Past, Present and Future

After following Jin's advice, I've decided to create a blog to let everyone know what I'm up to, how my training is going and what my current thoughts and goals are. It will also be a good place for me to record my progress and look back on in time to come.

Since this is my first entry to the blog I'll bring you all up to speed with a fairly lengthy entry...

A few months ago after almost 3 years of training in Parkour I hit a plateux and noticed a significant invisible wall that I seemed to run in to and couldn't get past. My technical ability had come across a barrier and I realised that if I were to further progress technically, I had to first change the very thing that was limiting me - my body.

I had watched some fairly inspirational videos that made me want to just go out and try all this new stuff but knowing there was a long-term progression to think about, I pushed all that aside and decided to focus on getting stronger.

Over the past three months I've transformed my body and seriously pushed the envelope in terms of muscular endurance, power, speed and stamina. It was difficult to almost completely stop technical training (with the exception of balance and drilling the basics) and dedicate so much time to physical development but it has been worth it and the gains are now obvious.

I'm at a stage where I feel very confident in my self and I'm now easing back into the technical side of the discipline. I don't doubt there will be a transition period where I'll need to refresh my memory in some of the finer details of technical movements but I know this will be a quick process and that I'll surpass my old stale state very quickly with the added strength.

One major contributor to the maintenance of my condition is 'Hell Night' - a weekly session that I started when I realised that there were more traceurs in Leicester who really wanted to knuckle down and put their bodies through hell to achieve a higher level in Parkour. We meet up every Thursday night at 7pm and train for about 4 hours in non-stop parkour-orientated conditioning and isometric resistance work. It's also very mentally challenging due to the winter months rolling in, it's been very wet, cold and damp but this only adds to its appeal and difficulty so there's never any complaints. Come snow, hail, wind and rain, we will be out in force facing the elements in a battle to progress. Now only six weeks old, the course is becoming harder each week with less rest in between each set, a faster pace and more reps thrown into the exercises.

To track our progress I'm updating a spreadsheet every week with a list of everyone who turns up, how many laps of the course we do, what specific exercises we concentrate on and any other details such as warm-ups, dates and notes, it will be very interesting to look back on in six months time to see how much it has helped us.

I'll cut off there and give your eyes a rest, check back here soon for updates including:
-My current weekly training regime
-More details on the specifics of Hell Night
-What I'm focusing on to push my technical ability

Until then; train hard, eat well and rest.

-Blane