On training and inspiration

I have had loads to do at uni lately. Most of it has been very interesting - I write about things I am interested in, after all - but one downside is that I haven't been training (no karate, no running, no other kind of working out either...) for the last two weeks. Two weeks might not sound like a very long time to some, but for me it is. And while I'll confess that it would not have been impossible to train all days, on most of the free nights I've had, I've simply been too tired. Still not sure whether I'm making up excuses or tying to learn to accept weakness...

Last month, another member of the same karate organisation initiated the tart of a women's network within it. So far the network has been about sharing experiences, memories, photos and other things - we have a closed facebook group and a smaller number f the members have also started using the same training log site. This has all been very inspiring, and  the training log has been good for my motivation when it comes to actual training. Knowing that people you know can see both how and how often you train can really be that kick in the butt you need to get going some days. But the last two weeks this has made my inactivity even more frustrating - as now everyone has been able to follow it! Embarrassing!

I'll be back (doing karate) tomorrow, and have promised myself to throw in at least one good run too this week.

Work, work.

I have now spent just over two mostly grey, rainy weeks guiding at the industrial museum. The first week was quite quiet, but since midsummer the stream of visitors has been growing steadily and these last couple of days have even been a bit hectic! I'm enjoying it so far, but my weak Finnish is still a complex - no matter how well I try to learn the material, it can still be frustratingly difficult to answer spontaneous questions from visitors. Sometimes because I don't know the answer (this happens particularly often with local visitors, who tend to be familiar with the history represented and whom I sometimes suspect of asking merely to test my knowledge) but just as often because I am not able to answer in Finnish. Very annoying, and also embarrassing. Still, I like my job and now mostly worry about the fall. (as I still don't know what I'll be doing after August, job-wise.)

At first, I found it hard to work six days a week, but I think I'm getting used to it now. It's interesting to have Mondays off - my "weekend" starts right where everyone else's ends. I try to think of something fun or inspiring to do every Monday,  not to miss weekends too much. I'll get back to you on the Monday projects later.

Summer School and karate in general

I'm back! Almost two weeks later... Wanted to write earlier, but just never got myself to it.

Summer School was an absolutely great experience again this year. The course theme was kept simple, with an emphasis on "old" methods and so, instead of radical new methods we were given the basic old school ones with lots of time and repetitions to work on them - which I think was good. I could see myself making progress and I know I wasn't the only one! One more special thing this year was for me to spend my first time on the blackbelt- side of the group. This meant practice partners on a high level, and at the same time lots of feedback from the technical group members and other higher dan-grades.

I came home with lots of inspiration, for my own training as well as for my instructing this fall. I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but I've asked my instructors to let me teach the beginners' group again this year, and have now also got a kyu-grade (who happens to have started as a a student of mine) to do this with me. Will be fun! I have a basic set of ideas I'd like to try, but nothing very radical. In fact, I think I'd like to go quite orthodox with the whole thing this year. So the Summer School theme fit me like a glove this year. I'm also looking forward to this year's marketing campaign.

One more thing about Summer School: This year I finally got my ass out of bed every day in time for the morning jog an kata-session with our Estonian friends! And it was good! I have to repeat that next year! After returning home, I've tried to repeat this routine of early morning jogs, but failed badly so far. This morning I would have finally been up on time, but found it was raining quite hard outside so cancelled it. But I'll give it some more time.

And by the way, I've stopped following my protein intake now, but still eat a bit extra of it, now that I have the routine.

me complaining about my job and listening to great music

I'm tired of my job again. I only work a couple of days every week, but this just makes it more frustrating. Right now, in the summer, I'd have the time to do so much more, and I also know that I function better when I'm active enough. Of course, this gives me the chance to spend more of my time doing things that actually feel rewarding for me to do, and I am doing that - I focus on my health, my art, I train, I write... - but I would still want to work more.

Of course, I also dream about simply finding a new job, a different one, one that relates ever so slightly to my area of knowledge. Or something where I could earn more. I'll keep looking.

This month I will take only one day off my normal work schedule, for the Jakobs dagar- weekend in two weeks, when I'll be revisiting my hometown again, as every year. This year I can specially look forward to one more reunion with the girls (we did this last year and hope to turn it into a tradition!) on Thursday and of course the Party Of The Year on Saturday.

