After my abortive attempt at blogging 6 months ago, I feel ready to give it a try again now. So anyway, I suppose I'll start from the previous weekend.
Saturday: Saturday was Ed's birthday so we all headed off to Barnsley Metrodome, hoping to go do some tricking into the diving pool. Unfortunatley the 1m springboard had vanished and for non-divers the 3m springboard and 5m platform were a fairly intimidating thought. Plus they seem to have introduced a total flip ban there. Full marks to Scott for doing a backtuck off the 3m anyway and getting one of the reddest backs I've ever seen. Ended up spending most of the time in the main pool diving off the side and generally pissing around which was fun. I got to show off my lifeguarding skills as well haha. After giving up on this we looked around Barnsley for anywhere to train, failed completely other than finding a precision too big for any of us to stick and some half-decent scaffolding. Attempted a planche en force on the scaffolding, still getting stuck in the transition. More training required. Went back into Leeds afterwards, trained a bit, I couldn't commit to the rail armjump at the Art Gallery since I felt too tired, definatley a short term goal though since I now feel certain I can make it. Did a traversing challenge on a church (and got informed it wasn't a climbing wall by a CSO). Then after most people had gone Scott, Boydo and I did some challenges involving not touching the ground at the Art Gallery. Also had some fun in the tree by the library and I finally stuck some of the dynos there. Taught Boydo how to land softer and use the sideways landings that have become fashionable in Leeds (with good reason!) thanks to Scott. Oh and I introduced Scott to the joys of cardio, something we've resolved to make the rest of the Leeds guys do a lot more of. It was good to see Ed happy anyway, even if it didn't quite turn out as planned.
Sunday: Sunday is usually a day when I either do some more movement training or have a rest. Tried to get Scott to go to Leeds but he was too knackered from previous training so I decided to do something I haven't done for a while, go running. Covered ~5 very hilly miles up to the tarn and back again at a fair pace (took ~40 mins), running entirely using Erwan's technique of striking with the balls of the feet, touching the heel down and then onto the balls of the feet again. Seems a more pleasant way to run than thudding around heel striking. Plus, it had my calves in a right state for a couple of days afterwards, gotta be good stuff!
Monday: I won't go into the reasons why because that's not what this blog's for but Monday was pretty much a disaster. Everything spiraled out of control (work, music, other commitments etc.) and the shit hit the fan as it were on sunday night./monday and so I was tired, underslept and felt aweful. Had an easy evening, did my shoulder conditioning program and then some assorted pullups and muscle ups. Got to bed earlyish.
Tuesday: Felt much, much better having actually got some sleep and cleared out my schedule. Tuesday night was waterpolo training as ever, with our coach away on a swimming gala most of the team used it as the perfect excuse to skive off. However, me and Sam turned up and both being lifeguards were able to run our own session. Sam had to go early so we only had around 40 mins of pool time so we decided to do our usual circuit session and cut back on the swimming. After a quick 8 width warmup and some burst training we got going into the usual circuit which goes as follows with sprint swimming inbetween stations positioned as far apart as possible in the pool:
10 x Elevated feet pressups (chest to floor and at a slowish pace to get maximum benefit)
10 x Reverse dips on the raised bit of the poolside (absolutley killer by the later circuits)
30 x Squats (I would replace this bit with pistols but the rest of the team can't do them)
10 x Burpees with two pressups per rep
10 x 3 second ab holds, going from 45 degrees to about 70 to just off the floor and back up again.
10 x 3 second hyperextension holds (going as high as possible)
We completed three whole circuits which when added on to the swimming and the rest made for a good workout. Did some more shoulder exercises later on and some more assorted pullups.
Wednesday: Here's where the title comes into things. Not being one to waste some vaguely summerish weather, I put on my beloved Nike running shorts and my pro vent sleeveless and decided to pretend it was a lot warmer than it actually was! Did the entire session barefoot as part of my efforts to ensure I always run, land and move with biomechanically correct footwork and also as part of my efforts to toughen my feet up. Did lots of precisions on the rocks in my garden and lots of balancing. Did some climbups which are progressing reasonably. Just generally enjoyed moving around barefoot, did a bit of quad as well. I love being barefoot, it's a whole area of sensations we miss out on normally and means we can avoid being dependant on footwear. Played around in the trees a bit, there's some stuff I can tell would be amazing to do but I simply need more upper body strength for (dynos and awkward laches). For the first time this year I felt slightly tricking-inclined so had a bit of fun playing around on the lawn with cartwheels, roundoffs and other stuff (Hollie always mocked me for not being able to cartwheel, I think I've sorted it and my roundoffs now hahaha). Still can't handspring fluently on flat ground which is really starting to annoy me. Messed around with 540 kicks and b kicks, not that I can do either very well. I promise myself now I will actually overcome my fear of flips this summer and get some proper tricking abilities outside. I really, really want to start tumbling well but I need to sort out my handsprings first. I imagine I'll have to get Ed and/or Jamie to help with this. Later on tonight I'll probably do a cardio session since it's been a few days.
All in all not too bad, I feel like I'm becoming a lot more confident with my current level and my body is really starting to give me the strength to do what I want to do. I have a very good base to work with and now it's really time to push things up a step, hopefully we'll get a sunny day in Leeds on saturday and I can push myself. Oh and Planche En Force by the end of the month is still most definatley a goal and I'm working really, really hard to achieve it.
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4 comments:
Finally you started this blog
-Should make for some good reading and some good ol' Alistair style bullshit as well :P
I wuv you really.
Might just have to go update mine now...
Oh and my back ruled! Felt like I had sunburn for 2 days - I'm good like that!
Peace
Agreed with Scott, there is indeed some 'bullshit' in there.
planche en force? you can't do them using momentum man, stop bigging yourself up, train at the level you're at. You're not good enough for stuff like that yet, far from it.
Your diving was poor. Stop going on about your lifeguarding skills, you're blates not as good as you like to think.
Keep training man.
You watch, I will do planche en force by the end of the month. I've been able to do them one hand then the other for 7 months now, if you had any idea how hard I've been training for them over the past two weeks you'd know it will happen.
Where did I say my diving's anything other than shit? You didn't see any of the lifeguarding stuff, that was stuff I showed Hollie , Gina and Ed when the rest of you weren't even there. You have no idea what ANY of the training involves so I would suggest you don't talk about what you don't know about. You obviously didn't appreciate the lack of seriousness in that statement as denoted by the "haha" 8-).
And besides, even though I know the end of the month is going to be a very difficult target to meet for en force, even if I don't, they'll still be a lot closer than they would be otherwise.
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