So as the new year begins and winter slowly retreats into the past the weather and moral for traceurs looks hopeful. There are still weeks to go before the spring really does hit us and probably many cold/wet days in which we force ourselves out of the warm comforting grasp of sleep and out into the icy weather. But we know it's all worth it in the end.
So, most want the winter to leave, we all know its much nicer to train when your not wincing at every contact your cold hands make, but what have we learnt from winter?
That your well toned stoumache suddenly disapears if you eat 9 mince pies after christmas dinner?
That if you pretend to be greatful for that sickly green jumper you'll probably only get another one next year?
If you drink yourself stupid on new years eve you may not feel quite right in the morning?
Santa doesn't actually exist?
All these seem like great revolations from a 15 year old at christmas, but I've learnt something else. Now this is not a new found glory, or invention, its just a little thing i've realised about myself that i doubt many of you are interested in.
I don't care,
I don't care about winter,
I don't care about the cold,
the rain.
I'll explain, one day I was training with my close friend Pete and we were planning on heading up to St Albans Gym but decided to stay in the town and train for a while.
It was wet, slippy and cold and there was very little we could do.
The best and main training spot had been taken over by a christmas market and so almost impossible to train in without getting in pedestrians' way. We headed around for a while but found only puddles and ice waiting for us, and we ended up in a small undercover area on the outskirts. It was a little archway into that lead into an outdoor carpark for a private estate. The spot itself consisted of a small wall about a foot high, another about 7 foot high a bout half a metre away (the entrance to the houses) and two curbs on either side of the road that ran through the archway.
After practicing strides between the curbs (from one to the other while only touching inbetween once, i started working on wall scales on the 7 ft wall and practiced jumping from the small wall to the large.
After a while I noticed that from a certain angle you could run across the road tic-tac off the small wall and from there maybe crane the large one. I ran at it a couple of times to get the feel for it but was a little bit scared of the wet patches on the run up and the wall itself. I decided that if I left it i wouldn't have gotten anything done that day and would go to gym feeling unaccomplished. Anyway, so I ran at it stepped up onto the wall and leapt (with suprising force/height) onto my target, straight craned, silent, catlike.
A little bit more training got me to straight tac to precisions and i left feeling happy and ready for gym. So now I realise that actually the rain doesn't stop you training, the ice doesn't enhibited you, the cold doesn't push you away, they draw you in and press you to train a different way, a way that will help you in the long run for when you need parkour, it's not always sunny afterall, sometimes you gotta' get a little wet.
Happy 2009,
new video up soon.
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