Archive for November, 2003

Combat Conditioning at DJ Health Club

Sunday, November 16th, 2003

Dow Jones has a fitness center on their campus in Monmouth Junction, NJ where I work. I joined back in 2001 when I started working on physical fitness because I was so out of shape. One of the trainers there, Darryl Shepherd, has studied martial arts. He begain teaching a combat conditioning class and I signed up. We pair up with a partner and do three-minute drills of focus mitt punching. This includes jabs, crosses, hooks, uppercuts and kicks. He’ll call out the combinations by number. One is a jab, two is a jab then cross, three is a jab, cross then hook. Or he’ll call out something like 10 left crosses. You get the idea. In between rounds, he’ll have us do push-ups or static holds, or jump-rope, or various other challenging exercises. It’s an all-around great class. Thanks Darryl. And thanks to Phil LaVoie too, who pushed for the class.

2003 Richmond Marathon – My First Marathon

Thursday, November 13th, 2003

I completed my first full marathon (26.2 miles) at the 26th annual SunTrust Richmond Marathon November 15th, 2003. You can read about my experience here: myfirstmarathon.html Map and photo are at the bottom of the page.

Ni-dan in Shotokan Karate

Tuesday, November 4th, 2003

I practice Shotokan Karate under Katsuya Kisaka at JKA in Trenton, NJ. I recently passed my Ni-dan black belt test.