I have not been entirely satisfied with some aspects of my progress towards Black Belt testing lately. This has caused me a bit of worry, but mostly frustration with myself for not getting myself to the place I want to be. This last week has given me reason to feel a little more optimistic.

1. Physical conditioning: After reviewing the Fighter's Body late in May, I decided to use June to get my home training to a good starting point for a 3-month program suggested in the book. It wasn't until last week, that I felt that I was making progress.

I managed to do Power, Strength, and Agility training each day. This consisted of daily, 150 pushups, 125-300 situps and crunches, 20 combination kicks or front thrust-sideheel-back kick, 100 crescent kicks, 50 cross step kicks, 50 front thrust kicks from horse stance, and 50 hidden leg techniques. The kicks met sihing kicko's 99 day challenge of 15 minutes of kicking each day. Additionally, for agility, I managed to practice some jumping for lion dance agility, and some stretching. I believe that this is a good program because it works on core, arms and legs.

I also finally worked in a cardio training alternative to running, which follows a 7 week program of cycle fitness training. I did a 45 minute spin class at Servus Place which counts as a 'quick spin' component for sprint or speed training, and a 'long push' component for endurance and power on hills. I also did a 45 minute session of outside riding following the guidelines for the 'stamina booster' session. On Sunday, I will be going for a one hour 'long leisurely ride' which is supposed to keep my heart rate at a certain level for a certain period of time. So that's 3 days of cycling as reccomended for week one of the program which, after 7 weeks will get me to the next level towards my goal of entering into a charity ride this fall. I am happy with this program because it sets mini goals which keep me motivated to increase the cardio consistently over the long term and it helps me peak at just about the right time.

2. Forms: My daily forms practice (18 Temple Motions to follow up on sihing class, and Cane for I Ho Chuan class), increased, though I need to pick this up a little more by increasing the number of daily repetitions. And I somehow managed to entirely ignore Lao Gar which is not good for my Personal Black Belt requirement of 1000 repetitions of this form.

3. Techniques: Despite some very creative ideas on my part, I just have not been able to attack this portion of my home training with much success. Sifu Brinker must have read my mind this week, because he addressed this issue in sihing class on Friday, and I'm convinced that he looked pointedly at me when he was hammering a few points home to the group of us. The main point was that in order to know the curriculum we have to teach it. Now that summer is here, and the girls' weekly evening committments have changed, I will have some opportunities to get to the training hall for the classes on Monday, and/or Wednesday. This week I'll be there on Monday.

4. Meanness: As a group of sihings, we've been told we are not mean enough, and I know this is probably true of me. I was going to ask for some suggestions on how to work on this in class on Friday, but once again, Sifu Brinker must have read my mind and I didn't have to ask; the class was dedicated to it as we partnered up and punched and elbowed eachother in the ribs. It was a good session of practicing being mean, and it gave me some direction on how to practice this aspect at home.

5. Leadership: I had been stalled on the leadership seminar assignment of researching my project in preparation for a presentation. Last week I managed to find a chunk of uninterrupted time to plunk myself in front a computer for over 2 hours, and research my topic. I just hope I haven't lost my notes, which I have totally lost track of. With that thought, I will end my journal post here, and go look for them.