Fear

It’s four o'clock when we arrive at Gasworks: Tyson, Dane, Brandee, Ceit and I. The sun is shining brightly with a pleasant breeze blowing in off Lake Union. There are 10-15 traceurs there sessioning already. Tyson, Brandee and I start with a game of add-on, as various Traceurs we haven't met before introduce themselves and try out the game. It is beautiful, the movement is great. A really nice route is created to work on, but I am distracted. I want to work towards my goals, not get caught up in just whatever is happening. I go my own way to a series of three jumps that I have been working.

Something is not right. I have done these jumps many times. I have absolute confidence in my ability to do them, and I do do them. But before each attempt there is some hesitancy, something clawing at my heart. It is fear. It is the little demon that pretends it is there to save me from danger but is in fact the cause of almost all my injuries; that hitch, the hesitation in the moment when I need confidence and fluidity that causes the short jump; the missed hand placement, the slip, the kick out in mid air, and through that the separated shoulder, the pulled groin, the jammed ankles, and many, many scrapes and bruises.

I don't know why it is visiting me today. I have cleansed myself of this useless fear so much since I started training that recently it has barely been a memory. But today for some reason it is there riding me as bad as ever. It’s is not the clear and exciting fear that lets one know there are consequences for failure that gets your blood pumping and helps one focus. Rather it’s this clutching unmanning hesitancy like cold fingers wrapping your heart.

I push through. I complete my jumps, but this is easy, they are not difficult jumps.

The real task for me to today is a cat leap. It is twelve feet long off a short step up onto a wall over a sand pit and onto a metal side of structure from the old gasworks. I have done this just once before and once was enough that day, where moisture and ripped skin on my feet limited me. Tyson invites Dane and I over to see how he has created a route of the cat and is able to land it with total control every time. The last time I was here with Tyson he could not make himself do the cat.

Dane and take our time warming up to it. I look at it. I know it’s there, I have done it before, I can see the distance is in my range, I know my legs are strong today, but the fear remains. No rationalization can tame it.

All I can do is face it down. I run, hit my take off, lift into the air, land feet high on the wall. I slip out, I hang from my hands, legs curled up to avoid touching down. Rattled, my climb up is crap. I sit on top of the wall, there is no elation, no cessation of fear, just the same internal struggle. What is going on?

Dane hits it nicely with the confidence of having seen Tyson and I do it. He moves on. I stay. The fear is still there and I have to own it, to overcome it. I pace, practice breathing. I try to enjoy the beautiful sunny day. I am distracted by every single possible thing, but still the obstacle is there in front of me and my fear is there in my chest choking me. I start to run, hesitate, go back, hesitate again. I try to get angry but I can't summon the emotion. It’s pure will that makes me run, pure will that pushes through the moment when the hesitation tries to come. There’s the take off, driving up, flying through the air. My feet hit high again, the catch is good, top out, slide down the other side. Again no feeling of elation, no cessation of fear. Today has become about this. It is no longer about having fun or playing with friends, it is only this. I will face my fear and accomplish the rule of three, I will own this. I stand in front of the jump again, one more time. I will do this and it will be enough for today. I hesitate. I go through the motions. I am distracted. I force myself to focus. I try to really feel my fear, to experience it and to know it that I may overcome it. I chant the incantation against fear from Dune.
I will not fear.
Fear is the mind killer,
The little death that proceeds total obliteration,
I will face my fear, I will let it pass over and through me
I will turn the inner eye and see its path
and where it has gone only I will remain.

I run, I jump, I catch and pull myself over. I am still gripped by fear, but I have won my little battle. Three times was the goal and it is accomplished. I am relieved, but my fear is still there taunting me, sucking the joy from my day. Why it has struck me so hard this day I don't know, but I know this is my battleground now, I have made myself strong in body, I have developed skill there is always more to accomplish but for me it is clear my primary limitation is fear. It is what I must overcome.

I have come to believe in the end fear is why we train. it is the biggest obstacle we will ever face, and knowing your fear, overcoming it bit by bit, is the greatest benefit of our training.

