MOVING MEDITATIONS

the mind is such a powerful tool. one can use it, or be used by it. someone throwing kicks and punches mindlessly to music can gain nothing but some cardio--and maybe a date, and call it tai bo. the same outside moves when combined with a vivid inner world of violence can be a kind of fight aclimation that prepares a psychological roadmap for physical movement of a more realistic kind. emotionally, whether one prefers the word 'brainwashing' or meditation--i like either one depending on my mood.

i used to sort of laugh--but like, the stories about okinawan masters training on rooftops in the middle of epic storms amidst lightening and terrific winds. i sort of saw it as a macho--i'm not afraid, kind of display. i wasn't thinking of what it could have actually represented. over the years, my workouts have become so sacred to me that two specific inner realities have developed:

1. i'll train in any weather--i joke that i decide when and God decides the conditions...sort of fate along the lines of spartan virtues. all year, all temperatures...born out of being skint for funds and angry for maintaining my training.

2. [and this is the main point of this thread] i'll train with hardship conditions knowing that to me i'm living a metaphor for battle. if i fall in fight, get up--sort of mentality. so lightening storms can become terrible conditions in my inner world. today i trained in such a storm and found my upright pads slippery for traction upon contact. i normally hit at angles to prepare for k/o conditions--upward/sideways. today my hand ice-skated into the brick wall behind the pad, from the excess water that came with the rain. two of my fingers bled from the sharp cuts of the brick...i thought for a moment about being cut in a fight, and used the moment to feel rage and go full out on the pads. only now i was forced to throw straights so as not to repeat the gesture and bring more cuts. at the end, i felt that it was the appropriate thing to do. my shirt was splotched with blood. i must have appeared daft, or disturbed, on my walk back. i had to do a makeshift bandage using electrical tape. but the lesson stands.

use analogy when training, and instead of a ruined workout...you can train to override injurious conditions that can and usually will occur when one is really digging to come out on top.

it was worth mentioning as lately when things fall...or i bump myself, etc...i use the opportunity to experience focussed rage. i try and do this when i have the luxory of 'isolation' because it can otherwise appear a bit mental to let loose a fist into a door you've just bumped into.

i think of it like cultivating a fire--adding logs, not letting it cool off entirely. not at the risk of losing myself, but as a garment that's near or half on, if that makes any sense.

That's a cool post Russ, I really enjoy working out in extreme weather too.
When I lived in Snowdonia National Park I started fell running (cross country) and enjoyed the mad stormy days the most. When the storms come in there, it rains sideways, and the ear buds from my walkman used to short out in my ears from getting so wet!
For me at least, there is something very energizing about storms, the elemental forces of nature and all. Running against the wind and into the rain ....
I've had the pleasure of visiting Iceland a few times, and that is truly an awesome place to feel the elements at work.

I also like the idea that you had to work on your precision even more on the wet pads, even as you were hitting them harder ... good focus practice. It was the same with fell running in the wet, you have to hit your mark very deliberately or you'll fall.

It's funny, since I moved back to the big city, the urge to run has never been the same. Only in wild and woolly nature was it fun

hey maija, that's cool. the thing that really sends me is wind. i'm so caught up with certain nature patterns that i remember nights when the rare but occasional warm night wind would hit where i lived in the u.k. that i'd walk through the country in the middle of the night like a mad hatter. i'd often dare myself--idiot that i am, to just soak it in and shut my eyes whilst walking [slowly of course ]. wind can be like an incubator for the soul at times. i love to train in it. in barbados i found a wind swept beach like that. no one around. white bleached sand--more than in other parts of the island, huge waves, blinding sun... and you guessed it, enormous steady winds only interrupted by short bursts of more powerful winds.

i've never felt anything like it, and possibly never will again. awesome. you can't hear a thing, but the wind. i think that's the coolest part.