Civic Training

Did some training in civic with ruoF, the other day.

I found it really hard to get into the mood, to get ewxcited about the training. I started to get excited when I started doing this random hand stand poses, coming in from a cart-wheel.

We trained for about 1 to 2 hours, only hitting up toast and noise wall. I come to realise how much you can actualyl do at noise wall, and appreciate it more than i used to.

I've recently come down with a cold, which will most likely hinder my training. And I've just started my holidays! I'll test out how much it affects my training potential tomorrow, with some indoor strength training.

Past Training

Last thursday went to Holder gym. It was good to get back there. The session didn't really have any focus, we just played around with different things. One achievement was getting front saults on the tramp. I've never done them before, and it has started to help me get confidence in my front sault rotation technique.

Yesterday we trained at castle for a few hours. Played around with different movements. I have two big cat to precisions that I plan on building up to, when my confidence and skill have gotten back up to where they used to be.

On the way out, we found a really good rock area surrounding a river. There are some really good precisions there, and one cat to precision over the river (another thing to work up to). There was one standing precision that tested me mentally, but I was able to do it!

From there we went to family court, where I only stayed for about 15 minutes before I headed home.

Overall my training has definately been picking up, and I'm feeling great about it.

Civic Training

Trained in civic yesterday.

It was just a light session, as for some reason I just wasn't in the mood.

I had a few mental challenges, such as the precision at the curvy walls near the old bus depot. At first i wasn't able to do it, but then I thought to myself "just do it, you've done it before so you can do it again" ... so i did.

Overall it was a good light session.

Tuggeranong Training

Trained in Tugerrs today. It was really good. I havent trained for nearly two months now, and i havent trained in tuggers for at least a year.

We moved around a lot, spending most of the time at sandstone. I've realised that sandstone is a really good place to run a class.

I can't really be bothered to go into the details, but it was really good to start moving again, start training again.

We trained for about 5 hours, and i didn't get home unto 8pm. Man it was good.

More issues have arisen in regards to classes and people doing things behind my back. These issues are things that I will have to sort out in the future. There will be big changes to everything next year, and hopefully this will result in a more stable and productive community.

APA Classes

The APA classes in Canberra have gone to shit, put simply. I am partly to blame though, as I have not made a presence for nearly two months. Everything is falling apart, so now I have to step up again to sort it all out.

I'm planning on making a few changes for next year, which I have detailed below.

- Keep classes running from 1.45-4pm on sundays. This seemed the best time for instructors.
- Go back to running classes on a fortnightly basis. This allows for all day training sessions to be run on the non-class sundays.
- Run instructor training sessions. These will probably occur on sundays that classes aren't on, from 3-5pm, taking place at the spot where classes will be held the following week. These sessions will go through what will be taught at the class on the following sunday. This way all the instructors understand what will be taught. Instructors that don't come to these instructor training sessions, will not be allowed to come to class the following week, the reason being as they will not have learnt what we plan on teaching. I plan on running these sessions to start with, but I know that others will most likely want to help out as well, which will be accepted.
- Only let those who are serious, instruct. The quality of instructing has gone down, so only the committed and competent instructors will be allowed to instruct.
- I'm going to get rid of the organiser idea that I tried to implement. I'm going to take responsibility for organising the programs for the classes. We will then go through this program at instructor training. If others want to organise a class, they just have to ask.
- I'm going to get rid of the instructor qualification levels. It didn't really achieve anything. I will decide whether someone is competent/dedicated enough to instruct.
- I will have to implement some rules for classes, such as not mucking around and no swearing. We are seen as professionals, so must act accordingly at classes.

These are just the beginning ideas that I plan on implementing for classes next year. The main point is that I have to start taking charge again.

Gym

Went to gym this afternoon. Did an all round body exercise. So heres what I got up to.

100 Pushups
100 Reverse Pushups
1000 Skips
50 Dips
25 Pullups
500 Squats
100 Situps
100 Leg Raises

I've found that my pulling strength is getting a lot better. Now all I have to do is keep training!

A few days ago, I did some light strength training with a friend outside. I made up a new game too, doing as many squats on a rail in a row as possible. My best was ten. It was good as it helped in conditioning both my knees and ankles at the same time.

Gym

I went to the gym this afternoon. I focussed on upper body work, as I had torn a ligament in my ankle at basketball training yesterday.

So here's what I did;

100 Sitting Dips
100 Reverse Pushups
50 Dips
25 Pull Ups
100 Pushups
100 Situps
100 Leg Raises

Split into 5 sets.

I found that I really struggled in getting through the last 2 sets, I really have to get myself back up to the level that I used to be at.

I've come into a quiet time in my uni life, so I plan on getting out and doing a lot more training, which will mostly be conditioning, as I can easily do it around uni.

I plan on getting into more cardio, mainly running, a I know that I really have to improve my fitness.

Campbell Primary School Fete

Yesterday, Eliot and I went to Campbell Primary School fete to run a freerunning expo for the students. This involved running a free class, then providing the kids with a demonstration.

A lot of fun was had, by ourselves and the kids. It was good to get out into the community to help out.

Talking with my mum, the principle, we may also have an avenue for work in the after school care area. It's something that I will have to look into in the future.

Upper Body Strength Training

Did some upper body strength training this afternoon. It was a really nice day, so I decided to go to the outdoor training area to work on them.

So here's what I got done.

30 Dips (3 sets)
15 Pull Ups (3 sets)
100 Reverse Incline Situps (5 sets)
30 Reverse Pushups on Rope (3 sets)
60 Down Incline Pushups (3 sets)

It was just a light session. I plan on going out again tomorrow to do a more intensive session.

Recent Training

There's been a bit going on, so I thought that I should write up something about it.

Two weeks ago was NatSoc, the third natoinal Australian pakour gathering. The week was filled with lots of events, many of which I missed due to other committments.

There was gym at Belco, where I was originally wanting to focus on my tricking, of which i kind of got front saults into the pit, but we ended up making massive vaults. I always find that when we start doing vaults at gym, they just get bigger and bigger, crazier and crazier, until we can't physically make it. I plan on getting back to holder gym, to work on my tricking.

On thursday we had the instructor day, which brought a few of the Melbourne guys down early. i twas good to meet up with Chippa, Harley and Alex again, if only for a short time. The session was good, there was a lot of talking and a lot of practice in teaching.

Friday saw the beginning of NatSoc, with training happening in civic and pine island. I ended up meeting with Ruzkin, and hitting up toast and ANU. I finally got the standing precision over the pond at ANU. My wall runs have also gotten a lot better, and Ruz found a cat to arm that I plan on working on. I haven't got it yet, as it's right at the peek of my distance, but a I'm pretty sure I can get it. The AGM was that night. I've been voted in as the ACT representative for the APA. Which won't really change what I was originally doing, but I will now be more recognised for it.

Saturday was the main event where we split up into groups and moved around civic. I took my group to toast, ANU and family court. I now realise how much there is to do at family court. I used to think there wasn't much there, but after spending some proper time there my opinion has changed. We met up for lunch in civic, thenI had to head off as I had my basketball grand final, WHICH WE WON!

Sunday was just some general training in civic. Rhys had shown up the night before, so it was good to meet up with him again. We hit up toast then family court, finishing the day at Glebe.

Overall NatSoc was really good. I got to catch with a lot of old friends and meet a lot of new people.


Last sunday we had class in civic. We met up beforehand to train at family court. I really felt out of it while we were there though, not being able to perform at my usual.

From there we went to class. It was just a TAC, and we ended up going to toast, CIT and castle. I'm keen to go back to castle when it's less crowded, so that I can have the freedom to move properly.

During class, I had one first timer. I showed him some of the basic techniques, which he picked up really quickly. He got concrete rolls straight away. Awesome thing is, HE'S ONLY 8 YEARS OLD! It will be interesting to see if he keep up with it. He was definately showing enthusiasm for training. I made sure to talk to him about training porperly and safely, especially as he's so young. His mum was really supportive though. He has been doing gymnastics for a year and a half now, which is probably why he is learning everything so quickly.

For the last month or so, I've been having mixed emotions about my training. It feels like i've lost the passion that I used to have. This could be due to a lack of training, sending me into a slump. This is something that I'm just going to have to work through, and I'm thinking of going back to doing training activities that I used to do, like going to gym on a regular basis. Maybe another trip to sydney might help. I heard that Harley might be coming down in the next few weeks, so hopefully training with him will get me out of my slump and ignite my passion again.

Gym

Went to gym the other night.

I've decided to get back into tricking, as it's fun and something new to do.

ruoF showed me a new technique for front saults. It's really similar to a takeoff into a catpass, but you tuck instead of vault. I was ladning them on my feet in a tuck position. I just nede to work on them a bit more.

We ended up setting up some massive vaults into the pit. It started small, and just grew from there, to a point that was impossible. Man it was fun.

Tried some side saults as well. I really need to work on them. I'm getting more distance than height.

Overall it was a good session, and I plan on working on my tricking further.

Belconnen Session

Started today with the regular APA class in Belconnen.

I took the first timers with Eliot. We ran them through a bit of a warm up, then sat down and talked about parkour, ourselves and what we teach. We then ran them through a whole lot of techniques, then joined in with the rest of the group for conditioning. Overall I thought it was good, taking them through a smash session of techniques. I think we could do a bit more talking though, but we'll refine it as we go.

From there a few of us went to train at John Knight park. I've found that I've lost a bit of mental confidence as I haven't trained for a while, but that the short break as helped in giving me a bit of a rest.

So we played around on the rocks for a bit. I ended up doing some awesome muscle up training with Eliot. We did over 10 muscle ups each, playing one for one.

Then Trav fell in the pond, after overbalancing out of a flip on the rock island. This then ended up with ruoF getting pushed into the pond. Good times.