Trip to the Zoo

On Sunday Beth and I took a trip to the zoo. This is the fourth time we have gone to the zoo this year. It's always a treat for us because we both share a deep fascination with the natural world. This trip was very interesting from a play and movement perspective and also left me somewhat disturbed.

The first notable part of this trip was the Siamangs. The Siamangs are perhaps our favorite exhibit to visit (for other stories of our interactions with the siamangs check out beth's posts over on complex interplay). This day we heard the Siamangs start up their hooting display and ran over to see them. When we got there they were in their outdoor enclosure balancing on ropes and dueting. Just after our arrival they climbed up into the tree which the ropes were attached to and hung balanced on a pair of branches continuing their duet. As a traceur gibbons of which siamangs are the largest variety, are very likely the most impressive of all animals to watch; their movement is close to humans, the things they do are recognizable to me as things I do but so much more graceful, controlled and powerful.
Siamangs live in monogamous male-female pairs. They regularly perform duets utilizing their distinctive vocal sacks composed of deep rhythmic booms, high-pitched screams almost like a horses whinny, and barking noises. During these duets they will also move around a lot, performing amazing aerial displays.

What we got to see was a treat and our first chance to see it.

The two Siamangs scaled the tree, the male booming and barking the female adding yodeling whinnies. They stood on a branch some 20 feet off the ground. The female would swing out on limb a bit above that and back and turn full spins on the limb she was on. Neither movement was extraordinary in difficulty but the height at which it was done and fluidity and complete dynamism in movement was something to behold. The male meanwhile jumped up to another limb and would muscle all the way up to standing on his feet and then cast back out into swing and repeat it over and over. This sequence was again fairly simple by siamang standards but the fluid ease with which the Siamang was able throw itself up on the limb was incredible. Finally the male seemed to calm down and dropped down the tree with a dexterity and confidence that puts every Traceur in the world to shame and walked off into the inner enclosure.

The female then followed him down the tree but instead of following him into the enclosure she put on a display of braciation and rope balancing that was awe inspiring. It was one of the best and most beautiful displays of movement I have ever seen.

As we walked towards in the inner enclosure Beth asked me if the display is about territory maintenance why do they continue it in an environment were there are no other Siamangs nearby, no hoots to respond to, or rivals to maintain your territory from. It might just be hardwired or maybe they don't realize there is nothing to defend their territory from. I don't think either of those are the answer. I think they do it as a form of play to bond with each other and because its fun, in this play the are simply practicing skills that have been important to their species. Just as humans given the chance will sing, dance, and play physically whether there is good reason to or not. I think these siamangs were expressing the same innate need for play for stimulation of the mind and body in primal patterns.

We walked into the inner enclosure and the male was sitting near the window drawing attention from a gaggle of children but not responding much. I tried to gesture at him as I had learned from the female and see if he would play or come over to be groomed. He did not. He did stare me directly in the eyes for awhile and while it is always dangerous to speculate on the meaning of animal facial expressions, especially with no more then an amateur education in animal behavior, I couldn't help but get the feeling it was a rather disapproving stare. Where the female had seemed to want my attention, the male seemed to be saying something less friendly with his stare. Not really aggressive but more along the lines of "I see what you're trying to do there with your gestures and I am not amused." Either I got the gesture wrong or I was gesturing something inappropriate was the feeling I got. Maybe grooming is not something males do for each other.

The next interesting encounter was the Snow Leopard. The Snow Leopards are notoriously shy and hard to see. We have been lucky to catch them three times this year and once one of them was even moving about the enclosure. This blew all of that away. Sunday when we got there there were three people leaning into the window of the enclosure. The male snow leopard was walking up and passed right past the glass. I jumped up, standing on a fence poll, and watched him. He flopped down and my elevated position attracted his attention. He looked me straight in the eyes. I had just recently read that direct eye contact is not a threat display in domestic cats as it is in dogs, and that cats enjoy it if you look at them and blink. Again, one has to be cautious about interpreting wild animal behavior, but I did not experience his direct gaze as threatening; I remembered that tidbit and blinked at him and he blinked right back. It was a rather astonishing moment, a powerful experience of connection with an extraordinary animal.

