallery, it's kind of a photo blog in and of itself. Let me know what you think! Lastly, I would like to say that I really appreciate you, the readers. It's cool to know that you're enjoying reading along with me here. It keeps me looking for the next post in my day to day life! :) Additionally, It is amazing enough that friends and family read what I write, but I was particularly jazzed (I know what you're thinking. "Jazzed? Who talks like that?") to get a comment from someone I've never met! Thanks for the note of appreciation! I'll close this entry before it gets too much longer. More to come, guaranteed! Talk to you soon! -J

5k Finishes, Then and Now...

So, I decided I needed to do a post because I just got an e-mail with some pictures from the Good Samaritan 5k this past weekend. I found the pictures of Michelle and Me, and was a little excited by what they revealed. Let me first post the finish of the Ironton Memorial Day 5k back on May 26th. About 3 months and 1 week ago. Be warned, this image may be shocking or offensive to...well, mostly me. :) This is one of those pictures taken on a downward step so I look like I'm melting, but for better or worse, here it is:

The first thing you might notice is the look of dire distress on my face, even in the downward pull of my stride. It is quite evident. You'll note that even though I am sweating, and desperate in appearance, Michelle has a pretty relaxed, "Stroll in the park" kind of look on her face, and is in fact, not sweating after a 3 mile run. Not sweating. Ole 495 there looks pretty good too for having finished the race well ahead of us and taken a walk back up the course a little way, and is now returning to the finish line. I find that the contrast in this picture makes it absolutely hilarious. :)

Ok, on to the next stop! This one of two pictures from last week, September 1st, that I'll post. First, in the style of those infomercials that show you a before picture where the light is bad, the clothes are bad, and the pose is bad, then they show you the after, where the lighting, pose and clothes have been replaced so that the person would look better no matter what you had done to their face with your miracle product! Behold:

This picture was taken in an infinitely better part of my stride. In the up half. Because of that, everything looks a little less...melty. There is, of course, a little less to melt and that helps too, but the really important difference is that Michelle and I are about to finish this race and we are both strong enough to look determined and even happy to be there! I was so glad to be able to look at this picture and see us both with that "stroll in the park" look on our faces! Ok, maybe I'm a little more, "brisk jog in the park", but that's better than, "Someone help me. Oh dear, oh dear, my face is melting off, would someone pick up my face and bring it to the finish line for me?"

So there you have it, Michelle and I have made great progress so far, and these pictures are super motivational for me. It's great to be able to track yourself in pictures! It'll be worth it later in life for our health if we manage to keep this up, but the good thing about it, is that it's worth it right now! That makes it so much easier to get out there and run. By the way, we ran an 8:07 this evening!

Ok, so where's the third picture? Ok, just so you can't say, oh he left out the ones with weird faces! This blog is rigged! Here is another picture from last weekend that was taken on the downward half:

This one was taken right after a bit of an incline right before the home stretch. This was taken about 3-4 blocks before the second shot there. Note that Michelle is still just as happy as a lark, while I am catching my breath. But there is still a difference. Note the eyes that seem to be carved from granite! Note the finely chiseled pectoral mahscles! (eh not so much...still working on that chiseled thing) Seriously though, I'm much happier with both of these pictures, and I just wanted to share! Thanks for reading and talk to you all soon!