Then day them came to a close as it started to get dark. It was fun and I'm definately starting to feel the muscle ups.

Civic Training

I've been really lazy with my training over the last couple of weeks. I could have passed it off to my wrist injury and my cold, but that isn't any excuse.

So I went out with ruoF last night, to do some light training in Civic.

Started out at noise wall, working on small vaults, rolls and handstands. The new grass at noise wall is awesome, really comfy!

From there we went to toast. Just played around a bit. I had a real close call, where my hand slipped out from a cat pass over one of the hexagon rails, then my feet clipped (on the top luckily) then I fell onto my feet. I nearly experienced a candyflipper bail.

Then we did some rail balance underneath toast, then warmed down at noisewall.

I got to properly try out my new Savants last night. Pesonally, I don't think they're as good as the Freerunners, from first impressions anyway. They are a lot harder, with less flexibility. The grip is worse and there is less sensititivity.

It was good to get back into training. I plan on doing a lot of light sessions leading up to NatSoc, especially with a fair amount of conditioning.

Freelance Journalist Parkour Interview

I just finished doing a written interview for a freelance journalist, who was interested in NatSoc. Below are the questions and my responses.


What is Parkour to you, and how and why did you get involved?

For me, parkour is a physical activity and a discipline. A physical activity in that you are train you body but a discipline in that you are training your mental capabilities, especially through the philosophy within parkour. Parkour is not a sport, as it does not involve any form of competition. You see, the philosophy of parkour comes from the practicality of physical movement. Being able to use your own physical capabilities to help yourself and others. Competition goes against this philosophy of helping others. Parkour is also about efficiency in movement. People get parkour and freerunning mixed up. Freerunning is about the aesthetics of movement, the "beauty" in the movement, where as parkour is about the efficiency of the movement. Through mastering the efficiency in the movement, the movement then becomes "beautiful."

I have been in the Canberra parkour scene for four years now. I first saw parkour on the TV series Cirque Du Soleil Solstrom, that featured the Yamakasi. The Yamakasi members were late for their plan, so they used parkour to get through the airport in time to catch their plane. Another friend had also seen this, and we both thought that it was awesome and that we should do it. A few days later, another friend was talking to us about an assignment that he was doing for english. Coincidentally, his topic happened to be parkour. This then helped us to realise that doing parkour could actually be a possibility for us. We now had a name for what we had seen the Yamakasi doing. So from there we started to research parkour on the internet, watching videos and chatting on forums. We started to imitate what we saw in the videos, such as jumps and vaults. We soon met a couple of guys at ANU on a parkour internet forum, who had also just started training parkour. It was that moment that gave birth to Canberra Parkour.

For the first few years of my training, I looked at parkour as an extremem sport, something that I did because it looked cool. This was bad, as I had the completelty wrong mindset. It wasn't until a year ago, after having a break from parkour for over half a year, that I realised how important parkour was to me. I came back into the scene stronger than ever, training with the correct mindset, more in tune with the philosophy of parkour. In the past year, I have progressed physically and mentally more than I did in my first three years of training parkour. I have travelled to Melbourne and Sydney to train with the traceurs (parkour practitioner) there. I now keep an internet blog of my parkour training, which you can find at http://cimpstyle.blogspot.com/ , that I update after every training session. I'm also most likely about to become the president for the Australian Parkour Association (APA) in Canberra, a role that will involve being in charge of the APA parkour classes in Canberra, as well as acting as a major point of contact for all parkour related matters in Canberra.
- What is it about Parkour that has created, from what I have see online, such a great community?

Different communities each have their own "culture" in parkour. As a traceur progresses, they start to get interested in how other traceurs train, as well as training in new spots. The best way to do this is to travel. It is through this travelling that traceurs develop excellent friendships with traceurs from other cities and countries.

In regards to communities though, it's jsut like any other sport of recreational activity. If people share the same interest, and regular meet to participate in that activity, they will unconsciously build a strong community.
- What is involved in NatSoc, and how many people plan to attend?

NatJam (National Jam) first began in 2006, with Sydney as the hosts. Then Melbourne was the host last year, with National Conserve. This year is NatSoc (National Social), with Canberra as the hosts. NatSoc is a national meetup for traceurs from around Australia. The goal is for traceurs arounds Australia to coem to one point and traing and socialise together. Get to know people from other communities. There are no competitions involved with NatSoc, just the love of parkour. NatSoc has also brought the attention from international traceurs, who may also be coming across for the event. The last two years have attracted 70-100 traceurs. This year plans to be bigger, with numbers hopefully breaking 100.
- What has the public response in Canberra been to Parkour?

Parkour in Canberra is still an "underground" type of activity. It is only just starting it build in notice. So far the response in Canberra has positive. This may be because of the traceurs in Canberra though. As we are all polite people, not going out to cause any trouble, just to train and do a bit of exercise. We don't trespass to train, but only make use of public accessible areas. If asked to move on by security, we politely oblige and move on with a smile. With have been involved in various forms of media in Canberra, such as TV and newspaper interviews. We're lucky that the media we have been involved with have put a positive spin on parkour, as that is what we all want for parkour in Australia. This is what the APA is striving to acheive, developing a positive image of parkour in Australia.
- Is there anything in Canberra that makes it stand out as a great place to practice Parkour?
Canberra is an excellent place to practice parkour because of how Canebrra was planned. We have four excellent major training areas, Belconnen, Civic, Woden and Tuggeranong. Canberra is good because the training spots within the training areas, are all closely located to each other, with only a couple of mintues walk between each. This is different to places such as sydney and Melbourne, that require a lengthy walk to get from training spot to training spot. We also have a pretty reasonable public transport system to move between the major training areas in Canberra.

- Are there any other local events that you and the community take part in, or are involved with?

For the last two years, we have been involved in the Youth Week performances, where we have provided parkour demonstrations in civic. We have also participated in fundraising events, such as the Mother's Day Fun Run that was raising money for breast cancer research. We also plan on going oiut to our various training areas to clean up the rubbish there. We want our training areas to look good, we don't want rubbish, especially glass, to be around, as it can make training dangerous.

- Has there been any one particular moment that made you really love Parkour?

Coming back from my extended break last year, after doing that first vault again, would have to be the one moment that I realised how much I loved parkour. it wasn't that hard a vault, just a simple one over a table in civic, but the feeling that it gave me made me realise. It's about having that ability to move differently than normal people, move more efficiently, that makes you love parkour.

Sammy & Antek Canberra Trip

Sammy and Antek came down to Canberra last weekend. It was good to see them again.

On saturday we hit up woden for a few hours. Sammy found this pretty big arm jump in the silver statue, that I had never seen before. it just comes to show what new pair of eyes can find. I got the cat to arm at the rails, something that I had never tried before.

From there we went to belco for the rest of the day. It was really good. Played around John Knight park for a bit. I accidentally stepped in the lake! Was good fun.

We finished up later that night. Didn't get a chance to take the guys to derro though. It will be something new for them when they come back for NatSoc.

On sunday we hit up civic for a bit. Played around in toast for a while. Then we headed over to DEWR after lunch. Antek and Sammy both got the massive arm jump. I'll have to give it another try when my wrist properly heals up. From there we went to the bus depot,then family court, and didn't get kicked out by security. I guess they don't work on sundays.

After that I took Sammy and Antek to the Jolimont Centre so that they could catch their bus back to sydney.

I was really good training with them. I can't wait until NatSoc when everyone is going to be here.

I've just bought a pair of Five Ten Savants. I'm interested in trying out a variety of shoes, to find out which one does it the best for me.

Speaking of which, I broke out my Dunlop Volleys for sunday training. Personally, I don't really like them. They tore apart pretty quickly, after only a few arm jumps, and they didn't provide much support. I didn't feel to confident using them, unlike the Five Ten Freerunners.

I'm also looking into getting a pair of Kalenjis. The shoes that they use in the UK. It will be interesting to see how they fair as well.

APA Class - Civic

Last sunday we had class in civic.

It was raining and there was only a small turnout.

We took the group to the carpark underneath toast. Went through a lengthy warmup, finishing with handstands.

From there we worked on rail balance of different types, the played a game of add-ons.

After that we went up to toast to work on precisions and playing around in the rain.

Sammy and Antek are in Canberra thsi weekend. There should be lots of training ahead of me. I have a sprained wrist over the last couple of days though, so will porbably have to tone down the intensity of my training, well have to see how it goes.

APA Class - Belconnen

Had class last sunday.

It was the third lesson, so I ran a TAC, as it was my turn to be organiser.

Took the students through a warmup. Got them doing handstands too. I find that it really helps as a final warmup, as well as working out DOMS from previous training. My handstands have gotten a lot better as well. I did the best one I've ever done on sunday too, held it for around 20 seconds.

After the warmup, I took the group up to the library. Just played around there for a bit. I did some more shirtless concrete rolls. They're so good, and have really shown how far I've progressed with my rolls. My left side was also a lot better than when I tried them in sydney. I'm thinking of giving a go of the 50. I consider this to be the test for the quality of basic rolls, if you can do them 50 times in a row, shirtless, on concrete.

From there we made our way to Derro. The guys had talen the class there before, and said it was fine. So I decided to take the class there. Started off at the ramps. It wasn't too bad, until we had water bombs thrown at us from an apartment window, then some thuggish looking guys started hanging around watching us. I moved the class on to the playground, but the suss looking guys followed us. We didn't stay there long.

So we went back to Margaret Timpson park to warmdown, adn that brought us to the end of the lesson.

Eliot ran the First Timers class too. It was the first one. I keen for it to be a regular thing, and will probably take it with Eliot at this coming class.