The cat then paced his cage and grabbed a large bone that had been left in his enclosure. He tossed the bone into the air and chased it down the slope, executing a series of movements that is hard to describe aside from saying it was astonishingly acrobatic. He didn't continue this for very long but it was still a beautiful example of animal play. He did continue to pace the front of his cage and looked me in the eyes a couple more times, one with an open mouth that seemed like a smile to me. Very very cool.


We stopped by the Galagos in the night exhibit and watched them jumping about. Talk about animals that can move! They were able to jump from one branch to another that were distances probably ten times their body size. Forget cat leaps, these were Galago leaps.

The final note of the day though was the Gorillas which showed both the best and worst of the Zoo.

There are two Gorilla troops at Woodland park Zoo. One was sleeping so we drifted past them. The second group was up and about; this group contains a baby and is the focus of a great deal of attention. The baby was playing, climbing trees swinging sticks around, pounding her chest to display and play fighting with her sister -- aside from the chest display all forms of play we see in humans as well, so close to what we do it is almost eerie. Incredibly cute and inspiring play. At the same time this was happening something else that was very disturbing was occurring. The infant's mother was repeatedly vomiting and then re-consuming her own vomit. This happened 10 times or so before I couldn't bear to watch it anymore and we moved on. We have also seen this group consume their own feces. However this for some reason was far more disturbing. A quick Google search reveals that regurgitation and reingestion is well-known problem in captive primates. There seems to be some suggestion that providing more fibrous additions to diets will help alleviate this, but I wonder if it is in part stress induced.

Once again I am not an ethologist and my speculations are just that, but this got me speculating indeed. One of my long term interests is domestication: how do we take a wild animal and turn it into a domestic one? As it turns out this is primarily a process of selecting for juvenile traits of submissiveness and openness to strangers. You can adopt almost any baby mammal and expect it to bond with you and become tame. This is far far more difficult with adult wild animals, often impossible. Strangers are viewed as threats. Many wild species are extremely intolerant of strangers in their territory. Wolves, lions, hyenas, chimpanzees, etc., are just among the few animals which have been shown to kill interlopers and even seek out and kill members of neighboring groups. The process of domestication is one of lowering this agression, increasing the ability to trust and be friendly towards strangers and to deal with increased social stimulation. My dog will happily greet every single person he meets. Most wolves would not show the same behavior; they are either shy or aggressive towards strangers in general. It occurs to me that the more human like a wild animal is the more difficulty it will have living in a zoo.

A Komodo dragon likely does not experience the gaze and interactions of thousands of peoples as much more of a stimulus than the rocks in it is cage. For a Gorilla whose social life and intelligence and even facial expressions are so close to ourselves, I can only imagine the stress this causes. Thinking about the stress that large crowds can cause for many humans, now multiply that many times for a gorilla with more wild mental architecture. It makes this type of pathological behavior understandable.

Now I still believe Zoos provide a valuable service. Humans need the chance to excercise our biophilia and humans that have that chance are for more likely to be concerned about the natural world which is something human animals and everything else needs. There is a great deal of value to this education and connection with wildlife for both humans and the natural world, but seeing things like this makes you think about how we treat these incredible intelligent and closely related animals. How can we provide the benefits of the experience of seeing this amazing animals while minimizing there stress as much as possible?

A playfull companion

Beth and I are both dog people we both grew up in families with dogs and the first day we really spent with each other our desire to have a dog was one of the first things we talked about. As we have moved through our twenties we have always looked for a space we could have a dog and finally two months ago Beth and I decided it was time.

Besides the simple joy off having a companion animal another member of the family. Having a dog was important to us because I have been fascinated with Canids my whole life and this is opportunity to observe their behavior up close and personal. Equally important I had devoted my life to primal play and movement and a dog is one of the best companions one of the best inspirations for this one can have.

We took our time searching through Petfinder and visiting the local human societies met some good dogs but wanted to make sure the dog we got was right for us. We were looking for a dog that would show a strong attachment to us would be good play companion to run, jump and wrestle with for me but could still be safe and respectfull around other people. We meet Jackson after a trip all the way up to cle elum to meet the dogs housed by WAMAL or the washington malamute association a malamute and northern breed rescue organization.