-J

Quick General Update

Some of you may be wondering, "Hey, where's my pottery update this week?" I can understand your dismay, and I would understand completely if you wrote me hate mail or something. But I promise, I have not dropped the ball in any way. Actually, there was no pottery class this week, owing to Labor Day activities. Class resumes next Tuesday night, and there'll be an update then for sure. But, just so there is at least a little something to read, I decided to do a quick post anyway. I thought everyone who has been following my progress with fitness and such, might like to know that Michelle and I ran an 8:19 mile tonight. That works out to about 7.2mph, and it's our fastest yet. My fastest by about 30 seconds. Our plan is to run in the Jingle Bell Run this year in December as I believe I mentioned, and we want to make an excellent showing. We're planning on pushing our mile time as low as we can manage, so we can get used to those kinds of paces, and then back off to something a little more comfortable for the actual run at the end of the year. My under 30 minute 5k is very close. :) In other news, you may or may not know that Michelle and I have been working to pay off all of our debt except the mortgage since we got married. We took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University as soon as we were married and have been working the principles of it since June of 2005. This September budget marked three years and three months of work and it finally paid off. Our credit card debt has been gone for a long time now, but we finished the cars this month and we are now officially debt free with the exception of the mortgage and the land we intend to build on sometime next year. The only credit card we have is the one work makes me carry. I'd lose that one if they'd let me. The next step is fleshing out our emergency fund. Finally we'll be saving money rather than pouring it into a debt hole! YAY!!! I'd like to extend some thank yous to the people involved in keeping me from ending up broke somewhere down the road: I'd like to thank Dad and Donita for buying me the Financial Peace University kit. At the time, I'm certain I wouldn't have bought it myself. I'd also like to thank my Alan, my brother-in-law for actually facilitating the class at church. It takes someone with dedication and excitement toward an idea to truly sell you on it. I think I might be more sold on it than he is! Thanks also to Michelle, who by agreeing to marry me, gave me the incentive to straighten up and be responsible. Well, more accurately, I didn't want her to think I was an idiot with my money. I'm still not terribly responsible. I'm just glad she didn't have to marry TOO much debt. :) Thanks to Dave Ramsey for going flat broke and coming out of it. The best teaching aid is a hard lesson. I'm glad he learned it for me and was gracious enough to pass it on. Thanks to God most of all, for lining all of this up. Right place, right time, right people. I think I am a better person for all of the work that these people put in for my future. Not just better financially, but better in general. I'm holding more loosely to the things that I have, more tightly to the people in my life, and more closely to God because I have seen him work some amazing wonders over the last 3 years. -J

The 2008 Good Samaritan Soles 5k

Well, today was the big day. Michelle and I ran our second 5k and it was a great time! I just wanted to post our results and let you know how we did. First, let me say that we both made a vast improvement over our first 5k on Memorial Day in Ironton. As yet, I have not accomplished my goal of a 5k run under 30 minutes, but today I came very, very close. Michelle and I both shaved a full 7 minutes from our time in Ironton. Let me post the results of both races so you can see the difference: Memorial Day, May 26th -Overall Time: 37:14 Pace: 11:59 Labor Day, September 1st -Overall Time: 30:18 Pace: 9:45 Yes, had we run a little bit faster overall, we would've made the under 30 minute goal. I'm still extremely happy with the result though, and I couldn't be more proud that we have set our sights on this and stayed with it. The under 30 minute thing doesn't have to be an official race anyway. I can keep trying in the park until I get it! :) It's a very rewarding thing anyway! We are already looking for another 5k to train for so we can try to lower our time, and stay motivated. Probably going to be the Jingle Bell Run in Huntington this December. Cold running might be interesting. So, how did things go? Well, I learned first of all that it's next to impossible to drink water and run. That is not only an exercise in futility, but it's also quite hilarious. :) This race was markedly different in feeling than my first one. In the first race I thought I might keel over and die, but this time, I knew I could finish. I even had something left at the end to push for a couple of seconds and get there a couple of seconds faster. When I finished and finally stopped to catch my breath, the Rocky music was actually playing over the loud speakers. Now you might think it's corny, but I had to really force down an impulse to throw my hands up, training montage style. The only thing missing was the bulky grey sweatsuit. I had a good chuckle to myself about it. Maybe it's a guy thing, but I really don't think so. I'd imagine it crosses everyone's mind when something like that happens. In May, I felt like I showed up where a bunch of runners were doing their thing and tried my hand, somewhat infringing on the whole running thing. Today I felt like a runner. Afterward we all stood around talking and laughing, and enjoying the feeling of accomplishing something. It was good to see a couple of friends from high school who have taken up running as well. They have been doing this longer than Michelle and I, but they started somewhere too. It's inspiring to see people you know doing something and to know that you can get where they are if you keep at it. I also wanted to congratulate Michelle. Her time placed her second in her age group! Another minute and a half and she'd have medaled today! I'm very proud of her! :) After all is said and done, we have accomplished what we set out to do. We aren't finished though. We're going to keep running and trying to improve. It'll probably be slower progress now, but there'll be some progress. Do we have the running bug? No I don't think so. It's something we know we should do. Maybe at some point I'll get out there for a run and realize that it's not a "should do" but a "want to do". We'll see. All went well. Thank God we're able to run and enjoy our health. We ran a good race today. And at the end, I finally got to have my banana. -J

