the Way of the Turtle

Katas and Running... and WORK, WORK, WORK
Friday - Sunday, March 3-5, 2006

After two days of fairly cold temperatures and NASTY windchills, today wasn't so bad... so I took a break from a weekend of grading and headed over to the Pine Bush for a run.

Some days everything clicks and I can run seemingly without effort... those are good days. OK, they don't happen very often... most days I'm a turtle, not a gazelle! Today... I was a turtle with legs filled with concrete. There were a few moments when running felt good... but most of the time it was just hard work. But at least I got out for just under 2 hours, and hit most of the trails in the Columbia Circle section of the Pine Bush. That's one of the more challenging sections, and even more so now that they've ripped up part of it for habitat restoration (removing a sizeable colony of black locusts, with the eventual goal of restoring the native pine bush plants.) I'll be glad when some of the vegetation grows back... I certainly understand and support the idea of restoring the habitat, but right now it's just ugly and depressing.

Friday nigh Master Hillicoss checked out my katas... so now I have some things to work on (and less than a week to do so!) Ran through many of them again yesterday... next Saturday is definitely going to be interesting... I'll be glad when it's over.

The blasted grading STILL isn't done, so I may take a break from working out tomorrow night (I suspect my body can use the rest) so I can knock off the rest.

-JMH