How Far We've Come

Week 58

I don't often measure my training progress because I can usually feel my progress. I feel more confident. I feel smoother in my movement. I feel stronger when I climb and jump and in my tiny stabilizing muscles when I balance. I can do things I was not able to do a few months ago. But sometimes it is fun (and useful) to look back and see how far we've come.

When I started training parkour just over a year ago (has it really been that long?!), the classes were enough to kick my ass. Thanks to consistent training, my warm up today is what I used to consider an average workout a year ago. This is great, but it means I need to continue challenging myself so I don't get lazy. Not just in learning new skills and improving technique, but also in building strength. The PK LITE class (low impact/conditioning) at APK has given me just the right structure I need to keep pushing myself. (No, I'm not getting paid to say this—I will always offer an honest opinion!)

When I started the program in mid-October, I did baseline testing for climb-up strength and broad jumps. At the time, I felt good about an 81-inch jump and a two-step climb-up. My goal was to smooth out my climb-up into one fluid motion and to increase my jumping distance (no specific number in mind).

Well, the blood, sweat, and tears finally paid off. Okay, maybe just sweat. I have kept up with my program pretty well since I started and while I can feel that some progress has been made, I wanted to test my jumping strength to see how I was doing. Keeping my original number in mind, I just wanted to improve by a few inches. I had no idea how far I would get. When I started landing in the same range every time, T started measuring for me.

First number: 89 inches. Really?! I honestly thought that was it. I was so excited with those results that I almost stopped there. But since I was feeling great, I decided to keep pushing it and see what happened. Next jump: 90 inches. WHAT?!

Keep jumping! T said, matching my excitement. I maxed out at 91 inches. HOLY SHENANIGANS. NINETY-ONE, GUYS! I started spazzing out and jumping up and down in circles. That is TEN inches in the last four months just from doing weighted skater squats mixed in with more conditioning than before and my regular parkour training. TEN INCHES, GUYS. Can you tell I'm excited? I kept screaming, THAT'S AMAZING and T would respond, I KNOW! and I would yell at him again, BUT... BUT THAT'S AMAZING!

It's like I was watching someone else do something really cool and could not believe my eyes. It probably would have been less exciting if I had measured every month and slowly gained a couple of inches each time. But sometimes it is hard to see how far we've come until we take a step back and say Okay, this is where I was three-six-eight-twelve months ago and this is where I am now. It feels silly to religiously scribble my workouts in my training journal, but it really does help to know that my training is paying off. I mean, I feel stronger as a whole every time I train, but being able to measure my progress like this is really cool.

Traveling Ninja: Boston Edition

I grew up in the Boston area but I didn't discover parkour until a few years after I left. Going back to visit this weekend was really cool because I felt home in the city but I had a new way of looking at everything--parkour glasses, if you will. I went up for a long weekend to stay with some old friends and go to Hubbable which is the annual parkour jam in Boston. I'm still exhausted from fitting so much into one weekend but it was definitely worth it!

I love traveling for parkour because I'm totally care-free. Normally I need a schedule, directions, a plan, etc. but when M and I met to head to the first spot together, we had no idea where we were going and that was completely okay with me. We knew the spot was near the Charlestown Navy Yard so we crossed the bridge from North Station and walked along the water until we saw people jumping on things. It's kind of hard to miss parkour people. Their feet don't spend much time on the ground. Sure enough, we walked a few minutes past the large ship below (USS Constitution) and found a ton of people jumping and flipping off things. We must be in the right place!

The first spot (pictured above) had tons of jumps, rails, and interesting things to climb on. I loved it but it was a bit overwhelming early in the day because there were so many people. Yes, that's the point of jams but it still makes me want to crawl into my shell like a hermit crab sometimes... I'm working on it!

The next spot was fun and more spread out so I felt better. We made some friends and did a lot of handstand challenges while it was raining including walking sideways which I've never tried before. It actually feels really cool! We also did some vault challenges and played with wall spins on a slanted wall by the side of the playground. Then people started using the wall as a launching point for flips and things so I sat back and played camera-woman. I don't do flippy things. Not outside anyways. Not yet...

We trained in the rain long enough for it to pass and things started drying up pretty quickly between the sun and the crazy wind. Since we didn't get a lot of time at baby pool (first spot) we decided to wander back over there when the rain stopped. Here's a few pictures we took by the water on our way back:

Me playing on the bench

M flipping off the wall

Catching my breath and enjoying the sun

There were a lot less people there at this point so we had plenty of room to run around and jump in places that were crowded before. We played follow-the-leader with some of the other girls, made up various courses, and worked on rail flow. M and I also tried to high-five each other while jumping. It was pretty awesome. We got some of the fun on video which I threw together below:

Why climb on wide beams when you can climb on the tiniest little metal bar in sight?

I did it!!!

Hanging out up in the climby things

Eventually, people started heading out to get food and make their way to the gym for the night jam and sleepover. I grabbed a burger with some friends after the jam which was pretty exciting for me because I never eat like that. Seriously. And then I felt guilty so when I got back to the house I was staying at, I ate a giant plate of asparagus and salad while the rest of the family ate a full meal.

I didn't make it back to the jam on Sunday because I was spending time with friends and family, but I was pretty sore from Saturday so it was okay! Hopefully I'll make it back to Boston soon to check out the other spots and the gym. It was a blast jumping around with M and all of the Boston kids/visiting traceurs. I love jumping in new places, watching people do crazy things, and trying out new skills & challenges. I do tend to get overwhelmed by the large group but I'm learning to get over those nerves, make new friends, and just do my own thing at my own level. Thanks to everyone who made this weekend so awesome! Until next time, Boston.

