The Importance of Socks

So, I just came back from kicking some calculus butt, and swung by the track on my way home. Not to run, but to calibrate my Nike+. I knew I needed to calibrate it like, today, because I'm a horrible procrastinator when it comes to things like that, and if I waited too long I would never do it and it would sit on my wrist a really cool watch for eternity. So I manned up and headed down to the track where there were a plethora of hard body types. Ran a lap at my usual pace, passed 4 of 'em. Hahahaaha. Victoryyyyyyy.

But anyways, apparently I fail because it didn't record the 1/4 mile at all. Frustrated I tried again and *cough* actually read the directions this time. Walked the 1/4 mile to get the best reading, and turned it off. It read .28 of a mile at the end of the lap, but that's an easy fix.

Early prediction here guys, I think I'm going to love this thing. As I was flipping through the different settings, it just got coolers and cooler. First of all, the pace reading isn't in mph, it shows your actual mile speed. So if I want to be running constantly at say, 8:15 mile pace, it shows that and I don't have to do math in my head. Awesome. Also, shows how long I've been running. Like, there's a watch mode, and then it goes, you've been running for 3 minutes and 23 seconds...cool! That's perfect for intervals, and once again, I don't have to keep track of times in my head. Also, calories burned? So cool!

So yah....The thing is cool.

Onto the title story, socks. So yesterday during my epic shopping adventure, my mom and I were in Target picking up water, Gatorade, etc. After we've finished up in the toilet paper section, I begin running up and down the cleaning aisle hunting for Febreeze Sport. It's supposed to eliminate the odor of sweat. After not being able to find it, I expressed my intense disappointment to my mother, and the following conversation happened:

Mom- "Why do you want it anyway? Just wash your clothes."
Emmz- "1) It costs $2 to do laundry. I don't think so. 2) I don't need it for my clothes, I need it for my stinky running shoes."
Mom- "Why are your shoes so stinky?"
Emmz- "Because I don't wear socks, duh."

Awkward pause.

Mom- "So...wear socks."
Emmz- "Don't own any."
Mom- "You don't own any socks?!"
Emmz-"Nope.
"Mom- "So you're going to have my buy $5 Febreeze instead of buying socks?"
Emmz- "Ah, see, YOU buying $5 Febreeze is different from me buying socks. Socks are clothes, and since I buy my own clothes, they didn't make the budget this quarter."
Mom-"For crying out loud child, I will buy you socks!"

Emmz's Reaction:
Master has given Emmz a sock!

Why Taekwondo?

So, I was doing some research last night on the interwebs, putting together my competition schedule beginning late December/early January next year when I hope to be ready to return to competition. I'm nervous as all gettup about it, but it makes me want to push harder already.

Meanwhile, the incredibly hilarious B.Jones, who now has a permanent place of honor on this blog, left a great comment mentioning how my posts make him think about putting his kids in martial arts. This got me to thinking about all of the parents I've met while teaching, and several of the questions I receive once someone finds out what my job is. Since I've always wanted a platform to talk about teaching taekwondo on, and now I have one, let's get going!

Question #1- Is it dangerous?

Well, yes and no. Life's dangerous. Sports are dangerous. I can't guarantee that your child won't be hurt doing taekwondo, that's impossible. What I can tell you is my experience. Personally, the only injuries I've ever received doing TKD are a sprained ankle and knee, separated by around 3 years. Yes, you get bruised a bit once you start to spar (practice fight), but Olympic standards dictate that head, chest, arms, hands, shins and feet be covered in padding. Honestly, there are more injuries in cheerleading than TKD. As an instructor, I have never had a student injured seriously during a class.

Question #2-How long will it take to get a blackbelt? Once I have a blackbelt, am I a master?

