September Progress Video

In August, I started to record video of me practicing various hobbies so that I could track progress over time. The main focus is tracking improvements with parkour and freerunning because I'm so new at it. 

This process of putting the videos together is a quite painful, self-criticizing all the things newbies do when they aren't familiar with new movements. My arms flap around a lot. My landings suck. Why can't I jump farther? Do I really look like that in class? But so far, I've been able to see improvements already, even in individual training sessions. That feels pretty awesome. Seeing what I'm doing wrong brings issues into greater focus and motivates me to work harder. 

Eventually, I'm sure I'll look back on these videos and feel good about how much I've learned.

I 'm posting both August and September because I didn't do a post last month. So enjoy a double-whammy of silliness!

September 2013 

September felt like lots of botched precisions. I think my biggest take away from watching this collection of clips is to stop flapping my arms around so much and absorb more of the landings with my knees. My precisions look pretty close but I keep bailing at the last moment.

 August 2013

This is the first in a hopefully long lasting tradition of posting videos of my progress in various hobbies including fire dancing, hooping, parkour, freerunning and weaponry. We'll see how this format goes, I'm sure it will evolve over time depending on what I'm focused on. This was a pretty busy month!

The Color Run 2013

This morning I participated in my first Color Run. It was a blast and I'm so glad I got to share the adventure with such wonderful people. I even reunited with an old friend, albeit temporarily as his group started before mine. This thing was marketed as the happiest 5k on the planet and I thought it delivered. I managed to only nail about 3 people with my hoop on the walk, maybe half a dozen more after we crossed the finish line. I don't think I will ever understand why people can't see brightly colored objects moving in their near vicinity.

There were a few knocks against the run/runners, specifically the sheer amount of litter caused by the color packets and people being inconsiderate jerks about where the trash receptacles were. I also thought that it wasn't a very good run for kids and babies but sure enough there were strollers aplenty. Let's give those developing lungs a good dose of cornstarch to get them working hard!

I'm not really sure what else to say about it. I can't wait to go again next year. Overall I think the run was very well organized and people were obviously having a good time.

Click on the images below to page through the gallery.

Putting my mark on the Mok 2.0

Working on the Mok 2.0 this afternoon and I finally got around to putting my mark on it. I had fun using my old Ekaterina stencil on the back of this beast. I'm quite happy with how it turned out. :)

Another Amazing CRA Weekend

4th of July weekend is, without a doubt, the best weekend to be up at the Brainerd International Raceway for a Central Roadracing Association event. There were so many things that happend this weekend that made it one of the best experiences I've had to-date at the track. I made some new friends this weekend who, shortly after they meet me, handed me the keys to one of their scooters, causing me to have an immediate need for one of these adorable two-wheeled manifestations of freedom. Josh and Robyn are friends of Matt and Dennis' and they were visiting for the weekend. Josh brought 3 scooters all the way from their home in Colorado for the weekend, one of which was a birthday gift to Dennis. The single seater 50cc that Josh wasn't using ended up with me for every free moment of the weekend. Thursday morning, Josh tossed me the key to the little red scooter, showed me how to kick-start it and work the throttle, then he told me to have at it. I figured out breaking and turning on the fly and was able to get some more advanced lessons from Matty later in the day such as turning it completely off and using the center stand. I didn't realize what I had been missing until that morning and I'm quite proud of how quickly I took to it. The saddest thing will be returning to the track next month and not having access to such a wonderful mode of transportation. I'm going to try to save up some money to get my motorcycle endorsement and buy my own scooter next year. Seems a bit more reasonable than a full on motorcycle right now...

The trend of making new friends continued with meeting a couple of racers. One of them was racer #28, Luke, who was crazy enough to trust me with working on his bike... My friend Jerome works on his crew and showed me how to attach the safety wire to the front tire axel and calipers. Not only did Luke not lose his front tire while racing, but he and his team won the 3-hour endurance race for their class the next day. I'm going to claim a teeny tiny part of that victory for myself. Now that I'm meeting some of the racers, watching races is becoming more exciting. It's fun to put names and faces with the speed demons that put their hearts into something that would terrify the living day-lights out of me.

I spent a majority of the working hours of the days honing my training skills with new workers. I got to train Josh and Robyn on Friday and two other newbies on Saturday. Being a Captain in Training (CIT) is still rather intimidating but the more experience I get, the more confident I'm feeling with everything. Last month I almost threw in the towel when they put me on corner 12 and I had 5 bikes go down over the course of the day. I'm still not sure how I will handle seeing a racer get hurt but responding to incidents is becoming more manageable. The adrenaline rush is not as debilitating and my reactions are starting to be more automatic. I got a lot of great feedback this weekend for the incidents I had to handle which helped build my confidence for where I am in my abilities. It feels good to have the support of so many people.

