Balance & Landing: Tumbling with a Twist

Week 11: Day Two
After (B)East Coast, I took a couple of days to rest and then I was more than ready to go back to training.  The event inspired me to train harder and push myself mentally and physically.  Not to give up so easily, but to keep trying until I get something.  I don't know if it's this renewed drive to get a little farther outside my comfort zone, or that everyone is feeling a little playful, but I've been having so much fun with my training this week.  I mean, I always have fun training.  But sometimes it’s a little more playtime, a little less intense workout.  We’ve been getting very weird this week and experimenting with awkward movement.  Definitely requires an open mind but it’s a lot of fun.

On Wednesday, we worked on air awareness.  The ultimate goal was to be like a cat—if someone holds you upside down by your hands and feet and drops you from the second story window, you want to be able to correct yourself in the air and land on your feet, or hands and feet.  No, they didn't actually throw us out the window to test our cat-like abilities.

We started by doing some basic tumbling—cartwheels, rolls, round-offs, etc.  Then we threw in some weirdness.  Cartwheel, 180, roll.  Roll, 180, cartwheel.  Round-off, 360, roll.  Lots of twisting, jumping, tumbling and trying to confuse our bodies.  We also worked on doing 180s and 360s from a higher surface to a lower surface.  We were trying to train our bodies to always be square with our momentum to prevent messing up our knees, for example, by landing incorrectly.  It was all a little disorienting but definitely a useful exercise.

After class, we started experimenting with what we had learned.  I played on the bars a bit and then went back to tumbling.  I tried to work my aerial but I kept putting my left hand down.  I probably didn’t need to, but it just really wanted to touch the ground.  Then I decided to stop being a wimp and work on my standing tucks.  This literally took about 20 minutes.  Seriously.  I wandered around the room trying to convince myself to just throw it.  Every time, I’d find an excuse not to do it or distract myself with some other challenge.  Finally, I wandered over to a line on the floor that I liked for some reason, set, and went for it.  I touched my hands down the first couple of times but by the third or fourth try I was landing on my feet without reaching towards the ground.  Standing tuck on non-spring floor: check.  I was more relieved than excited.  As if I knew I could do it already, I just had to get it out of the way.  I have to keep working them though so my body gets used to it again.

Next stop: wall spins.  One of the other girls, M, was working on them and invited me to try it with her.  Sure, why not? It’s one of those moves that looks really simple.  They’re just spinning around their hand.  Easy.  Not easy.  It honestly didn’t occur to me that you still have to go upside down to do it.  The first time I ran up to the wall, I placed my hand on the mat leaning against the wall, jumped and... nothing.  This is scarier than I thought.  I tried again.  Ran up to the wall, placed my hand on it, flipped upside down, realized I was upside down, and froze.  Splat on the mat beneath me.  At least I got the upside down part this time, I’m halfway there! I finally managed to get somewhere close to landing on my feet when M2 drew me a picture to help explain what I was doing wrong.  I was traveling too much instead of staying in one spot.  His picture worked miracles.  After a few more tries, I felt comfortable moving the crash mat away so I would be forced to land on my feet.  It worked.  I did a few really good ones before wrapping up for the night.  Wall spin on a mat: check.  Next stop: harder surfaces.

(B)East Coast Jam 2013: Part 2

Day two of the event was held at Great Falls (VA) where we had a cookout, relaxed, and did some hiking/bouldering.  I’ve been going to Great Falls since I was a little kid and I’ve always loved climbing around and playing in the woods, so it was cool for me to go and play with this new awareness of my body, natural movement and my own capabilities.  Before, I was just messing around when I jumped from rock to rock or balanced on a fallen tree.  Now, I was thinking about it in the context of my parkour training.

I realized that I’m a lot more comfortable moving out in the woods than I am in the city.  While we were hiking later in the day, we came across a fallen tree that we used to cross a big drop with nothing but rocks and dirt beneath us.  As I was balancing my way across, I did what you’re never supposed to do and I looked down.  It didn’t throw me off or send me plummeting to my death, but I did see how high we were and what was below us.  I thought to myself would I cross something this high on a narrow surface in an urban setting? I’m not sure I would.  I don’t know why but falling in the concrete jungle is a lot scarier to me than falling on the rocks and dirt.  Even at the exact same height.  I experienced the same thing with climbing.  There are lots of trees and intimidating rock faces that I would climb before I’d climb a similar challenge in the city.  Maybe I should include more nature in my training.  Or some nature at all, considering this is the first time I’ve been hiking since I started training pk.  Anyways, we had a lot of fun climbing around and finding the challenging ways to get up and over the rocks.

