NO BIG FITNESS GOAL FOR JUNE. After 55 Aikido classes in April, and 50 towns on the bike in May, it’s time to do something I haven’t done much of this year: sit and read. My 50-related goal this month is to visit at least 50 blogs I find interesting, and make some sort of meaningful contribution to each. Here are a couple highlights from the blogs I’ve visited so far. Both are interesting reads for any audience. Check them out.

• Rick from Cook Ding’s Kitchen (a martial arts blog) invites an Aikido and judo instructor in to tell us about life and training in southern Mississippi.
• Mark from Writing, Running, and the Human Experience defends the controversial decisions regarding the Ann Arbor Marathon.

My big fitness events this month are the Dexter-Ann Arbor half marathon, which is already done (with a PR, thank you very much!), and the *inaugural* Ann Arbor Marathon next weekend. How is this Dad planning to celebrate Father’s Day? By dragging his butt out of bed at 5:00 a.m. so he can get to the starting queue by the 6:45 gun, then run with a few thousand other nuts for four hours or so. But after that, it’s all good. (And the run will be fun. Yes, it will. It will.)

My Aikido training will continue as well. Tomorrow morning there will be a black belt test at the Genyokan Dojo, and I’ve been told that nine people will be testing, most for 1st degree black belt, and a few for 2nd degree. I can’t think of a better tribute to the late Kushida-sensei than for his students to keep on training and growing as he taught us to do. I will test for pre-1st Kyu around the end of July, the first of two remaining tests I must pass before I, too, can test for black belt, hopefully in 2013.

Click the picture to view a short video of some black belts practicing. They are not going full speed, but you can see some examples of the techniques they are working on. Enjoy!