The Journey Within

I’m no expert in horizontal running, and definitely not in running vertically. I have tried running up the stairs to pick up the forgotten umbrella, but I certainly have not tried running 73 storeys (all 1336 steps) at one go! Enrolling into a vertical marathon was entirely by chance. Ok, peer pressure had something to do with it, peppered with a touch of curiosty. I signed up for this vertical marathon more than a month ago, but only took the race seriously on the last week before the race.

It was a bit too late to build up the leg muscles, so I was hoping that my tai ji practice will not fail my legs! The last week of “training” was more focused to find any technique I could use to run up the stairs with less effort. So here are some of the tips which I hope you might find useful.

1. try it out!

You’ve got to try it out to find out what you’re getting yourself into! I have to say I’ve tried it out too late, but my legs were holding up, so that was quite a consolation.

2. finding a tall building

It might be difficult to find a 73 storey building. The swissotel is the highest in South East Asia! But you don’t have to find a tall building. Just do repetitions. Say you found a 12 storey building, just do it 6 times. Or for a 25 storey building, do it 3 times etc. The key is still No. 1, you’ve got to try it! Doing 6 storeys only is not enough.

3. pit stops

If, like most of us, you can’t find a 73 storey building, you will be faced with pit stops – times when you need to go down those floors that you have climbed up. These pit stops are actually really useful breathers! Gives the legs some rest as well. As with formula ones races, you can actually optimise the number of pit stops and where you choose to stop, so that you get just sufficient rest but still able to climb all the way to the 73rd floor in good time.

4. upper body vs lower body

For vertical marathons, having a higher proportion of weight in the upper body does help the upward momentum. Failing to change weight proportions in a short period of time, chi running offers some useful guide. It proposes an upward swing of the arms, sort of like (almost!) punching your chin. But to get that right, you’ve got to time it well with your upward momentum as well, which leads to…

5. rhythm

Get the rhythm right, and your run will be more effortless. Make sure the upward momentum of your arm swing coincides with the upward momentum created by your legs. This is the whole body movement that tai ji is trying to teach as well.

6. pull those railings!

Use the environment. If you can time your upward lift by pulling yourself using the railings, you will diversify the use of your muscles from legs to arms, that is if your arm is strong enough!

7. reduce weight

The lighter you are, theoretically there’s less weight to lug around. Of course, you do need those heavy muscles to bring you up, so there should be an optimum point of muscles to weight ratio. I didn’t have time (or can’t be bothered!) to do this.

8. drink/eat before the race

You will need something to eat to give you enough energy to reach the top. Not too much so that you’ll throw up! A banana or 2 should be more than sufficient. You’ll also need some fluids. Again not too much such that you have water swimming around in your tummy! Just be sensible. (I found out the hard way. Too much food, and too little water. Made me wanted to puke and gave me a headache…)

9. during the race

Forget everything and just have fun!

10. after the race

Collapse on the floor, enjoy the view, take some pictures, make some friends. Congratulate each other. You might not want to hug each other, but some handshakes will go down well. And finally, take the lift down to ground floor. Or the helicopter if you’re lucky enough!

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Get instant hard muscles. Get results in 10 days. Eliminate the flab. Get the six packs. Get it in steel hard form. No effort necessary. Get results without even trying. Just drink / eat this.

The first thought to my mind on reading such a pamphlet – what do I do with all those muscles? What is the purpose of all those muscles? I’m not required to lift a ton of bricks. They have machines for them now. The muscles I build up would most likely be useless in carrying the crates of coke bottles anyway. So why have them?

Of course, I might just be jealous of having one pack instead of six. I might just be jealous of not getting clothes to look good on me (by Hollywood standards anyway!). But with all the diet plans out there, dishing out scare tactics on what to eat and what not to eat, I would find it quite confusing to keep up.

I would like to suggest a hopefully easier way to remember:

• Everything in moderation, and the body will take care of itself.

I find it difficult to justify to myself to create a set of purposeless muscles. I also find it quite difficult to justify staying away from unhealthy food – they normally taste better.. much better! So as long as i eat the healthy options as much as the unhealthy ones, the body should be able to balance itself out. It’s certainly a much easier formula than keeping tabs with how much calories I’ve taken today and how much I have burnt.

Having said that, is it easier to keep tabs on the healthy vs unhealthy food? The body will tell you, if you listen to it closely enough.

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I didn’t think relaxing can be confusing. We know how it feels, and yet, different people can interpret it differently. I was chatting away with another Tai Ji student and I told him about how difficult it was to relax into the form.

