Alistair Goes To Leeds... Trainings Ensue

Didn't all work out quite as planned...

Sunday: Rested, friday and saturday caught up with me in a big way. Got plenty of sleep.

Monday: Mostly rest again, did some grip exercises and some leg work.

Tuesday: Good ol' super tuesday when my lessons finish at 10:35am. Used the first two free periods to do all my maths, handed it in, changed into my training clothes, sprinted down to the station near school only to find they'd rudely cancelled my train. Oh well, got another train to Shipley and karma obviously owed me one as the Leeds train from Skipton was delayed, allowing me to sprint across and get on it, cutting my delay down majorly. Arrived in Leeds, left the station right as some snowfall began. Met Scott and Jim at the Art Gallery, snow soon stopped and the wind dried everything off quickly. Spent a few hours training around the Art Gallery finding new movements, becoming more proficient at existing ones and generally training our asses off. Extended our traversing challenges even further with some creative thinking. Dan turned up after a while and joined in as well. Scott finally found a way into the tree above the red railings and made his way up to the top from where you can see onto the roof of the Art Gallery. Tried the armjump from the midpoint of the stair rail to the wall again, still can't get my feet up enough to stick it, that's a mental rather than a physical problem though. Will have to devote some serious time and focus to that one sometime soon. We visited the church briefly, there's an awkward armjump that goes sideways from a staircase to a narrowish column. Ages ago when Jim from Lincoln visited, inspired by him I did the armjump from the second to top step of the stairs. I'd never had the courage to repeat it since. Did it 4 times this time, felt far easier than previously which is progress I guess. Will be trying to take it up another step before too long I guess. Finished up at Morrisons, did some cranes I'd never tried before. Thanks to the third snowfall of the day, bits of it were too wet to use. My precision distance seemed down a little on my peak a few weeks ago, will have to get training to sort that out, particularly if I'm going to go beyond where I got to at my peak. And we finished off with a mini Hell Night which was good stuff and a reminder that we really need to get Hell Night going again in Leeds. All in all a pretty awesome session. Walking home from the station as the sun went down I felt tired but satisfied, times like that you're exstatic just to be alive.

Wednesday: Illness. Fantastic. Woke up with a sore throat, no appetite and stomach pains. Took the day off school. Pity because I was planning on doing my 12 mile circuit today. Anyway, feeling better now, will go back to school tomorrow just because I can't afford to miss anymore. Hopefully will be up to strength again by the weekend.