10.6.09

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.”
-Helen Keller

Challenge: To do one thing every day that scares you.

I'm at the end of my first week and I can notice a definite difference. I've been doing a fair mixture of climbing and parkour. With both I constantly come across challenges that either scare me or that I think I just can't do, jumps and routes etc, but this week I've just applied the mentality "just do it anyway".
I started daily training again to build my upper body strength so I can practice for longer. I going to start introducing more weights and into my routine but for now I'm mostly just concentrating on handstand discipline. I've got it down to just over 60 seconds now and getting much better at my free stand.

Managed to get a pair of climbing shoe this week, finally! It has been about 2 or 3 months now since I started climbing and doing it without shoes has been pretty horrendous sometimes. Using them for the first time is a bit weird (and hurts like anything) but it just totally opens up the whole wall for you to climb, every feature suddenly just becomes available for you. So I've just been rocking up the Matrix (local climbing wall, not...the actual Matrix) this week during the day and then doing parkour at night around 9.00 or 10.00pm (I much prefer it when there isn't anyone around watching. Same with climbing really) but this incessant rain has put a stop to that today.

So in climbing this week I have just been getting used to the shoes but most of all trying to nail this orange route on the overhang. The day I get that down will be a good day.
In parkour I've been working on higher jumps, vaults and precision jumps over bigger heights. Kids playgrounds are the best places for all that stuff, there is so much stuff to climb up, hang from, jump off etc, it's great.
I think I'm really going to use this summer to just get some of the disciplines right and get into a healthier frame of mind for training, in both what I eat and motivation. And alongside all of this I want to make sure that God is my main focus, so that I don't just train for the sake of training or improve in all these areas and forget the one who gives me the strength to do them. I'm starting to take some time before and after training to meditate on God and good things, and just to invite the Holy Spirit to be with and move through me as I train.

Other things that are happening at the moment: We're packing up the house to move out on Friday, can't believe I have been here a year, it's been a bit of a shoddy house, and the top half of it has always seemed to me like living on ship but I've loved it. Tomorrow is going to be the final big clear up, it's going to be mental getting everything packed up in time. It was going to be potentially stressful sorting out the next few weeks of homelessness before moving into our new place but by God's grace it was all sorted, I have somewhere to live, somewhere to put all my gear and a car to move it all on Friday.
Been going to the morning devotionals by Mike Breen (former leader of St Thomas Crookes) for the past four days, tomorrow is the last one, this morning he did an incredible talk on John 21: Invitation and Challenge. I'm going to make sure to write it up on here because it was just that good!
Final random thought: I'm coming to be of the opinion that all you will ever need in life is a Buff, it is the most versatile piece of gear I have ever come across. I've had my first one for 6 years now and is still going strong. I wear one pretty much every day. Seriously, you can use them for just sabout anything; they are useful in every situation from covering your head to...soaking up split tea. If you don't have one, get it sorted.


Anyways I'm pretty wrecked and my laptop is slowing right down. I'm managing to write an entire sentence and not see it appear on the screen until a second or so later. Sad times.

Peace and Love

Song of the day: Can I ascend (I'm coming up the Mountain) - Matt Redman (good luck if you can find it anywhere, old skool worship action)

1 comment:

  1. yeah buddy,

    nice looking blog matey, feeling the banner and black background.
    definately all about the buff as well!
    Keep pushing and seeking daily progression with your training mate, its the forming of daily habits and a love for the daily practices and training which see the results materialise themselves. As long as you love what you are doing and keep pushing the research, testing, challenge and keep it going, results and progress will be a natural follow on.
    have a wicked summer man, love you loads,
    stay in touch,

    Jin

    ReplyDelete