The long form run. Plus, whales.

Fifth Ape recently hit a social media milestone: 400+ Facebook fans! We rode that Mark's Daily Apple link love train alllllll the way to gravy town :)

We've made it a rule here at Fifth Ape that every time we hit another 100 facebook fans we release a special thank you video, and this time is no exception.  Here it is (warning, it's pretty long):

This time, we showcase one of our favorite, and undoubtedly our toughest, training style: the Long Form Run.  I first tried this after watching my friend/Parkour Yoda Duncan's video "One".  I loved the idea - a continuous run through an environment, one shot at every obstacle. On a long form run, truth finds you - there's no illusions about your skill level or the utility of your movements, no equivocations, just trial, plenty of error, and the type of zen that comes only from being 100% in the moment.

We've been doing these runs for over a year now and we've learned a few things. You need a complete skill set.  We've been joined by very good runners, who quickly gas out because of the obstacles, and really good traceurs who gas out because of the running.  Your ability to do "big moves" and tricks means absolutely nothing.  Mastery of the basics is vital.  Little things, like smooth level transitioning, relaxed breathing, and the ability to land balanced, but still running become incredibly important.

I strongly encourage all of you to try it out for yoursevles. Be humble - your first time out will kick your butt after just a couple of minutes. Like all things, focused practice will pay off. In terms of programming, I usually do 1 per week - more than that and it negatively affects the rest of my training. I'd start off bi-weekly and build up from there. Some pro-tips to get you ready:

1. Increase your work capacity.  Am I about to recommend Crossfit to you?? Well... maybe. Any kind of High Intensity Interval Training (or HIIT) will work. If you love Crossfit, then do Crossfit. Otherwise, run some interval sprints, toss in some basic athletic movements, like pushups, pullups, box jumps, broad jumps, and maybe toss in some Kettlebell stuff. I still maintain that incorporating barbell lifts into HIIT is dumb

2. Basics, basics, basics. You won't need your double kong vaults or wall flips. You will need fast and fluid tacs (with both feet) a rock solid speed vault, efficient wall topping, highly functional rolls, good running gap jumps, and, if you're feeling fancy, a solid arm jump. These are bread and butter movements and you need to be able to pull them out of your toolkit at a moment's notice.

3. Start small and listen to your body. Your first run will probably last a whopping 5 minutes, at which point you may feel like lying down in a fetal position and weeping. It's fine - this is one of the toughest things I've ever done and I've done a lot of stuff. Don't worry if you need to stop and rest - if you were counting you probably noticed Sean and I stopped three times for water during this run. Practice consistently and your conditioning will improve quickly.  Remember that this is supposed to be a fun, thrilling, and instructional experience, not a death march.

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Changing gears a little (okay, maybe a lot) Check out this awesome video that features three of my favorite things - Science, the Ocean, and Puppets:

Unsurprisingly, this was found by Julia, who is the source of most of the awesome things in my life.  I love that fact that a falling whale creates entire ecosystems for the same amount of time it was alive. That's a great goal to aspire to - when I die, will someone toss me into the middle of the ocean so I can do the same thing?