Back at the picnic area, people were lying in the grass, exhausted from the day before.  Meanwhile, others proved to be a never-ending ball of energy, continuously flipping and playing around.  After lying in the sun for hours and going for a mini hike, I felt lazy enough so I got up and went to watch some people play on the backyard rails they brought.  Then one of the guys turned to me and said do a flip.  Excuse me? Come on, do a flip.  I can’t do a flip out here.  I need a spot.  He then proceeded to list all of his certifications and put his hand on my back, ready to spot me.  And then he waited in that position until I was ready.  When I realized he was not going to let me walk away without flipping, I finally decided to get over my fears of flipping outside and did a tuck.  Hey, that wasn’t so bad.  He immediately went into instructor mode and started giving me pointers.  We worked on it for a few minutes until I got scared again because he was going to make me do it without a spot.  Baby steps.

As afternoon became evening and people started trickling out, I had to begin saying goodbye.  It was weird not knowing when I’d see most of them again, but there’s always next year!  I had such an amazing time this weekend training and meeting new people in the community.  I have never felt so welcome and so much a part of something before.  I loved bonding with the other pk girls.  I loved being pushed to try new things and connect with people.  I can be really shy in large groups sometimes but I never felt uncomfortable this weekend.  I was always making new friends and everyone I talked to was so nice and excited to be there.  It was really a great experience.  Thanks again to APK, The Tribe & M2 for putting on such an amazing event! Looking forward to next year!

(B)East Coast Jam 2013: Part 1

This weekend, the parkour community gathered to train, learn, and play together at the annual (B)east Coast Jam held here in Washington, D.C.  The whole APK crew and The Tribe put in a lot of time and energy into making this a fun-filled weekend for all.  I know I'm supposed to be young and never run out of energy but (B)east Coast completely wiped me out.  In a good way.  But I'm definitely in need of a rest & recovery day.

The first day of the event started at Gateway Park, just over the bridge in Virginia.  We had a permit for the park this year (which means the city supports pk! woo!) so APK was able to bring their own obstacles to set up a crazy course for the fast competition and some other fun stuff for the community.  This was my first parkour jam and while I was excited, I was definitely a little overwhelmed.  There were so many people of all different backgrounds and skill levels.  We were also outnumbered by guys as usual, but there were a dozen or so girls at the event this year.  I brought my friend, N, who had never trained parkour before but is really into fitness so I thought she'd like it.  She ended up loving it (yay!) and we had a lot of fun before she had to go to work later that afternoon.  We also managed to find the other girls pretty quickly, introduce ourselves and bond as a group over our unique love for pk.  Talking to other girls in the parkour community made me think about it for the first time.  We’re doing something incredibly unique and it’s important to recognize that and support each other as we train and grow.

We also took a few awesome photos (ladies only).  Here is one of us on the “awkward bars”:

After playing at Gateway Park all morning, watching the fast competition, saying hi to people and making new friends, we broke into smaller groups to train in different parts of the city.  I was so caught up in the day’s events that I never left to get lunch so I hoped all the Vita Coco (one of this year’s sponsors) would keep me alive enough to keep training.  I headed to Georgetown University with one of the breakout groups because I realized I had never walked around the campus before.  It’s freaking beautiful.  In that old-school prestigious kind of way.  They also have some interesting training spots.

I worked on a few cool challenges including a set of rails I wanted to precision.  There were four railings in a row across a wide set of stairs with just enough room at the bottom for me to perch my feet on.  Although I've become pretty comfortable with rail precisions, I've never actually tried to do more than one in a row so I thought it'd be a good challenge for me.  I always landed the first one, but it was a matter of staying up once I landed, or transitioning quickly enough to take off again before I lost my balance.  I told one of the guys, T2, about my challenge and of course he does it in one try.  Your turn, he says, looking at me expectantly.  Well now that you've made it look so easy, I'm thinking, irritated.  I tried a few more times, but my foot started slipping and I was worried about hurting myself so I took a break.  I'm determined to go back on a good day and train until I nail those precisions.  I can't leave a challenge incomplete like that.  Even if it takes more than one session, I want to do it.