Friday Night Training

So it's beena while since I last trained, so I decided to not go ahead with the proper FNC, but just get out and do some basic training. Just a bit of play.

The plan was to meet at the national library. When I arrived, I met a new guy, Andy, who ruoF and invited to come along to a session. Andy had actually worked with Rhys and Shaun on the tv pilot that was done in Canberra.

Eventually ruoF showed up. Then we met John and his friend.

Played around at the blocks for a bit. Actually had some pretty stupid bails. I went for a palm spin, pulled out, but my leg caught on the back of the block. Banged up my shin pretty nice. John also had a few cat pass bails.

The main factor for the bails was because it was really dark, and we hadn't trained in a while.

Practiced a couple of handstands too. My handstands have gottne a lot better. I have more control with them, as well as more power to get up into them.

From there we made our way the hall of justice. The wall run there, that I used to think was massive, actually isn't that big anymore. It just comes to show how much I have progressed in the past year, as I haven't been there for a while. From there we moved to the top of the stairs, where we played around for a bit. I ended up helping out everyone with their climbups, even given a bit of advice to ruoF. I've found that my climbups have really improved. It may be because of the strength training that I have been doing. Its given me more power to apply to my climbups. I even got some short strength conditioning done. Reverse quadrapedal up a huge stair set. The set was that long, it was the actual size of each individual stair that made it intense.

Then the session slowly came to a close. It was good to get back into trainig. I plan on getting back into a proper rhythm, as I lost it over the last few weeks.

I also bought a pair of Dunlop Volleys today. I want to give them a try, see what all the comotion in sydney is about. We'll have to see how they fair in training.

Strength Training

Haven't done much in the last week. To be truthful, I've been pretty slack.

But now I'm back into it, to get back into a steady routine.

Went down to the gym and did the following;

80 Sitting Dips
80 Reverse Push Ups
40 Bar Dips
40 Pull Up Negatives
120 Squats
120 Situps

A friend helped me in correcting my technique for the reveres push ups, as I was doing them too fast and bouncing through them, reducing how much I worked my muscles.

It was a good session.

Sydney Trip 2 - Day 2

Sunday was Day 2 of my sydney trip.

Eliot and I made our way to town hall. While we were waiting, we got confronted by some pretty drunk carzy guy. I could barely understand what he said, he just kept on rambling at us. Not in an attack, but just rambling about life in general. It was pretty funny.

Antek and Sammy soon arrived. BoD arriving soon after.

We made our way to Circular Quey. There we worked on a short class type structure, planning on what would be taught at the class. This included rail precisions, balance and concrete rolls. I really need to work on my rail precisions. They're the one thing that still freak me out every time. The one thing that I don't have down pat at a basic level even. The rolls were intense. We turned in into a challenge, of shirtless concrete rolls. This was a real test. I found that the rolls on my right shoulder were pretty good. I didn't feel any hard impacts anywhere, just scratches from the concrete. The rolls on my left shoulder though, werre another matter. I wasn't committing to them properly, so I came out badly from each one.

From there we started to make our way to pyrmont for the class. It started to rain on the way, but this soon cleared up. On the way we passed the Start City wharfed jump. Even though it is a lot smaller than the pyrmont wharf jump, I found it a lot harder. This was because the wharf was constantly swaying with the swell, which made it difficult to jump out, even balance on. In the end, myself and Eliot got it. it was a real achievement for Eliot, as he had looked at it numerous times before, but hadn't be able to do it.

So we finally made it to pyrmont. Eliot and I ended up going down to the wharf jump. The rain had dried up a bit, so it looked pretty good to do. I jumped first. The Eliot was able to psych himself up to get it. Another achievement for him. We jumped back to the land, then Eliot me doing the various wharf jumps.

From there we went up to the class, that had turned into a free time class, as it was pretty small. The class had moved up to the top of pyrmont. We played around in the tree a bit.

I then brought up the idea to Eliot about going to Ian Thorpe, as there wasn't much happening at the class, with no instruction happening.

So we said our goodbyes to some of the guys, then headed off to Ian Thorpe.

When we arrived there, we got a surprise of a new coffee shop that had opened on the corner there. It was their opening day, and were making free coffee and hot chocolates. Eliot and I made sure to make use of this offer.

Then we started training around the stairs. I started looking at things I could film. Originally looking at the arm jump at the lower stair set, I realised that I might be able to do the cat to arm. After a few attempts at working up to it, I got it! Adding a few arm to arms and a precision, we got some more footage for my video. With the boost of adrenaline that I had gotten from it, I went up to the higher stair set and did the bigger cat to arm. Man it felt good!

With the huge amount fo adrenaline pumping through, Eliot and I made our way to Harbour Side to meet some of the guys for dinner before we headed off. On the way I filmed the block dash, that I had done at NatJam '06. It was a lot easier this time, which shows how far I have progressed in skill in the last two years.

So we had some dinner with the guys, bought 17 cones, then got on the bus back to Canberra.

It was a really great trip. Less intense than my last trip to sydney, but still really enjoyable. I like training in sydney, as I'm training in new spots with new people. It has allows me to really test my progression.

A couple of the sydney guys plan on coming down to Canberra in a couple of weeks. Should be a good weekend. It will be interesting to see what they think of Canberra, and how they perform in our area.

Last night Samurai and I did the final filming for the Canberra Tourism commercial. All it involved was us running past the window a couple of times. Afterwards we had a drink with Che, and talked about how everything is going. He said that everything is nearly done. That they would be showing the ACT Minister and Canberra Tourism a couple of bits from the commercial. He also said that he'd give us a copy of all the footage. I'll be able to use some in my video! NatSoc also came up in conversation. Che had an idea of making a DVD of the event. This would be really good, as it will definately be something new in regards t0 the past NatJams.

So that sums up the last few days. I've been doing a lot of resting after sydney, as I'm pretty tired. I don't plan on doing much training over the next few days. Probably just go to FNC and then class, maybe pre class training. Next week I'll get back into the full swing of things.

Sydney Trip 2 - Day 1

It's been three weeks since I was last in sydney, and I'm back again. I was originally coming for the Chris Rock show, which was awesome! but I decided to stay in sydney for the weekend and train, seeing as I would already be up here.

So today was the first day. I met up with Eliot after his bus arrived in sydney, then we made our way to town hall.

Arriving at about 11, we soon met up with Sammy and Antek. we then made our way down to Darling harbour where we met up with BoD.

We warmed up around the pond for a while. I made sure to go through a long and proper warmup. Playing around there for a bit, I got the cat pass to precision over the blue water. One that I thought was huge, but really wasn't that big.

From there we made our way around to the big ramp. The one with the cat pass to precision, and the cat pass to arm. We soon got booted by security from there though.

So we moved on to Chinese Gardens, which is actually a really good spot. We started around the entrance, with some good precision work, but soon got booted by security. So we just moved to the side of Chinese Gardens, away from the entrance, which ended up being fine. We found some really good precision, from tree planters only a few centimetres off the ground. the amoutn fo work that we did there was awesome, in that it just kept developing. We found work that could be done in the trees there, as well as variations of precisions.

From there we had lunch at EATING WORLD!! Then moved on to the carpark rails. Did a bit of playing around with different things.

From there we moved on to Glebe, but stopped at a park for a bit, playing around on the different equipment. Just messing around with different bar spins and things.

Then we finally made it to Glebe. Starting training, while we waited for Sino. I got out the camera, to film a bit of stuff. We soon got rudely kicked out by one of the drunk residents of the apartmernt complex, saying that it was private property. We left, but then we came back with Sino, as he didn't care what anyone said. We then moved on to some mroe spots, to play around on different things. I went to the wallrun, played around with the shorter end of it, then ended up doing the bigger end. Looking at the footage, I realsied how big it really was. More than twice my height!

From there we moved around to another spot and just played around for a bit.

Then we went to the park, did a bit of stuff, but mainly warmed down. Chated a bit, then people started to go their won ways.

Eliot, Sammy and myself then went off to grab some dinner from the foodcourt in the shopping centre in Glebe, then grabbed some Cold Rock on the way back to central.

During that time, we got to talk a lot wioth Sammy. talking about everything from classes to parkour in general. I love just sitting down and talking with other people about parkour and related topics. That's where i find I learn the most.

I plan on doing a lot fo filming tomorrow. Sutff that i can take back and add to my video. Will have to see what happens.

Strenght Training

Yesterday.

At basketball training, ended up doing a total of 120 pushups and 80 situps over a 45 minute period, as punishments during drills.

Today.

Went down to the boxing room at the gym again. Went through the same exercises program as before.

50 Sitting Dips
50 Reverse Push Ups
50 Bar Dips
50 Pull Up Negatives
100 Squats
100 Situps

Split into 5 sets.

I increased the amount of squats and situps to double what I was doing previously. I found that this worked me a bit more, but I think I may have extra room. I added the situps to the program, to add a little bit of core training, and the squats to strengthen my knees, as they are something that I am always wary of when training.

I plan on increasing the sitting dips and reverse push ups to 20 per set, as well as further increasing the squats and situps to 30 per set.

I don't plan on doing much training in the next few days, as I am going to be in sydney this weekend, training just as hard as last time I was there. I want to save up my energy for it.

Class

Today we had class in civic.

It was a new type of class that we've been thinking of incorporating. A Technical Applicaiton Class (TAC). The point of it is to get students training without the direction of the instructors. Get them into the mindset of training outside of classes. That they don't need the classes to train.

So we strated the class in Glebe park. Went througha bit of a warm up of dynamic stretches.

Then we moved to noise wall, where we played around for a bit. I just messed around with different things, balanced the garden rail, did some precisions, some standing cat passes over the rail, and got a really big cat pass over the wall.

