Thursday 26 April 2012

Eeek

Just seen the two blog posts, did them via the ipad and the layout seems screwed up, sorry, doesnt make for easy reading!

Extract from my thesis 'The Hwa Rang:Fact and Fiction

The Philosophy of the Hwa Rang As with the Won Hwa the Hwa Rang had a core underlying set of principles, those of modesty, loyalty and filial piety, which closely reflect Confucian ideas, this shows the influence of the Han and Tang Chinese Dynasty on the philosophical progression of three kingdom and particularly Silla society. When looking to discover and understand the philosophical backbone of the Hwa Rang, study of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism will be required, a good starting place though concerns a a tale told in the Haedong Goseungjeon about two youths, Gwisan and Chwihang who travelled to see the monk Won Gwang. Their intention was to seek advice, spiritual guidance and teaching from the monk, when they approached Won Gwang they said “We are ignorant and without knowledge. Please give us a maxim which will serve to instruct us for the rest of our lives”_ Won Gwang, who had studied for a period in China, replied to this by composing ‘Five Commandments for Secular Life’ or Sae Sok o-Gye. These commandments have since been attributed as another guiding ethos for the Hwa Rang. The Five Commandments are; Loyalty to one’s lord, sagun ichung Love and respect your parents and teachers, sachin ihyo Trust among friends, gyo-u isin Never retreat in battle, imjeon mutwae Never take a life without a just cause, salsaeng yutaek An example of how members of the Hwa Rang fully embraced these commandments can be seen in this extract from one of the most famous stories eulogized by Hwarang literature, in the Samguk Sagi which chronicles the martyrdom of the son, Kwanjang_, of a Silla General, P'umil, who died in the wars of unification; His appearance was elegant, and he became a Hwa Rang as a youth and was on intimate terms with others. At the age of sixteen he was already accomplished in horseback riding and archery. When in the fifth year of Hsien-Ch’ing (660), the king sent the troops and, together with a T’ang General, attacked Paekche, he made Kwanjang and adjunct general. When the two armies met on the plain of Hwangsan, P’umil said to his son, “You are young, but you have spirit. Now is the time to render brilliant service and to rise to wealth and honour. You must show dauntless courage.” “I shall,” Kwanjang replied. Mounting his horse and couching his lance, he galloped into the enemy line and killed several of the foe. Outnumbered he was taken a prisoner and brought to the Paekche general, Kyebaek...Kyebaek said with a sigh “Silla has marvellous knights. Even a youth is like this-how much stronger must their soldiers be?” He then let Kwanjang return alive. Upon returning, Kwanjang remarked, “Earlier when I attacked the enemy’s position I could not behead the enemy general, nor capture their standard. This is my deepest regret. In my second attack I will be sure to succeed.” He scooped up water from a well and drank;he then rushed upon the enemy line and fought desperately. Kyebaek caught him alive, beheaded him, and sent back the head, tied to the saddle of the horse. P’umil took the head and, wiping blood with his sleeve, said, “He saved his honour, Now that he has died for the King’s cause, I have no regrets.” The three armies were moved by this and strengthened their resolve. Beating drums and shouting war cries, they charged the enemy line and utterly routed the Paekche forces. This extract probably illustrates most closely the commandments of sagun ichung and imjeon mutwae, and I feel points to potentially the wider influence that adherents to the Hwa Rang had on the greater community of Silla. Here the selfless sacrifice of a young Silla Knight inspired the wider army to defeat the enemy army on the field of battle and garnered the respect and admiration of his King who posthumously conferred the title of Kupch’an (Rank 9)_ onto Kwanjang and had him buried with full honours and ceremony.

