Topic: Shane (Adept's) Parkour and Freerunning 365 Log

[Shane Sperling]

I suck at updating my log.

Well I'm just going to recap this week.

Today is Day 293 of my 365 challenge. August 29th is not that far away and the days just seem to go faster and faster. This week I realized I really need to work on my fundamentals. While I know how to do them, I want to be able to perform them on a more advanced level. Larger dive kongs, double kongs, harder precisions, laches, etc. Since I have to take a break from all the flipping around, this is a great chance to do that. This week I've been coming up with a lot of purely parkour runs and doing a lot more precisions. The other day I went to Carillo with Evan and came up with a cool underbar on a tree - tic tac - precision run that I want to get a bit smoother. There are also a few things there that I have in mind, but will take me a while to achieve. If I keep working though, I know it will be easy soon enough.

Yesterday I went to the SRHS with a bunch of friends and we jammed, ate Mombo's, drank smoothies, played mortal kombat, and invented sweatskirts, which I am sure will be the new fashion trend for years to come. We made a pretty funny, random, quick video that should be up soon. Fun times and sunshine during summer! I've been getting the urge to travel around more, so I hope I get to do that during the summer and even more so in the following years.

I'm really excited for Month 10, and I have a good song picked out. I've already made some good progression just 11 days in, and there are a lot of cool things coming up such as the International, where I'll finally be able to meet more 365ers and we can swap ideas and share our movement, so that will be awesome. It will be a great learning experience.

[Shane Sperling]

What the....About a week of my log just disappeared... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

[Shane Sperling]

...Well...Guess I'll continue from here. On Monday I went to Rhett's awesome house/beach birthday party where I did tons of flips, worked on gumbis, and kicks. I even ate a hamburger while sideflipping. Before we left to the beach, the freerunners ran to Bryan's car and we pulled out 5 nerf swords, ran through the house, into the backyard, and started fighting eachother. We eventually set it up so that the swords were in the middle of the lawn and you had to ran for them, and I ended up getting Rhett in pretty much the most epic way possible. I ran, crouched down while I picked up the sword, rolled out of the way of his sword, and while getting up from the roll I sliced both his legs. FLAWLESS VICTORY.

While at the beach, we did giant flips onto the sand, and it was really cool because there was also a huge log sticking up about 7 feet in the air like a big diving board. We also jumped, flipped, and cartwheeled down the dunes. Fun fun times.

Yesterday I went to SRHS with Evan and worked on some vaults and a bit of flow while recovering from the soreness of Monday. I'll post tonight about my training today, as it's only 12:20. Also: My other friend bryan just said he ate my training log, I'm trying to convince him to give it back.

[Shane Sperling]

AND, this week I'm planning on building some precision trainers for my backyard as well as a way to do cats and stuff. Should be fun!

[Shane Sperling]

6-20-12
TODAY I went to the library with Ryan. I worked on a variety of things, but what I'm most proud of is a kong precision that I've been scared to go for, but I nailed it today, along with a kind of big running precision! I'm so glad my hip is 100%, and my knee is getting better, just in time for this weekend. After the library, we walked over to a spot near Kaiser and worked on getting our sweatskirt swag down, and Ryan pulled out the eyeliner out of my backpack that we used for the Mustache Party video and got it on my arm, so we decided to make 2 war stripes. One on our arm, one down our chest. So fancy. While at Kaiser, I got a level kong I've been kind of afraid of. Overall good day.

[Shane Sperling]

6-21-12

Went to the gym and tried keeping training light because of the International, but, as always, I couldn't stick to it and worked on lache precisions from a bar to a yellow block and worked on some back tucks. I'm hoping to get flash kicks soon.

6-22-12

First day of the international!!!! Went to the Marin side bunkers near SF where I worked on some precisions, cat leaps, and precision to front flips. My knee has been bothering me so I didn't work too hard in order to make it through the whole weekend. While down at Kirby Cove, Ryan and I worked on our water bending, cave exploring, and rope swinging. Ian was there also, and it was great to finally meet him! We tried some stride challenges and a precision that I could have gotten, if only I commited. Later, we had the worst Denny's experience!

6-23-12

Second day of the international! Super Berkeley fun time! Wow, this day I trained so much it's really hard to explain it all. I spent a good majority of my time meeting and training with other 365ers, gathering up a bunch of cool new information and watching how they move. I progressed so much! I got a kong precision I've been wanting for a while, a wall run I've been wanting for a while, did a sweet running precision to A-Twist, did some flow with Ian and Sam at a weird structure at the bbq, and just overall progressed in a lot of areas. Today I got the chance to meet so many cool new people! Ended the day with sitting, talking, and eating pizza with Ian, Kirk, and Zack.

6-24-12

Last day of the international. :OOOOOOOOOOOOOO
We went to the SF bunkers, and, even though everyone was pretty much dead, a lot of cool stuff was done and I made a couple cool runs and worked on a lot of tic tacs. It was great to know that everyone loves Avatar as much as my group in Sonoma County does. It sucked saying goodbye to some very awesome people, but, we will meet again soon!

[Shane Sperling]

This past week following the international jam, I've been training outside in my back yard on my new precision trainers and cat leaps onto some 2x4s attached to my backyard wall. I never knew I could spend so much time just coming up with different stride challenges and precision challenges. It's improving my sticking ability and precision distance a lot! Along with all the precisions and what not, I've also been working on my handstands. I can hold it for probably a good second longer (which, actually, feels like a big improvement to me, haha) and I'm not so afraid of falling out of one anymore.