Watching the pit bike races on Saturday was a hilarious way to end a long day. Racers tore through the "course" on their scooters, playing tricks on each other and spinning out in this parody of what they usually do. The race wasn't without its mishaps and one racer twisted his ankle but I heard that he was up and racing the next day. These guys just bounce right back. Ashley was declared the winner of the races and she won a credit for future races and got to take a victory lap with the checkered flag.

Saturday night ended with fireworks and the worker bonfire. I got to do a little pre-show fire dancing which is becoming a tradition at the track. I'm glad they enjoy fire so much because it seems like BIR is one of the only places I can do that without getting the fire department called on me. The owner of the track puts on the best fireworks show I have ever seen and we got to watch it from the comfort of the Mok 2.0. I'm so glad that beast of a machine was functional for this weekend. It just doesn't feel like CRA with out the Mok. I spent the rest of the evening scooting around with Jerome and enjoying the creepy fog as it rolled in. It was like something out of a horror movie and felt delightfully creepy, especially when the fog was so thick that we weren't quite sure where the heck we were.

The last day started with even more fog that burned off before the races began. It quickly became hot and muggy and I was very grateful when Abbie showed up to my corner to relieve me as corner captain so I could observe what goes on in the air conditioned control tower. As part of the training program for CITs, the Chiefs of Flagging and Communication encourage us to see what goes on so we have a better understanding of why things are done the way they are. It was fascinating to see their process, witness the start and end of each race, and watch what happens on their side of calls. Definitely a helpful part of the training process.

Spending 4th of July up at the racetrack is quickly becoming one of my favorite holiday traditions. This marked my 2 year anniversary of being addicted to track and I'm realizing that there is no turning back. The people here are some of the most amazing, generous, and fun-loving individuals I've ever met. If you are reading this and you're thinking, "Hey, that stuff sounds kinda fun. I want to go to the racetrack!" just talk to me. I will gladly go into recruitment mode on you. The racetrack has something for everyone and we are always looking for new workers to join our family.

I'm pretty sure I need a scooter

Thought I would test out the whole mobile blog thing for a change. Happy 4th of July! I've spent a majority of the day either helping with cleaning the track area, baking banana bread or riding around on a scooter. Seriously, I'm in love with this thing. I simply must have one... Maybe next year.

I love this place. All that's missing is Chris. <3

Fire and Lace Photoshoot

About a week ago I had the pleasure of doing a fire photoshoot  at Fight or Flight Academy. Chad let me use the loading area out back to play around for about an hour. We had a blast experimenting different things with the light  and I decided to try some high fashion fire in one of my corsets. Between Chad and Jerome taking pictures, I think they have over 500 to go through. At the moment, I have a few teaser images to share. I look forward to getting the rest to share later. Keep reading for a special treat at the end!

corset-fans-teaser

Fire-Snakes-teaser

Poi-teaser

During the shoot, Chad was alternating between his camera and his GoPro. I never really knew what he was doing, just that he was always moving. The next night I received a text message from him saying, "I'm working on your new favorite video". I wasn't anticipating getting an edited video out of this, most of the time I just get camera phone video clips and while that's great, it's not usually very good quality. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to see this. Check it out...

For the longest time I've felt like what I do isn't special. I just feel like I'm flailing around and dodging fire. But seeing this video made me realize that in the eyes of the audience, this can be pretty magical. I'm starting to consider what it would take to join a local fire troupe. It might be late in the season this year, but I'll start doing my research for next year, see who is out there and what that process is. I would love to start working with other fire dancers to make what I currently do more polished. I learn faster with other people and it might help me get over this plateau I've been dealing with. Who knows.

Thank you to Chad and Fight or Flight Academy for the amazing space and video. Thank you to Jerome who was the evening's photographer. And an extra big thank you to Chris who was my fire safety, keeping me safe and sound.

Joggers for Julian - Time to Fly

Now that spring is finally here (although someone should tell Minnesota that... seriously, snow?), my office is getting ready for the big Time to Fly event for Children's Cancer Research Fund. This will be the third year in a row that we have participated in the event as Joggers for Julian in memory of Julian Golden. You can read more about Julian's story at JulianGolden.com. Julian is an amazing inspiration, and his legacy burns brightest during this event where we have consistently raised a great deal of money for CCRF. To help me meet my fundraising goal of $250, I would like to offer to paint a portrait of a pet to anyone that donates $50 or more through my donation page.

