I started jogging few years ago and my direct motivation was to prepare myself to a long walk in Lapland. Before I went to Lapland with a full size backpack I knew I need to do something for two reasons: first, to not get abandoned along the track, and second, to make the time spent in the wild enjoyable. Somehow pain related to untrained muscles was enough to convince me about the necessity to do jogging. So this was MY reason why I started. I believe that everyone has one. Here is the list of my reasons why I still do jogging and let me tell you this: the longer you do the jogging the more reasons you find. Health-related reasons It seems so obvious that jogging and other physical activities are healthy but how many of us actually believe it? OK, you might believe it but it doesn’t make you eager to actually do jogging. From a vast group of health related reasons I have few favorites that I believe. #1 Jogging wakes me up better than a coffee. In terms of blood pressure jogging increases it and keeps it balanced in a best possible way. If you live in a cold country higher blood pressure means it’s also #2 warmer so this is another reasons why you should start do jogging. If you work in front of the computer, like the majority of us, after couple of years you start having some unpleasant symptoms related to the fact that the most of your day is spent on sitting. In my case the worst symptom was an ache in legs. When I started do jogging #3 all disappeared even if I’m still spending the major part of my day in front of the computer. However, for the first results of regular jogging I had to wait for at least couple of months. It didn’t come easily. Regular jogging #4 improves metabolism and if you ever had a stressful job and some stomach related problems you will appreciate this. The beauty of jogging is related to its integrity: it engages the whole body. So, your health condition gradually grows through this activity and there is a #5 very little chance to hurt yourself like in the case of workouts with weights. Mental gains Some people think that in order to do jogging they need to be well organized and strongly motivated first, but I would say this is the opposite. Jogging teaches you #6 regularity and what is really precious is the way it does. After a month (I’m talking about ordinary people with no serious diseases and health problems) your body gets use to the new regime and as a result it actually protests when you don’t do jogging! Don’t fight with it! Don’t struggle. Just continue jogging. When you do jogging your body may actually surprise you how fast it gets fit, how far you can run and how fast you can do it. Just as all mems say: it never gets easier you just get better. What I noticed was that using my jogging related success I was able to convince myself it can work out elsewhere. This was a powerful regulator of my travel related behavior. Jogging #7 has improved my self-esteem and I started to believe that my physical condition is good enough to travel. The more I was jogging the more #8 endurance and strength I had. As simple as that. What else? From the mental point of view jogging in the early morning is a good opportunity to think about the day. It creates time necessary to #9 reflect on my daily plans and the way how am I going to achieve it. Never let the negative thoughts get to you. Focus on the positive plans and your strengths. On the other hand, if my plans are fixed already and I am happy about it jogging still creates space for something, so I normally #10 listen to the audiobooks, turning the jogging activity into listening exercise. I even learn a foreign language this way. This is the sort of the modern technology achievement that marvels me. I should probably write it in the first paragraph: #11 jogging makes you trendy! Suddenly you discover during small talk at the party that jogging unites people of all backgrounds. There is always something to discuss about jogging and it also makes you feel conected to the large group of people who are struggling to wake up early to go outside and run, just like you do. It sometimes help. How about neighborhood? I was moving around quite a lot and it usually means that you don’t have deep roots in one particular place, like what normally happens if you are a kid and you grow up in one place. You know the place quite well if you spent hours with your school mates on hanging around. If you move often you might feel bit isolated and unfamiliar with the close neighborhood. While it might look weird if you walk around watching houses and people it won’t be weird if you do it while jogging. For me jogging was a #12 good excuse to know better a place where I lived. Sometimes you meet your neighbors while they do their jogging and it is always a good start for the proper neighborhood relations. What happens if you do jogging regularly? #13 It opens a new area of physical activity to think about. In my case, I started thinking about some further physical activities because I felt strong enough to deal with other exercises. OK, true, in my case almost everything is travel related and krav maga which I practice is also related to my sense of security during travels but I would never have started it if I hadn’t been doing jogging in the first place. The krav maga training is demanding and if I treated krav maga as a starting point I would failed. Jogging is both: #14 an excellent background for other sports, and great ongoing activity that #15 keeps you fit. So here is my advice: find your motivation...

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If someone is telling you that learning any martial art won’t hurt he LIES! Naturally, if you start thinking about the new skill you probably imagine yourself as a person who already has successfully acquired it. If it comes to martial arts you have no problems to imagine a lovely picture with a combat that you have just won. Yes, you are prepare for an effort but somehow deep inside your head there is this little irritating thought that you’ll become a local hero within a month. When I started my krav maga training I was prepared for a physical effort but I wasn’t aware that someone will really kick my ass. The group of krav maga apprentices I have joined is mixed of experienced guys and the beginners. Such a mix is a good opportunity to learn fast. Really fast. Because if you don’t you just get your nose punched. For last couple of weeks my nose was bleeding at least three times, and between two workouts weekly the bruises on my legs and arms have not enough time to heal. Ironically, I’m more and more engaged in my training. Sounds crazy? Well, maybe it sounds crazy but not insane. Each sport you do is demanding. Let’s think about skiing: if you don’t learn how to fall you will never ski well. Why? Because you will be always afraid to fall. The case of martial arts is only different because what you get is pure pain. To survive it you need to think about two important issues: first, that pain is temporary and it allows you to learn how much pain you are able to cause in a fight to the others. That’s instructive. Second you need to mentally prepare to get hit during the training. This was a real challenge for me: I haven’t thought I’ll be beaten so many times before I acquired the basic self defense skills. What is really great about krav maga and intensive workout is that increase of your strength, condition and precision is visible. A unique skill to protect yourself from the punch in the nose keeps you smiling for the whole evening. And keeps you going.  

