Reflections during a morning-training

0700:

I meet up at the Judo.dormitory for morning-training. This morning we are going to the mountain. That is we are RUNNING to the mountain. Sato-Sensei talked how Tokai Judo can not stop and be satisfied with their achievements winning the All Japan Championships for teams last weekend. "We have to go further! " With this in mind I set out to break my old record of 23 minutes from start to end. I gave everything I had, forcing my legs to keep running up the narrow mud roads. At the end of the last hill I saw Inoue-Sensei and Sato-Sensei. Darting up the final 30 meters I asked Sato-Sensei, seeing him standing there with his old-school stop-watch, "What was my time?". Sato-Sensei replied "I don´t know, my watch is unfortunately broken!" I was wandering if he was joking with me, but it was apparently true. 

The place where we do the mountain-training is quite special. It has been used by buddhist-monks for over a 1000 years. This gives a quite special atmosphere. There no monks there now, but there are monuments, some buddha-statues, a holy building and lots of stones with inscriptions that I can not read with my present level of Japanese. There are also always a group of Japanese senior citizens that sit around a table and talk. 

Mountain-training is not something that goes on all the time. It is a mark of change. In the periods where nature is changing, from spring to summer and from autumn to winter, we train at the mountain. I think it is because they want the Judoka to be aware that things are changing, feel how the nature is changing. This morning I could really feel this change, the sun in the autumn-leaves, the slight chill when the wind touches your skin and sounds that I have not heard before. 

This picture is from the stairs we use for training. Your partner holds your feet while you are bouncing forwards using your hands, like an explosive push-up. I remembered that I did this during the spring-trainings at the mountain and I felt horrible. Now it was tough, but not too hard. I was actually reflecting about the concept of change while training. Change is unavoidable  When I am here at Tokai I will change, Tokai Judo will change and the seasons will change. Depending on what I do it can be good or bad changes. After running back home I realized that my body was not all that exhausted. I guess that my physical condition has improved, at least that is a change for the better.