The hair (that ain't) up there

Ever since the loveliness of shaving my head people have asked how it feels to train with it. I haven't been able to come up with a really definitive answer other than "sweaty." Without my lovely locks (short though they were) to hold in the sweat, I find it coming down my face a la a Gatorade commercial. Only it isn't red or yellow or blue. Not yet.

What this results in is a lot of wiping my face. Not biggie, except I fidget enough as it is, and there really aren't many dry spots on my uniform by the end of class. But tonight I encountered one unexpected and bizarre Shaolin injury. I looked in the mirror when I got home tonight and my nose was bright red. I had rubbed it so much I had chapped it! Ow!

Of course, shaved has its benefits too: no worries about how to strap it back for training, no muss no fuss in the mornings, lots of compliments from strangers. And it feels great. So now that it's gotten juuuuust long enough to warrant a little shampoo again, (yes I was still washing my head just not with shampoo) I have to make a decision about letting it grow out or keeping it short. Keep it short I have to learn to leave my nose alone. Grow it long, it's back to brushes and blow dryers... Ah the many unexpected decisions of Shaolin...


P.S. My legs hurt... :P

-Funny title here- too sore to think...

Heng Mo and I were joking that there is a sadist/masochist mentality at work in training. Our teachers like hurting us and we like letting them :) Of course, that's not true; it's not about hurting, it's about pushing ourselves. There is beautiful pain and then there is just injury, and it's important to recognize the difference.


With the advent of Level 2 and being work-free I basically have the opportunity to train every class all week. But while that would be a chi-tastic way to push myself, I don't want to hurt myself either. It's hard to reign in the enthusiasm, in favor of sensible pacing of oneself. Level 2 has left me with all sorts of beautiful new soreness and while I did train Level 1 last night, I'm resisting the urge to train it again this morning before L2 tonight. I know that I have to give my body some time to heal itself and to adjust to the new rigors of every day training; you can't just go from running one mile a day to running ten. I want to push through pain, and work out soreness, but I don't want my shinsplints to develop into crippling pain that prevents me from training at all. So I'm pacing myself, trying to harness my tendency to over-exert, so that I'm always making myself stronger. Besides, I hear (though I think it's an urban legend) that there are other things to do in New York besides train all the time.....

Level 1.5

So last night all but one of the new Level 2-ers turned out for our first orange training session. It was exciting, after hearing about how small those classes can be, to see a solid 21 people line up. It was very October-y with all that orange.

I was thinking, well this first class can't be as scary as your first day ever training, because at least now you know some stuff, and at least you aren't alone in your newbie-ness. Right? .... Ok, scary, no. Different, yes. Hard, double yes. Soreness inducing, very much yes. I don't know why, us first timers didn't do any new moves, maybe it was the result of being tense the entire two hours, but at the end I felt wiped like I did when I first stared training. Not to say we didn't learn anything new. We learned quite a bit about what needs fixing on all of our basics. There's so much there to work on, that watching the older Level 2 folks whipping out forms I felt more like Level 1.5. In a good way. I felt excited about the whole new world of things I had to learn and about the hard work still do do before I could get there. Definitely not going to let up on Level 1 training. Have to work on my caijiao...... Here's my inspiration....

So that I don't look like this:


(j/k, she's just sad because she broke her uniform...)

Train harder!

Been a little while since there was a post, but that's not to suggest any of the dorks haven't been training harder, quite the opposite. And now that testing and all is over, it just means it's time to train even harder. New Level 2-ers have a whole new world of beautiful pain in store; our injured, or otherwise incapacitated amigos will be hitting the physical therapy/alternative training hard; and those who got their very first, shiny, certificates now get to tackle their next form. Congratulations to everyone who tested, and to everyone who was there with us in spirit! Amituofo!

Being a Dork and Social Networking Sites

I would like to add to this post - You know you are a Kung Fu Dork when...

When you join Social Networking Sites (particularly Facebook) to view the pictures, stories, etc your friends talked about while you were eating.

And now I can't stop meddling with it. Can I blame it on being a dork?