I'm a Crazy Ultrarunner, and It's Sensei Chinen's Fault

Just the other day, I was thinking about why I love running long distances or enduring a challenging workout, so much. Part of my "work ethic" I was born with. The other part came from being around my dad and knowing both of my grandfathers, and how much they valued and practiced hard work.

But regarding my athletic pursuits, I have Sensei Teruo Chinen to blame. He taught me that I can go WAY BEYOND what I think I can do. He had (and still has) a knack for knowing just how hard to push his students, without breaking them.

I still remember the long Saturday morning dojo workouts, or the workouts during "Hell Week." I swear, they were harder than ANY 100-mile trail race that I've ever run. I was in such incredibly good shape back then, (and didn't even realize it). Many of us students would go to his house after an especially hard workout, and we would help him with a few "tasks" around his property, and then have a great meal and an impromptu party.

Alas, after a few years, I decided that I wanted to check out other martial arts. In the course of a decade, I practiced a number of arts, but all of the instructors paled in comparison to Sensei's intensity.

The style of martial art that Sensei taught was Gojo Ryu karate, combined with a good working knowledge of Aikido and Judo techniques. Basically, it was very good close-in street-fighting technique. (And we practised our Judo falls on real-world surfaces, not on cushy Judo mats). "There are no mats on the street," he would say.

No other style that I have taken subsequently has come close to its "real world" self-defense capability, save maybe Krav Maga. One time, 3 of us students went to check out the local "full-contact" karate, jujitsu, and boxing studio (where all of the cops went to practice). We each had our shot in the ring, but all three of us ended up being disqualified for various infractions. (We didn't know that they had strict rules in their "real world" fighting style). I was DQ'd for lifting a guy off of his feet by his groin, with a nice, swift kick.

Sensei Chinen taught me many other things besides self defense. I learned never to underestimate anyone, especially myself. He taught me to respect others, especially those that are more experienced in life. He taught me when to keep my big mouth shut. Heck, he even taught me how to "party" responsibly and stay out of "tenuous situations" that could get me in trouble.

Thanks, Sensei Chinen!

A Busy Weekend and Confidence-Builder

The weekend started out with me getting off from work at 6 pm Friday, then hitting the gym for a 1-1/2 hour weight workout with my personal trainer (Igor). Then, instead of having an recovery meal immediately after my workout, I waited for the rest of my family's meal at about 9 p.m. that night! I must not have been thinking too clearly, because this intense workout followed by no food, would have an affect on my running performance, less than 12 hours later. I also didn't sleep well that night; I ended up with about 4 hours sleep.

At 6 a.m. Saturday morning, a few of us Trail Nerds met to run a long run on the rocky trails at SM Park. It started out hot and humid enough, but was supposed to get to 96 degrees (F) and 60% humidity by 11 a.m. or so. Just great; 3 of us were slated for a 6-hour training run.

I felt pretty good for the first 2 hour loop, and we came back to the cars to refill our water bottles and hydration packs. I didn't feel like eating, but probably should have been eating something at this point. We took off and ran for another hour and circled-back to the cars to drop off another runner. Curt K. was waiting there to start running with us, so we picked-up another runner. By the time 4 hours had elapsed, I was feeling severely depleted. I started to eat some Clif Shot Blocks, and they seemed to help somewhat. By the time we made our way back to the cars again, our total running time was 5:23:00. I decided to call it quits at that point and keep from running myself into the ground. After all, I had a big party to prepare for (that I was hosting at my house), that night. Caleb and Kyle ended up doing more than 6 hours of running.

The party went well, and I seemed to have a lot of energy that night. I went to bed at 1:30 a.m. and woke up at 5:30 a.m. to get ready to run. Great...another measly 4-hours of sleep!

We started our trail run from Kill Creek Park, which has some fairly-technical rocky MTB trails. Five of us Trail Nerds were running, 3 guys and 2 gals. Caleb had had even less sleep than me, (but he is 23 years younger, after all, so what the heck). I started us down the trail in the lead. My legs were a little tight, but I found that I could still run at a decent pace. We hit both of the fun loops there, with 2 times on the first loop. We ran a total of 1-hour, 30 minutes, and covered about 9.4 miles. I felt good about that.

The rest of the day, I felt both hungry and lazy, but could only muster getting a 1-hour nap. I felt good about the whole weekend's training, though. I started out on a low-energy note, got only 4 hours of sleep per night, but still ran strong on the 2nd day. My hamstring and calf issues never surfaced...they felt strong. My next 50-miler is just 4 weeks out. I'm finally starting to feel confident about finishing it in decent form!

Happy trails!
Bad Ben