A Marathon Without Training

Running a marathon is on my list-of-things-to-do-before-I-die. Over the past year, I've made running a regular part of my life, and I've normally gone on one or two runs a week. This culminated in my participation in a half-marathon in Albacete, but that was just a mid-level goal, not the final objective. Although sometimes I've had convenient excuses to not run (no audiobooks to listen to, temperature too hot or too cold, my work hours don't allow it), since the half marathon I've tried to continue running weekly. My running in Murcia is much less than my running in Albacete was, but today I came across something that made me question whether I even need to spend so much of my time running (according to Sports Tracker I've spent nearly 70 hours running over the past year, an amount of time that would get me an excellent base in a new language or some other skill): Sean Ogle, a mobile travel guy, ran a marathon with practically no training.

What?!?!

I don't doubt that it can occur, but although I am tempted to immediately sign up for the next marathon in my area, but I am dubious of the soundness of planning to run a marathon with such limited training. What about injuries? What would the physical consequences be of running a marathon without training properly for it? It is possible that I am in better condition to run a marathon now than Sean Ogle was when he ran his marathon, but I am still not completely sold on the idea that I should enter a marathon without far more significant physical preparation. I am tempted though...

Dancing

I haven't juggled in a long time. I haven't done any skill-based physical activities (circus, martial arts, dance) in a long time. I've been running occasionally  to train for a marathon someday, but even that has been quite spare recently. But I went out dancing with some friends last night, and I thought about this: Lots of people told me that I was a great dancer, but I don't think that really has anything to do with my skills. It only has to do with confidence. And confidence is just a code word for not caring what other people think. If I am not self-conscious at all, then I will be able to enjoy myself without concern for other people's opinions. I think that many people lack that: they go to a public place, and whatever they do they are constantly concerned with how they are being perceived by others. In a dance club, or in a park, or in any number of places: people are constantly concerned with how others perceive them. So here I share my secret of being a great dancer in a bar or  in a club: Confidence (apathy towards the opinions of others).

Progress in the past six months

Like happens to most blogs, my enthusiasm for writing on this one faded after several months. It faded so much, in fact, that myself and my three (3!) readers have had absolutely no action happening on this page for more than six months. So here is a brief summary of my juggling life since then:

• Practiced with little bean-bag-like balls, which were really helpful for training 4 balls.
• Purchased 4 sil-x balls, plus one additional small orange-sized ball
• I visited the Katacomb in Berlin
• I attended the European Juggling Convention in Munich, where...
• I met other jugglers! This was really cool, as before summer 2010 the circus kids at Kalamazoo and the gang in Beijing were basically the only other jugglers that I knew, and aside from Federico, Gus, and a few select others,I was one of the more skilled jugglers I knew. EJC was great because it allowed me to see and meet other people who were better than me, which provided some great inspiration and motivation.
• I bought a 75mm acrylic for contact juggling and...
• I´ve begun to practice a little bit of contact juggling, mostly playing with isolations, but a tiny little bit of body rolling and stall point practice, as well.
• I am getting ever closer to achieving a five ball cascade. In a recent practice I was definitely in a beautiful state of "flow," achieving upwards of 20 catches before the pattern fell apart.
• I have decided that the five ball cascade will be the beginning and end of my career as a numbers juggler. I have decided that I will focus on three balls, highlighting how...
• My juggling has become more and more "dancy." This is influenced in great part by my specific physical background, but also because I took some breakdance, locking, and popping classes while I was in Beijing during 2010-2011. After a friend made a comment about it, I have decided to actively embrace this, trying to combine various body movements with three ball juggling.
• I´ve begun to think of myself as a "low-level Stephan Sing combined with a low level Komei." I obviously have a long ways to go, but I like both of these styles a lot, and I hope to grow to do something like that in the future.
• Box variations: I like the box pattern, and after a workshop at the EJC on variations, I have decided that this is a series of moves that I am interested in learning.
• I have also decided to save up money to potentially go to more juggling conventions in the future. Which ones and when I go will, of course, depend on available funds.
• As a way both to keep track of achievements and to motivate myself, I have started to train for and record some specific moves, with the goal of repeatedly breaking my personal records.

The Umbilical Brothers

Last night I spent some time at Federico's home and he showed me a show that the Umbilical Brothers did. It was a fantastic performance; one of the best shows that I have seen in a long time. The movement, the creation of the show, the personal dynamics, the acting and the physical and vocal skills showed by the performers were all excellent. I found a few clips of the show online, but if anyone has the chance to see the full thing I would highly recommend it. Not all of these clips are from the show that Federico showed me last night, but they are all great.

http://www.pinoy24videos.com/video/c36cc4a2e182ae9/The-Umbilical-Brothers-Dog-Tricks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xokylxD78o0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xokylxD78o0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EHp4vr8yio&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImJMbexul5g&feature=related

A February juggling session

Since the Spring Festival break, which was great for my juggling, I have hardly practiced at all. However, last night at juggling club was great. Not only were there a good number of people there (including some cute girls), my practice felt pretty good. I had some good runs with my penguin catches, Gus showed me a fun and goofy looking variation on some basics (involving arm 'juggles,' 'circles' and 'pumps'), and my four ball fountain is coming along very nicely. It was great to juggle to good music again as well. I listened to a lot of Seeed and it felt great to juggle while and moving my body to the music. I tend to do a lot a little dance-like moves when I drop or when I am in between practicing moves, which adds what feels like a wonderful smoothness, playfulness and flow to my practice.