Tears, Bails and Tiredness.

 

After more bad weather in recent weeks, this weekend seemed like it was going to be a good one, with the weather prediction and the attendees. I was excited to be out again and wanted to adventure as well! Sadly, we wouldn’t be seeing Adam this weekend, as he was away (whipped) seeing his girlfriend. James wasn’t out this weekend either, instead opting to go to the cinema! Part timer… Coming along to a training session late one week and then not being out the next weekend, even though he is a ‘committed’ community practitioner. As well as being out ‘all’ the time, in all elements, his words not mine… I know I’ll get stick for saying that!

At first, it seemed like not many would be present after all but in the end we ended up with nine people out. I had made a point to adventure within the event, which likely enticed more people out who were unsure. Stating the plan of action and the areas we would visit, so others knew the route if they needed to find us. Once I arrived at Plaza, a little after twelve I found that hardly anyone was out, why so lazy? Where were they all… Steff was going to be late again, but at least he let me know. People slowly trickled in, up until one. It was good to see Nico out this weekend as well, nailing the kong precisions at Plaza none the less.

 

Gio – Dive Kong.

 

Sean arrived just after we got moved off from Plaza and we instead trained across the road at the Atrium while we waited for the stragglers to arrive. There was some human excrement on the floor, the size of a cow pat, stinking the area out. I really wasn’t feeling training, I felt sluggish and heavy, my shoulder had pulled while warming up too. Zain needed to hurry up as well, he said he would be out today! We trained beside IBM on the giant industrial skip seen in the above image. With Reece nearly destroying his ankle while slipping off the wall on a downward precision. I should mention Gio doing a downwards diving and double kong (seen above) on the walls there was complete madness too!

Then into IBM area itself. Steff, Luke and Ryan arrived just as we were leaving! Good job as well, because we could have been anywhere. Josh had knocked off one of the loose slabs just as we were leaving too. Many of them are now becoming loose or wobble, so it was inevitable that at some point one would tip over, more so for people unaware of the loose ones. We bumped into Zain as we headed up to Mansion Studios for a stint of jumps. Drilling pop lazy and side vaults, precisions and other tic tac based movements. Along with getting Sean to do some of the precision jumps at higher points on the walls which at first he was afraid of.

 

Reece – Sideflip.

 

While we were doing some awkward, diagonal stride precisions and then into a catleap. Ben had managed to destroyed some plastic guttering as he grabbed it for a cat, after overshooting the jump. That didn’t leave the rest of us hopeful in using it for a cats 180 back to the wall. Small victories with the linking of movements for the precisions though. Luke had put himself out of action when he did a gainer off the wall, nearly landing into the giant glass window of the building below as he landed in the stones below, stumbling and kicking them to the window! He had landed on his heel and now found it hard to walk or move around. Every time he is out, he gets injured within the first hour and then is done for the day!

Jubilee Campus Adventure.

It was predicted to be a sunny and even humid weekend, after the prelude of soaring temperatures during the week. Finally the weather seemed like it was going to bloom with warmer days from here on in, were we getting an early Summer?! Sadly, James wasn’t going to be out this weekend due to being away for his birthday surprise in Brighton of all places. I say this as he would maybe get a cheeky Parkour session down there at a gym or see the Storror guys out and about, which would be cool to have on his Birthday. This weekend may be my last, if my daughter is born on her due date as well. So I had to make the most of it and squeeze a good session in.

Knowing that James was away, and not to sound like a terrible human being, but usually you can guarantee the weather would be top notch. If past events are anything to go by. On a second note, with it being predicted to be good weather. Many wanted to venture to fresher pastures. So it was to be an adventure day, unintentionally with James being away. The plan was to go to the Jubilee Campus, after seeing it featured in a local Parkour video [1] and checking it out via Google Maps too. It would be a break from the norm city centre session and a good adventure for the ones out for it.

 

Yaz – 180 Catleap

 

I don’t know how or why I had missed that as an area to train at for all these years! After all, I had visited Lenton [2] and on other occasions the QMC area [3] [4] which was just a little further up the road. I think with it being the old Raleigh complex and it being brought by the University of Nottingham in the 2000s we hadn’t really ventured there, not to mention it was almost hidden unless you had been through there. I remember Zain mentioning it and that it few things there years ago. Either way, it looked better than I had imagined and it had everyone excited about visiting the location now…

I woke up at six, then eight and finally got up just before ten. Twelve seemed so far away yet. That was the time I wanted to meet up this week, due to others being so lax arriving often at one, two and beyond. If we did the same today, we wouldn’t be making the adventure until gone past two o’clock! I was wondering who would turn up, it seemed like quite a few were up for the session, but would have to see once I arrived. One thing was for sure, I wasn’t going to wait for people that were late! So it was a nice change to arrive at Plaza right on time, as the clock tower chimed.

 

Adam – Running Precision.

 

The only people left to arrive were Tom and Reece, who had already informed us they were nearly there. I didn’t mind that as a wait, it wasn’t long before they arrived and then we all decided to take the long walk to the Jubilee campus. It took around fifteen minutes to get there, quicker than expected and with a pit stop at a Sainsbury’s on the way for supplies too. As with most University’s there likely wouldn’t have a shop for miles. The first spot we came to had lots of cuboids to jump between. The water feature was currently off and drained, providing kong precisions to the cubes too.

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.

Leg death & High Flyers.

Andy – Sideflip.

 

It was day four of leg death for myself. Sunday was a hardcore training session, with Monday being a leg workout day of death. Followed by a Tuesday evening of training with Ben and Wednesday was another hardcore session. No rest for the wicked! Speaking of Tuesday’s training session, it was good to be out with Ben and seeing him able to move around again, excited to train. He was able to do small jumps, loving every moment of it. After his spinal surgery non the less. My legs were in absolute bits and the fact I wasn’t in bed until gone 4am didn’t help matters in the slightest. I woke up at 12pm, ready to train and oddly enough I wasn’t feeling that tired body wise as expected either. I arrived to find David and Andy already there jumping and flipping around the park. Andy was a last minute decision, wanting to train and due to that I thought I would go out.

After a few movements my abdominals and legs were already feeling tired, I guess I hadn’t recovered as much as I had thought I had. It was going to be a light session of movement in that case. I did many, many tic tac strides and stride based movement, not the best for tired legs. So much for a light session, my legs were getting more tired by the minute. One run we were practising (which I hated) I might add, was a running stride across the green stumps, straight into the running upward precision. Andy had it so easily, but I was too scared to commit to it and felt my run up was wrong, no matter how much I tired. It was really frustrating, as I could do it with little run up, without the striding first, but the angle and small amount of steps made it horrible. David got it though, craning it and then finally landing it much to my frustration. So it was bitter sweet when I got him to try the tic tac precision (seen below) off the wall to the brown stump which he found difficult and still couldn’t do.

 

Zade (Me) – Tic Tac Precision.

 

He was struggling to grasp the touch tap off the wall for the tic tac. If you tried to do it like a normal tic tac, the foot due to the angle would slide down the wall. I did a few static muscle ups today, which felt better as I would usually swing when I did them but today it was pretty much from static. David had lost his though, what!? How was that possible, he was doing lots of them the previous times we were out. Today he struggled to get above the bar and they just didn’t happen. Adam arrived, late and didn’t seem that motivated to train.