A Typical Thursday

Week 56

I love Thursdays because when I make time for it, I can spend all night training. I like to go to the gym in the evening, condition for the first hour and then stay for the next two hours for parkour class. It's THE BEST. I'm either exhausted afterwards or I'm crazy energized because I feel so good after my workout. This week it was the latter.

I was a little late to conditioning, but I still got a good session in. I always do some kind of warm up, my individual training, and then I finish up with more conditioning--usually a circuit that T came up with for us, some more painful than others. For my individual conditioning, I've been working on band-assisted muscle-ups and weighted skater squats. I love the conditioning class because it's based on your own personal training needs and goals. Jumping strength, climbing strength, power, mobility, whatever it is you need/want to work on, your training program will focus on those things.

I also did some pull-ups this week after my individual training. I'm trying to increase the number of (dead hang) pull-ups I can do in a row. I started at three (which was a major struggle at first) but I made it to four this week! I probably could have pushed to five but I was tired after my initial workout. I've been doing sets of three until I'm too tired to keep going. It's such a small number but a year ago, I couldn't even do one. Every time I can do another one, it feels like a huge accomplishment.

It's funny to me that I can run up a wall and climb over it but doing pull-ups is difficult... anyways... 

After conditioning, I decided to stick around for class. We worked on lazy vaults at different heights on the vault boxes and then over the bars.

From there we set up a course and did some different challenges. As quiet as you can, as fast as you can, don't touch bar x, go under bar y, etc.

There's a box by the door of the gym that's maybe chest high on me (?) I'm not sure but it's definitely taller than my box jump height. It was part of the course and P declared the sides of it untouchable. Excuse me? How am I supposed to get on top of it? For a minute there, I blanked. I ran toward it and got stuck, using my feet against the side of it without thinking.

NO TOUCHY!!!! P started yelling.

I'M SORRY!! I yelled, trying not to laugh as I went back to the starting line to try again. I ran toward the box and tried to use a technique that would work the next time around but I didn't put enough power into it the first time. I was convinced it would work if I tried harder so I went back to the starting line a third time, ran towards the box and threw my legs and hips up using a similar technique as the lazy vault, and then turned to plant my feet on top of the box.... Then I stopped because I was so surprised I made it on top of the box. I looked up with a shocked smile on my face. I did it! I really didn't know how it would be possible when the challenge was first presented to me. But as I'm learning, anything is possible. You just have to think outside of the box (couldn't help myself) and keep trying.

I was feeling great after my box triumph and did a few more runs, making the swing-up-on-box smoother each time. When we tired of the course, we worked on some cats and other fun stuff before cooling down and stretching out. All in all a good night.

Rips, Cat Scratches, and... Flying Bird Dog Frog Planks?

Week 56
There's something about playing on a jungle gym that never gets old. Climbing, swinging, jumping around. I love getting lost in that flow of movement just going up and over, down, and moving all around the bars. My hands are a little raw after all that bar work, but lucky for me I have these super sexy calluses so my hands don't get too torn up.

Before we played on the bars last night, we did some different complexes as a warm up. Some of them were a lot harder for me than others. I liked the deck squat to push-up but the flying bird dog something or other was hard to wrap my head around. You start in a parkour squat then jump out to a rough plank balancing on opposite arm/opposite leg. Another challenge I had was the frog-plank-frog. I know, I'm great at naming things. So for this one, you start in a frog plank then shoot your legs back so you're in a push-up position. Then you turn to lift your left arm, twist to right arm, and back to push-up position. Then here's where I got/get stuck. Go straight from a push-up position back into the frog plank. I had no problem going from frog to push-up, but I don't quite have the strength/control to get my legs up and lower them down into a frog plank. Something for me to work on. I decided putting together a poor quality demo for you would be way more fun than my homework so here you go, straight from my living room:

After our funky warm up, we started working on the bars. We did vaults and various challenges like get over x bar without touching it or get through a certain space without touching the ground. It was fun and I tried lots of new things on the bars so I was feeling good. I think my favorite was a run I did where I vaulted over a low rail, jumped up & caught a high bar against the wall, then pushed off the wall and turned 90 degrees in the air to catch a bar to my left and swing through. So much fun. I was doing really well/getting some good flow until we had to "perform" a course we came up with for the rest of the class.

You'd think I would be good at performing after all those years in competitive cheer, acting, etc. but nope, I choke when people watch me do parkour. Not if I'm just training and everyone is doing their own thing, but if everyone is standing still and staring at me, it doesn't go well. I decided to go first (maybe subconsciously I wanted to get it over with) and it was kind of like someone blindfolded me and hit me over the head before I went. Okay fine, I'm exaggerating. But it was not good. I messed up an under-bar and managed to slam my butt into a bar before continuing on only to trip over the next bar I attempted to vault over and it kind of just continued going downhill. The good news is everyone after me must have felt great because really, they couldn't have done worse.

After my embarrassment, I got back to playing on the bars and of course I was fine as soon as the spotlight was gone. Classic. I think I was a bit frustrated with myself after that because when I started doing wall runs later on, I kept telling myself it wasn't good enough even though everyone around me said they looked great. I went a little too hard and I started getting "cat scratches" on my wrists. Basically, big scratchy bruises where I rotate my hands to climb up from a cat. No bueno.

Despite the tender hands, bruised wrists, and maybe a bit of a bruised ego after that "performance" (not really, I don't care), I had a good night of training and I felt great about the new moves I did on the bars. I'm also excited to have a new challenge to work on, the "frog-plank-frog."