Jackson came up to us immediately and greeted us as if we were family. In a sense he choose us.

We played in the yard and went on a walk and right away there was a connection. We left that day saying I think we found our dog. We had to make sure our fences were up to keeping a athletic malamute in and get all the neccesary dog owning accoutrements.

Three weeks ago Sunday we picked Jackson up and took him home. The adjustment hasn't always been easy malamutes were not breed to be easy companions dogs they were breed to haul freight in the winter and be able to survive on their own devices during summer. It is a job to convince him he needs to respect the authority of family, he marked in in the house twice early on, growled at roomates etc but we understood this was part of the bargain in getting a more primal less domesticated companion. With firm training he has come leaps and bounds already. He has become very consistent with Sit, Stay, down and heels very well unless he is in super stimulating enviroment. We have even been able to start off lead training and count on him to stay close on hikes and adventures in the woods. Soon we will start working with him on weight pull and once he is obedient off lead we will work on agility basically the goal is to train him as primaly as I train myself.



Already I have been pushed to run and walk much more consistently both elements of my practice that are sometimes under emphasized. He motivates me to get up and train in mountains were I can let him off lead to roam and show us up with agile leaps and scrambles and incredible speed. Its real joy having him around to play with.

During his first week with us our roommate ended up dog sitting an older lab mix named Loki. So they had to adjust to each other. Watching this process was fascinating.

When we first introduced them they spent a good fifteen minutes walking around each other in circles marking and scratching the ground. A very literally pissing contest. Later in the evening the got into a couple of scraps resulting in small cuts for each, We were very worried about their ability to cohabitate at that point. However on the second day after avoiding each other all morning in the early afternoon Jackson approached Loki and play bowed and moved forward to start play, Loki responded agressively lunging and barking, jackson scampered away bowing and barking playfully, this continued for a minute or so as we watched ready to jump in if actually came to fighting, finally the stood shoulder to shoulder ears pricked and aware jackson picked up his foreleg and wrapped it around Lokis rolling into him him in tripping motion. For the next 20 minutes the wrestled, jaw spared, and chased each other around the living room. This was some great intense primal play but with serious undertone, even though this was play it was clear it was also a safe way for the two to test each others strength and see which would be dominant. It was hard to tell who won that first round, Loki mounted jackson several times, while Jackson pinned and got a complete throat hold on Loki Several times.

As testament to the power of play after this episode the two got along fine except for few tiffs here and there.

There is question in canine studies as to whether domestic dogs have the same strongly hierarchically dominance structures as wolves their closest relatives. The answer in the relationship between Jackson and Loki seems to be no, Jackson the younger dog seemed to be the initiator of play which is characteristic of submissive wolves. However jackson showed dominance in other ways in stealing and possessing toys, in defending his bed and his posture and carriage. Loki did not accept a complete submissive role either he would posture dominance pee with his leg raised and react aggressively if jackson tried to push him out when he was getting attention still they got along and spent much of their time together playing and Jackson seems sad that Loki is no longer around.

Humans and dogs have been companions in work play and life for the last between 15,000 and 100,000 years its feels awesome to join that tradition. I think Jackson agrees.

