"AY AY AY Don't you look a sight with your bare feet 'n' all" + EDIT

VIDEO!!!
Finally the video has been finished a couple of months later than it should have been! So for you who haven't seen it yet here is our groups' showreel for quarter 2 of 2007 -


We did all the filming on my high resolution camera so we could make a high quality version - I find it much more enjoyable than crappy youtube -

http://boxxer.co.uk/video/Leeds%202007Q2.wmv

Reet, now that's out of the way I must appologise for the lack of update in the recent months. This has partly been because of exams and work and partly because I spend a lot of my spare time training, but it still doesn't give me any excuse not to find the odd half hour to write up.

A LOT has changed since my last post! The apparent injury to my knee has completely cleared, I have a lower back problem again, I have possibly broke my foot, we 'performed' at a big charity gala, finished my exams, started working full time, sorted a trip to Lisses, trained in lots of places and trained with the WWJ guys at a festival in Liverpool.
-Just some of what I can remember.

Injury wise my lower back is playing up a little again after I lifted the whole weights stack on the back extension machine at the gym for four sets a few weeks back. My back was feeling wonderful after recovering from the injury and it didn't seem to be too much - obviously I was wrong and I have learnt a lesson. It's not stopping me training at all but there is a muscle in there that likes to ache after a day at work or a training sesh. This is not my main concern at the moment, when training in some trees I managed to 'crush' my foot into a 'V' of two branches of a tree. This was 2 days ago and I still find it hard to walk, there is swelling and bruising on it but it is all localised to the top of my foot and there doesn't seem to be any really tender points so I'm reconing it is not broken. Which is good because the Peaks trip is comming up in a couple of weeks and I would hate it if I was injured for that. Also the trip to Lisses is only 6 weeks away and a break would compramise that as well. It does seem to be getting better and I am putting lots of ice on it - I will just have to wait a couple of days to see... FINGERS CROSSED


As a group we kinda ticked another one off our checklist of things to do. We 'performed' at a big charity gala, there were meant to be 1500 there but because of weather there was possibly only 500 all day and we never really did a set performance - just trained on some custom scaffolding all day that we set up the day before. Apparently we were the main attraction of the event getting advertised in the local newspaper and on the local radio and even though it was all organised last minute and things it was still a very cool experiance. Like I said it was just like another tick on a list that we had done - along with a music video, newspaper articles, student documentaries etc. One of the few things left is a TV appearence I guess, which if we were bothered enough we could have got onto the local news a long time ago. However I have just been on the phone to a person working with MTV about doing a documentary about my life, it seems to be more focused upon my sex and social life so I will just have to see about that.
^^Saying all this makes it look like I train to do stuff like this, I DON'T. These are just cool oppotunities we get to do as we train, and maybe a glimpse into what career could be achieved with our training - also not something I train for, I'm going to be studying for a degree in engineering, and that will probably be my career.

Meeting the WorldWideJam Street Team In Liverpool on Saturday was also another insight into what career could be achieved but I was more liking how they trained. The warm up/conditioning session was pretty intense and I loved it. There were few of the non street team (about 40 peeps I guess) able to keep up with Ilabaca and the crew, of which all of them (inc. myself obviously) were from Leeds. After this session we spent a couple of hours or so training on some really cool trees and rocks and I learnt that with the exception of Ilabaca non of them were much more advanced (if at all) than me 'parkour ability' [ugh!] wise. Whilst training Hollie managed to sprain her ankle in a bad way landing a movement most of the guys failed to do and I managed to seriously damage my foot. We hung around for a while longer mainly doing some pull ups and things on a couple of bars there specifically for chin ups whilst the street team and others did a bit of a performance on a crappy set up they had. Then I could barely walk on the way from Leeds train station to the bus station - so much so Alistair helped me most of the way.
In Liverpool I heard a scouser say "ay ay ay" and Binary said "It's actually stopped raining" to Ben - Both of which made my day!!

My Exams are now over and I will not be returning to 6th form/college ever again yet, like every summer I end up with less free time as I work full time at the garage now. The first week or so at work has really left me feeling lethargic and I can't remember the last time I went to the gym :/ but this happens every holiday and after another week or so I will be more used to it and able to train much more out of work. I also had an amazing work out during work last week, one of the days I had to clear out LOTS of tires (about 35) from one end of the yard to the other along with lots of other junk. The tires ranged in size but some, along with the rain-water they held were a good 15kg. I carried them in different ways working my shoulders mainly. I then had to shift a few empty oil drums the 60yards - carried them above my head as I found it to be the easiest. Then to finish off I had to smash up 3 brand new wood pallettes/crates with a 7kg sledge hammer which I found to be an awesome work out!

We got a hell night going on Wednesday and alothough I was the best part of an hour late it was really cool and I managed to atleast double everything I did that I did last time (obviously I missed a lot of the exercises). I also found a new goal with one armed pull ups. Since trying for the first time in months on Wednesday I have the middle third of the movement with my right arm and can hold myself for more than a few seconds on both hands before doing slow negatives. A body weight feat I have 'actually' achieved since my back injury is muscle ups en force - I did a few before my injury but now I am much more consistant with them. - You can see a couple in this video...



All I have left to say is that it is only about 2 weeks until the Peaks trip which provided my foot isn't broken I can't wait for and Ben Nuttall from Sheff has organised a trip to Lisses at the end of August, which me, him, little Danny (sheff), Sam Corbet (Stoke) and Kai (stoke) will be attending. The travel got sorted a couple of days ago and the plans are finalised so I can't wait!

EDIT
I forgot to mention a major milestone of mine. One that I have wanted to do for quite some years now, well before I started parkour. My Dad used to do it in his days of training (mainly rugby and running) and the oppotunity arose...
My end of year prom was held at the Royal Armories in Leeds town centre on a Friday night, and because these days I care far more about training than any social even like this even on the way there (on the bus which broke down and left me to get all sweaty in my clobber!) I was planning an early getaway. After several hours drinking, dancing and what not, it was about 12:30 and people had started to leave for the centre of town. This was when I decided to call it a night and save myself for training tomorrow. Unfortunately nobody else felt so inclined and I was left facing a £20 taxi fare for the 12miles home.... I thought balls to that and took upon the challenge I have wanted to do for years. I took off my shoes and socks (can't run in shoes)and began running along the river bank home. It didn't take me long to find out just how rought the riverside path is and I headed for the streets. I stopped only for water at a petrol station and to look at an arm jump between two substation buildings I pass several times a week on the bus. It took me about an hour and fifty minutes to get home of which I recon was ninety minutes running time. All but about one and a half miles of grass was running along the roads my bus takes and after running along the stretch of grass I wish I hadn't, as the next half mile or so was agony getting used to the hard tarmac again.
I was rather intoxicated throughout the journey and in a way it may have helped, so I will have to repeat this another time, possibly home from a jam.
My feet were quite sore for about a day but I could still train on the Saturday and most of the soreness was due to me standing on a stone. No cuts or grases - my skin held up fine.

Also this has reminded me of my new trend of cycling to jams whenever possible. I have figured out that the bus takes 50 mins to get to Wakefield and I can bike a quicker route in just over 40 wich is more than enjoyable!

Jess acts up again:


Peace Guys