The first question depends entirely on your system. I've trained under two separate international bodies- International TKD Federation, and World TKD Federation (ITF, WTF). Under both systems the average seemed to run between 2-2.5 years to get a blackbelt. However, I encourage students not to countdown the time until blackbelt. A blackbelt is an amazing achievement, but it is really only the true beginning of a journey in taekwondo. Receiving your first dan means you have mastered all basic techniques. Once you've "crossed over to the other side" you begin to train to teach and share your knowledge, along with beginning to have mastery over other elements like weapons. 7 years after getting my first blackbelt, 13 years after starting training, and I'm still training basic elements like round house kick, because they can always be better.

Question #3- What will my child get out of taekwondo?

There are five tenets to taekwondo- courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, and indomitable spirit. The sport is built around teaching these and impressing these values into their students. Courtesy is impressed by how we must treat our instructors, fellow students, and training hall during class. Bowing, saying thank you, yes ma'am/no ma'am; all of these things are taught in taekwondo. Integrity is taught through pushing students to be honest at home and at school, as well as in TKD class. If a student fails to show integrity in one of these areas, consequences are given (push-ups, missing out on board breaking) in class. Because students want to participate in these activities, many parents see better behavior in their children. Perseverance is one of my favorite tenets, and I think TKD got it right. TKD is one of the only sports where there is a definitive reward system. You are encouraged to persevere through difficult training in order to receive a new belt. It promotes the concept that with hard work, comes great reward. Self-control- It takes impeccable self-control to learn martial arts and not use them. In class, students must exercise self-control to behave properly, but it is outside class where this really comes into effect. In every single school I have trained in, if a student is caught using their martial arts to instigate fights, that student's career could very well be through. TKD is all about knowing how to fight, and knowing that it is a last resort. And finally, indomitable spirit. This comes more from seeing yourself grow as a martial artist more than anything else. By practicing TKD, students come to realize the importance of never backing down on a goal or dream, and this refusal to be beat is what makes champions of all students.

Question #4- Sure, this is great for boys. But what about my daughter?

...Are you really asking a female TKD instructor this?

But seriously, TKD is hands down my favorite martial art for girls, and I'll tell you why. Martial arts is male-dominated, it's true. In many arts, you will not find a single female practitioner. I know this from experience; my brother is a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu student, and while I've always been interested in taking it, even as a blackbelt in another martial art I'm uncomfortable taking it up because it is all men. The instructor himself told me he did not have a single female student. But walk into any TKD studio and you will not only find several female students, odds are there will be at least one female instructor. This is mostly because the sport is the largest martial art in the USA, but also because females can truly excel at TKD. Flexibility, agility, grace- all these things are natural to many female athletes, and they shine in TKD. Now, I'm not saying another martial art couldn't be great for females, Ronda Rousey has shown judo can be amazing for girls, I'm just saying odds are your daughter will find better role models, friends, and excellence in TKD. Plus, girls kick guy butt all the time in TKD. Just sayin'.

Question #5- My kids do TKD....can I?

YES! I had a 73 year old man who came with his grandfather and they both got blackbelts together. TKD is for all ages, and instructors are sympathetic if you can't quite bend like an 8 year old. This doesn't mean anyone will go easy on you, it's a workout! But it's amazing fun, and I love seeing parents and children get new belts together. You can't do soccer team with your kid, but you can do TKD. Plus, most families that do it together tend to stick it out, because once the kids lose interest after a year, the parents are totally hooked, keep coming, and eventually the kids find their way back.


Finally, let me just say that TKD is the most rewarding thing I've ever done with my life. One of the main motivating reasons behind me getting back into competitions is so that I will have better credentials to start an experiential psychotherapy program based on the tenets of TKD for children with both learning deficiencies and negative behavior patterns that I hope to practice out of my own do-jang, and eventually introduce into a public school system.

Unfortunately, this requires grad school, so I'm off to study. Calculus, you're about to be schooled!

With great gear comes great responsibility...

So, today my mom and I set sail on a 3 hour drive to drop me back off in Austin. And since I'm a retail merchandising (cough shopping cough) major, and she's the mother of a retail merchandising major, we had to stop in the outlet malls along our way there.