A deeper look a Evolutionary Fitness

There is big movement in fitness towards evolutionary fitness, the words natural, primal, paleo come up over and over in the latest fitness programs. MovNat is very much in this realm, Crossfit defines functional as something related to what a "natural" human might due, Art Devany has evolutionary fitness, Loren Cordain talks about the paleo diet. I think this is positive trend I believe that evolutionary science offers a more powerful understanding of human fitness then current approaches to sports science, or sports medicine just as evolutionary theory has enriched so many other fields of human learning. The problem is that most people don't understand evolution well, the cross over from evolutionary scientist to athletics coach is not high so we often end up with over simplified and static views of human evolution and what it implies for our how we should live.
Here is an example I ran across recently
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGXep32_qiI
This is the common appeal to the archetypal paleo man we are lead to believe we are really the same as underneath the modern lifestyle and should try to live like.
There are two problems with this one there is no archetypal paleo man, evolution is process of constant change of adapting to changing contexts with what is available and we are never optimally designed for anything there are costs and benefits to every thing and there is a tremendous amount of individual variation finally we are not cavemen in modern clothing evolution did not stop 10,000 years ago.
Paleo proponents tell us that humans lived one way for 2 millions years from the origin of our genus straight up until the advent of agriculture, at which point we stopped evolving and have never been able to catch up to that change, we are thought to be a sort of square peg trying to fit in round hole and our health problems are the result of this mismatch.
While there is some truth here there is allot of facts here that simply don't add up. Lets take a breif and neccesarily approximate overveiw of 2 millions years of human subsistence habits. Homo habilis the first member of our genus was small bodied with a brain half the size of ours, he most likely got the meat in his diet as scavenger not a hunter and almost certainly didn't have the use of fire meaning his diet must have been significantly different from that of his descendants 10,000 years ago just before the advent of agriculture. The best evidence indicates that European Neanderthals between 600,000 and 35,000 years ago seem to have been specialist big game hunters who ambushed their prey using jabbing spears, isotope ratios in their bones indicate a diet compose of 50-80 percent animal flesh, their skeletons show evidence of injury rates similar to modern rodeo riders, and they were probably the most robust and powerfully built humans of all time with muscle attachment sites significant larger then the strongest modern athletes.
The first modern humans who invaded Europe from africa were relatively Gracile and slim and quickly became more robustly built but no were nearly as strongly built as neanderthals, as opposed to ambushing big game with jabbing spears they developed a subsistence strategy based around the atlatl a form of spear thrower. When the big game died of europeans became smaller and more gracile as they shifted to small game and other resources as their primary subsistence.

Even among modern hunter foragers we see these patterns of different subsistence strategies and the bodies changing to meet them.

Kung san practice persistence hunting which involves walking and running for hours on end, not surprisingly the resemble modern endurance athletes .








































Compare the build of this New Guinea forager whose people really on hunting pigs, and cassowary in dense jungles were the can't simple run their prey to exhaustion








































So which paleo man are supposed to train like the runner of desert or the sprinter/acrobat of the jungle?

Of course this too simplifies the matter far to much the fact is we that most modern populations are not adapted to be either. Adaptive human evolution did not stop 10,000 years ago in fact the lastest evidence indicates it has infact been accelerating.
http://www.anthro.utah.edu/PDFs/accel.pnas.smallpdf.pdf

Certain population developed the ability to drink milk. These people often ended up being some of the tallest most athletic populations on earth.



















Maybe drinking milk and living like the Nuba is better path to optimal fitness. With long periods or relative rest walking or standing watching cattle, interupted by brief periods devoted to wrestling or dancing for fun, or fighting of cattle raiders, predators or rampaging elephants with all to real consequences. They are certainly powerful athletic and vital people.




What if you body can't digest milk perhaps the long lived okinawans make a better model for a healthy life, lots of rice, lots of vegetables, lots of soy, no milk very little meat, lots of lower power output activity pulling weeds in the fields, tilling, sowing, harvesting, carrying loads.

Those of you familar with the paleo prescription will notice this does not accord with it. Grains are the enemy the cause of our obesity our diabetes, and chronic low level stress is bad for our bodies.

How do you explain the Okinawans
perhaps just as we know Nuba have specific genetic adaptions to a dairy based diet maybe okinawans have one for a grain in fact we know they do.







We are not all the same, what is healthiest for the Nuba may not be for the Okinawan the milk that grows the Nuba strong and healthy may cause horrible gastrointestinal destress and allergenic responses in the Okinawan. The rice that is the stable of life for the Okinawan may cause insulin responses in the Nuba that drive him towards obesity and diabetes.

The thesis that the cause of obesity and related metabolic diseases are caused by a mismatch between modern environments and those were are genetically adapted to is not necessarily wrong It is just allot more complicated then modern and paleo. There are common threads that unite the Nuba, Okinawan, the !Kung and the Papuan.