From there we moved to toast. I just played around with differnt things there as well. Found some new big precisions, did some running precisions over water and practiced moving in general. We got the group playing parkour tag and fololw the leader. I also got my head around some high speed vaults and cat passes. The speed vaults felt really good, as you had a lot of air time before actually using your hand to get over the rail. It was all about committment.

While we were at toast, Eliot and I went down to customs to film my run. We got there, knowing that we only had a fwe minutes, so we got straight into it. I jumped down to my starting spot, then began the run. Going through it, i focussed my concentration on what movement was directly in front of me, making myself forget about what I would have to be doing after it, just focussing on the first bit. Concentrating the whole time. I'm glad to say i got through the whole run, getting it in the first go. rom there we went straight into the tic tac to arm, that i was also wanting to do. Eliot jumped down to the spot, and we filmed it. I made sure to get it first go. Then we left, just before security arrived! While we were walking away, Eliot looked behind us, to see the security guard arrive, smile and wave, then walk away. The customs scurity guys are awesome! It's like a game we play with them :)

After toast, we made our way back to Glebe park, to warm down.

Overall the class was good, the majority of students made an effort to train. We could have done more to make them train the whole time, but it was really up to them. I think that having smaller groups might be a bit better, as the students will then be more inclined to train the whole time.

Before class, I had lunch with my family at the Botanical Gardens cafe. While I was there, I noticed a young boy. He was probably around 4 years old. What caught my attention, was that he was climbing on a rail, like all normal kids do. It was a two bar rail, so he had his hands on the top bar, and his foot on the lower bar. It was shuffling along it, making sure to watch where he was putting his feet, and going through it carefully and slowly. You could see how he was concentrating on what he was doing.

People have said that when we train, we're just doing what we used to do as kids. Moving around in our environment. That is what I witnessed today. Sure, what we doing is done at a much bigger degree than kids can do, but that idea of moving freely is still there.

As you grow up, you forget about the things that used to be fun. You start looking to other mean, that can sometimes be drugs and alcohol. This shouldn't be the case. You will always find new things that keep you entertained, things that you weren't able to do as a kid, but you should always remember the things that used to be fun, things that you loed doing as a kid.

Parkour has done this for me. My parents used to say that when I was young, I couldn't stay still. I would run around, climb on things, always fidgeting. I just couldn't stop moving. Then i went into a phase of playing computer games and watching TV all the time, being real serious. Since I started parkour, I've found that I barely watch TV or play computer games anymore. I'd rather go out and train, have fun. I've gone back to how I used to be as a kid, always moving and spending time outside.

It good to go back to the things that used to make you happy as a kid, that's where the real fun is.

Training

Last night I went to Holder gym, for the first time in months.

I spend most of the time just mucking around, playing with different movements, without any real focus or direction. I didn't stick to doing any one thing for too long, but spent a short amount of time doing lots of different things.

Tried some front saults. I've found that I need to practice committing to them. Did some cat passes, including some really BIG double cat passes.

It was a fun session in the end, just playing around.

Tonight I went down to the boxing room at my work gym. The plan was to do some muscle up training, as it was too cold and wet to run FNC.

So here's what I ended up doing.

50 Sitting Dips
50 Reverse Push Ups
50 Parallel Bar Dips
50 Pull Up Negatives
50 Squats
50 Sit Ups

This was all split into 5 sets of 10 of each exercise.

Overall it took me 1.5 hours to do, including warming up and down. it was a lot more enjoyable than going to the outdoor training area that I had previously been going to, as it was warmer and there's a CD player, that I brought a Cimp Style mix to play on.

I really enjoyed the session, and plan on making it a regular thing for thursday nights.

Filming + Class

Last sunday, I met up with Eliot to do more filming for my video.

Started at toast at 10. I spent around half an hour, doing a nice long warmup, while I waited for Eliot. When he arrived, we got straight into it. Filmed a few things in toast, mainly the precisions and cat to precisions. I had a bad knee clip on my big cat to precision. It got pretty cut up, but I was still able to get train. I gave a go of Conan's arm jump, but hit it bad and didn't make it. I decided to leave it for another day. Also gave the huge running precision to the top of the stairs a go, but wasn't able to make it.

From there we moved to toast. Tried to do y run, but I bailed it twice. So I decided to film the tic tac to precision, but security rocked up, so we had to move on. The security at customs is really awesome, always sending us off with a smile! Next time I'll have to make sure to get though everything a lot quicker.

From there we made our way to DEWR. I was hoping to be able to do the DEWR arm jump, but could set my mind to it. Trav soon arrived, and we trained around DEWR for a bit. We also did a bit of stuff at veterans park.

From there we drove to Belco for the APA class. ruoF was the organiser. He started out with a warmup, then going into some quick techniques, to get everyone in the groove. From there we went into the games, which were a success. There was a bit of confusion with the management in the end, but it was all sorted out in the end.

After the class, I took Eliot home, so that I could copy the footage we had taken.

Overall it was a good day, and I was definately tired by the end of it.

FNC

Had FNC tonight. It ended up only being Larkin and myself. Others were going to show up, but then were busy or couldn't be bothered. I really have to respect Larkin though, for constantly making the effort to train, if though he's only new. If he keeps at it, he will be able to go far.

The program was a lot shorter than expected.

Lazy vaults
Speed vaults
Cat Passes
Cat Pass Pulls
Rolls
Precisions
Quadrapedal
Two Foot Hops

The wall that I was planning on doing climb ups on, was a lot slippery than I thought it would be. Plus I was also extremely tired.

It just comes to show how a break from training, even for only a week and a half, can affect how hard you can train when coming back into it. I'm pretty sure that if I continue my training in the way that I have planned, I will be able to build up my endurance again, then move on to surpass it.

At the end of the session, I took Larkin through half an hour of stretches that I usually do after training. He asked me if I knew of any good websites for stretches, but since I didn't, I just took him through the stretches that I know and apply to my own training.

At the end of the session, we had been training for 3.5 hours, at night and in the cold! This is what self discipline is all about, pushing yourself to train in all conditions. Instead of giving up and taking the soft option.

Muscle Up Training

Went down to my training spot for muscle ups tonight. It was good to go back there.

Did one muscle up, it was a bit better than the ones I was getting in sydney, but stillon arm at a time. But I hurt the palm of my hand a bit, as the bar is actually a wooden plank held sideways. This then put a lot of pressure into my palm. I'm not going to try muscle ups on that bar again, will just practice them at FNC at the playground in Glebe park.

So then I went into my normal routine.

25 Dips
25 Pull Up Negatives
25 Muscle Up Negatives
25 Rope Reverse Push Ups

Afterwards I made the run back home.

I'm thinking of increasing the amount of repetitions in the sets. I'll have to see how it goes.

Sydney Trip - Summary

So now I'm back in Canberra. I'm not as sore as I thought I'd be, but my body is pretty tired.

I originally wanted to go to sydney to train with Rhys and Shaun. But still made the trip even though they weren't there. I'm glad that I did make the trip, because I got to meet a lot of new people. Shoutouts to Sino, Sammy, Antek, Robbie and Wizey, for being major influences during the trip. Props to Djordje for making an effort to come to sydney, just for us Canberra guys too!

I've made a lot of new friends, and have training in some of the most awesome spots. Spots that I didn't go to when I was down for NatJam 2006.

Glebe would have to be the best place I have ever trained at. Just because of the huge variety of things for advanced practitioners to do there. Ian Thorpe was another awesome spot. The wharf jump at Pyrmont is another good spot, to be able to test you mental. The undercover spot near Darling Harbour was also good, for the variety of rail work.

I learnt a lot from my trip to Sydney, but it was different learning from what i got from Melbourne. In Melbourne I brought back a lot of the things to start applying in the Canberra scene, especially with changes to MY training. From sydney, I learnt the importance of the changes that I've made to my training. I also saw how much I have progresed from the more intense training that I have been doing. My skill has increased, especially with precisions and ct passes, and my mental is a lot stronger. I'm spending less and less time metally preparing myself, like what I used to do. I'm now doing a lot more physical training than mental training.

I've seen how skilled the Sydney guys are, but I'm not intimidated by it, because I know that if I continue on the path that I have been walking for a few months now, I know that I will get up there with them.

A big thanks to ruoF for coming to sydney with me. It made the trip a lot more enjoyable. We represented Canberra Parkour in Sydney.

I'm going back to sydney in three weeks time, for a Chris Rock concert, and plan on staying for th weekend. I'm keen to go back to Ian Thorpe pool when I'm not exhausted, as well as train at Glebe again.

Any comments are welcome.

CANBERRA PARKOUR REP-RE-SENT!!!

Sydney Trip - Day 4

Woke up today, still sore like yesterday. I expected this, but knew that a proper warmup would get rid of the DOMS, for the time being.

Met the guys at Town Hall. There were some familiar faces, like Sammy, Antek and Robbie, but there were also others who I hadn't met before.

I also got to get my new parkour pants. They're so comfortable, and I now have something different to wear than camo pants.

From there we moved to a spot close to Darling Harbour. There were sets of rails and ledges, that were really good for cat passes, precisions and arm jumps. This enforces my belief that the most random public spots, like toast, usually tend to be the best for parkour.

I made sure to do a long and proper warm up, to work out my DOMS. This involved a lot of dynamic stretches, then handstands. I've found that handstands help to warm up the body to movement. They especially helped in working out the DOMS.