“To actually use Tai Chi as a martial art, you’ll have to be able to achieve the relaxed state of mind in the heat of the battle!”

He said… “How difficult can relaxing be?”

And he showed me a limped hand gesture…

I think we all know what does relaxing feel like. It’s a state of mind which is free from worry, free from stress. But when translated to the body, somehow asking the hand to relax is another ball game altogether. We know a tense shoulder is not relaxed, that’s where the masseur comes in. So what does relax actually mean in the context of tai chi?

Being relaxed is a conscious effort. It requires your attention and will power to actually want to relax. Relaxing without being mindful about it is not relaxing, it’s being lazy. A limped hand is not relaxed. However, if you have the intention to “limp” it, that is relaxed. The qualitative difference is quite startling. It is the difference between doing Tai Ji and being a zombie. After all, anything worth your attention would definitely merit your intention as well!*

So the next time you are trying to relax into your form, don’t forget to be mindful about it. Of course, to concentrate to relax is actually counter-productive to achieving the state of relaxation! Just be aware of the need to relax. Coax the body into the state of relaxation. But let the body do the rest. You can’t force it, but you can definitely tempt it and hopefully, it’ll sway in your favour. As Oscar Wilde put it, “I can resist anything but temptation”. The body would probably do the same.

* This was actually paraphrased from David Allen’s Getting Things Done, thanks to the recommendation from wujimon. I think there will be more about this in time to come.

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Your alarm rings. You stirred. The alarm is still nagging at you, and it’s somehow getting louder. The ear is gaining consciousness. You rolled over. The alarm now is deafening. Your hand searches frantically for the “off” button. It’s no where to be found?!! With a great huff, you wrestled out of the blanket and rolled off the bed. “Where’s my glasses?” Your hand wanders around, searching not for the glasses, but the source of that relentless noise. “Ah, I see the nuisance.” Your hand slammed at the “off” button, and your body free fall back into the bed. Until you realised that you’ve overslept, again…

Do you fall into this cycle every morning? Knowing full well that it’ll repeat itself the next day, and yet do nothing about it? The only time I choose to do something about it, is to tell myself not to repeat this tomorrow. Of course, tomorrow comes and the wrestle-slam-sleep-overslept cycle is repeated day after day.

I think I’m looking at this the wrong way round. The action that can be done can only be done before you go to bed, not after. It’ll be too late in the morning to do anything about it, knowing full well that I will wake up a different person from when I went into bed, until the morning sun (or the caffeine) kicks in.

So, what are the things that you can do before going to bed?

Right before going to bed, I find reading something light helps. The words will start to swim in front of your eyes, and the mind will just wander off – you know it’s time for bed.

No visual stimulant. Any visual stimulant, like the screen you’re looking at now, is not very helpful before bed. This includes watching telly, web surfing, video games etc.

If you do any meditation, before sleep will be a very good time to do it. You can clear your thoughts and let the mind adjust to a more relaxed state. The relaxed state of mind can also be achieved if you write down what you need to do the next morning, rather than keeping your to do list always in your mind! By capturing your to do list somewhere else other than within your poor brain (which is trying to get some rest), you’ll do wonders to allow the brain to relax.

If you’re lucky enough to get sunlight at a reasonable time, leave your curtains open. The body likes sunlight. Feels like superman recharging.

During the day, get some exercise. Walk, run, play sports, any sports, do some tai ji. If you do drive, park the car further away. Any exercise will tire the body, which in turn will tell the body to rest. Heed the body’s advice at night! And don’t try to fight it.

Balanced diet – less sugar in the later part of the day. Although some people do find eating more makes you sleep better! Doesn’t do well with the weight though. And the long term effects are actually less energy throughout the next day, which will increase the time to heave yourself out of the bed, not to mention heaving a heavier self!

You can actually train yourself to wake up when the alarm rings, as this article suggest.

Anymore methods you have tried to trick yourself to get up at the right time, please share it here!

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我： 太极呀太极，为什么你还不属于我呢?

太极： 徒儿呀徒儿，其实我并不属于任何人，却又是大家所能拥有的。

我： 那我为什么不能拥有你呢?

太极： 那是在你拥有我之前要自己寻找的答案。

me: Dear Tai Ji, why are you still not mine?

Tai Ji: Dear student, I actually do not belong to anyone, and yet I am everyone’s.

me: And so why can’t you be mine?

Tai Ji: That is the answer you need to seek, before I am yours.

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