old school dinosaur

I recently attended a gathering of old and current members of my alma mater's Tae Kwon Do Club. As one of the original members, I was curious to see what changes had taken place since I'd moved on. A lot has changed.

The TKD club was founded in the mid 1980's. If you remember that far back, MTV still played music videos. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor, plays a killer robot from the future. And I was practicing ITF TKD, as taught by Master BM Lee. ITF TKD resembles Shotokan karate more than it does the Olympic style (WTF). I didn't expect to see anyone I knew, but was more than ready to meet the folks who've come after me.

Well, there were two familiar faces: Kenji, who was pursuing a doctorate in linguistics; Master Michael Lee, son of Master BM Lee. Turns out Kenji never got his doctorate in linguistics, but he did get his 2nd dan in TKD. Master Michael Lee was in high school the last time I saw him. Since then he became a grand champion in a major TKD tournament, a senior instructor, and a family man. The rest of the faces were all too young, not even born by the time I graduated. I could only relate to them as a relic from the old school days. "Don't stop training," I told them, "it's a way of life."

Today's workout:
-day 10 of the weighted pull up program (5,5,5,4,4,4,3,3,3,3,1)
-dips (12,12,12,12,12)
-1 to 15 burpee breathing ladder

I feel like I'm rushing the sets of 5 in the pull-ups. I'll turn it down a notch so that I can get some clean sets in. My arms are medium-well to well-done. Some massaging with the stick and high bounce ball are in order.

2,040/10,xxx