I hadn’t thought much about it before but now I’m noticing the word challenge more when people train.  Everyone is constantly thinking of challenges for themselves and for each other... and asking me to think of them.  A traceur will look at their environment, “trace” a path in their head (see what I did there?), and then present it to someone as a challenge.  I guess it’s a fun way to engage others and not just challenge yourself.  It’s also a way of sharing the way you see your environment, whereas another traceur might have chosen a different course.  You want to think of something that will push you, but also something within your reach.  And within the reach of the person you’re challenging.  It’s very different than any other physical discipline I’ve trained.

After a couple of hours at Georgetown, we headed back to the park to wrap up and get some food before the rock climbing event later that night.  I was so tired I couldn't even force myself to go.  I was home by 10pm and in bed within the hour.  I know, I'm an old lady.  But I had to rest up for day two!

To be continued...

Precisions in Paradise

Week 9: Vacation Continued
Friday afternoon, I spent a few hours training with three members of the local parkour & freerunning team on the island.  The guys picked me up and we headed towards a nearby shopping/eating/business/etc. complex.  It's called a "town" on the website but I'm not convinced.  It looked more like a giant ritzy complex to me.  Anyways, it was right on the water (absolutely beautiful) and there were lots of walls of varied height along the docks, some railings, and some trees to swing around in.  Here's a picture of part of the area: Camana Bay.

I mostly worked a bunch of fun but challenging precision jumps, getting comfortable with new distances and mixed heights.  I also got a little too well-acquainted with the feeling of coral rock in my hand.  I was leaning back too much on one of my jumps so I started to fall off the wall.  I should've pushed off so I could land on my feet, but I thought I could catch myself with my hands.  I ended up just falling backwards while keeping my grip so I was upside down like a bumbling bat.  I managed to swing my legs to the side and somehow land upright on the boardwalk beneath me.  Falling is definitely a skill.  I always do it in the strangest of ways.  I survived with only a minor cut on my hand from the nasty coral wall.  Such a pretty surface, but it slices viciously.

We hit a few different spots in the "town"/complex, ending with a picturesque grassy area with wide stone steps in between the grass and trees that produce seagrapes.  While climbing, I got to taste these yummy little snacks.  We had fun jumping down the steps to a branch that probably wasn't really strong enough to hold us and swinging to the other branches around the tree.  I was excited I was able to move from branch to branch without pausing for a swing.

Occasionally, throughout our training session, one of the guys would get that look in their eye—a new idea brewing.  We'd step back and let them try their new challenge before following suit.  I love training like this.  Just going out, playing with your environment, challenging yourself, and each other, with new ways to get through the obstacles around you. I felt totally relaxed and happy, even while sweating buckets in the hot Caribbean sun.

We finished up when I realized that my parents were probably starting to wonder if I'd been kidnapped or was in the hospital since I'd conveniently left my cellphone in the car.  Oops.  Heading back towards the condos where I was staying, we stopped when we saw some empty tents with CrossFit bars set up. A little too tempting for us.  We played for a few minutes until a woman came over to tell us that this was private property and we couldn't be there.  Of all the places to get kicked out.  A CrossFit gym.  Oh well.  We politely scampered off and headed to Smoothie King to end our workout with the perfect meal.  Afterwards, the guys dropped me off and said goodbye.  I told them to come to DC sometime to train with us.  We'll see if we meet again!

I'm really glad I was able to train with them, even for a few hours.  I wasn't quite at their level especially when it comes to tricks or fearlessness, which I realized when they casually asked if I had done any roof gaps.  How do I answer that? No, I don't spend my time trying to get arrested.  No, I don't have a good set of roofs to practice on.  They didn't hold it against me.  We still had a lot of fun together, and they were impressed with me for keeping up (mostly).  It's good for me to train with people more advanced than I am because it drives me to push myself.

I also love learning from other traceurs.  Everyone has their own perspective or technique, and their own reason for training parkour.  It's interesting to see how different people incorporate it into their lives and how it's impacted them.  You'd be surprised how many people have told me that parkour has made them a more peaceful and positive person overall.  I also think it's so cool that I could connect with the parkour community even on a tiny Caribbean island.  Hopefully I'll be back someday, but for now I had to leave this paradise behind and return home.  To 65 degrees and rain.  Thanks, DC.  Good to be back.