1. Tradition:
All of they cultures cited above are what are called traditional cultures. What is important about that distinction for us is that they majority of their lifestyle has been stable for thousands of years they have had time to adapt to their specific diet and lifestyle. When removed from their cultural contexts and exposed to modern diets and sedentary lifestyles, hunter foragers, horticulturalists, pastoralists, even traditional rice farmers, they suffer the same health problems we do in fact they usually suffer worse the more different their traditional diet and lifestyle from the modern west the worse they suffer.
2. Movement
In every traditional culture regular at least somewhat vigrous movement is a neccesity. The leisurely walking interspered with high power actitivities of the nuba maybe very different from the constant labor of the okinawan, and again different from the persistance hunts of the !Kung, but none spend hours everday sitting at a desk or behind the wheel of car. The movement the experience is also based around natural movements, the amount and degree the intensity the focus maybe different but all traditional peoples spend a great deal of time walking, and occasionally at least have run, jump, swim, move on all fours, lift carry, throw, catch, balance and defend themselves. Treadmills and natulius machines are not part of anyones evolutionary heritage and will not develop the type of fitness seen among these people.
3. They Eat Food Not food products
Credit to Frank Forencich for the phrase. Some of us can thrive on dairy laden diets some on grain based diets, nobody has the genetics to enjoy optimal health on pop tarts, twinkies, margarine, and hot pockets. Food is perishable, food comes from animals, and plants, the fewer steps it took to get from that source to you in all likilihood the healthier it is, the more proceesed and chemically laden, the worse it is for you.
4. They Play.
This applies not just to traditional cultures but to mammals in general, all immature mammals play and their play clearly specifically prepares them to for the neccesities of their adult life. Kittens stalk, pounce and wrestle, puppies play chase and tug of war as well as wrestle stalk and pounce, horse foals race and chase, the neck wrestle and jump and kick all skills the will need to avoid predators and establish their place in the herd.

Not only do the young mammals do this but when rested and fed adult engage in this behavior to, wolf packs play epic games of tag and wrestling, polar bear males in the spring engage in friendly sparring with the same rivals the will fight in deadly earnest when the breeding season comes.

Same for humans every traditional culture allows significant unstructured childhood play and has specific playful games and activities that adults engage in as well, dancing is universal, the Nuba are famous for their wrestling, the Masai for jumping games, the Surma stick fighting, my favorite description of tradititional culture play comes from Colin turnbulls forest people chroniciling the lives of the Mbuti Pygmy where children and youths climb saplings untill the bend to the ground and then jump off, and were everybody gets involved in games of a form of crack the wip were a big strong male will swing a liana vine in circle while agile youths run at the end of the vine and practice releasing and flipping out of it . Australian Aborgines will stop at interesting tree's or rocks in the desert and practice jumps, flips and climbing on these rare elements of terrain in their life.

If you watch western childern in the rare unstructured play they are allowed you will see them practicing primal, vital, movement skills, the will climb, the will jump from one point to another, the will run and play tag, they will wrestle and sparr. However in our culture how often are the told don't climb on that stop horse playing, your going to get hurt. We are not just movement deprived, calorie stuffed but nutrient starved, we are play deprived. We do not grow up with nearly the physical skills we should because we aren't given the time or oppurtonity for physical play. No wonder so many find themselves absolutely enthralled by activities like parkour, tricking, rock climbing etc.

So here is my very simple perscripition for a basic evolutionary approach to fitness.

Eat food not food products, take every opportunity to move and be active, take a playful and joyous approach to training, and understand the traditions you come from and what makes you the individual you are, understand that what is best for the next persons fitness might not be for yours. Find the training and diet patterns that make you happy and healthy, don't get to caught up in whatever the latest trend is, know yourself.

David James whose blog natural roots is something anyone interested in more primal approaches to training should check out asked me in the comments of my last post why my current approach to training. Why am I focusing on parkour as opposed to more general practice or martial arts, and why follow a conditioning approach in other training to assist with the parkour.

It is a good question and there allot of factors involved in that decision. Part of it comes down to circumstance I have moved to a big city from a small town to focus on developing our local parkour non profit to build classes and get the discipline out to more people and to work at a crossfit, it is in sense a responsibility to develop myself in this areas related to the work I am doing to be better able to teach others. Furthermore I moved away from my martial arts school the amazing natural parks near my house in bellingham I haven't had time to find a new school or areas equall to those I had in bellingham for training the rull range of movement so this is partly the path of least resistance.