Normal(ish) service resumed

Not done a blog post for over a week as Ive been having some connection issues and not been feeling 100% either but felt i needed to look back over the last week and comment on some stuff. Did the team walk on Sunday, was a good day out, the guys we are walking with are from United Welsh Housing Association and they were a friendly bunch, plenty of banter going on. The weather was as expected when you start getting up into the hills around Brecon, sunny on eminute then the clouds come in and its time to get soggy. The route itself wasnt anythng too strenous, one peak was particulary steep but a bit of zoning out meant I was at the top way before anyone else (cant escape that competative streak) The rest of the day was a nice hike and we even had some time to enjoy a well deserved pint at the end before having to drive back home, where my good lady put on a welcome roast dinner, not a bad way to spend a Sunday. The rest of the week was spent with work and finishing off stage 1 of the Black belt training, my thesis. When I did my 1st Dan I chose a subject that I knew a fair bit about, self defence and martial arts in the military, for this one I decided I would like to take a look at the story behind one of the ITF TaeKwon Do patterns, Hwa Rang. When it comes to things like projects, essays and writing a thesis I tend towards the hit it hard and keep going until its finished type approach. Its meant most spare time and lunch hours researching, coming up with an outline and then actually cracking on and writing the thing up. To me this thesis has been much more enjoyable than the last one as I approached this topic completly fresh and it was great finding out information that I hadnt heard of before and I have slowly built up a picture of who and what the Hwa Rang where, it most definately is not what I had imaged before I started the project. The running has carried on, even with the foul weather and it was when I was out yesterday that I got to thinking about what it means to push yourself and what achievement really means. This train of thought was kicked off as I was jogging to the top of a particulary long hill towards the end of my 6 mile route. As I was plodding on with the freezing rain lashing down and the wind howling, I noticed across the road a guy I see quite frequently around Wotton. This guy (i dont know his name) suffered some sort of injury or a stroke a couple of years ago and since then he goes out every day with his zimmer frame and does a long walk. He doesnt move very fast but he keeps on going and as I was getting towards the top of the hill and giving mysself a pat on the back, I saw him and it occured to me that I was kidding myself if I thought I was really 'proving' something or 'achieving' something because here was a guy who has limited mobility but does not allow that or a piddling thing like extreme weather stop him from achieving his goal, which is simply to walk. Seeing him was a great reality check and for the rest of the run I mulled over what it must mean to him to get out and do his walking. It certainly makes me think that anyone who says they dont have time to train or that they would rather put off doing something just because its abit wet most definately shoudl re-evaluate themeselves and for those looking for examples of black belt excellence and indomitable spirit, look to guys like him who do it every day, without fail and who set themselves a simple goal, do something positive with your time. Anyway I'm not in tip top form myself at the minute, there is some sort of bug doing the rounds and I think I may be fighting something off as I am definately feeling lethargic and very achey, so an early bath tonight methinks and a bit of a lie in before a full day of working and getting on with stage 2 of BB, the pattern breakdown. P.S. I have said I would put up a couple of extracts of the thesis and will endeavor to do it now on the next post.

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Fair and Foul

Today I made the decision that I would change the running routine a bit and decided to do my run after work, I duly got back just after 5pm, slurped down a gel pack, got changed and limbered up. As is usual at this time of year it started raining, and didn't stop until a few hundred yards from home.

The run was very different, I felt slightly more relaxed, my muscles felt a bit looser and I did find initially that the bracing wind and rain seemed to help me keep a pretty good pace, however as the run progressed the rain got heavier, the wind got colder and stronger and by the halfway point it was starting to impact on the running a bit.

Changing the routine was important as sometimes over familiarity can breed complacency, but more importantly all the runs I've done seem to have been in great conditions so having a completely different set of environmentals and even a different time of day prevents the muscles from getting 'used' to what you are doing.

I got in very cold, soaking wet, tired but pleased that I had done it and also surprised that my time hadn't been adversely effected.

I of course had a shower but have just had to jump in the bath to thaw out my frozen feet and joints!

I'm going to take the phys easy for the rest of the week as I have a 14 mile team walk in Brecon in Wales on Sunday and that's also going to bad cold and wet!

Friday 13 April 2012

Where has the week gone?

Well, it's Friday already and only a couple of days left before back to normality. Ive packed a lot in this week with Shelly and the kids. My birthday flew by, topped off my a massive burger from Bristol's top burger place, The Burger Joint and yesterday I went to see Battleship as I haven't seen a dumb alien invasion movie at the cinema for years, it was okay.

This week has been important as it has been a decompress session from everything and has enabled me to get into my six mile route for running, as for other training related stuff, I did a good open session where I did a solid hour of patterns practice. Really useful as it highlighted a few rusty areas and this will help me going forward.

Feeling nice and chilled, looking forward to splashing about in the water this afternoon at the Oasis centre in Swindon and tomorrow Shelly and I have the opportunity to go on a 10 mile walk around the local countryside. This walk is a test of my newish walking boots before my first team walk on the 22nd in Wales with the guys from work for the Welsh 3 Peaks charity 24hr challenge.

Now just enough time to finish the coffee off...

Tuesday 10 April 2012

God bless Steve Jobs!

Just a very quick post, did my 6 miler today which ended with a very steep hill and I was starting to flag when what popped on my iPod? Only the training montage music from Rocky IV! Perfect sounds to get me up the hill, I even started increasing the pace to match he music. I ended up doing the run in 54 minutes, which I'm really happy with as I wasnt looking to add a faster pace as i wanted to gauge how I would manage a distance I haven't done in nearly 20 years.

