I really missed the regular classes this week. With less than 30 days left before testing, I wanted to have Sifu Frietag look at my forms to see which one I should work on the most. I wanted to work on the bags and time my kicks. I had questions about theory, and I needed a partner, with a sifu watching, as a I practiced the curriculum one-steps, techniques, and close combat/takedowns. But the training hall is dismantled, and I was kept busy, painting, painting, painting; taping, taping, untaping, untaping; scrubbing, scrubbing, scouring.

It was nice getting to know some of the students in a different venue though. That Mr. Robinson is a very easy going guy; something I don't think I would have seen in the structured format of classes. I liked working with him. He got my jokes. I think we will understand eachother alot better in classes. That Sihing Langner too. Such a warm-hearted person. And not afraid to work hard. I just wish she hadn't set such a high standard when it came to scrubbing floors! Mrs. Prince and I worked very well together. We got alot accomplished on our shift together, and in-between tasks, I found myself giving her lots of advice about raising two daughters. I hope she didn't mind.

I managed to keep up a good pace of training this week also. But tonight I realized that the biggest challenge for me will be not to overtrain. I had increased my timed kicks (1 minute, each leg of side heel, front thrust, round house and spinning back kicks) to every day last week. Though I was gratified to see my numbers creeping up to the ratings I had set as a goal a few weeks ago, I noticed soreness in my knee joints. It is hard to resist the urge to train really hard every day when it seems that every minute of every day counts. I have to make a concerted effort to mix it up. Strength and flexibilty one day, kicks and cardio another day, and so on.

I've discovered stairs at as a way to push my cardiovascular conditioning without putting as much stress on my heel. I had totally forgotten this as a form of training, until Jill came back from Vancouver where she trained at an International Badminton camp. They had her doing stairs every day, and that reminded me of when I was on the high school track team, and we had to do stairs every day. It was brutal, but I don't think there are many more effective excersizes for power, footwork and legwork and endurance.

People about my age at Servus Place have started to chat with me. A fellow named Randy asked about my forms and it turns out that he is a black belt teacher of Wado Kai Karate, and that the Karate black belt fellow who is training at Silent River knows him. Randy wished me luck in my test. A lady in her mid-fifties named Rachel approached me to compliment me on my kicks. "You are so fit!" she exclaimed. Then she sprinted round the track 2 times, running so beautifully and powerfully and I remembered that I had seen her before at the Fowler track. I asked her about her training. She is competing in the World Masters in Australia next month. We wished eachother luck. Today another fellow who focused on walking laps around the track at a very fast pace asked about the Chi Kung stretches. Its a good feeling having this type of feedback. At first I had felt so uncomfortable doing kicks and forms at the gym while everyone else did laps, weights, pilates, yoga, and team-sport specific training. But now I see that people are simply intrigued by the martial arts.