Jogging and Goju-Ryu

Over the past two years I have not been a faithful jogger. Prior to that period of time I had been a fairly consistent jogger and had completed several marathons, half-marathons and many organized runs of lesser distances over the past twenty something years. As stated before in this blog, I wanted to incorporate jogging on a consistent basis this year along with my continued study and training in Goju-Ryu Karate-Do as part of my health and wellness routine. I was wondering how my legs would respond to the pounding of a consistent jogging schedule after a two-year hiatus. I found out over the past two weeks.

My first jog was a three-mile loop at the College of San Mateo’s (CSM) cross-country course. The course is a figure eight designed dirt course consisting of small hills and includes only minor sections of somewhat flat terrain. It’s a challenging course to run fast, and I never have been able to run it well. My first attempt around the course was better than I expected it would be. My legs felt strong and I was able to complete the course without any problems. I can say that my success was based upon my last two years of Goju-Ryu training. Even though I had not been jogging consistently for two years, all of the Goju-Ryu training had kept my legs strong. Over the last seven days I have returned to the CSM course and completed four, five and six mile jogs around the course without any problem. However, I did jog at a “dead slow” pace. But there was really no soreness in my legs as a result of those jogs.

Because training in Goju-Ryu includes lots of training from low stances during basic movements and kata training, your legs get a great workout. My legs have benefited from all of that training.

And that’s a good thing!