Yesterday, 6-30-12, I went to Elsie Allen with Will, 2 of his friends, and Grant. It was a lot of fun and I got some footage I've been meaning to get for a month now. I got a new kong precision down, got more comfortable with rolling on cement, even though it still hurts, played some zombie parkour tag, and ended the day with working on kicks and trying random tricking moves on the high school football field. Great day.

[Shane Sperling]

It's been about 2 months now since I last updated my log, and there's no real reason for me not updating it, to be completely honest. While this decision may take away some legitimacy to my 365, I assure you I haven't quit the 365 challenge, and I've been super focused on my training. The end date of my 365 is down to 5 days, which leaves me hardly any time to get more footage for my final video! My Month 12 goals were the following: back full, wall flip, flyaway, inward flyaway. Those all require gym time for me to progress them comfortably, so really I've just been working on the inwards because I only go about 2 days a week.

More updates to come. Here are my Month 10 and Month 11 videos, check 'em out!

Month 10 (INTERNATIONAL YAY!) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnuSh2qdmwE
Month 11 -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULhjvfyHxAc

Thanks a lot guys.

[Shane Sperling]

Down to about 2 more days!

Saturday and Sunday was spent with Abel, Ryan, Kaha'i and Grant in Rohnert Park and Elsie Allen training random things, precisions and rail work.

Today I went to the gym for inward flyaways, but ended up not doing any, and instead trying back fulls, getting used to my back flips again, and attempting corks into the raised foam pit.

Tomorrow and Wednesday I plan to go to the gym, hopefully land an inward, and possibly get a back full. I also need to film a lot, haha.

[Shane Sperling]

Wow. Already been a year. Zach and I finished our 365/366 yesterday, August 29th, 2012. There's so much to say about this year.

Without a doubt, these past 12 months have been the most exciting, fun, and challenging of my life so far. I had so many cool opportunities to meet awesome new people like Livewire, Ian, Jimmy, a lot of the other 365ers in the community, and with that I have been able to take part in some really great jams like the SF International and visit new places, and thanks to the monthly videos, I will never forget them.

I definitely learned a lot about myself, both physically and mentally. Going into this challenge, fear was a major problem for me, and to an extent, still is. The reason I started this 365 originally was because I had hit a plateau in my training and I just felt like I wasn't progressing in any area, and looking back at that time now, I think a lot of the problem was being too afraid to try out new moves. I will always have this fear, but now I know how to go about getting over it, and the steps I need to take to be comfortable with new techniques. Back flips are something I've wanted FOREVER, but I was always super afraid of bailing and falling on my head. During my Month 8, I finally got backflips onto concrete. That really made me realize that even if you're afraid, if you just stick with a move and don't let it slip past you, you will eventually get it, and that mindset is helping me a lot with moves I'm trying to get now, like flyaways and corks.

I can't thank everyone in the 365 community enough for all the support and advice they've given me, and each other. It's so much fun watching them progress and work on their goals. Plus, everyone is awesome. If you are thinking about starting a 365, do it. There really isn't anything to lose, and you definitely won't regret the decision. There are so many great people doing it now, join them!

Now that my official 365 is over, I won't be making anymore monthly videos, but I'm going to continue to train every day.
I'm going to get some more clips for my final video, but after that, I'm planning to come out with a 2012 sampler sort of thing around December. Happy training!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoJJe1MME0Q

[Shane Sperling]

Yesterday was super fun. I went to SSU and with Grant, Jason, Ryan, and Will and trained for a little there, working on some upward precisions and a small kong precision, and afterwards went to the library where I worked on more step up A-twists (which are improving!) and that step up to dash on the wall that I haven't done in forever and need to work back up to. My step up fronts are getting increasingly more comfortable and I'm working more on concrete rolls.

[JimmyD-TPK]

You guys ( Shane and Zack)  are to beastly for finishing the 365!!!


So many people start it, but so few people even make it half way.
VERY proud of you two!

[Shane Sperling]

I'm back! (to the APK forums anyway)

This is no longer a 365 log but more of just a regular training journal I can update every once in a while with big leaps in my progress or days I felt good about.

On January 1st, 2013 I decided to pick up my every day training again after taking a break to heal my knees and such. I got pretty sick for 2 days since then so I restarted yesterday. This isn't a 365, more than that, I'm just going to train forever. The progression I saw with my 365 along with many of my other friends picking up the challenge this year inspired me to keep going. A 2012/New Year sampler video is in the works, I just want like another minute or so of footage and I'll be editing it and releasing it to the youtubes. This year I really want to focus more on strength and flexibility because those are the two areas I've seriously been lacking in since I started training, and also because my climbups are super ugly.

A few days ago I went to downtown Santa Rosa to train with Jeremy and Christian where after a few attempts, nailed a kong rail precision (first I've ever done!) and later in the day got a pretty scary kong precision at the mall, which isn't so scary once you get it. Happy New Years everyone and I wish everyone the best of luck in their training and progression!

[Shane Sperling]

Getting back into super srsbsns training is feeling great. Last week I went to UC Berkeley with a bunch of super friends because Amos and Ryan were visiting from Colorado, and it was great meeting them. I progressed so much that day and I can still feel some soreness I learned that I can speed vault pretty high from a step up which is really cool.

I went to gym a couple times in the past few days and worked on castaways from the mailbox block and bar both into the pit, along with regaining my ability to backflip on floor. After a few minutes of progression I was able to get my backflips back but I need to work on setting more as I am traveling backwards a little too much. My castaways are pretty good but I need to rotate quicker. Other than that, I've been doing a couple flyaways because I need to man up and do them outside, which I hope will come to me within the month.

[Ian Want]

Let me put my babies in you.