2017 – New Year, New Beginnings.

 

It’s another New Year and with it, a fresh start for many, in regards to training…

You will have already heard the classic New Year, new me line. The same false promise made by each person that says it at the start of year. That same false promise which 98% of people only last a a day or two, with the rare couple lasting a week or so at most, before things fall back to how they were before the start of the year. It’s hard not to fall off the bandwagon, with so many temptations and an engrained way of thinking and habits which are hard to break out of.

It was looking like it was going to be a great day of training, with lots of the community members out. I was feeling rather excited for it, so much so that I found it hard to sleep the night before! I woke up at seven, drifting back off until nine. The sun was bright and shining almost through my closed curtains, I could see a bight blue sky too. It all seemed very promising indeed. When I did finally lull out of bed at around ten and opened them, it was a different story all together! It was misty, wet, like it had rained heavily over night. I doubted it would dry up today. Quite a few people had their doubts too and decided not to train today due to the wet weather.

 

Patryk – Portrait.

 

The day was ruined and I wasn’t feeling like training now either, such frustration. Sark asked if I was out (since when does he come out?!) I said no. He didn’t want to waste petrol, only for no one to be out training and so thought he would check first and then decided against it. Michael was going to be out, even with this bad weather. His reason was that he wanted to get out of the house and jump. Perhaps I should go out regardless too? I do hate training when it’s raining or has been raining, as your trainers remain wet. Worse is getting to and from spots, feeling like you have been trampling through puddles due to the constant contact with moisture. It drains my motivation no end and when you slip you are reminded why rain training is a bane.

James seemed to be on a downer about the day too. Patryk was feeling the same but said lets just go anyway, forget about the rain! I was nearly ready anyway, so I might as well go and see how the day turns out, motivated or not. I will be honest with how it was currently I was fully expecting it to be rubbish day, so with that expectation anything other would be a win? While on my way into town on the bus, I could see all the paths and roads were still wet, wetter than I expected and it looked like more rain was to come if the horizon was anything to go by with all the dark clouds. It’s why I was so amazed to find Reece, Adam and even Luca out once I arrived at Plaza.

Windmills & Commitments.

There was to be a big crowd training today with the weather set to be so warm, even some of the Trent University guys were meant to be joining us today, if they didn’t overlay. I had planted the notion in everyone’s mind for it to be an adventure day, the places of choice I had suggested were on the outskirts of Nottingham like Sneinton, Carlton, Lenton and Radford. With those in mind, we would make our decision on the day to which area we would venture upon. I ended up being in town before 1pm for a change. I felt like today was going to be a good day of training, it had to be and another reason I was out so early due to the excitement. Though it was proving not to be shared by others, who were arriving late and it felt like we wouldn’t be moving until later in the day at this rate. Some who were running late were worried about missing the day trip and asked for people to wait at Plaza for them. They knew the times though… If people cannot make it on time it’s not my fault. Much like Steve, who arrived later that evening at Plaza, even though we were at the time in the middle of Sneinton and had no way of letting him know where and how to get there… Not that there would have been much point by then either.

Plaza was soon filled with people arriving. Chris, Luke, Mat and a few others, slowly followed by Ant, John and Jason! Now there were some blasts from the past, to say the least. It’s mental to think how long it had been since either of them had been to a Npk training session. It was good to have David out attending again this weekend as he hasn’t seen many of the new areas we have discovered over the years. Phil arrived, along with Brandon and a few others, it didn’t seem like we were waiting for many more to arrive but we warmed up at Plaza nevertheless. No Femi today though, he had only just got up, knowing full well it was an adventure day and told everyone to hold up and he would be there soon… More like half past two or even three! That wasn’t going to happen, we could be waiting forever if he was running on black time. With people ready to move and restless, we made our slow walk over to Sneinton, stopping off at the Adams building first, in the lace market. An area where many usually end up chilling or become very unproductive when we gather there, at least from past experiences and I have no idea what causes that to happen.

 

Femi – Diving Kong

 

To say it was the start of the session, it felt more like the end of one. We had only just arrived and people had decided to go food shopping… I mean seriously?! I thought you were meant to have eaten before training, not arrive and then grab breakfast which adds to time wasting. I could understand if it was to grab some supplies before we ventured into Sneinton where there wasn’t shops nearby. The funniest part of the day had to be when Brandon was getting increasingly angry with Femi while on the phone, trying to explain where we were and how to get to us. Each direction and landmark Brandon used as a guide had Femi confused and no idea where he was on about. The frustration on his face was enough to tell how infuriated he was by the whole situation, laid on the floor, head in hands, groaning, unable to explain any simpler to Femi. After some back and forth speaking with Femi he eventually managed to find us and proclaimed as he arrived in the area why didn’t anyone tell me it was this spot in the first place?! As he only lived around the corner from it, and had ended up taking a long way around to get to it, face palm!

When everyone had finally finished their weekly shop, training was able to commence and people warmed up with their chosen movements. I captured some images of Femi and Holbrook doing strides to a diving kong. While capturing the said images, I got an interesting shot of Femi from underneath as he strode onto a wall. It made his leg look super long and stretched, like a cartoon character, the perspective was very strange and yet very awesome at the same time. Just as we were trying to make our way to Sneinton it seemed that people were more interested in training Adams, finding new things they wanted to try. So it was hard to get people to move and so the group slowly fazed out, one by one. Once on our way, we passed a side street which had things to do, only now it seemed everything was overgrown, that or people were in the way like the local drunkards. It was onwards to Byron Court, an old but gold spot for training, at first people seemed to be a bit uneasy, unsure what could be done, while others sprung into action.