Than you Apple, thank you Steve Jobs, for making these runs at least bearable.

Monday 9 April 2012

Holiday break

It's all been quiet on he training front the last couple of days as I have been enjoying the long Easter weekend. I firmly believe in having down time and trying to switch off from everything. All I have been doing is enjoying time with the family, I have still been out for runs and I took the girls out for a nice county walk, so a bit of phys can still be fitted in.

This week will see some patterns practice and I will most likely go to the school tomorrow night as I am still off for the rest of the week due to my birthday on Weds. A big milestone is the first 6 mile run for probably 20 odd years tomorrow, it will be interesting to see how I handle it as anyone who reads these blogs knows I am now natural runner! With that in mind though I think I may be getting into the habit of running as I am actually looking forward to it tomorrow ( never thought I'd say that)

All in all I'm feeling positive about things, I know I have tonnes still to do but being aware of the things I still need to accomplish is a good sign and when you put yourself out there it makes it easier to knuckle down and get things done.

Thursday 5 April 2012

Famous at last

Really busy last few days, I am on holiday now for the next 10 days so there was the ussual rush to get everything covered off at work but I was also dtermined to have a poitive week when it cam to some fitness and continuing along with some of the tasks necessary for the 2nd dan testing cycle.

So far I feel pretty good about some of the progress I have made, the thesis I have to produce is well on the way to completion and I may put up some excerpts to give anyone who follows the blog (there arent many...yet) a taster.

i also made some great strides in getting my message about my approach to training for black belt and what it means to be a martial artist when yopu are over 40 by getting in touch with a fellow Martial Artist called Brett Kraiger. Brett is an instructor based in Wellington, New Zealand and he runs a website and newsletter service called Martial Arts over 40. Brett was kind enough to offer me the opportunity to write a short article about what its meant being a martial artist now that I am over 40 and also to promote this blog so that any other interested martial artists, or just those who may have an interest in starting a martial art, could take a look. The article on Brett's site is at the following http://martialartsover40.com/readers-stories/40-martial-artist-fitter-than-he-was-in-his-20s-stewart-davison/

On a final bum note, just as I was feeling good about all thi spositive development stuff, a large chunk of on eof my molars felt out whilst I was eating a peanut butter and jam sandwich so I am writing this with the after effects of a lot of anaesthetic in the jaw, cant win em all!

Wednesday 4 April 2012

What a difference

Blimey, looked at the last post, bit gloomy wasn't it? This week seems totally different than last week, I feel energised, confident, chilled and am happy when I get to do stuff I enjoy, like training on Monday night! It was a good session as we concentrated on the basics linked to the pattern Yul Gok and then ran through the pattern itself, after that it was a focus on pattern breakdowns which was an excellent refresher as I need to get cracking on that part of the testing cycle.

Also fitted in a run so far, which is important as I need to up the distance next week, will soon be reaching the furthest distance I've ever done as a straight road run but I am conscious that I need to keep varying the cv work I do so I am also looking to include a bike ride once a week.

Its Wednesday and I'm still feeling good, roll on the weekend!

Sunday 1 April 2012

Crap, crap, crap, crap, the week was crap

Great title for a blog entry, really reflects how I have been feeling this week. Not in a bad stomach kind of way, but I have had a couple of days where its been particularly bad, but more in a just 'can't be arsed with anything' type of mood. I don't feel like this very often but when i do I am just grumpy, constantly bored, difficult to motivate, irritable, lazy etc etc Strange when I look at what i did last week, sorted out the garden, pressure hosed the slabs, cleaned the cars, cooked, went training, did two long bike rides and completed all the stuff I needed to do for week, even finished one task well in advice!

Even with all these 'achievements' my mood has just been one of 'meh, so what' or 'I'll do it when I want to' type attitude, nothing I have done has made me feel that positive, energised, motivated or anything really, its not that its negative its more that its just a blandness to everything.

As i've said I don't feel like this very often, maybe 4-5 times in a year but when I do Im just crap, crap, crap. I would rather I just lay in bed and didn't have to interact with anyone or do anything that didn't just take my fancy at the time. Thinking about it now, whilst still feeling a bit like I have done all week, I may have to put it down to a price I have to pay for the rest of the time when I am pretty much upbeat all of the time, positive, highly motivated, not that grumpy (this wife and kids may disagree here) and always looking on the bright side of life (cue Eric Idle!)

Thats enough for posting today, just wanted to get some thoughts out and hope that I wake up feeling better than I do at the moment as its Sunday night and I am finding it difficult working up any enthusiasm for tomorrow.

Onwards and upwards!