First Day of Kangeiko!

Good evening! How are you tonight? I am well, thank you!

I started the day with my alarm clock waking me at 3:45 A.M. (which was intentional)! The boys and I decided to tackle another year at Kangeiko. It is a week long karate training in which we train our bodies to function in adverse conditions. It's really a mental training as well as physical.

Got the boys up. I got dressed and still had some extra time so I put on some makeup for once! I usually am on the run and don't have time to put any on! Went out to the car to heat it up before we left. The car registered 11 degrees! Jordan used the scraper to clear the frost from my windshield. We left at 4:17. We arrived at the dojo at 5:00 A.M. It didn't start until 5:30, but I was surprised at how quickly we made the drive today. One thing about the main sensei, Sensei Nagatomo does NOT tolerate tardiness in the least bit. His philosophy is if you are going to be late, don't bother coming at all! We actually arrived before he did today! Tomorrow we plan on waking up at 4:00 and leave by 4:30. That should give us enough time to get there, put our stuff away and stretch out before training begins.

Promptly at 5:30, we run out of the dojo wearing our GI's (our uniforms) and tennis shoes only. No hats, gloves, coats, scarves or socks. We run a mile no matter what the weather is like. It actually warmed up to a balmy 27 degrees by the time we started running! I ran a mile about 1 1/2 weeks ago just to try and start preparing for training. I ran it then about 9 minutes 17 seconds. Prior to that one time, I hadn't run a mile since last year's Kangeiko. This morning I ran it in 8 minutes 27 seconds! My goal tomorrow is to try and get it as close to 8 minutes as I can! Mind you, the first 1/2 mile is "easy", it is down hill. The second half is up hill all the way back to the dojo! It seemed a little bit easier this time than last year. Last year, I thought I was going to die the first day!

Once we return back to the dojo, we use the rest room, get a drink, put our watches in the dressing rooms, or whatever we need to do. Then re go onto the dojo floor for training until 6:45 A.M. This years dojo theme is opportunity. You have to (1) see the opportunity, (2) grab the opportunity, and (3) use the opportunity. Today we focused on front snap kicks. We practiced Hein Shodan several times, each time trying to improve and not just repeat our same actions. Then we did Hein Shodan with a front snap kick in between each counted movement.

We had a great time training today! I was very impressed. We had I think about 10 people from our East Mountain dojo come to Kangeiko this morning. It really is a long way to come and especially being that early in the morning, it's tough trying to get people motivated to come! So after class, Sensei Caesar invited all of us (and Sensei Nagatomo and his two daughters) out for coffee. We went to the Flying Star Cafe. We had a great time visiting.

After breakfast, I headed down to Untied Blood services and donated blood...probably not such a good idea to do it the first day of training! Oh well...

Came home and the boys did school as usual. Had a wonderful dinner of rabbit stew with Nathan and the kids tonight. I really like my cornbread with butter and our honey! It's ok mom, I worked off the calories this morning! I am actually surprised. With all the cooking that I do, I have still lost a total of 25 pounds and have maintained my weight without putting on the "holiday" weight. Karate has helped me in a lot of ways. Not only has it helped me to mentally focus, it has helped me physically to trim down and also tone up. For some silly reason last week, I did something and happened to flex my arm when I noticed I actually had a muscle that went up, not sagging down! I have never had arm muscles before! My jaw hit the floor!!! Nathan was just snickering at me because I couldn't believe I actually had a muscle! Sorry...little things that amuse me...

Well, good night. I must turn in for the night if I have any hope of waking up at 4:00! Rest well...I know I will! God bless!