My first TaeKwonDo session in 6+ years...

...and it was like the first day of school. Serious jitters. Am I wearing the right thing? Socks off, like at my last gym? Oh my gosh I feel old! What--are these kids old enough to be in college?

We started out with laps around the makeshift dojo (IMA, Mat room B): 10 laps. It's a good thing I've been working out. The formal instructor/master comes in...10 more laps! Some of the college guys and gals have pased me twice already. At least they'll admire me for being here, right? haha.

We line up and start in with the bowing, ready position, fighting stance... Hey, I remember this! Ha-hahhhh. He says I have good form. Did you hear that kids? This is incredible!

This class I've started is through the UW gym: Tues/Thurs for 6 weeks (at a rockin' $35! Cha-ching!). They started out last night with the basics, which is good. My aging body actually started remembering and "waking up" to the moves! I still have it, people...well, it's in there somewhere, at least :-)

About half-way through our 1-hour class, the real martial artists (black belts and....other people...with belts) came in and began warming up and practicing all around us. I remember doing a lot of that stuff, and am totally motivated to get back to that point of training. They were amazing! Watching them also made me realize why I was in the best shape of my life when I was doing TKD: running, bouncing, kicking, pushups, jumping, kicking, more pushups, laps, etc., etc. I was also considerably more flexible than I am now. I did some stretching before the class, and fortunately didn't pull anything major. (That's not to say I'm not walking a bit gingerly today.)

My goal is to see where I'm at once these 12 sessions are complete, dust off my TKD uniform and green belt, and either dive in to the UW club with the big-belts, or into another TKD school as before.

All-in-all: I can't believe I let myself get away from it! I LOVE IT!!
Kari is coming back, baby :-)
Now, where's the ibuprofen?