Korea adopted paper-making from China, along with Buddhism, in the 4th century CE. The most common material for paper-making in Korea is paper mulberry. Korean paper, called hanji, had a staggering number of uses in traditional Korean life; paper hats, umbrellas, cups, envelopes, and boxes were all common. This box, likely used as a sewing box, is decorated with auspicious symbols.

Taekwondo tonight. Unintentionally a private lesson - I was the only student in the class. I guess everyone else was enjoying the unseasonable warm weather and/or valentine’s day?

Mark just asked me what I wanted to work on in advance of the promotion test coming up on Saturday. Which was pretty much just forms, self defense, and a few other odds & ends. After watching me do (almost) all the taegeuk on my own before class, he had me do them in reverse order. That is, instead of going through taegeuk 1 then 2 then 3 etc, start with 8 then 7 etc. Not to do all the moves backwards. That would be insanity! But as simple as it sounds, doing them in reverse taegeuk order actually threw me for a loop. Apparently I’ve built in some memory mechanisms based on what I’ve done previously, so I stumbled to remember a few things.

Then we moved on to the self defense forms, 1 through 12, the few of which are still kind of new to me. The good part is that a few of them start the same as some of the previous forms. But that’s also the bad part - it can make them easier to mix up :)

After I threw him on the ground a large number of times, he told me that sometimes Master Chung asks higher belts to perform them all consecutively instead of a usual pause in between forms - such that as soon as attacker and defender are back on their feet, the attacker attacks again. So Mark had me do that, and that was also a nice challenge.

Then he had me do 360° kicks up and down the long way of the dojang, one after the other after the other, trying to get me to better learn to turn my head properly to get less dizzy. It was ... somewhat successful. I wish I had the space to practice things like that on my own at home.

From last night after I got home.

I actually had a bit of a buzz from drinks after work, but not too much to get through a little extra work!

No, it’s not a ton, but I did go through all 8 taegeuk (and I’m actually pretty sure I remembered all the steps from each form), and did taegeuk 8 (my current practice form) a couple of extra times. I also think I thought I messed up taegeuk 3 part way through so I stopped and started over.

For the conditioning, I did 3 sets of [10 pushups, 10 bodyweight rows, 10 ab wheel rollouts, and 10 25lb kettlebell swings]. I didn’t want to go too heavy on the swings since I haven’t done them in ages and didn’t want new soreness creeping in.

Trying to make these two a more regular occurrence on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.

Today I reviewed chon-ji and taegeuk 1 through 4. Focused on taegeuk 5 and 8. There was a spot I thought I was forgetting in taegeuk 3, so I had to consult an authoritative source.

The “conditioning” is still just sets of 10 each pushups, bodyweight rows, and ab wheel rollouts, 3 sets today, starting every 2 minutes (which amounted to maybe about 15-20 seconds rest).

I’ve got a slew of kettlebells in my basement gym. I should incorporate those at some point.

I also need to figure out how audible that heavy bag (I dragged in from the garage last week) is all the way in my kids’ rooms, which will dictate whether or not I can kick the thing after their bedtime. It’s got a clapper target attached now (Christmas gift from my lovely wife) and that’s a bit more loud than the heavy bag by itself.

It’s mostly great for crescent kicks. There’s just barely enough room in my current setup for roundhouse kicks. I’d have more space if I moved my squat bars since I mostly lift at the gym now. I’d’ve posted some video (or at least a gif) by now if I could find my iPhone lenses. I bet my son took ‘em.

I was reminded on my group run yesterday that I will probably end up participating in the sprint triathlon a few miles away - my first ever triathlon that I’ve continued to do every year (except 2017 due to travel). Which means at some point I need to figure out when to slot some biking into my schedule. I suppose I can worry more about that when they open registration. And I subsequently sign up. I’m not especially worried about it though. A year or two ago I reviewed my (recorded*) race prep leading up to the first time I did that triathlon. I hardly did anything** but still did just fine.

I’m an Ironman. I can ride 11-12 miles NBD.

** I should clarify a bit here. By today’s standards (including that I’ve trained for and completed an Ironman, and that even post-injury in 2018 I’m clocking 15+ “workouts” a week (some quite short, but still...)) it wasn’t much, but compared to a couch potato it was still a ton.

Got in that lifting I scheduled for Thursday. Stayed the same on squat and deadlift, added 5lbs for shoulder press. And may or may not have done 6 sets instead of 5. I practiced my taekwondo forms between sets out in the main area of the basement (where there’s a bit more floor space (so long as my kids don’t leave all their junk out)) and when I got back from what I thought was my 4th rest (doing forms) there were only 3 tick marks on the board. I couldn’t remember if I had remembered to tick off the 4th set before going out for some taegeuk fun*, so I just did two more just to be safe.

* Speaking of which, I spent some times on my forms :) I did taegeuk 3 and 4 a bunch of times trying to get them drilled into my head. Even consulted my notebook for the bits I was fuzzy on. I also got some taegeuk 6 in there a few times, as well as 1 and 2 just as a refresher.

10/14/2017 4.14 miles

Apologies for the horrid picture. The rain was coming down pretty hard and I didn’t want my phone to get too rainy. It’s an iPhone 8, so supposed to be water resistant, but I don’t want to push it :)

I was supposed to run with Carlo and Kip (and Mars was even supposed to join!), but Kip called off last night due to the forecast, but Carlo and I decided we’d run rain or shine. Well, around 5:20am Carlo texts me that the weather is worse than he was up for (i.e. a fair amount of lightning) and so he was going to call off as well.

Armed with an app called Dark Sky, I thought I could find a chunk of time for me to get in roughly 40 minutes of running without incurring too much of the wrath of mother nature, so I set out at 6:15 and ran my old 4 mile route. My Garmin didn’t lock on to GPS (it’s been so long since it’s had to I think it forgot how) but I didn’t want to dally, so I just went for it. It finally locked after about a third of a mile, but I guess none of the map data made it over in the sync.

The first 2.5 miles were pretty dry, but as I neared the 3 mile mark it started coming down pretty heavy - and I had already spotted some lightning but it seemed pretty close at the time. I headed for a drive through area of a bank that’s been closed for years and paused for a bit to check out the immediate hyperlocal forecast via Dark Sky, as well as check how close that lightning really was via an app called Weatherbug. I deemed it safe enough to get going again.

Maybe a half mile further the rain got even heavier. I pulled over into a small alcove of a warehouse to see if the rain was going to lighten up any. Spoiler alert: it didn’t.

Family taekwondo today was the belt test. Michael stretched us out and warmed us up, then Master Chung performed the grading. Kicks, punch kick combinations, block plus punch plus kick combinations, the gamut. Straight away into forms. Chon ji, taegeuk 1, taegeuk 2, then the green belt stood aside. Taegeuk 3, then the high green stood aside. Taegeuk 4 and 5, then the high blue belt stood aside. Taegeuk 6, then I stood aside. Taegeuk 7 and 8, then my kids stood aside. Then all the black belt forms for the black belts promoting.

Next up was self defense. I got paired up with Dan, an older black belt but with some mobility issues. I had to ask him if I could take him down just to be sure and went through the forms up through form 7. I got some rest, but then I was Nat’s attacker for his self defense. Then my wife had to do her knife self defense forms.

Then some sparring! I sparred against Dan for a few rounds, and then against Nat (a 2nd degree) for a few rounds.

Finally, breaking. I only had to do a reverse roundhouse. I slightly missed the first try but got it pretty authoritatively the 2nd time.