Strength and Stamina

Hello everyone I have been training a lot lately. I have been running and going to the gym working out with my Dad. I have been learning a lot about myself doing this. For one I am not the type of person who enjoys doing any of this stuff; I find it boring. Then you ask me then why are you working out and running then? To tell you the truth I know all the standard reason on why working out is good for you like it will make you healthier, improve your cardio, and build some muscle, and lose weight. Oddly enough I don't do it for any of those reasons. I do want to be like that, but it is not my motivation. I am trying to become a cop so you have to be fit, but even then I don't think that is my motivation. I think my motivtion could be my Dad.
     When I first started running I ran 3.2 kms non- stop and I was dead. My legs felt like jelly and I did not want to do it anymore, but then my Dad said you have to keep up with it or else you will see no progress. So I did it a second day same 3.2 kms, but I still did not see any improvement. Which is ridiculous for me to expect results that fast. Then by the time it was my 5th day of running my Dad said today we will be going 5 kms. I began to stress out, he told me to not to worry about it and just focus on my breathing. Which I did after the run I was dead again, and complaining to my father I am still out of breath and not getting any better. I took a day off then my Dad said let go to spruce and run in the parks. So we did. He told me we are going to run today 10 kms i looked at him like he was crazy, but we ended up starting anyways. Now I started to complain a lot around the 5 km mark and I told him I wanted to give up, but he just said keep going and breath. So eventually we actually complete the 10 kms and I was dead once again and feeling bad about myself still being out of breath and jelly legs. I felt like I should of done better I should be better. He just told me will do this again tomorrow. I was doubtful, but we did it again anyways. Each time we did it I was not happy and thought I was not seeing any results and I still was not enjoying running. Then he told me you acutally have improved a lot you are now running 10 kms in 1 hour and you are no longer breathing hard and you still have energy. In actuality I imporved a lot greatly in a short amout of time, but he pushed me every time we ran, becasue I was getting better. I can't belive I have been doing kung fu for this long and I never once thought of putting the same rules of getting better in kung fu as for getting better at running. I was not thinking cleary, because I was doing something I did not enjoy. In kung fu you do not get better, by just assuming you show up and do it two times and now you are a master.
      You have to push yourself harder and continuously keep trying and showing up to improve upon yourself. If you don't do anything you will never see any improvement, if you try don't expect improvement to happen in 2 seconds. I know you have to work at it for a long time to get better at anything, and I have to open my eyes more when I actually do get better, because if I don't i won't be progressing wisely, I will be progressing recklessly. I know my blog kinda wonder a bit, but it just seems to be the way I write. As for why I do run and work out; it is definetly because of my Dad I enjoy doing stuff with him I want to become better so he can be proud of me and my accomplishments. I have learned that as a black belt I have so much more to learn, but I have to acknowledge my accomplishments and not be to hard on myself. It is good to have high standards, but I have to recognize too when I have met them. I will burn out if I don't. Everything I just put here are things I already knew, but some where I forgot about them. Anyways I hope what I wrote here makes sense and I would liked to say to everyone remember stay extraordinary (and recognize when you are extraordinary).



Sifu R. Langner