So I played around for a bit, doing my own thing. Practiced my high cat passes, and found some cat to arms. Then I went over to join Sammy while he was trying to a get a pretty big cat to precision. I gave it a go. I was able to get the cat pass down pretty well, but couldn't get my head around the rail precision. I really have to work on them. So while tying to getthe precision, I realised that I was getting a lot of height out of my cat pass. So I started thinking, why not forget about the precision, and just clear the rail entirely? So I did. To the complete surprise of everyine watching. I don't think that they were expecting that to happen. Instead of the normal "yeah man, that was awesome" I got "WOW! THAT WAS NUTS! DAMN MAN!" This then followed with high fives and congratulations. To sound corny. It felt really good though, to be able to do something that other thought was amazing. I then realsied that I was shaking slightly. It really was a pretty big distance. I then did it two more times, just to enforce that I was able to do it. Sammy then showed me an even bigger cat to precision, which I wasn't able to get, but it is definately something to work towards.

From there we moved to Pyrmont. There we found the broken jetty, that I've seen in so many videos coming out of sydney. Looking at it, I realised that you have to a fair amount of skill and mental to be able to get out to it. It required a lot of mental enforcement to make the standing precision out. I didn't have too much trouble with it, but I saw ruoF really had to work his head around it. He made it though, which is awesome. Then we scratched Canberra Parkour REPRESENT intot he wood, using a stick. The running jump back was a bit tough, I found that I had to mentally prepare a lot more for it, than the standing precision back. But I got it in the end. Then Antek and Sammy started looking at the running precision onto the broken jetty. This is a much bigger distance than the standing precision, and it was also onto a higher point. I looked at it for a few seconds, then did it. It was as simple as that, just doing it. ruoF told me that i made it look easy. Running jumps have always been my thing with parkour. Then I made the standing precision back. Those jumps onto the broken jetty were a real test of mental confidence in ym skill. I'm proud to say that my mental level has really developed. I'm spending less and less time prepping mentally, which then leads me to progress further and further. I've found that I'm training more physically than mentally, trusting my ability and not second guessing myself.

From there we went to teach the class. The class was really small, with only a handful of students. There were a lot of instructors though. Sammy then decided to make it a free training class. No instruction would be initiated. So we did a warmup, then headed up to pyrmont, where the enclosed area is.

During the time we were up there, I helped teach some guys climb ups and rolls. While I was demonstrating, I realised how much my climbups and rolls have improved.

I also talked with a lot of people while we were there.

I talked with some of the Newcastle guys. They're thinking of starting up classes in their area. It's really good to see that people from all across Australia are interested in getting involved in the APA.

I also got a better opportunity to sit down and talk with Sammy and Sino. This was really good, as we got to share thoughts and ideas about training and classes. I find that I learn the most from talking with people.

Then the time came for ruoF and myself to leave. We said our goodbyes, then made the walk back to central station to catch our bus.

Sydney Trip - Day 3

Today makes day three of our sydney trip.

I woke up really stiff from the triaining we had done in Glebe yesterday. My body was still pretty tired as well. but we came to sydney to train, so that's what we were going to do.

I'd organised to meet Robbie in Penrith, so we caught the train out there to meet him. We met him at the train station, then met Wizey at the first spot.

Still feeling really sore, I made sure to do a proper warm up, and just start small. Did a few handstands to get my body working again. Then got straight into it.

Did some good cat to precisions, then found some wall runs. The DOMS disappeared pretty quickly.

Then moved on to various movements, looking at a few different spots.

I think that it was Robbie's main training area, so you was pretty skilled in them.

I was lucky enough to do something new at his playground though. I found a good cat to underbar, that he hadn't thought of doing before. It just comes to show how much a fresh set of eyes can help to improve ideas in your local spots.

I was also able to get an arm jump out of a tree, that nobody had done before, but that Robbie had looked at.

Overall today was a good session. it was a lot lighter than yesterday, but was still pretty good.

Now I'm going to go back up to my room to stretch, as i know that I will be sore tomorrow. That won't stop me from training though.

Sydney Trip - Day 2

Today was Glebe with Sino and a few others.

Woke up at 9.30. Changed, had breakfast, and took a really short bus ride to Glebe. We should have just walked there, it was that close!

Met with Sino at 11. He took us to the Glebe housing complex, with makes the Glebe parkour spot. It is such a good spot, there is so much stuff to do there. A lot of it though, is for more advanced practitioners. I'm lucky that my skill level is up there to be able to train there.

We met up with Sammy and Antek. Did a bit of a warm up, then Djordje arrived. That was a good suprise. Djordje hasn't trained much lately though. He's been busy doing other stuff. he came down to meet us Canberra guys, which was good.

There is so much to do at Glebe. You'll train in one spot for an hour, then keep walking through the complex to find another spot where you can spend and hour at. We did this for about 4 hours, which just shows how much stuff there is to do at Glebe. We also met Michael and Charlie while at Glebe.

Training at the housing complex, I've found that my precisions have gotten a lot better. I'm able to get a lot more distance, and much nicer landings. ruoF showed me a technique to be able to add more force into my jump, using my arms. I think it was something that Benji tried to show me in melbourne, but I didn't really understand it at the time. ruoF actually got it from benji, but the way he explained it to me, just seemed easier to understand and apply. I'm also committing a lot more to my movements. I had one moment that really messed around with me mentally, but I was able to overcome it.

We were also met by police. They were just checking that we weren't up to any trouble. I explained to them that we were doing parkour, explaining what parkour was. I used Casino Royale as a reference. They kind of seemed to understand what we were doing, and that we were up to any trouble, so they left us.

I also had a pretty big clip at Glebe. I banged my knee pretty hard, but was able to power through the cat pass, as if it handed affected me. From there i sat down top rest it though, as it did feel a bit painful, bring up a bit of bruising.

From there we had lunch at Asian King, then went to a playground to play around a bit. The others were doing some tricking, so I worked on other stuff. I've found that my handstands have suddenly gotten pretty good. I'm able to hold them for a few seconds. Here's even better news though. I was able to do a muscle up. A MUSCLE UP! NOT ONE BUT THREE!!! They were pretty dodgy, but i can do them now. All that's left is progression with them.

From there we made our way to some rails, did a bot of work around there. My standing cut passes on height have gotten a lot better. i can do close to shoulder height now. It's all about the power in the arms, and the core strength to tuck with the legs.

After that we made our way to the Ian Thorpe Pool. That's where the guys do those massive cat to arms over a high stairwell.

I didn't really feel up to doing the cat to arm, but there was so much more to do there. There were a lot of arm jumps, precisions, and arm to arms to dop as well. There's even a huge wall run that I wasn't able to get. I was close though.

After that, everyone went their separate ways.

I learnt a lot today, not just about myself but about the others guys in the national scene. I've gotten to know Sammy a lot better. Now I know that he was one of the first guys in sydney, and has been training for nearly four years, like me. It definately showed today. I got to see how chilled Sino was, and how far Antek has progressed in a short time of training. Sure, i haven't gotten to train with the other main guys like Rhys and Shaun, but I have gotten the chance to meet others in the Sydney scene.

It should be good to see what happens tomorrow.

Sydney Trip - Day 1

Arrived in sydney at about 12. Checked into the YHA, then wastedb time walking around the city, while I waited for ruoF to arrive. Did a bit of shopping, that was about it.

Bought B13 on DVD too.

Finally ruoF arrived a few hours later. We walked through the city a bit, got some dinner, then decided to do some training.

Went back to the YHA to get changed, then made our way to darling harbour to do a bit of training. Tried a wall run outside the YHA, then did a really bad landing coming back down. I landed on my heels and fell over backwards. It was so stupid!

From there we made uor way down to Darling Harbour. It wasn't as packed as I thought it would be.

We were doing a bit of a warmup, when this guy walked past. He asked us if we knew Cross Fit. I did as Conan is interested in it. He talked about how parkour was involved a bit in it. It's good to see how parkour is getting involved in a lot more things.

From there we did a bit of light training in different areas around Darling Harbour.

On our way back, some guy saw our Australia Parkour shirts, and got us to show him some stuff. This was pretty fun. We showed him a couple of vaults, and talked to him a bit about parkour.

From there, we got changed and made our way back to Darling Harbour to find a club.

On the way we found some guys who looked like they were trying to do precisions across a small bit of water. On closer inspection by ruoF, they were.

We ended up spending a while with them. Talking to them about parkour, teaching them how to do a couple of movements. One of them picked up precisions really well. He was from New Zealand, and new Barnz. They might be coming to the class here in sydney on sunday. It will be interesting to see whether they actually make it.

And that finished the parkour for the day. We were pretty sore and tired, but looking to some good training in the next few days.

Canberra Tourism Commercial Pt 6

Yesterday.

Did some more filming for the commercial. I think it was the last of it.

All I did was walk down the street, in a different outfit to my gangsta outfit. I just walked down the street with a couple of girls (that were pretty hot!) behind me. It was a scene for the end of the coomercial.

Josh then did a couple of cat passes over a rail. Che's plan was to set it up like Josh was cat passing off a balcony, which is his beginning bit.

The commercial has been really fun to make. It should look like a really good piece when it's finished. I can't wait to see it.

Civic Training

Didn't do any training yesterday.

I was studying for most of the day, for an exam that I had later in the afternoon.

After the exam I was out for the night celebrating my birthday. I'm not a teenager anymore, hitting the big 2-0.

Tonight I went out to train in civic. Brought along a work friend, who's interested in learning parkour. I'm thinking of making a small group of work friends, to teach parkour to. They will be my parkour disciples.

Met with Conan at noise wall. Did a few dynamic stretches, then moved on to toast.

Did a few things at toast, then Trav arrived. Kept training around toast. Did those massive precisions again. Man they're awesome. Then started doing some awesome cat to precisions. Conan showed me one that Rhys had found. I sized it up, then did it. Did it a few more times afterwards, to enforce that I could do it. Then for some reason, I moved to the opposite side of toast, and found a small cat to precision to do, which then lead on to finding a HUGE cat to precision. One that you have to power through the cat pass in order to make the distance for the precision. From there moved further around toast, to my big arm jump, and found another cat to precision. It was awesome. I've really gotten them down pat.