Here are a few photos from our session, courtesy of Flo-Motion Parkour & Freerunning:

Playing in the trees with the seagrapes

Balance

The take-off

Mid-jump

Time Out... Kind Of

Week 9: Vacation
Family trip to the tropics could not come at a better time.  I was more than willing to drag my exhausted, haven't-seen-the-sun-in-days, post-finals self to the airport Saturday morning so I could meet up with the rest of my family where palm trees sway in the island breeze and the water is the same temperature as the warm salty air.  After a few days I already felt more relaxed and rejuvenated.  Which meant I had the energy to be active again! I'm alive! I realize the whole point of vacation is to relax and be lazy, but I don't really understand this concept.  Relax.  I am all for lying on the beach and soaking up the sun, but I have to balance it out with some activities.

Like any normal person would, as soon as I knew where I was going I googled that location with the word parkour to see if I could find any hotspots or groups on the island.  Bingo.  I immediately found a Facebook page for the local parkour & freerunning team.  I sent them a message introducing myself and letting them know I was coming and they responded with some info about open gym where I could join them.

Going to open gym the other night was so much fun and exactly what I needed.  Not only was I psyched about the  equipment (they train in a local gymnastics center) and the spring floor, but it was also a great atmosphere.  Just a bunch of kids hanging out, jamming to some serious dubstep & house music while pulling out tricks that made my eyes widen a bit.  I paid the $10 entry fee, stretched out and then nervously stepped over to the tumbling floor.  It's been about 3 years since I've been on a spring floor so I was both ecstatic at the thought of it, and nervous because it's been 3 years.  Tumbling on a spring floor is very different than a hard surface, as you might guess.  The rebound you can get from a spring floor is extremely powerful compared with regular mats, grass or any other surface.

I got my confidence back, to say the least.  I pulled out tricks I had no idea I could still do.  Standing tucks.  Round-off layouts.  Aerials.  Enough handsprings to make me dizzy.  Where did all of this come from?! I was beyond excited.  It felt amazing to tumble like that again, and to feel comfortable just flipping around.

It's very strange to train by yourself without an instructor watching your every move and telling you you're ready.  I'm so used to having a leader of some sort tell me which tricks to train and give me progressions and training ideas.  Now, I have to be more self-aware and decide for myself when I'm ready to try something.  I find it easier to trust someone else.  I suppose it's because my instructor is a trained professional whose sole purpose is to tell me I'm ready for my next skill.  On the other hand, what do I know?

Apparently, I don't give myself enough credit.  I was nervous to try my round-off tuck at the gym, and then I ended the night throwing round-off layouts with a rebound.  I was even more nervous to try my standing tuck and almost asked someone for a spot but then I thought you know what, I know I can do this.  And I know that worst case, I'll land on my hands and knees.  And then I just did it.  I trusted myself, I threw it, I landed it.  Bam.  Take that, world.  I was on such a natural high.  Even while the freerunning team was throwing crazy tricks while I was doodling with my single trick passes, I still felt amazing.

The guys were awesome.  Crazy tumblers pulling out double this and that, flip after flip after flip, twists, kicks, fulls, corks... my head was spinning.  Might have also been the heavy bass and being in the sun all day, but they were definitely making me dizzy.

After getting my confidence back with my tumbling abilities, I did some conditioning in the corner and climbed the rope a few times.  Then I met the rest of the guys and chatted for a minute.  The gym was closing up so we agreed to try to meet up later this week to train outside together.

Ser y Durar (to be and to last)

Week 8: Community Outreach
With final exams, work and other factors, I haven't been able to train at all this week.  It's driving me crazy but I know I've been too physically and mentally exhausted and it's smarter to just get some rest and then get back to it as soon as I can.  Since I can't do parkour, I thought I'd do the next best thing: watch other people do parkour.

I went with my friend, V, to check out this really cool exhibit at the Hirschorn showing the film Ser y Durar from DEMOCRACIA in the black box downstairs.  For my DC readers, you should go check it out before it ends! I think it's gone at the end of May.  I could be making that up though so don't hold me to it.  You can also watch the film online by clicking on the name of the film above.  I found the piece intriguing and very well done.  But it also made me extremely uncomfortable.  Cemeteries are quiet, peaceful places where loved ones have been laid to rest and it made me cringe to see these young men tracing through the cemetery, even with a purpose.  My beliefs aside, the film itself was still very interesting and worth watching.

