Mods: yes, this is my second log thread (GreenJeans' log is my other), but I'd like to keep track of my summer training separate thread, since it will be a bit different then my training in a city, and I'd like at least this first post to get a bit of attention and feedback...Feel free to merge 'em if need be.
Tyler Morita – Daily summer training log
Mapleton, OR
Basic stats
-Height – 5’10”
-Weight - ~165lbs
-push ups – 30 - 6/14/08
-sit ups
-pull ups – 9 - 6/14/08
-dips
-3mi pace – 8:40 - 6/12/08
-broad jump – 7’11” - 6/14/08
6/15/08
My Past:
I was enrolled in gymnastics for nearly a year during elementary school, but retained very little. I was also taught, as a child, Shotokhan karate by my dad. I don’t remember or still practice the actual strikes and stances, but I did gain a good sense of body coordination, and gained a ton of experience doing dive rolls, which carries over to today. I ran track for one year in middle school, and threatened the school’s 100m dash time, long jump distance, and discus throw distance. The coach asked me to keep practicing, but I got kinda bored of track. I wrestled for 3 years, 2 in middle school and 1 in high school. I was a better wrestler than the vast majority of people in my weight class, except the one other dude in my weight class at my school…he was a beast! He wrestled Varsity, I wrestled jv, and so was almost entirely undefeated. I bought a nice road bike with my dad (when he decided to start running triathelons) about a year and a half ago, and became an avid cyclist. I rode mostly long distance, often putting over 200mi a week on it, until it was stolen on Thanksgiving of this year. I now have a fixed gear bike I ride maybe 5 miles a day, just getting around town (no car). I was in the gymnastics club twice a week during spring term, and went rock climbing 3-5x a week, and began my parkour conditioning and practice, which is the intent of this journal. To plan, organize, and document my summer progress toward my long-term goal of being an excellent traceur.
My Present:
This summer, I am working for the US Forest service, as the crew boss of a fisheries and watershed management crew. As such, I am living in a government bunkhouse in the Siuslaw Forest of the central coast range of Oregon, in a one stop sign town with a general store, a post office, and a bar. My working days will consist of driving my crew of 6 college age people to remote locations along fisheries important streams and habitats, and clearing blackberry and salmonberry overgrowth of 1-10 year old evergreen plantings with machetes. Later in the summer we will be working in-stream, placing logs in strategic locations, and cabling them to each other and to the stream bedrock, in order to build stream habitat. Once or twice throughout the summer, I will go on a 2 week long wildland firefighting tour, for the cash money money and the awesomeness of fighting wild fire…
What I’ve Got
Utilities at my disposal include the bunkhouse itself, which is not too interesting. I have a trampoline, and a shorter picnic table, as well as a single pull up bar. I do have access to a full shop, should I fancy constructing any obstacles or scaffolding or whatever. Mapleton does have a high school, which I’m sure is worth checking out for parkour potential.
My Goals
-Do 50 pushups
-Do 20 pull ups
-Hold a handstand for 60 seconds
-Hold a frog tuck planche for 60 seconds
-Reduce 3mi pace to 7:00
-Increase broad jump to 8’4”
-kong the picnic table
-double kong the picnic table
-palmspin the picnic table
-do a muscle up
-do an underbar (at the highschool?)
-learn a back half
-learn a front full
-learn a back full
-learn an aerial
-perfect the frontflip
-perfect the wallflip
My plan:
In general, I need to construct a work out routine that isolates different body segments/functions on different days. In the period of a week, my workout should consist of:
-Jogging – 3x3mi
-pushups – 6x3sets
-pull ups – 6x3sets
-handstand – 6x60sec
-frog planche – 6x60sec
-squats – 6x3sets
-parkour/random conditioning – 4+ sessions/wk
-trampoline – often
-shin raises – 2x3sets/day
-ankle conditioning – 6x2sets
Obstacles:
My biggest single obstacle right now is my right ankle. I landed on it wrong about a month ago, doing wall flips and back flips. I under rotated, and brought my toes too close to my shin. My ankle feels 100% fine during any activities, parkour included, until I max out my dorsi/solarflexion. If I land on a curb on the ball of my right foot, or step down too hard onto unexpectedly uphill terrain (pothole or molehill), it tweaks the crap out of my ankle, and the pain lingers for 5 or so minutes, until I’m good as new again. I’ve been limiting myself lately, practicing less parkour, not trying any flips, that sort of thing, to try to give it a chance to heal. That said, I end up doing something to tweak it every day. Jogging barefoot through the lawn, attempting a front full on the trampoline (yeah, asking for it), running up the stairs, etc. I know if I want it to heal in any sort of amount of time, I need to stop re-injuring it. I have an ankle brace that I suppose I should get into the habit of wearing, although my experience is that it doesn’t help much. The best way to ensure I don’t re-injure it, I suppose, is to eliminate all activities that could potentially injure it. No trampoline, no parkour, no flips. That’s hard for me to do. The alternative, I suppose, is that if I keep re-injuring it, it will take a very long time to heal, and possibly develop into a longer-term or permanent impairment. Not cool. Perhaps with the ankle conditioning exercises I won’t have to take that much down time…
Other obstacles to training this summer will be time and effort. I will be working 40 hours a week, and at a pretty strenuous job, and so it might be easy to make excuses about not having that much time, or being too tired. I’ve gotta stay motivated! If I can achieve, or surpass my goals during this summer, I can’t wait to get unleashed on a real city!
I would love some input from anyone on how to construct my weekly routine, and any input of any creative ways to use the facilities I have available...
