Stephen Lawrence Brayton's Blog – September 2014 Archive (4)

One day in August of 1991, I was uptown and saw the local taekwondo club had a special offer of two weeks' free classes. I'd always been interested in martial arts, so I thought this sounded like a good deal and started classes.

I'd been in Oskaloosa less than a year and soon after starting my job at the radio station I joined the local community theatre group. I had been acting in plays since…

I really enjoy the forms of the American Taekwondo Association. The white belt form has 18 moves and you work yourself up to 81 moves for the first degree black belt form. White belt starts with some very basic moves, punch, front and side kicks, low, high, and middle blocks, and a knifehand strike (karate chop). Each form thereafter introduces a new move or combination move with some extra turns, and so…

My first bike was a 5-speed Schwinn. The gear shift was in the middle with a big black knob on the end. Banana-type seat. Later, I had a ten speed which I outgrew. In Oskaloosa, I had, for a short time, a three speed several decades old, complete with a headlight. Unfortunately, I kept it in the laundry room and someone stole it. Now I have a ten speed that is just a bit small for me, but it…

I went out for track in both junior high and high school. I never placed in any of my races. I went out for basketball as a junior in high school but the first warm up made my legs hurt for three days.

I'm not a fast runner but I've built up the endurance through taekwondo and through persistence.

I break down my running exercises into two categories. Intervals and…