sperki

You're absolutely right, George. The marathon is definitely more of a mind game, much like martial arts. When it's been a long day, it's raining or snowing outside, you're hungry and all you want to do is go home and have a beer and instead you grab your bag and go to the dojo - that's a marathon. Except even after sparring I never feel as beat up as I did the afternoon after running 26.2 miles. But I think there are a lot of similarities between marathons and MAs; we are testing ourselves physically and mentally with both events.

Music you like Unless you want to be mad - then listen to stuff you don't like!

KarateGeorge, you may have heard this before but its true: a marathon is twice as far as a half, but four times as hard! You should definitely sign up for and run a full 26.2, but put in the training miles. I ran a lot before my marathon and it still beat me up to actually race it. I pretty much stopped running for the four months following the race! I'm pleased to hear that you are still interested in running after your half though.

Shotokan_Tigress, welcome to KF. I bet you've got some interesting perspective as a female martial artist in Iran!

Nice job, KarateGeorge. How do you feel now; any interest in running again?

I used to get the warts on my palms and I can only imagine how much worse it must hurt to have to walk on one after the doc has frozen (or whatever approach yours is taking) it! I'm sorry!

I suppose the age of the participants should be taken into account before deciding if PT is an appropriate punishment. Certainly for a younger crowd making them sit still for a minute is better than making them do push-ups. Isshinryu5, I know the military does it, I was in the Marine Corps, which I love - the brainwashing is powerful, but I know a lot of people that left the service and stopped PTing. And it's safe to say that often the PT in the Marines wasn't fun. Not that it was supposed to be - I think in the military PT as "extra motivation" is appropriate. In a middle school PE class with kids that already hate physical activity? I don't think that's the right setting to force it. Clearly at younger ages we need to teach people that exercise is fun and show them exercises they can practice for a lifetime. However, I don't know at what age it is acceptable to make kids do jumping jacks in football pads and a helmet.

This post might be a little late, but if you're recovering from an spinal injury! it's probably worth talking to a doctor before jumping into any vigorous exercise. Good luck.

I agree with Bushido Man. And then to top it all off...How many people play or played high school sports? What is the punishment when things went wrong on the field? Run, push-ups, jumping jacks...exercise almost always. When I was in high school, if we missed a PE class the way to make it up was to walk / run laps. With both examples we are teaching our youth that exercise (particularly the exercises people can realistically continue into adulthood - like running) is punishment and not something that you should do for fun!

I go where the line is shortest!

If you think martial arts will be fun you're probably right. That being said, you should get a physical, explain to the Dr. what you have in mind and go from there. The Doc's evaluation may play a role in what MA's you look into, how much contact there is, how physical, what the particular emphasis is, etc.

My approach would be to break up the fight. If my sensei is involved, and it's lasting more than a few second, I would be pretty outclassed. But I would want to help; for me sensei has nothing to prove by street fighting.

Patrick - good call

Of course sparring is a stress reliever....it's exercise! A good run or weightlifting may produce similar results if you don't have a partner.

Jay - that's a great post! And I agree with what everybody has said so far; sure after school programs help develop all of those traits in kids. But the flip side is that I, like most people, am pretty disciplined and motivated about the things that I like, and can be "quite lazy" when it comes to projects that don't seem fun (building a fence in my back yard:) Jay, do you think your wariness when walking down a street at night stems from a lack of confidence, or an increased awareness? It seems to me that in this case ignorance is bliss...but not confidence.

It does bring to mind that 70's song "Too Much Time on My Hands!"

I was going to wait for it to make it to the red box, but after that review I'm sold!

What type of rope? Jumping rope is great cardiovascular exercise, running with rope attached to tires is good for explosive leg strength, climbing rope is good for upper body strength and ninjas sneaking into castles.....so yeah, I guess you can do a lot with a rope!

Studies actually show that high school athletes get better grades during their sports seasons. The generally accepted idea is that they are forced to manage their time better. Go for it!

That's a great article; the only thing I've ever seen anybody (younger than 85) use bands for is balance training. Utilizing some of those exercises might be fun!

I still run half marathons at least once a year, and I do a long run 8+ miles) pretty much every weekend. But I didn't run for about 4 or 5 months after my full marathon! I'll do another one eventually, because I'm competitive and I have a friend that beat me by a few minutes, but for now I'm sticking with 15 miles or less - that's were I really start to feel beat up. And really the best part of a run is the finish and knowing I earned a beer at dinner

At some point this turns into a discussion of semantics. I'm not convinced that practicing a fighting art is the same thing as fighting a war, at least in the standard, contemporary sense, with munitions and tanks. Most of us probably aren't training with the thought that we'll really have to break somebodies knee to end a confrontation. Martialart, my understanding of your question is not "why did you enroll in MA in the first place?" but instead is something else, like why do you stick with it....but I'm not sure that I completely understand. I suppose, after reading various responses that I'm totally lost by the "war" portion of the the question. But maybe the LEO's could say there fighting a war on drugs (and immigration if they're in NM ) Do I have stress, sure; does karate help me deal with it, of course. But if I'm at war with anything I'm unaware of it, but I do appreciate the benefits regular training has on my quality of life.

I've done several half marathons, and one full (which wasn't very fun). You're race will have aid stations along the route, so you'll be able to drink Gatorade, or some other beverage with Calories during the race. For training, I carry a water bottle and granola bar or some other snack if my workout will be much longer than 60 minutes. Or run a loop so you can grab a drink at the car around the half way point. If you're already at nearly 10 miles you've got it made. From there it's just a 5K, which is a piece of cake Good luck!

My "war" is the same reason I run and weightlift: I'm locked in eternal battle against love handles!

A Sense of Honor by Jim Webb. It's one of the very few books I've read more than once. The other one that comes to mind is Musashi by Yoshikawa.