Why is this relevant?

Cause I got mad fitness equipment man!

We first stopped off in the Nike outlet store, because I'd been convinced to try out the Nike+ Sportband. I'm really excited to run with it, hopefully going to bust it out Wednesday. Meanwhile, it's going to get charged and sit all spiffy on my wrist tomorrow. Cause it's a watch too! Watch.

Second, I grabbed a sweet jump rope also from Nike. It's an adjustable speed rope, and I'll write more about it later. Let's just say, it's part 3 of my plan. Not a watch.

Then I went on an epic quest to find the perfect running shirt. Why epic? Let's take it back a bit, and you'll see.
I live in Texas. Texas is HOT. Now, my part of Texas, the Austin variety, was pretty cool this winter. We actually had snow! I'd never seen snow before!

Miracle.

So I got to run in my favorite outfit ever for the first couple of weeks of C25K. That would be Nike running shorts, sports bra (NOT NIKE!!!!), and Nike running jacket I scored for $20 a year ago at the Nike outlet. It's comfy, cozy, and jackets give lots of support to girls. However, during my last run I realized this outfit was no longer practical. Its getting too hot to run in long sleeves, and I can't run late at night when it is cool enough, its too dangerous downtown. So I go to look for some running shirts. I prefer my running shirts to be loose fitting and long. Not too picky of criteria, yes? Apparently not. Neither Reebox, Adidas, or New Balance had anything that wasn't skin tight or racer back. I don't run for practice in racer backs on principle, in the Texas sun you get burned like crazy and I have tendency to forget sunscreen. I finally caved and went into Under Armor which I cheat on Nike with, but its kind of a pricey. Scored the perfect shirt for $20. Not too bad. Not as good as B.Jones, but we can't all be Goodwill gurus.

But the biggest, best part of this new equipment spree was what my dad surprised me with when I got home from Austin this weekend.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is a NEW HEAVY BAG.
I wish I had a picture of the old one.
It was red, leather softened with age, and literally had duck tape wrapped around the middle to keep it together from 2 separate times where it was split it half by back kicks, first time by my 9 blackbelt holding godfather, and the 2nd time by me. I loved that ol' bag, and I'm glad it was passed on to a young martial artist in the neighborhood. But as sad as I was initially to see my bad was gone...um, hello? That new bag is amazing!

All in all, excited to use my new gear as soon as possible!

Blood Pressure Machines hate me

So today I took a quick journey to the doctors to be told in a total of maybe 3 minutes that I had an upper respiratory infection, and given a prescription. Awesome, so I'll be running by tomorrow right?...Right?

Whatever.

Since I have no new news on exercise, thought I'd take a day to deal with a personal gripe. Blood pressure machines hate me.

Every single time I go to the doctors, I'm saddled up with a blood pressure machine which spits out some (varying) ridiculously high or low number. Since I'm young and look like exactly what I am, a former athlete gone slightly to seed, I often get super confused looks.

"Do you have a history of high/low blood pressure?"
"No."
"Did you drink a lot of caffeine....?"
"No."
"...I'm going to take it manually."
"You do that."

Manually, I'm golden. I'm so golden, I get the same reading every time (114/79). I'm told I have a great heart beat, and they can't figure out why the machine hates me. I'm not worried about having high/low blood pressure, especially since this is the 5th time this has happened, and every time they take it manually I'm fine. This worries me because I don't want to go on some bogus high blood pressure medication and wind up passing out in the middle of a run. This worries me because I hope its not happening to other people who might not be so quick to challenge it.

This also worries me because it makes me question all sorts of heart monitoring equipment. What if I buy a Garmin and the heart rate monitor hates me too?

Maybe its just me.

But if any of you other runners out there ever get a bogus reading off a machine with a vendetta, challenge it. Take the extra 3 minutes to get it checked manually. Fight the power!