Fitness Update

I haven't done a fitness update in awhile, so I thought I'd let you all know how I was doing in case you're curious, and hopefully to inspire those of you who may have fitness goals of your own! Let's begin shall we? My current and lowest weight in my bid for fitness to date is 189.6 pounds. That brings me to a grand total of about 38 pounds lost. My original goal is 50 pounds total, and that one is clearly in sight. 12 pounds to go and I'm there. Around 177.5 pounds. However, as I am not certain if I've mentioned before, my secondary, and in fact final weight goal is 165. I want to stay somewhere between 160 and 170. That is the weight that will put me solidly inside my healthy BMI range. If I manage to do this, I'll weigh less than I did in high school, and I'll also weigh less than I did when I lost my accumulated college weight. Most people know that I lost 76 pounds late in college with the Subway diet and walking. That took me from a max weight of 253 down to 177. Before beginning this last attempt I had put weight on back up to 227.5. So, with a 12 pound sub goal, and a total remaining goal of approximately 24.5 pounds, I feel primed to go, prepared to go the distance and positive that I will make this happen. On a related note, I bought some new shirts today! I was really excited because new clothes are a great way to enjoy weight loss and to motivate you to keep going. Also if you throw away your old ones, you have nothing to grow back into, so backsliding = buying more clothes that you won't enjoy. Jon's Fitness Law #1 : No one ever got in shape by buying bigger pants. So anyway, not only did I get four shirts and a tie, all of which I really like, but I got them on clearance. Yes. The shirts and tie that would have cost me $56 total at full price, cost me about $30! That's nearly a 50% discount. Dave Ramsey would be proud. :) Ok, so things are also ramping up for the Labor Day 5k in Ceredo-Kenova. Michelle and I have been training pretty hard and I think we can come close to a 30 minute time. One of my goals on 43 things, as I think I have mentioned, is a sub-30 minute 5k. I think it's possible, but I can't say for sure if I'll pull it off this Labor Day. Could happen if I have a really good day. In case I didn't post my Memorial day 5k time, it was 37:15. Michelle and I finished within a second of each other. This time, we will definitely see a decrease in the time. How much depends on how we are feeling when the race happens. Rest assured that the time and a report will be posted here the very day that the race is run. Related to running, Jen P. told me that her doctor once told her that for each pound of weight you shed, you are actually taking four pounds of pressure off of your knees. That would explain why running has become a less painful affair for me. 38 x 4 = 150 pounds of pressure! My knees are definitely behaving better since last fall when I injured the left one in a glorious stage dive. The right one, which has bothered me since high school marching band, is doing pretty well also. It aches, but it works. So lastly, let me give you a couple of really useful websites. One, which I picked up from Eric, is a pedometer hack for Google Maps. Located here. It comes in handy when you run or walk somewhere, and then have to wonder how far you ran. I recommend using the hybrid map/satellite setting. Secondly, I stumbled across this handy site while looking for an easier way to convert MPH to and from various other measurements. The Arkansas Runner Calculators Page located here. I hope you've enjoyed my little update. I'll keep you posted on all the exciting new developments leading up to the big mountain trek in the spring! :) -J