Thursday training

Here in Chapel Hill, we are bracing for a rare winter storm.  I just got back from the grocery store which was utter bedlam. 

Yesterday, however, was unseasonably warm and a beautiful day to get outside and train.  I was accompanied by Anna, a new Exuberant, who deserves recognition for being the first girl to join me for a parkour session.  She did extremely well and now holds the record for shortest amount of time taken to achieve a cat-balance.  I suspect she'll hold it for awhile as she got it on her FIRST TRY. 

My own training involved a little PK, but mostly barefoot running practice.  You can read about what happened to me afterwards here, but in the meantime here is the latest entry in my training log:

The rest of the log can be found here.

Hope you enjoy it - let me know what you think and have a great weekend!

A real thing that actually happened

BONUS POST!  It's because I love you. 

Actually, it's because of an experience I had this afternoon. (not that I don't love you...)

I was finishing up some barefoot running form practice in the woods behind my house.  There are some nice trails back there that are very popular with UNC's runners.  I was feeling great and packing up to head home when I noticed this young guy crashing along the trail.  He was clearly an undergrad, neither in great shape nor bad shape, wearing what looked like new fancy running shoes, and with the now ubiquitous ipod headphones in his ears.

I watched it happen in slow motion.  His left foot extended way out in front of him.  It came down on a decent sized rock.  The rock shifted underneath his foot, his ankle buckled, and he went down hard.  HARD.  Right in front of me.

I helped him to his feet and immediately knew he was in no condition to continue.  My guess was a mild sprain.  So, I helped him get back to the main road - about a 5 minute hobble from where we were.

During those 5 minutes, I explained to him my take on why he had fallen.  His fancy, thick soled shoes encouraged him to land on his heel, an unstable platform, and raised his ankle higher off the ground, which increased the torque placed on it.  Finally, the thick padding prevented the propreoceptors in his feet from sensing where his body was in space.  Add a rock and you've got a significant sports injury.  (I didn't tell him that blasting his ipod probably wasn't helping his perception...)

I then told him about how barefoot running could fix these problems, if learned and adjusted to it slowly.  He seemed skeptical, but interested.  I recommended he read Born to Run, left him on the main road back to campus, and walked barefoot back into the woods.

Exuberant Animal Weekend

I’m a little off my self-appointed posting schedule this week.  I was going to make a blithe comment about how taking 6 classes this quarter may not have been the best idea, but this afternoon I spoke with one friend who is taking 8 classes and another who worked until midnight, then went to law school from 8:45 AM to 9:00 PM.  Suddenly my “busy” schedule looks like a joke!

I just returned from spending a few days in Seattle for a big Exuberant Animal strategy summit.  It was an amazing weekend – a big thanks to Frank for putting it all together.  In all, about 25 people were in attendance and I can safely say that they are 25 of the best people one could ever hope to be with.  I was particularly honored to meet Mick Dodge, known as the Barefoot Sensei.  He is a pretty amazing guy.

NOTE:  I’ve redone my links to connect you with the Exuberant Network.

There were a few elements of the weekend that stood out for me:

Freeway Park: serious fun

Play:

Top billing must be given to Freeway Park, which is widely known in the parkour community as a grueling proving ground.  It lives up to the reputation.  Kwame, Skye and I braved the narrow walls and steep drops on Saturday morning.  I could spend years there and still find new challenges.

Later on Saturday the weather cleared up and the entire EA group took advantage of the sun for a challenging play session on an old Navy base.  Obstacles were vaulted, Charlie and I ran up a wall, and Josh showed his box-jumping skills.  Special thanks to Seby Alary for putting us through some deviously challenging exercises, including a new favorite “Alpine Rescue” (you’ll have to come out and train with me to see what it’s about!)

Kong vault over concrete block.

Community:

These are amazing people.  Any description I give, no matter how long, cannot do justice to how much spending time with them means to me.  Instead, let me say that even if drum jams, sharing great food, and group exercise aren’t your thing, I still strongly encourage you to find a tribe you enjoy being with and to spend time with them.  Too often, we consign ourselves to forced isolation with punishing schedules and layers of chronic stress.  We humans are social apes and at a primal level we still need to be part of a troupe.  The simplest way I can describe it is this:  I had never been to Seattle before, but I felt like I was home.

Does your organization do pick-up drum jams? Why not?

 Exuberant Animal in 2010:

The big meeting itself was very exciting.  Exuberant Animal is poised to have an amazing year of growth and development and we’ve got a great team of people working to ensure it flowers into something incredible.  There will be opportunities for everyone to participate in the community – some details can be found here.  I’ll be providing regular updates as plans unfold.

All in all, it was quite a trip.