Emmz vs. Emmz's Body, Round 2, Down for the count

When I last wrote, I was optimistic. I had a fever, but I wasn't feeling too crazy bad. 3 hours later, I could barely move and had never felt such a fever in my adult life. Whipped out my emergency thermometer, thinking it had to be over 100.

103.2

Ouch.

I immediately called my mommy despite it being 2 am, who called our doctor, who told me to take aspirin, use tepid wash cloths, and lay around in my skivvies.

2.5 hours later, I'm down to 99. 0, thank God, and feeling much better.

Don't think I'll be up to running tomorrow, and no reason I should be. Definitely going to lay low this entire weekend. Also thinking I'm going to repeat week 3. I want to get my speed up, and this whole illness thing just going to knock me back. But I'm in no hurry, my original end date was somewhere around May 9th, and I'm not making it back to Cypress (hometown) for summer until May 21st, which is when I really wanted to be done by. In happier news, parents will be here to pick me up in the morning for Easter, and I can't wait to be home.

A little annoyed that just as I'm getting into the swing of things that something like this happened, but you gotta roll with the punches.

Emmz vs. Emmz's Body, round 1

So in addition to being a running goddess (or something close to that), I am a student. Students have tests. Students don't always study for these tests in time because 3 of their 4 classes decided to have tests/papers due in the same week. So, I pulled an all nighter. Yah, yah, its bad for you! You'll never retain the same amount of information if you studied properly! I get it. I'm usually responsible and don't pull them, I just had absolutely no choice.

The result? An aced exam and broken down body. I started getting coughing fits somewhere around 2am, and its just turned into a pretty bad cold. I'm feverish, broken down coughing, want my mommy, and have only been able to keep down around 300 calories. While I usually feel pretty bad after all-nighters, its never this bad. Think I'm going to blame this on not wiping down my exercise equipment at the gym before using it. I tried to, but they were all out sanitation wipes. Note to self- bring my own! Since our gym is used by around....30,000 students? I'd say thats a smart idea. Meanwhile, I'm going to keep the exercise to a bare minimum and just do my 100/200/200 and maybe some super light yoga. This isn't because I'm a masochist who wants to push myself when I'm down, I need to stretch my muscles or event if I'm physically able to run tomorrow, my legs will hate me.

Excited to go home tomorrow and hopefully get a run in over the weekend. Fingers crossed!

Sweet Dreams

So, last night I had a dream about running.

I don't remember the specifics, all I know is that it was actually about running and not just me running away from something, or towards something (like ice cream..hmmm, ice cream).

This made me stop and give pause though, because, well...dreams are highly personal things. Who is this running to jump all up into them and interrupt me from doing something better like kissing Alan Rickman or eating ice cream (man, I want ice cream).

It took me a whole semester to dream about college instead of high school. Yup, I was sleeping soundly in my dorm, dreaming that I was going to miss a paper date or something to that effect in my old senior English class.

So, how on Earth after only almost-4-weeks did running manage to pop up into my sub-conscious?

Maybe because, thanks to the amazing inspiration stories over at c25k.com, its become my new favorite thing. I remember reading a post on the forums over there about when you know you're a runner. And I thought to myself, I never want to be a runner, I want to be someone who runs to train for taekwondo. But after reading about so many people who want only to run, and how much happiness it brings them it's completely changed my perspective on running. I want to be a runner.

An old taekwondo coach of mine once told me, if you have time to be something else, you're not trying hard enough. He was referring to my propensity to skip practice to go to rowing camps at the time, but over the years it has stuck with me and it was with that attitude that I began c25k. I was using the program to build up my cardio and lose weight with the sole purpose of being able to get back into the do-jang. Now, I'm running to run. And after I get back into the do-jang, I'm going to run. And once my career is over, and I'm old and pooping out babies, I'm going to run. And as I'm running, I'm going to remind myself, gosh darnit, I like this. Because I can be a runner and a taekwondoist. They're not competing with each other. And yah, I'm going to use running to train for tkd. But I'm also going to use tkd to train to run.

I am so excited to be a runner.