...and midst my complaining, I found this on the zenhabits blog: http://zenhabits.net/discomfort-ruin/
-an article on learning to cope with your discomfort. Great timing again.

Listening to: Electric six, David Bowie (Hunky Dory!)

Update on training

I've found my way back to karate practice again - or at least attended two sessions in a row. It's been quite hard for me to follow this summer's practice schedule, as the sessions are so early, especially the Wednesday tends to clash with my work hours. But right now we are having some difficulties with cancelled sessions, meaning we have instead practised in the park on times suitable for as many as possible - ironically making it easier for yours truly to attend. From now on, the Wednesday sessions will probably be easier to attend too, as I'm, starting tomorrow, no longer doing the double round.

Doing your karate training outdoors does include some small challenges, like having to adjust to weather changes or training on uneven ground instead of a good hardwood floor. But this is where you really get some use for those hard foot soles earned from seven years of karate practice.

This summer I've also started to work out at home, with small weights. I can't say too much about the progress yet, but I'm sure its good for me. I hope it will work as a good balance to my running on the side of karate training. In this, I'm focusing mostly on torso, especially upper back muscles, but also arms. I try do some kind of training or exercise every day (and yes, I count my job as exercise, too),  except for the occasional Sunday.

Friday and still alive

This has been a busy week! Especially since I missed one workday by chosing to return to Turku on Monday night. But I'm happy with what I've achieved during the week, and for once I'm still on schedule (or I hope I am!) with every project I''m working on at the moment.

I spent last weekend in my hometown, the official excuse being the birthday of a friend. It was very nice to spend time with some of my oldest friends - I do miss them a lot in Turku and wish I could see them much more often! - and so the weekend sadly just flew by. Had lots of fun, though!

The courses I'm taking now are still inspiring, but also loads of work. There are assignments every week, as opposed to that one essay or exam bythe end of the period, as I'm used to. But I think this works for me, at least it stops me from procrastinating too much. Also, I've been rising early in the mornings again, which is good but means I'm close to constantly sleepy. But it does give yo more time to finish things!

Today, I had a first meeting with my professor about my master's thesis (to be), and after some kind suggestions and a bit of discusion we seem to have found something for me to work on, without me trailing off too far from what I did (am doing) for my bachelor's. You're not in any way obliged to stick to the same area, but it does make life just that much easier if you chose to do so.

Its now Friday, and the first snow fell last night. I like it. Wish I could sleep in tomorrow, but it's a normal work-day Saturday.

out of energy

I wish I had more energy. There are so many things I want to do, and I've been getting nowhere this week. If I really wanted to make excuses, I guess I could blame part of it on the flu -this has been the worst day of ot so far, had to give in after about half of todays work was done. (Now I have to do the rest tomorrow, so not looking forward to that) I haven't been able to go running because of the flu, and I miss that a lot. Also had to skip practice, when I would so have liked to go through some of the things from last weekend's course. To only sit on my ass and work (write) is so hard when I'm too tired to focus, my brain doesn't feel properly connected (thanks to the flu) and at the same time I can't do any of the things that normally make my day. On the other hand I remember already struggling with (and writing about) motivational problems before last weekend, so I should probably just skip the excuses then.
I should probably try to get back to my artwork even if I officially "don't have the time". Especially as I know this can sometimes work as a kickstart for me... And after a while, when I haven't, I'll feel empty. Just have to get to it, I guess. I wonder why I still so rarely prioritise my art, even though I once took on to make it my profession? I have fought myself more than a couple of times about this, but so far neither side of me has ever won.

update on the weekend

I had the greatest weekend, event though sometimes it seems it takes longer and longer to fully recover after the courses. The first two days after my return I pretty much spent reloading on calories, trying to beat a flu before it really hits me (seems to be failing) and being generally ineffective. And once again, just as after the June course last year, I know that I absolutely have to got to Summer school again in august. So I guess you could say that I'm working on that now.

I've also been transcribing my course diary, to be able to share it. This has been the first course that I've actually done a diary on, and it did start well but...  I never managed to finish it, as once the course got going there were both the socials and the tiredness from practice. So the first practices were documented in great detail but then it just trailed off... But I still know I learned from the parts that I did write, because it had me go through everything again in my mind and analyze it at least to some extent. I think I'll try do the same thing again next time I attend a course. And now that I think of it, I wonder if my main use of this blog isn't too far from that either...