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Last weekend I completed a 6h seminar of self defense technique against gun attack. First of all word ‘seminar’ sounds really funny when you think about its content. It makes my friends laugh as for them this word basically means a mix of conference rooms, suits and free coffee. In the case of krav maga seminar the coffee is not for free and we do not wear suits. And, I would also say, the content of krav maga seminars increase adrenaline much more than a traditional conference. OK, you might think that the probability to meet somebody who will threat me with a gun is low, so it does not make any sense to practice it. While I might be lucky and never find myself in a similar situation I still believe it isn’t completely pointless. The most important thing learnt last weekend is sort of ‘familiarity’ with the gun in terms of weight (it is bloody heavy!), dimensions and technique how to secure it to not to shoot yourself. Second important thing is related to a situation of direct threat for my life: a gun pointed to my head while kneeling was dreadful. Dreadful when it happened for the first time but after six hours I was much less frightened than before the seminar. Lastly, I got known that an aggressor is also very nervous/excited when he/she threatens with a gun or a knife. So, you have couple of minutes to react. After a while he/she gets tranquil and your chances to defense yourself decrease. I am not trying to convince you that after carrying a gun for couple of hours you become fearless but I am pretty sure that I have increased probability of not being totally petrified when it happen to me. I might even have some behavior learnt that one day will safe my life or life of somebody who is with me. One of the huge advantage of such activities is intensive physical training. I mean: I-N-T-E-N-S-I-V-E. Our instructor knows no mercy and after such a day I feel really exhausted. BUT there is also a good news: it gets easier. Or maybe it does not get any easier, I just get better. Photo thanks to Fernando Osuna.  

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I might start my journey just as I am, without even preparing my bag. Just one day leaving the house as it is and taking the first flight from the nearest airport And it might be even fun! I would check if you could travel the world totally unprepared. BUT I am not that kind of person and, as I have already said, I want allow this journey to change me. So, I thought I need to start my preparation from today. And I am not talking only about itinerary and other technicalities. One of the most important issues related to travels is- at least the way I see it- the general fitness. I made quite a few travels and the ones spent in hospitals or in emergencies are the least pleasant. If I want to make this journey special I need to take care for my general fitness and that is quite clear to me. (I don’t have particularly good memories from the British dental emergency at all!). Being always tired and sleepy reduces pleasure. I would like to avoid it and even if I know travelling is pretty tiring itself I will try to prepare my body so it could fit to the changing climate, time zones, diet and weather conditions easily. I’ve decided that  the main areas of my attention would be the general endurance and self-defense skills. So, twice a week I am participating the self-defense training and every two days I am doing jogging. Now, my current problem is that I live in the North so at the moment we have about 30 cm of snow. And before the end of this week it should be around half a meter. Believe me or not it is hard to do jogging in such a deep snow. Especially in your jogging shoes. And as I am not extremist I thought to suspend running for a while. Generally, I will start my jogging this spring, which would be around late March or early April. Before that I am focusing on krav maga. Why krav maga? Because I don’t have 10 years to practice karate, jiu-jitsu, taekwondo or tai-chi, and I don’t want to spend months and months before I acquired one defense technique. In a year time I want to be ready to travel without fear and I need some particular skills to defend myself if I had to. They say krav maga is brutal. Yes, it is brutal and quite primitive but- and this is most important to me- IT WORKS! After three lessons I’ve already acquired the basic rules of behavior in potentially dangerous situation. Before the end of this year I would like to pass the official exam of the second grade. If you read this blog regularly you will know whether I was successful or not.  

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So, if you read this post you have already known my biggest dream: the trip around the world. I am pretty sure that many children have such a dream but not all of them are able to pursue this dream further when they have grown up. For some people a long travel is a dream that has never come true but they still keep dreaming. Some others say to themselves that even it was their dream they are too old, too lazy or too busy to do it. But there is also quite a large group of people who eventually make up their minds and just go. Although travelling is not a new business as people have been travelling around for a long time the spread of cheap flights, travel guides and easily accessible information have significantly revolutionized the tourist market. More and more people are able to go in exotic and distant places. It has become a new trend or even a MUST DO in some social circles. It might not be a mainstream philosophy but travels are definitely trendy. I don’t consider myself an element of this stream, nevertheless, I will take advantage of this widespread custom, using cheap flights and access to information. My general idea is to spend one year on this journey. I would like to focus on South East Asia, Oceania, South and North Americas. Being European makes me privileged to know my own neighborhood pretty well so I will skip this continent in my journey. In terms of preparations I will report the acquisition of new equipment here and some ideas on itinerary, I will share some of my doubts and try to figure out the best solution. Two other important elements of my preparations would be: learning another language and getting some self-defense skills (I might be a dreamer but I still want to make sure that I’ll get back from my trip in one piece). Yes, before I go, I am actually going to learn krav maga techniques but I will tell you about it in my next post.  

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