As part of the museum's gallery talks, the American Parkour founders came to the Hirschorn Friday afternoon to give a little demonstration and answer some questions from the audience/museum-goers.  There were a handful of guys and one girl (yay!) with a few different obstacles to show us what parkour could look like.  I seriously never get tired of watching parkour.  Even if it's nothing showy, you can always learn or notice new things by observing other people.  One of the guys had a big cast on his hand/forearm so I was thinking he might be taking it easy.  Nope.  This guy just jumped over the vault boxes with no hands.  And then did some flips.  Because who needs hands?

The demo got a little awkward because it was just a bunch of people staring at them in silence while they were going through the obstacles, so one of the founders got everyone to start clapping their hands to create a rhythm and people started cheering when they saw something they liked.  Much better.  After a few runs, the team stopped to answer questions for the audience.  What is parkour all about? Why do you do it? (everyone's answer is different) Where do you do it? (definitely not the roofs of buildings at a local university... never) What is involved in training parkour? How is it similar to or different from dance, gymnastics, and other movement arts or physical disciplines? And more.  I'm not going to list out every Q&A because that's a little unnecessary but it was a great conversation and I think the audience was really into it.

I also learned more about the APK founders and their own beliefs about parkour, and how they'd like to see it evolve which was cool for me.  I always enjoy learning more about the people I train with and my instructors.  I'm really glad I went to check it out.  If you have 20 minutes to spare you should definitely watch the film and let me know what you think!  I'm curious to see other people's reactions.

Mental Blocks

It took me a long time to actually do an aerial (cartwheel with no hands) in gymnastics because my body refused to do it.  I had the physical capability, but every single time I went to go for it, my hands would go down.  I just couldn’t mentally accept that my hands were not supposed to touch the ground.  This was the only time I had a serious problem with a mental block in my gymnastics/cheering career.  Normally, I was really good at overcoming my fears and just going for it.  Unfortunately, I’m encountering a similar issue with parkour now.

The move I’m trying to master is called the kong vault.  I thought I had learned this already but then I realized what I was actually doing is the kash vault which is kind of a mix between the dash vault (which is actually really easy and fun for me) and the kong.  Hence the name.  In the kash vault, you start out with your hands but then your feet come through.  When using a kong vault, your feet come after your shoulders.  Push off with your hands, leaning forwards, hips up, then your feet come through.  I didn’t understand why this was so difficult for me.  I knew I could physically do it, so why was I having so much trouble with it? And then it hit me.  I didn’t like the fact that my feet were coming after the rest of my body.  I liked the comfort of my feet going first with most skills, and it drove me crazy to trust my body to stay in control when I’m going head/shoulders first.  I worked on it this weekend until I was so tired that I tripped on my way to the vault and landed with my body draped over the vault box.  I lay there for a moment in defeat and eventually rolled off onto the floor.

I took a break when I realized how tired I was because I didn’t want to hurt myself, but I’m determined to get over this silly fear.  I was told progression steps were the best way to get me there so I’m going to find some ways to work up to it.  Additional advice is more than welcome though!

Note: the videos aren't necessarily the best out there, but they're the shortest little demos I could find and I know you don't all have hours to spend watching parkour videos like me!

Armadillo Tag & the Parking Lot Challenge

Week 7: Day Three

I started my workout in the afternoon with some cardio and a deep stretch after my final exams so I was already a little warmed up when I went to the gym later on.  We started the early class with some QM (quadrupedal movement), lunges and sprints then worked on some more rolling technique and instinct.  I had become a great example for the class all week... sometimes you have to bail and you want your body to instinctively roll in whichever direction is necessary/most efficient, explains my instructor.  You don’t say? I’m not going to name names or anything.  Thanks, guys.

We set up a course where we had to roll under, over, and around different obstacles across the gym.  Only rolls.  I was so dizzy by the end.  We did this a couple of times before moving on to the excitement that is armadillo tag.  What is armadillo tag, you ask? It is a game of tag in a room full of obstacles in which you can only move as an armadillo.  The rules of armadillo movement: for every two steps of QM, do a roll.  Not only were we crawling and rolling around the floor trying to quickly get away from whoever was it, we also had to avoid or get over/under/through our obstacles and watch out for the other armadillos.  It was hilarious and surprisingly tiring.