Now, if I could only get back to reality, too...

update on everyday things

I'm finally seeing some results of my studying, in grades as well as credits. This really helps keep you motivated!

I'm running again, but not without my antihistamines. In recent years I've been wondering whether or not I have a pollen allergy, but well... at least now I know that I do. The amount of birch pollen is higher this year than it's been in ten years, and my nose and eyes are runny even when I'm taking it easy. I should probably have eaten my antihistamines earlier springs too (even with the " only traces of allergy" I had before) as I now noticed a very clear difference in both results and overall feeling while running. So I might actually be in much better shape than I thought, which is fun of course, but makes you feel just slightly retarded at the same time.

I'm still not back to a good (human) daily rhytm after my "inspired period". Still staying up late only to oversleep most mornings. I would love to live in a world adjusted to the rhytm of waking up at 11 in the  morning, having lunch after three in the afternoon, going out jogging in the late evening and then staying up until three in the morning. But you're obviously not supposed to do that, at least if you want to be an active part in society...

project of the week

This week I've forced myself to get up early every morning, even on mornings when I haven't had to "be anywhere". I guess you could say it's one of my long-term projects, only for some reason I haven't been able to keep it up before. I've always been jealous of morning people! Of course it's only been a couple of days yet, but I really hope I'll manage to stick to this. I like having more hours in the day (without staying up until the small hours), and I have noticed geting more things done in a day, so that's good I guess. The thesis has not been touched even once in the entire week, though. A bit ashamed of that. But hopefully I'll get back to that next week! Next week I'll also be attending my first karate course of this year, looking forward to that a lot! I haven't attended one since october, and it's definitely been too long! There will be a lot of them coming up this spring, which is good but with the major ones (two in March, one in June) all being abroad, it will also be quite heavy economically. Getting too sleepy to write now (at 9.30 in the evening, I can't believe it!), I think I'll return home to get some sleep... ...as soon as I've managed to forget ow blisteing cold it's outside.

Back again

Wow... haven't been posting in a good while again. And now they (blogger) have changed everything, so I'm pretty much back to learning how to use the whole thing again... ;) Quite a lot has happened since last time I wrote a post, but I'm not going to do any recounts - one more try to start again instead... Enjoying a weekend off right now, and I could never have guessed it would feel this good! I have been working too much recently, to the point where as soon as I didn't I would just shut off completely out of exhaustion. So yes, I guess I needed it. The reason for the weekend off was a planned reunion with my class from art school, but sadly this was cancelled. I'm not much for that kind of events normally, but I had been looking forward to this one a lot! I hope we will make it happen someday! First I was also sad about "waisting" a weekend on a cancelled event, but it didn't take long for me to start enjoying it. So much extra time! I haven't been enjoying any crazy partying or other cool events, just been cleaning my apartment, exercising and generally taking up stuff left off because of my constant stressing. It' been so, so nice and the best thing is - there's one more day of it! One great thing last week was kicking off (yes. pun intended.) the advertising campaign for our beginners course. I think it went quite smoothly this time, and most people involved seemed to enjoy it, too. We had quite a lot of people ask us stuff or otherwise show interest at the Freshers fair, so it'll be very exciting to see how many of them will actually show up to practice... Hoping for a big number of course, we do need new members... Getting sleepy now, so I'll end here and try my best to return soon.

Moving day 1.

The boys moved out today. We had a nice group of people helping out, and the whole thing was done quite effectively. Now i sit alone in the half-emptied apartment and Boy. Does. It. Feel. Strange.... Usually I don't have a problem with being home alone but now, since almost everything is gone (couch, TV, microwave, desks, bookcases, you name it...) I can't just follow my routines. The living room is the most empty, since almost nothing in there was mine. This, my own corner of the workspace, looks more or less the same and feels more OK to dwell in. The bedroom is fine too, also mostly my stuff in there.

I will have to find more than a couple of new routines  after the move, since my new home is located in more or less the other end of town. I need to find a new place to run and I'll really miss my favorite corner shop.

I'm going to start (or continue?) packing my stuff too, I'll just have to get some more boxes. It'll be real nice having my own place assembled. And speaking of such - yes, I got the apartment I was hoping for! Oh joy!

Tonight most of the city of Turku are out in the cold celebrating the start of our year as European Cultural Capital. But I chose to stay at home and enjoy the combination of cold beer, warm sauna and nice music - a favorite combination of mine. Works every time!