3000 Ukemi Challenge

I am training for Mark Walsh's 3000 ukemi challenge in about 10 weeks time. It involves roughly about 7.5 hours of taking ukemi which will be challenging, to say the least, but I think I can do it.

I think there'll be alot to learn from this experience and it's a good way to test my aikido and aerobic stamina. In preparation I have added some more strenuous exercises to my morning routine and some skipping to increase my aerobic ability. I also want to try and bulk up if possible to give myself some more reserves but I don't know if this is possible, I don't eat meat and have pretty much remained about nine and a half stone for some years now.

My routine currently stands as :

3 sets of maka ho stretching, 3 times
40 tucks of various forms
30 press ups
2 sets of hip and spine stretches
20 one leg squats
100 saburi (sword cuts)
15 mins skipping

I have stopped meditating for the moment as I actually found it was causing psychological problems for me, very odd, but I feel better not meditating at the moment. At least, not sitting to meditate specifically. I have been using Thich Nhat Hahn's suggestions of meditating while washing the dishes, walking, climbing stairs etc. Mindfullness.

Incidentally I am looking for sponsorship for the 3000 Ukemi Challenge, in aid of Aiki Extensions...

One Point

I decided over the weekend to approach aikido slightly differently. I will take one paticular aspect of aikido and focus on that for the whole class.

So yesterday I chose my stance, in paticluar, making a nice deep stance in every technique and exercise.

This obviously demanded more of my body yet I found very early on in the session that my legs were getting hot but me head was cooling down. After 20 minutes of practicing like that my mental dialogue had practically dissappeared and I felt like beaming for the rest of the evening.

In an art as technically complex and sophisticated as aikido it's easy to get lost in techniques and angles and figuring out what you're supposed to be doing.

Don't.
Take one aspect of it and do that really well.