Moving towards this type of training was concious choice when I came down here because of the circumstances plus the chance to train with all of the good traceurs and crossfitters I would be working with.

My long term goals are unchanged but because my level is sufficient in combatives the more varied lifting, carrying and throwing elements, and swimming it made sense to focus on this phase of specialization. I spoke with Erwan about this at some length when I was training with him in Corsica, the novice athlete needs a general program covering all of the basic's of natural movement however for the advanced athlete is often not possible to make significant gains without taking time to focus on a specific aspect for awhile that is what I am doing now focusing on my terrestrial locomotive abilities(parkour) and orienting my other training around assisting with that.

My current training

Just wanted to alert anyone that was interested that I am keeping a log of my current training here
http://www.performancemenu.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4152. I want to use the naturalathletics blog for more thoughtfull or in depth posts but wanted to have day to day log to cover this experiment I am doing with trying to build a more traditional strength and conditioning program around helping ey improve specifically in my locomotive abilities IE parkour. My long term goal is the still broad movement competence across the entire spectrum of natural vital movements but with my defensive training having to be cut way back due to scheduling and needing to find a new school it felt like a good time to focus on single element the parkour and try to build everything else around it to develop my abilities with clear goal focused program. Love to hear anyones thoughts.

Perfect day

On Saturday, I headed up to Bellingham to spend some time with friends and family. First on the agenda: training with Dane, my first parkour training partner...


The weather is beautiful, so we decide to make the trip down to Larrabee State Park, an amazing area of beautiful old forests and a rocky beach with formations of Chuckanut sandstone carved into fantastic shapes for climbing by wind and rain.

We park at the south end of the park at the Clayton Beach parking lot, warm up there, then take off into the woods. Dane is one of the few training partners I feel confident doing 100% runs with, so we simply go, running along fallen logs, vaulting rails along the trail. Then, deeper into the woods, running downslope, leaping up and over a fallen tree and taking a large gap across a creek--too much fun; had to do it twice, taking the even bigger thirteen foot or so gap on the way back, this one over a waterfall. Downslope again, slipping sliding to the lower creek bed, two step tic tac off a fallen log across the stream and continue on upslope, which ends with a chest high rock--vault on top, keep running. Upslope again, boulders strewn across, pull on them to gain leverage, a vault here, a jump there, finish the slope, wait for Dane to catch up. More slope ahead, dirt trail, fallen logs, boulders; perfect.



Time for a race, a no holds barred race, inspired by Teghead--a traceur from the UK. We're off, both go for the pull on the arms, hands in the face, spinning--Dane's getting in front, I dive for his leg, pull him around, clinched up almost falling down slope, I have to avoid the log, break, he's spinning--shove--I am in the clear, put that rock between him and me, almost there--aha, top of the slope. So fun, but so tiring.

Catch our breath, say we'll do it again next time. Downslope toward the beach, jump the creek, vault through a tree growing sideways across the path. Another race, this time down the railroad tracks: who can get from where we are to a tree 50 yards ahead without falling? Dane's balance is better; he's pulling away. Ha ha lost his balance. Still need to finish to win, focus, go slow, I almost fall, catch my balance, finish. Glad we're not doing that again. Now running down the railroad tracks, bouncing on and off to the end. There's our target; a beautiful granite slab 50 feet high. We can free climb it, but the blood is pumping too fast, having to much fun to go slow. We play around on the lower areas, wall passing up to cracks, traverses, dynos, mantles, over and over.

My arms are getting baked, time to move on. We decide to head all the way down to Larrabee at the other end of the beach. We run back on the beach, vault the fence, drop down on the concrete wall, run down, slide the rails, running on the trails, detour to scramble up a rock quickly and then back down. Out to the rock point, climbing down, gotta wall pass to crack. The wall is rounded, kick off one side--right, then hit the left just right, reach for the ledge, pull up, grab the next, up and over and down the side, lazy down off the rocks. Underhand traversal route used to be hard--not today; race through it, loving the climbing...It's been too long.