From there we made our way to customs. Trav wasn't too keen on getting kicked out, so we moved to the down stairs area of customs. Found a really big tic tac to arm, one that is just too big for us at the moment. So we started practicing climb ups. It's a really good spot to practice climb ups without having a bar or over grip for support. my climb ups have definately improved. I'm not able to have more power into the pull up, getting a better transition of hand placement, which then helps the dip movement. I just need to work on getting the transition even better, but I've definately made a lot more progression with my climb ups.

Made our way to DEWR. That's where ruoF met us. I looked at the arm jump, once again realised how big it was, then moved on. Conan found a cool arm jump to do, and Trav found a cat to arm. Conan then started doing some really stupid movements, of close dropping arms and weird cat to arms. They were so weird! I got a laugh out of doing them.

From there, Trav headed off, and we made our way back to toast, so that ruoF could do some stuff there. Conan soon left, so then it was only a small group of us at toast. I showed ruoF the massive cat to precisions I'd done. Then kind of just warmed down.

Grabbed some dinner at that new mexican joint, then headed home.

All in all it was a good session. Did a few big things, found some new things, but didn't push my body to it's limit. That's what FNC is for!

So I haven't stuck to my plan of training every day for 5 weeks. But I have learnt a lot from the amount of training that I have done recently. I now know that it actually isn't that hard to train every day. If you have any spare time, there is no excuse for not training. on study days, i can go and do some muscle up training, as it only takes an hour out of my time.

So here's my training plan for once academics start up again.

Monday - basketball training
Tuesday - muscle up training
Wednesday - basketball game
Thursday - muscle up training
Friday - FNC
Saturday - afternoon/night training
Sunday - APA class

The great thing about parkour, is that it's really flexible. I can do it whenever and wherever. it's just about making the effort to get out and train, no matter what the weather is like outside, or what physical condition you are in.

If you make the effort, it pays back.

"Train for yourself, not for others" is a motto that if kind of been training by since I got back from Melbourne. I've realised that if I want to go out and train, it shouldn't matter if nobody is going to come, I can just go solo. If i want to train in a certain way, then I should just do it. It shouldn't matter if others don't want to train that way, or can't make that session. One prime example is me starting the new FNC. So far not many people have showed up to it, but I know how much it has helped my progression, so I'm going to keep on doing it. I've already gone through the test of doing it solo in the cold and at night, so i know that there really isn't anything holding me back from it.

I'm really liking what my training has moulded into, and I can already see the progression. I LOVE IT!

Muscle Up Training

Just did some more muscle up training.

25 dips
25 pull up negatives
25 muscle up negatives
25 rope reverse pushups

Tonights session had an extra bonus, RAIN! Man it was intense. It was pretty much raining the whole time I trained. Building up and slowing down. Huge gusts of wind would also come through every now and then. It felt good to be out there, as I knew that it was really showing my dedication to my training.

Started off with trying a muscle up. Only got one elbow part of the way up. I also had to use a bit of a kip. The bar I'm using to train on isn't the best for muscle ups though, its actually a wooden plank held up on its side.

I couldn't really get the pull ups, so I instead did pull up negatives. I found that it really worked my biceps, which I'm pretty sure play a major role in pulling strength.

I've found that my muscle up negatives are getting better. Eliot gave me the advice of switching the hands, not the whole arm. This helped in reducing the speed of my drop. Hopefully I will be able to build up to getting them more controlled.

Anyway, the training was good. And I'm still sticking to it, training every day!

Any comments are welcome.

100 BLOG POSTS!!

Muscle Up Training

Did more muscle up training tonight.

25 dips
10 pullups
25 negatives
25 reverse push ups

I'm finding that my dips and reverse push ups are improving, but my pull ups aren't improving. All i can really do is keep on training, hopefully my pull ups will improve over time.

Stretch Session

Just did a light stretching session today. Only lasting for about 20 minutes.

I've been feeling pretty sore and stiff from training last thursday and friday. So I thought that i'd just do something easy today.

I won't be going to class or trainings tomorrow, as I have a uni exam on monday that I have to really study for.

To make up for this, I plan on doing some more muscle up training. I can do these sessions close to home, so they only take about an hour out of my day. Which is all I can really afford.

FNC

Had FNC again tonight.

This time it was me and Larkin. He's still new to parkour, but its good that he's showing up. he's definately showing an interest in training properly and seriously. He also stuck with me through most of the session!

Did most of the program. I still have found the one program that i can get all the way through.

Started at noise wall. Did the normal lazys, speed vaults and cat passes. Also added cat pass pulls. I felt it working a bit in my arms. I guess only time will tell if it's actually benefiting in the arm push from cat passes.

Skipped the rolls, as Larkin had a sore back from a past training session.

Went to toast. Did the full 100 precisions this time! Main it was hard to keep going. Added in upper body exercises every 10 precisions. Something to vary the training, keep up the interest. So that it wasn't just precision after precision after precision.

From there we moved to the underneath toast. On the way we stopped in a small grocery store to buy drinks (Traceurade). The store owner was so cool. He gave us free sausage rolls. I'm going to go there every FNC, to get a drink at the half-way point of the session.

Once underneath toast, the plan was to practice wall runs to climb ups, on a flat wall, with no rail or overgrip. The wall i was planning on using ended up being a failuer. It was far to slippery to grab on to, and the wall itself was pretty slippery.

I was then planning on moving to the stairs, to do strength conditioning, but Larkin was keen to check out customs. he'd heard about it but had never been there.

So I took him there, thinking that we'd probably get booted straight away, but we didn't. We were probably there for about 15 minutes. I showed larkin the tic tac precision that he'd heard about. i also got to get in 20 sets of my arm jump to climb up to turn vault. My climb ups using rails is definately improving. i can now do them on both sides, as opposed to my once dominant left side.

We eventually got booted, so we moved on to the Canberra Theatre stairs. Did the quadrapedal and hopping work, as well as the various mini exercises. Then we warmed down.

The session lasted for about three hours, which seems to be the average time for FNC. This is good, it's three hours of intense training.

At the end of the session, we were both exhausted. I'm finding that my endurance through FNC is definately improving. I'm starting to get less tired after each week. I've written up another revised program. Hopefully we will be able to get through it next week.

I'm really happy with where my training is going. Training everyday has definately helped me progress. FNC has definately been a major contributer. Not only does it condition my techniques and strength, but it also conditions my mental. I'm a lot more confident with myself. I feel like I'm doing more physical training than mental training. This is something I got from Rhys. Physical is what progresses you. You see the obstacle, know you can do it, then do it. Where mental training is seeing the obstalce, knowing you can do it, but thinking about the consequences of failure. This then leads to you not attempting the obstalce, restricting your progression. I used to train with a mental mindset, always thinking about the consequences of failure, but I now think that I've started to train in a more physical mindset. Knowing that i can do something, then doing it, committing to it. Committment is the most important thing when training parkour. Not commiting can lead to injury.

I've learnt a lot from this continuous training period, progressed really far. And I'm only two weeks into the five week session. I can't wait to see what I'm like at the end of the five weeks.

EPIC Civic Training

Tonight was a night of EPIC TRAINING.

I made so much progression, SO MUCH!

Met Conan, ruoF and Ruz at noise wall. We chatted for a bit then made our way to toast. In toast was where the magic began.

Did a small warmup of dynamic stretches, then got into. Started with a few small precisions. Then played around with Rhys' arm jump. Ruz and I were sizing it up for a while, doing a few practice jumps, but neither of us could make ourselves actually commit to the jump. I hope to get it before NatSoc.

Eliot then arrived at toast.

From there we did a few precisions. I finally got that ground level precision that has been bugging me for so long. The one that I could just reach, but could never commit to. I was able to land on it, sticking it half the time. But at least I'm making the distance, if only just.

From there we started doing precision onto the stair set. This then escalated to massive running precisions onto the stair. They're actually pretty big.

After we got too exhausted with them, we decided to move on to more stuff. I showed Ruz my cat pass over a chest high block, that has a big clear to a ledge. Played around with that a bit.

Then the EPICness really began.

Conan was saying that the ground level precision was about the same distance as the precisions off the rail to the tree planter or other hexagon. So i hopped up on the rail and tried them out. Started out with jumping to the side, checking that I could make the distance and height. To my surprise, I could! So I did them. Both the precision to the hexagon (5 times), and the precision to the tree planter (3 times). I could do them with ease, it was as if the drop didn't affect me at all. It was so good!

From there we moved down to customs. Played around with the tic tac arms. Ruz was remarking about how back in the day it used to be so hard for us to do, and now we were getting it with ease. It really shows how far we have progressed over time.

After we got bored with customs, we made our way to DEWR, for the massive arm jump.

Once at DEWR, we sized up the jump. Josh had actually gotten it earlier that afternoon! It's so big! Ruz looked at it first, but it just tripped him out too much.

So then I stood up to the plate. i got Ruz and Conan to spot me at the bottom of the wall. I know that they wouldn't really be able to do much, but it was still a reassurance to have them there. After psyching myself up for a few minutes, I went for it. I actually fully committed to the jump! I didn't make it though. I hit with my hands, then my feet hit the wall but slipped completely down it. i banged my chest pretty hard into the wall, and fell down. It wasn't a hard fall, just a big smack into the wall.

After seeing me actually try it, commit to it, Ruz found the mental to give it a try. And he made it! He did the classic Shaun Wood thing, tearing his shirt off to psych himself up, then he did it. It properly made it. It's so big! Then he did it again, and again, and again. Four times in total.

Larkin then showed up.