After armadillo tag, we moved downstairs and set up a bunch of obstacles before deciding we actually wanted to train outside.  We’re really good at making decisions.  T took off running across the street so I followed with the rest of the crew behind.  We made it to a library around the corner but decided there wasn’t enough room for us so we took off again towards a nearby apartment complex with a big raised parking lot.  When we got to the lot, they had a lot of those big stone barriers around the edges so we ran along them towards the edge, climbed down to the other side, back up to the barriers, ran along, climbed down and back up again, and then arrived at a little collection of barriers where we played with vaults for a little while.  T told us he had a challenge for us whenever we stopped doing vaults.  Everyone tried to keep doing vaults for as long as possible.

Finally he made us stop and take his challenge.  The challenge? Jumping all the way down the parking lot using the lines of the parking spaces.  We literally jumped the entire parking lot, parking space to parking space.  I always made it just barely within the next line.  My legs are in so much pain today that I actually looked up the average size of a parking space.  7.5-9.5 ft. wide.  I guess my max distance is just within that.  When I got to the other side of the lot, landed my last jump, I lay down and panted on the pavement for a few minutes.

Come on guys, let’s go.  T had been done for a while and was ready for the next spot.  We took off again, and I worried my legs were going to melt underneath me.  I kept pace with the guys at the front, surprising myself, but eventually had to slow down for a minute before pushing to the finish to make a traffic light.  We got to a new area and T started walking down a rail.  Oh, finally we get to rest and just walk along a rail.  My legs thought differently.  I literally couldn’t even get my balance standing on the rail for a few minutes.  It was a major struggle.  They were complete jello.  I finally hit a rhythm and ran down the rest of the rail before my legs decided to give out, and I found myself in a sort of courtyard.  GRASS.  Something that won’t hurt me if I land on it or roll around in it.  I tried to do a little tumbling but my body was so tired I was limited to a few handsprings, cartwheels, and handstands.

After a little playtime, we had one more challenge on a wall nearby and then we walked back to the gym.  I tried to get a good stretch in before heading home but even that was a struggle.  I was ready to collapse in my bed.

Getting Comfortable with Rails

Week 7: Day One

After a pretty intense warm up, we started our low-impact class on rails.  There were a few different stations that we could rotate through.  One of them was monkey jumping onto a rail about waist high and then chest high (that was the height on me, anyways).  The next was jumping down onto a rail from higher up on a block.  There was a jiggly bar that no one used as much because it looks like it's going to fall over any minute.  The last station was jumping to the rail from your max distance (or just about).  I started with the monkey jumps to get myself comfortable, then moved on to the station with the drop onto the rail.  When I realized that landing on a rail wasn’t nearly as scary as I had anticipated and my feet were perfectly capable of making contact and staying there, I finally moved on to the max distance station.  I only jumped from a few feet to start with until I got comfortable.  Then I was interrupted by our instructor, P, who made all of us actually do our max distance.  We jumped on the floor to measure our distance, and then he set the mats to just within that distance from the rail.

It was definitely intimidating, but I never let myself think about it too much.  If I did, then I would hesitate and get sloppy.  One thing I’ve learned while training is that you absolutely have to commit 100%.  If even 2% of you is unsure, then there’s a chance that you’ll trip, fall, bail, etc. Usually, I don’t notice my inner monologue but P was really intent on pushing us mentally that night so we were more aware of our hesitations.  I noticed my own when I was within a few inches of my max distance.  Holy shit, that’s kind of far away.  No it isn’t, shaking my head loose of the thoughts, go for it.  Stop thinking and just go.  Jump.  Land.  That was easy.

In the later class, P wanted to continue pushing us so we started doing running take-offs to rail precisions.  He set up a flat mat underneath the rail as a marker for where we should take off.  Each turn, he pushed the mark a little farther out if we had all nailed the last one.  Towards the end, the edge of the mat was about 6 or 7 ft away from the rail which was a few feet above the ground.

I was feeling pretty good with myself so far.  I’d only hit and bounced back once and the rest of the times I was getting pretty good foot placement and also impressing myself with my jumping distance.  Spoke too soon.  On my last run, I took off from my max distance, hit the rail, right foot slipped and I shot forwards, tried to roll to the wrong side while my foot was still caught, and hit my head after absorbing some of the shock with my hand and shoulder.  Oops.  No one wanted to go after that so we started stretching and I incorporated an ice pack into my stretching routine.

Just a few brain cells lost, right?  And I think my parents are probably ready for me to find a new activity.  Or maybe get a helmet.

Accomplishments: conquering fear of rail precisions

Things to work on: rolls on rolls on rolls so my instincts kick in when I have to bail