We catch our breath, looking out down the beach. There is a point sticking out 800 yards away as a crow flies, maybe a mile overland, rocky beach the whole way. Is our training only for sprints I ask myself? This what I have needed to do, a real run. "Lets go here to there," I say, "No stops." We're off, moving smooth at first, scrambling over the rocks, hugging faces, ocean inches away. Quick traverses, spinning around obstacles, up and through holes in the rock, vaulting up to boulders, balancing on driftwood, a quarter of the way...Tired. Dane passes me, he isn't slowing down. Quads burning, no more power moves, I'm struggling just to run. Watching my feet, gotta keep running, but have to stay safe, every foot placement has to be secure, 100% focus. Dane is out of sight. I round the bend; he is climbing the last face, the last cove is between me and him, just small rocks and then the end. I want to slow to a walk so bad--doesn't matter, have to finish--watching every foot placement, every foot placement, slippery rocks in the stream, can they be trusted, jump, jump, I guess so. We are almost done, roots hanging from the slope, traverse and ascend, I pull myself over the final lip. There's Dane looking out at the water. I lay down. He wins this round.

Rest for a few minutes. I need to do this more, way more. I'm happy that I finished the task.

More climbing, the tide is going out. Spurts of energy; sprint then rest, sprint then rest. We come to one of our most difficult areas, a series of six tic tacs in a row on large rocks. So tired already. The goal is one step per rock. I first try two steps on the first two; on the third, I don't make it to the fourth. Gotta slow my mind down and speed my feet up. Breathe. One more attempt the other way. Fail. I almost get it on the way back; I have only done it twice before, but I know that I can. Dane is done and has moved on. Breathe deep, run, I get the first jump, not as fast as before but foot placements are good; push off is strong, second to third no problem. The fourth is the big issue on the way back, with the most potential to fall. Foot lands solid. I take off from here; it's down hill, tac, tac, done. Fist pump! Way back? I got it, it's time to move on.

Next area: three huge boulders in a circle. Jump from one wall, run across the second, push off, land on the third and run up, then turn around, drop down the third, run up the second--do it right and you can land a crane on the first one. Both of us are flying today. We discover another run-up to single tac off the second boulder, across a bigger gap to the third, and a way to run up all the way to vault the second rock as well. Done with that, we drop down into a little underhang climbing area. We've never been able to really move here; every time before I would just look at it and think about the day I could climb like that. Today we both make three moves for the first time, entering into it with a lay back, hands on big jug. Swing a bit, reach out to under cling, scoot feet around and bring the hand from the jug to the under cling. Now the big move. Tighten up on the under cling, explode sideways to catch a crack, both of us catch, neither holds; have to come back another day.

Now we come to a big rock wall, and run to the top. Behind is a cat leap, maybe ten feet rock to rock. But the cat is to a sloped rock and the catch is to a sloped crack; the fall not far but uneven rocks, not something to fall to. We try to spot but we both know its going to be hard to do much. Dane goes first, over jumps, still catches. My turn, standing there thinking, "Really, cat to that? Dane's crazy," but I know I can. Standing? Running? Don't want to bounce off. One step, I still over jump. Hands land, bounce, shit, reach out, catch solid. Adrenaline pumps.

We're moving on, tide going out. Sandy beach now. We find some rocks--big rocks--the biggest one we can move. It looks like a shark head, maybe some 200 pounds. Full squat, bear hug, lift and carry. Dane's turn; it doesn't come off the ground--a point for me. We find some rocks, throw them, press them, carry them. Dane finds a big one, clean and press. Damn, that looks heavy. My turn. I press, get stuck in the middle, can't finish; bring it back down, split jerk, full overhead, unstable, bail out from under it.

Onwards, almost to the end. We come to a big sloped wall. Amazing horizontal wall run; my feet slip when I try to hug it too close. Next time, even though I know this, am telling myself 'Lean out, lean out.' It's damn scary, but it works. Every foot placement is solid and I'm running. High drop to the ledge after the wall run is awesome. Dane is climbing. Climb up 70 feet off the ground. We look out. So beautiful: San Juan island in the west, tip of the snow-capped Cascades in the south. Finally, we make it to Clayton Beach for big kongs over a massive rock into the sand to finish the day, climb up the last rock and watch the sunset.

I'll be sore for a week.

Perfect day.