King Street Saturday

Went out into Alexandria this morning to get in some training with a group. We warmed up, rotated, hopped, quaded and then go into playing around. It was ridiculously hot today,w hich wasn't so exciting, but we got a good amount of work in. Lots of jumping and climbing here, which is always good. I prefer to work on the foundation of the jump, since I seem to have gotten a bit worse at that whole thing. My legs are rather exhausted after two hours of this. I think I'm going to take a nap.

The First Episode

Went out training last night. Didn't manage to write anything on it, though, so here it is. Being a little sick, and focusing mostly on documenting Corey's lesson and progression, I didn't do all too much. Corey, however, was pushed quite a bit. I had him do an extensive warm-up similar to what we did in Hamilton under Dan's tutelage, occasinally joining in myself. He needed to take some breaks, which is all fair, since I doubt with my asthma I could've done it without breaks either. But I did notice that he could only do a fraction of what goes on in Toronto regularly. I'm trying to keep him in the realm of what I am capable of doing myself, because I wouldn't feel appropriate making him go through something that I'm not capable of.

All the same, I was expecting more out of him. For me, it would have been the warm-up's intensive cardio that wiped me out, but I would've pushed through. For him, I saw his weakness in the conditioning segment that followed. Thirty squats, thirty push-ups (three different stances, ten each), and then 30 vertical jumps on steps. Rest. Duck-walk about 20m. That's paltry. Even for me and my low level of fitness. It's not a criticism in any way; I just forgot what it was like. He'll get better, and each time I meet up with him for this project, the conditioning will get more intense.

I didn't want Corey to work on specific techniques this time around. I think that would box him in too soon. So I just asked him to keep moving in the area in any path he chose. In the beginning, he took his time and analysed what he could do where... When he moved and reached a rail where he couldn't speed vault or lazy vault it comfortably, he stopped, walked around some more, and found another path. I told him to stop thinking in terms of vaults and techniques. If he has to slowly climb over something, then just do that, but he shouldn't have been stopping because he couldn't do a more dynamic move on that rail. Over time, he got more comfortable with just moving around. I wanted to help instil in him a sense of play and exploration. That's the most important lesson for a beginner: don't get boxed in. Don't let your technique rule you. There are only two rules for Parkour: Condition. Move.

While I was filming, I did do random exercises, conditioning and some technical play, off the camera. But I'm just letting my body rest up for now.

Holds

I didn't warm-up or cool-down today other than stretching before bed. Today was all about practicing my holds while I let my body rest for the most part. Repeated trials of:

Tuck planche
Handstand
Pistol hold
Wall-assisted planche

I've gotten worse with the tuck, which is a real shame. Must work on that more.

HIIT

Warm-up:
Joint rotation
1:00 jog

Work-out:
20:00 HIIT sprints

Cool-down:
1:00 walking
Stretch

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Been working out my legs too much lately. Need to rest them over the next long while.

Georgetown Cat Leaps

Unexpectedly, I came out to a training meet at Georgetown University today. Also surprisingly is the fact that the one who set it up had to cancel, which left me alone with what looked like a 14 year old boy named Logan. No problem. I rotated my joints and messed around with some light vaults and balancing, and we moved onto the dreaded Georgetown wall that I swore I would get by the end of the summer. Did I get it? Hell no. But I got one hand firmly grasped and I hung there for a second. Because I didn't expect it, I didn't get the other hand up. So I know I can do it now, at least, just not regularly. We were kicked out by the security before I had the chance to actually get it. Next time, I swear.

We moved about and played with some more rails. There was a precision jump out into a cat grab by what i dub the "Leon precision area" that is relatively fun. It was here that I noticed that Logan had no conception of how to absorb the impact from a cat leap! His landings normally were fine, but if you do it horizontally, he would slap into the wall with amazing force. I tried to work with him on it. His problem was that he only braced one foot, so he didn't manage to disperse the impact properly or equally.

Due to some wet paint on the rails, our next spot had to be "Jesse's speed vault parking lot." So I messed around quite a bit here, doing random jumps and landings and also doing a few vault circuits. Scared some cleaning ladies when I shot out from one of the Jersey barricades a good 8 feet into a roll. They did [i]not[/i] expect that. Across the way from the parking lot was a really fun area, but it really just involved a rail, a sidewalk, some steps, and a cat leap. I landed a very long one (maybe a ten foot leap) a little sloppy.. doing Logan's one-foot thing. I'll get it, though, cleaner.

Lastly, we went into this back alley and played around with more wall techniques. Tacs to cats and whatnot. It was a good session with a lot of climbing involved. My legs were pretty sore from yesterday's tabata squats, but I managed to get everything done well enough. Good training. Laid back and not strict, but also intense enough to get a good workout.

Tabata squats

Warm-up:
Joint rotation
5:00 jog

Work-out:
Tabata squats

Cool-down:
Stretch

Running endurance, some strength

Warm-up:
Joint rotation
5:00 run

Work-out:

15min HIIT

5 sets of:
60 weighted crunches (30lbs)
60 weighed Russian twists (30lbs)
1 min front plank hold
12 squats (160lbs)
30 calf raises (160lbs)

Cooldown:
1 min front plank hold
1 min handstand hold
Stretching

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It's been a few days. There've been some personal things getting in the way, but I'm hoping to not let it get at me too much. I'm feeling good about today, though. I need to do some shin raises, though. Some pain while I was running. Could definitely feel the impact. Maybe I'll go to more padded shoes in the forefoot section for a little while until those muscles have gotten stronger. I do enough barefoot training to keep my feet conditioned, anyhow.