6 Steps To Running Like A Warrior

When I took my run yesterday, i was reminded of how completely things can change. For the last 40+ years of my life, I have been telling people how much I hate running. I played all kinds of sports, but running? Not for me. "I only run to things and away from things," I would say. 

Then, this Spring, at the age of 52, I started running and I have been running three-times-a-week ever since.

Basically, the truth is that I never understood what running was. I thought it meant racing a stopwatch to meet some arbitrary standard. Or pushing yourself with your lungs exploding so you wouldn't be teased the way the last kid in your class to cross the finish line always was.  

This Spring I discovered that running, with a warrior mindset, can be an addictive and healthy personal challenge. It requires no special preparation, has meditative qualities and can do wonders for lifting your mood and working off stress.

So here are six lessons I have learned for running like a warrior:

1) Start Slow: I followed the Easy 12-Week Walk/Run Program! GET ACTIVE! and found it easy and satisfying. Whenever I missed a run or if I didn't feel ready to move on, I took the time I needed to stay on track and within my limits.

2) Consider Barefooting It: I fell in love with Vibrams Five-Fingered Shoes after buying my first pair for practicing karate outdoors. Then I went to Al Derech Burma and tried on my first Komodo Sports. I stood up and practically ran out of the store with them. Vibrams free your feet and allow you to use muscles in your feet and legs you never knew you had. 

3) Try Nasal Breathing: Are you a natural overachiever like me? Then try doing your runs while breathing only through your nose. This will leash your natural tendency to overdo and stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system, calming the mind and rejuvenating the body.

4) Think Form: As in the martial arts, good form maximizes efficient use of power and minimizes the chance of injury. Keep your head slightly tilted forward, eyes on the horizon, shoulder blades down, hands unclenched, lats dynamic and body upright. Shorten your stride to get maximum use of your body's large muscles- the quads, hamstrings and glutes and minimize pressure on your knees and lower back. Lift your knees only as high as you need to to keep moving forward and keep them soft (i.e. slightly bent) always, always, always.

5) It's About Time: I run for time, not for distance. Running for time means I can run and walk as hard or as soft as I like, uphill or down, wherever I choose. It means i can pay attention and adjust to how I feel. It keeps my eyes on the prize, a long-term commitment to my physical and mental health, and not on pushing myself or competing with others. 

6) Make It a Discipline: Making running a regular part of my life, with plenty of rest and room to adjust to my ups and downs, has added a great deal to my life in general and to my warrior identity in particular. Karate is primarily an anaerobic activity, the eye of a hurricane punctuated by powerful explosions of motion. Running, at least the way I do it, is practically the definition of aerobic . Practicing karate is all about concentration and the details. Running is the "big picture" to music. Maintaining the balance between these two disciplines, helps me maintain my inner sense of power in balance.

The third part of this triad, meditation, I will discuss at a later time.

Getting Past The First Move

First of all, allow me to introduce you to the newest member of Dojo AISH. I used some pre-workout energy today building this eminently punchable being on the basic plan that I featured in the last posting with a few twists.


First of all, I already had a small punching bag hanging from our speed bag platform. I just dressed it up with an old jacket. As I was filling the arms with old newspapers, I decided that something in lieu of a bone structure might be helpful for arm bars and such. I took a thick cardboard roll, similar but heavier and longer than the kind you find in paper towels. I cut it in haf and then divided each half into an upper- and lower-arm by cutting most of the way through but not separating the parts.Then, I filled the arms and gloves with bunched-up newspapers and taped the gloves to the arms.
Presto! Instant Bad Guy.


I started out the more official part of my practice day on a wobble board. A wobble board, in my case, is two boards joined together unevenly along their lengths. You can also make one by wrapping tape thickly around each end of a 2 X 4. The idea is to make a standing surface with limited stability. If you stand on it and strike without centering and lowering your center of gravity, you fall off.


The wobble board/ Training Buddy combo was equally satisfying and humbling.

Then, as I was practicing kata, I occasionally wandered over to my New Friend to try combining striking and grabbing techniques from the kata. Hey, its not as much fun as twisting a student's arm and a takedown but, hey, you can't beat the patience and availability, not to mention the quiet :-).


Kata practice today was a mixture of Fukyugatas, Pinans and Wanshu. Still working on picking up the new material on Wanshu and then transposing the lessons learned to lower kata. For example, in Fukyukata Ni (Geikisai Dai), that sweeping, dramatic shuto-uchi sword strike on each end of the kick-elbow-downblock-punch combo? Well, with a little imagination, it can start out as an elbow strike and do all kinds of nasty things on the way to its ultimate destination. Try it and see.


Meanwhile, as I was watching more of George's videos, I started calculating how much time was spent on the First Moves of the katas. Sometimes when I work out with the Kishaba Juku crew, I get the feeling that we will never get past the first move. And, if the first move is so bad that it needs 3 hours of work, how good can the rest of the kata be?


Then it came to me. If you can't beat'um, join 'um. So i finished up today's session just practicing opening moves for each kata, full speed, full power, first on the left and then on the right. 


Try it yourself. I'll be doing more of that for my next session so I should have plenty to say about it next time.

The Discipline of Gratitude

I started out the day at a boarding school helping form the teaching team for the IMPACT-School self-defense program. I taught the first in a series of five self-defense classes to a group of Older Women in Nes Ziona. I enjoyed the companionship and the professional fulfillment of advancing a year-old project to its pre-pilot stage. I enjoyed sharing an energetic hour with a group of bright, lively and challenging women. However,  I can't say that I experienced "gratitude" while attending to either of these things.

When did I feel truly grateful today? When I got home from the IMPACT-School meeting and finally sat down to a late breakfast (more like "brunch). When I actually lay down for a delicious hour-long nap before setting off for Nes Ziona. When I came home with the time, energy and desire for a half-hour sunset run.

The things that gave me the most pleasure were not the high-profile, atteniton-getting events of the day. They were the mundane, sweet pleasures of living---food, rest, exercise.

Soon, I will ascend the stairs to end my day with one of my favorite non-activities: sitting down on my meditation cushion for 20 minutes of being truly present: upright, breathing, and grateful. Just grateful.

And every night as I ascend those stairs I start coming up with a dozen reasons why I shouldn't meditate that night--- too tired, too late, too much on my mind, etc. etc. The only thing that gets me down on the cushion and allows me to experience the pleasures and benefits of my daily meditation is simple, down-and-dirty discipline.

It's the same with running. With karate practice. And, especially when times are tough,  with gratitude itself

In his Blog post, Learning To Consider Gratitude a Discipline, Joshua Becker reminds us to stop thinking of gratitude as a random emotional state. Like other deeply beneficial practices, gratitude is a discipline that can be cultivated and nurtured. And its fruits are sweet and substantial: less stress, more happiness and healthier relationships. A truly worthwhile body-mind-soul investment.