From there Ruz found a good cat to arm, across the ramp. He got it after a few attempts. I gave it a try, got really close, but wasn't able to fully commit. Mainly banging my foot into the wall. It seems like a bit of a hard landing.

After DEWR we all split off. I went and got some dinner with Conan, then left him to catch a bus home.

Overall it was an awesome session. Only lasting a few hours, yet really intense. It's feels so good to be able to do the big stuff, and come out fine. I was doing things that I had never done before, some that I was not capable of doing before. It really shows how far I have progressed. And these are definately the results of training everyday.

Earlier that afternoon, Harley gave me a call. He's in Canberra. I can't wait to get out and train with him. I don't think he's actually properly trained in Canberra, even though he went to school here. Hopefully he comes to FNC.

Woden Training

Trained in woden tonight with ruoF. Just walked around hitting up a few spots. It was only a light session, lasting for a bit over an hour.

I've found that I have pretty big cat-passes. I've found a new cat to precision near the blacks to work up to. I was getting close tonight, but couldn't stick it.

I also did the precision that I found last time i was in woden, but was too sore from FNC to do. It was mentally challenging, as there was about a two metre drop. Its good though because I could practice the in the exact same conditions, but with only a 10cm drop.

I've stuck to my plan to train every day, and I plan on seeing it through.

Muscle Up Training

Did more muscle up training tonight.

5 dips
2 pull up
5 negatives
5 reverse pushups
- 5 sets

i found that my dips are slowly improving, as well as my negatives. my pull ups are still pretty bad, just like they always are. i guess its something that takes time to develop. so i just have to keep on training them.

i've hit a bit of a wall with my negatives. i can dip down to about chest height, but when i try to move my elbows below the bar level, i seem to just drop through, uncontrolled.

i'm not sure how I can fix this, maybe i just need to keep on practicing. i've asked Chippa for some advice on this, hopefully it helps out.

anyway, ive still stuck to my plan of training everyday for 5 weeks straight. so far its nearly been a week and half. i can already see the improvement in ym strength and skill. it will be interesting to see how i come out after the full five weeks.

APA Class - Civic

Class today.

We've started to apply the "organiser" preparation that I thought of last week.

It was successful in that Eliot, who was the organiser, had a set plan for the class. That we weren't standing around just before the class, trying to think of what to do.

There was a bit of a mix up as Josh arrived a bit later with the forms, so we had people filling out forms and wristbands while they were doing rolls and landings. This messed up the timings for the activity.

I got a really good surprise at the beginning of class. Ruz was there! He's here in Canberra for the week, seeing his parents and training with us.

With my group, we had them doing cat-passes and precisions. There are a few things that need to be sorted out with this new "organiser" system, but hopefully it will work.

There was also talk about plans for NatSoc. If everything gets sorted out, it is going to be an awesome event.

Balance

Did a light session of training today. Just worked on my balance.

I headed down to the civic bus depot, where there's that massive rail.

I was originally planning on doing 10 laps, that would have been a total of 750m approximately. But I stopped at 6.5 laps, as I was running out of time.

So, in total I did about 450m of balance. Just normal balance, but I also added in holding a full squat on the rail at the end of each lap. I found that it was pretty hard to go from a standing to a squating position on the rail, then go back up into a standing position facing the opposite direction.

I know that my balance has definately improved over the years.

Balance is something that slowly gets better, without you even realising. You only come to notice the progression when there has been a massive improvement in your balance.

I've continued to stick to my plan of training every day for 5 weeks straight. I've just gotten past my first week.

We'll just have to see if I can stick to it.

FNC

I'm sitting in my chair, typing away on my computer, and I'm exhausted, completely and utterly destroyed. But I love it!

This new FNC is great. It's constantly changing, as I still haven't found that one perfect program to start as a basis.

The best part of FNC tonight, was that I had people to train with. Conan and ruoF joined me. It was so much easier to push myself, as there was someone there to always provide encouragement whenever i felt like stopping, giving me that extra bit of motivation to make it to the end.

Did the lazys, speed vaults and cat passes. Decided on something extra to add to the cat passes, to help with power through the arms.

Only did 60 rolls, with the pullups and dips for every ten. Coming to the end of the rolls, I tried a different technique, kind of like diving forwards and throwing a lot of speed into it. I surprisingly found that this really helped. It made my rolls on both sides really smooth. Both sides! I was also not rolling on my hip, but rolling on the meaty areas of the back, the ones that I've been trying to work towards. The next test will be to try them on concrete.

From there we moved to toast, working on precisions. Only did 50, yet the that was really tiring. Every ten we paused to throw in some upper body work, like pushups, reverse pushups and dips. I think I'll try to go for the full 100 next week.

From there we moved on to customs. Started doing the arm jump to climb up to turn vault
t sets. I've found that my climb ups have had a dramatic improvement. I worked on the idea I learnt from J last night, keeping my arms straight through the whole climb up. Keeping my arms straight forces my legs to push in the pendulum motion that Chippa was trying to teach me in Melbourne. I think that would have to be the best advice for climb ups, keep your arms straight for as long as possible. I showed ruoF this, and he got them practically straight away! Only got to do about 15 sets, before we got moved on. I think that we'll have to find a new place. I was actually thinking of the wall underneath toast. We can practice wall runs off both feet, then go into proper climb ups. I say proper in that there is no bar or over grip to assist you.

We decided to cut away the balancing. It was just so far away and we were so tired. The sets at customs really took it out of us.

So we moved on to the stairs at the canberra theatre. Did the quadrapedal. Then moved on the the upper body and hops work. It really took it out of us, to the point of being barely able to move. It was so good! ruoF even got to the point of throwing up. It shows that he really pushed himself.

So the session lasted for only about 3 hours, but man I'm exhausted. I now realise that FNC is not just technique and strength conditioning, but also mental conditioning. Building your mental strength to just keep on going, keep pushing yourself to the very edge.

I'm probably going to be really sore tomorrow. It's great!

Civic Training

Did some training in civic tonight. Met up with ruoF and Trav to start with.

We hit up toast a bit, where J soon found us. Did a couple of precision, vaults, the usual. Nothing too big.

From there we made our way to customs to try our luck. We were there for ages. I got a really good sesh of just moving around. Lots of tics tacs, arm jump and turn vaults. From there I focussed on tic tac arms on the side area. I'm getting them pretty good. Did a few climb ups as well. Im finding that my climbups are improving. I seem to be getting more power into them as well as better technique. Did a couple of arm to arms in the stair. Also found a good cat to precision, where the cat to arm is, that I want to work towards later on. Eventually we got moved on. Got to meet that awesome security guard again, the one I met at FNC last week. Had another chat with him, then we headed off.

Thats when Trav headed off.

Made our way to CIT. Hung around a bit in the stairs area where the big arm jump is. It was starting to get pretty wet, os we were a bit restricted. J helped me out in improving my climbups on slippery walls. The one thing is to try and keep my arms straight, which forces me to proeprly use my feet, pushing them into the wall and not down it. Hopefully if I keep practicing this, I will eventually get more power into it and be able to incorporate my arms to get it even better. Another thing for me to work towards.

From there we did a couple of precisions on the rocks, and player around the stairwell where the big foot trial is. I've found that my pop vaults have gotten better, mainly because my climb ups have gotten better. Is good to see how different techniques assist each other.

From there J left, then me and ruoF did a bit of silence training. Just trying to move aroudn staying as quiet as possible.

Got bored of that so we met up with James at customs again. Hoping to not get kicked out. We were there for about 15 minutes, then got moved on. Got to do a few more tic tac arms before security came. I just can't get enough of them!

From there we headed to toast, but all I really did was stretch and warm down. It was starting to rain a bit, and we'd already done a lot of training.

Went and grabbed some dinner, then we all went our separate ways.

Overall it was a good session. Did about 2 hours of decent training. I only did light training, to save my energy for FNC tomorrow. I may not be training by myself this time! Conan said that he'd be coming. ruoF asid that he'd come too. it will be good to have people to train with, as solo training can get depressing at times, especially during the tough moments that I talked about before. Having people training with you gives you that motivation to keep on going, pushing yourself that one bit further. I'll also be able to do the partnered work during the strength conditioning. I can't wait!

5.10 Freerunner shoes (over time)

So I've had my 5.10s for a few months now. So I thought I'd write up another review on them. How they've held up to my training.

The 5.10s are still just as grippy as they were when I first got them. The sole has worn down considerably at the front where I land from arm-jumps, but I guess that can be expected with this sort of training.

The 5.10s are still comfy and have moulded well to my foot. I've actually found that the inside sole has moulded to shape of my foot and toes.

One thing I was worried about with the 5.10s when I first got them was that my toes rubbed against the inside top of the shoe. I've now found that this had gone away, as I got more comfortable with them.

In regards to the durability, the 5.10s have stoof up to everything that I've thrown at them so far. The sole has a few minor cracks in the worn areas, but nothing serious. The support is still there, as well as the grip.

I'm definately happy with them and highly recommend them for any experienced traceur. The reason I say experienced is because the huge amount of grip can give people the false belief that they have good climbups, when they really don't. The will have them doing things that they wouldn't be able to do in other shoes, which can lead to bad technique. An experienced traceur should already know the technique, so the 5.10s are good in that they can take the experienced traceurs capabilities that one bit further.

Muscle Up Training

Did a short 45 minute session today, focussing on muscle up training and running training.

Ran down to an outdoor training area. Was about a 1 to 2 km run. Downhill though.

Here is the program:
5 dips
2 pull ups
5 negatives
300m sprint

I did 5 sets of that program. I was pretty tired by the end of it. I found that my negatives need work. I'm not controlling them enough, ending up dropping out of them too quickly. My pullups need work like always. My sprints are getting better though. I felt like I was getting a lot of push out of it.

After that I ran back home, this time it was uphill. It was a pretty slow run, as I was already tired from the training.

Before training, I was having second thoughts, but I'm glad I went out. So far I'm sticking to my plan of doing some sort of training everyday.

Extreme Training Weekend Day 3

DAY 3 - Sun 15 Jun 08

PARTICIPANTS:
Myself
Eliot
Larkin
Connor

Civic Training
1200 - 1530

The session started at 10am, but I arrived late as there was a chruch service I had to go to in the morning.

I met the guys near the block run.

We moved up to the trees where i did a bit of a warmup, then for some reason did a few wall spins with Eliot. I was still feeling sore from FNC tha was two days ago. It really shows how hard Ive made the new FNC, which is good as I know that my body will slowly adapt to recovery and that it will help my progression dramatically.

From there we decided to make our way to the Fisheries, but it took us about 2 hours to get there.

I found a fountain at the Hall of Justice. The fountain had small pillars, about 1 ft high and 7cms in diameter. They were spread about 1 metre apart in a five meter square area. They really helped in balance training. I know that Eliot and myself had an awesome time on there. Larkin and Connor did look like they were having as much fun though, I think they got bored of it pretty quickly. With experience they will soon come to learn about the simpler things, and how much they can help inprogression.

From there we moved down to the ramp where Ruz did the cat to arm for Stateline. Eliot decided to give it a go. At first I wasn't that keen, but after watching Eliot try it, I decided to join in. As soon as i started training, I found that my stiffness was starting to go away. I got the cat to arm on my second attempt. I foudn that the more speed I had coming into the cat, the more distance and force I could get into the wall, which I found greatly assisted making the arm. My plan is to work towards getting the cat to precision in the same spot. I'll have to work really hard in getting a lot of power into the height and distance out of the cat pass.

From there we moved to put our stuff in my car, but found another spot, which was really good for practicing arm jumps off a small ledge onto a pretty grippy wall. i was able to make it standing, which then lead me to finding out that I have pretty good climbups when I have good grip with my feet. When the wall is slippery I tend to slip down it, losing a lot of my momentum. I ahve to practice the pendulum movement that Chippa taught me to help with climbups. I also got a good running arm jump, where I got a lot of height out of to greatly assist in the smooth transition into the climbup, landing straight into the dip position as opposed to the pull up position.

From there we put the stuff in the car, then found a sloped wall that we practiced running up. Trying to use as little steps as possible.

Form there I foudn another arm jump, that involved climbing up onto a wall with a pretty big drop behind it. I used Connor to keep my balance. The wall that i was arm jumping to was made of smooth polished marble, so I of course slipped straight down it when I feet made contact.

From there we found a tree that we thought had potential, but in the end it bark was too crumbly and the branches were too thick.

We finally made it to the fisheries. Walked around a bit. Eliot showed me a good cat to arm, but I wasn't too keen on it as the wall that you had to cat off was really dusty and slippery. Eliot then showed me a good cat to precision, that you could slowly progress in distance. From there we found an alley type thing, that had a really good arm to arm area. It had potential for a cat to arm, but I found the wall was too low for me to properly cat off. I thing that I may be able to reverse to arm it though, so I'll have to go back later on and check it out. I could do a reverse to arm to arm to climb up to precision for my video. Have some solid movement type footage, which should look good.

From there we finished up, heading into the city to grab some late lunch. After that we all went our separate ways.

In the end I had a really good session. I DOMS aren't feeling that bad anymore, and I feel like I've done some really good training.

This intense training weekend has been great. There wasn't as much interest as I thought there would be, but I know that I had fun. I finally got to properly test out my program for FNC, and have settled on something that I am happy with. I plan on doing it every friday night, as I know that it will definately help my progression in a big way.

The training sessions on saturday and sunday were good. They were just like the old days where we would walk around looking for places to training. Finding heaps of things to do in even the smallest areas.

For the next 5 weeks, I have a pretty small stress load from work and uni, in that I can have a lot of spare time. Starting with last FNC, I plan on training in some form everyday. This will mainly involve parkour training, but will sometimes involve basketball training and games. If I stick to my plan I know that I will progress greatly in my fitness, strength and skill in general. Now its the test of sticking to my plan. Lets see how it goes.

Extreme Training Weekend Day 2

DAY 2 - Sat 14 Jun 08

PARTICIPANTS:
Myself
Eliot
Larkin
Travis


WODEN TRAINING
1100 - 1500

The session actually started at 10am, but I slept in so arrived late. I made the mistake of going out after FNC last night, so I was pretty tired.

I was really sore from FNC the night before. I now realised how hard I had actually trained.

Met up with Eliot and Larkin at the silver statue. Did a bit of balancing on the ledges, having close ground on one side, with a reasonably big drop on the other side. I took this idea from Shaun's blog, putting yourself in scary situations to make your mind freak out, but keeping your concentration and focus. This was to try and help me in not panicking in situations, this time was having a potential big drop that I could have fell down, but balancing on something that I would have little trouble balancing on at a smaller height. It was about training me to have the same confidence to move in any environment, no matter the situation. This one being an extreme height and drop.

Moving on from there we went down to the red block. Before the session, Eliot promised himself that he would do the arm jump, so after looking at it for a while, he finally did it. I filmed it for him, using some different angles, with different bits of environment in the way, such as a rail or wall. I thought that this added a good kind of urban style to it. he eventually had a pretty close bail, where he fell off backwards. Luckily his feet hit the ground first before he fell on his ass. It looked really funny when watched backwards in slow motion.

From there we moved down to the big rail and barbecue area. I managed top balance the legnth of the big rail. It helped that it was flat and not curved. From there3 I foudn a good precision with a reasonable drop beneath it. I didn't give it a go though, because I was pretty sore and I didn't think my knee would be able to take the landing. Eliot gave it a try, made it, but banged his knee in the process.

From there we went to lunch, where Travis met up with us.

After that we went to the black ramps, where i found a good cat to precision, and looked more at the cat to arm. I didn't give it a try but saw a 100m long rail in the car park that was close by. So i ran over to it, balanced the whole thing, with some falls but I just got back on then kept on going. Then I balanced it backwards. i found that balancing it backwards takes a lot longer than forwards, as you can't see where you are going and have to concentrate a lot more.

From there we played a bit on the rails, but eventually went our separate ways.

I took Eliot back to my place so that we could buy the domain name for the new Canberra Parkour forum that we've been making. It's still in the making, I'm leaving a lot of the work to Eliot. The reason that we're making our own forum, and not sticking with PKAUS or APA, is that we want something that can be more organised. Something that can have different sections for different things, where with APA and PKAUS, we only have one section for everything. I'm hoping that the whole Canberra community will move away from PKAUS and use this new site. We'll leave links to the new forum within the PKAUS forum. It will just be like when we made the jump from the Urban Freeflow forum to the PKAUS forum. I will still be using the APA forums though, posting up all major information.

Overall the day was pretty good, I didn't do too much serious training, as I was still feeling really sore from FNC the night before.

Extreme Training Weekend Day 1

DAY 1 - Fri 13 Jun 08

PARTICIPANTS:
Solo

FNC
1830 - 2230

This was the second session of my new FNC. I was originally thinking that I wouldn't be tooo much, due to my knee injury. I found that starting out though, my knee was giving me too much trouble, so I did the proper training session. I had previously made a program for FNCs, something to start with as a basis then improve on it from there. I've found that after testing it out, I've cut down a bit of the strength conditioning, as those areas have already been focussed on to a great extent. Below is the program that I did, and will most likely stick to for future FNCs.

Warmup

Noise Wall:
- dynamic stretches

Techniques Conditioning

Noise Wall:
- 40 lazy vaults (10 each side, each take off foot)
- 40 speed vaults (10 each side, each take off foot)
- 40 cat passes (20 each take off foot)

Glebe Park:
- 100 rolls (50 each side) (2 pulls up & 5 dips / 10 rolls)

Toast:
- 100 precisions

Customs:
- 40 arm jumps + climbup
- 40 turn vaults (20 each side)
- (ie. arm jump - climb up - turn vault down)

Bus Depot:
- 600 m balance
- 150 m cat balance

Strength Conditioning

Stairs:

Core
- quadrupedal walking down backwards
- quadrupedal walking up forwards
- quadrupedal walking down forwards
- quadrupedal walking up backwards
- quadrupedal walking down pushup style

Lower + Upper Body
- 20 dips at bottom
- 2 foot (up 3 down 2)
- 20 situps at top
- 20 pushups at bottom
- left foot only (up 2 down 1)
- 20 leg raise sets at top
- 20 diamonds at bottom
- right foot only (up 2 down 1)
- 20 crunches at top
- 20 double width pushups at bottom
- 20 reverse push ups

Upper Body (if partner available)
- wheelbarrow walking
- fireman carry
- wheelbarrow pushups

Warmdown

Stairs:
- static stretching

At the end of this session I was so exhausted. I definately found it hard to motivate and push myself. The conditions were the main factor. It was cold, I was tired, and I was training by myself. I found that it was a real test of my character and self-discipline.

It will be interesting if people start coming, I'm expecting some people to give it a go. It will be ever more interesting to see if people who do give it a try will keep coming. It will be interesting to see if people can pass the test of training to exhaustion in poor conditions, as it cold and wet weather.

By the end of the session, I had been training for about 4 hours, 4 hours solo training. I know that I learnt a lot from that session. Especially about pushing yourself, keep on going and not letting yourself take the easy way out and give up.

I found that cat balance the hardest. Cat balance is just hard in general, but add the cold of the rail biting into your hands, as well as exhaustion eating into you! That was the hardest time, just being able to make myself get back onto the rail and keep on going, when I was hurting and exhausted.