Here's the deal:

• Donate $50 or more to the Time to Fly event via my donation page
• I'll get an email notifying me of the donation
• I will do a happy dance, sadly there will be no witnesses
• Within one week of your donation, I will contact you via the email that you provided when you made your donation to discuss the details of your pet portrait and get reference photos

Rules, restrictions and mumbo-jumbo:

• This offer is limited to pets or animals in general only. Trust me, you don't want me painting your child or your favorite vacation spot.
• Reference photos must be supplied by you and you must have legal rights to them. Please do not pull an image off of the internet and say you want that painted. That's not nice.
• Art will be done using the supplies I currently have. I'm not made of money at the moment and don't intend on buying a bunch of new supplies to feed this whim. Check out the list below for available options. You aren't limited to paintings!
• All pieces will be completed in the year 2013. If you are thinking about making this a gift, I will do my best to work with a deadline. But please tell me in advance.
• The size of the piece may be limited by the amount of your donation. I'm not going to do an epic three canvas triptych of Fluffy riding into battle for $50. Email me if you want more specific sizing information.
• I reserve the right to photograph and publish the finished painting, progress photos and/or your pets name on this website. I respect your privacy and will not publish your name or email information.
• If you are not located in the Twin Cities area, we will need to arrange shipping. All shipping fees to be paid for by recipient.
• I reserve the right to cap this offer at any time if I get overwhelmed with requests. Although I have my doubts people will be lining up for this. PROVE ME WRONG!
• This offer ends on June 22nd. All funds must be raised before the Time to Fly event. Paintings will be complete in the year 2013.
• These rules are subject to change if I think of something else important.

Mediums, supplies and options:

I have A LOT of art supplies. Over the years I've sampled waaaay more techniques than any sane person would bother with.  That being said, you can pick and choose from any of the fun options below. I am notorious for mixing mediums and would love to explore your ideas.

• Acrylic paint (Canvas sizes available: 8" x 8" or 8" x 10", larger canvas options available for larger donations, email me for details)
• Chalk pastel
• Stencils/spray paint
• Scratchboard (Sizes available: 8" x 8" or 8" x 10")
• Munny dolls
• Watercolor
• Water soluble pencils
• Charcoal
• Espresso watercolor
• Embroidery
• Digital illustration
• Decorative paper
• Watercolor paper
• Yupo paper 
• Gloss varnish
• Spray fixative

[gallery columns="2" ids="1722,1743,1746,1756,1299,353,1744,1745,1770,1777,1778"]

I was inspired to do this by my co-worker, Annette who is having a bake sale to help raise money. If you want some of the most amazing cookies in your life, head over to her site and give more money! If you decide you want cookies AND art, I could be convinced to have your donation to Annette's bake sale count toward your donation for art too. I would need to confirm your donation with Annette before beginning and the balance of your donation would need to be made on my donation page so I can get closer to my goal too!

• Why are you still reading this? Go Donate!

Fools, Flips, and Flops

Well, FOFA classes continue to go well and I'm comfortably past the point of my usual drop off time. It just might stick! I didn't get to go to many classes this week but I did manage to go on Tuesday for a Beginner Parkour class. Unfortunately (or fortunately, however you want to look at it) the calendar that Mitch put up on Monday that shows what the weekly rotation of topics are was completely wrong. So when I thought it was a "B" day which meant I would be going to a class about Slap Outs and Landing Continuum 5-7 (honestly I have NO idea what that is, which is why I was curious enough to check it out), it was actually an "A" day which meant we were working on various Flying and Soaring Vaults.

Between not having the muscle memory of what each vault should look like, not feeling able to get the power from my legs and not feeling like my arms are strong enough to support me through the jump, vaults and I don't get along very well. Making them start sooner and end later with "flying" and "soaring" did not help matters at all. I'm not too proud to admit that my fear of vaults is so great that I was terrified of doing vaults in front of so many people. People that for the most part know vaults and can do them with all the fun flair that I can barely dream of achieving.

As panic stricken as I was during the first five minutes when I heard we were doing vaults, I ended up really enjoying the class because it got me doing something that was out of my comfort zone. I got to hang out with some great people and work on getting better at something I might usually avoid. I need to get over that silly fear, this was just more proof that showing up is 99% of the battle for me.

Tonight I decided to check out the "Flips!" class and see if it's something I should bother with. My knees are still being cranky little jerks about all this fitness stuff so I had my doubts. I'll be honest, as the title of this post implies, my attempts at flips were pretty much all flops. But I had fun. I'm slowly getting over my paranoia of being the only woman in class and realizing it really, truly, absolutely doesn't matter. The guys are all great and welcoming, and they never do anything to make me feel awkward.

The random doodle below is a reference to one of the guys in class constantly wanting to add fire to things to make it more fun. The original is from the amazing Hyperbole and a Half, you should go read it now.

Time for bed, we'll see how angry my knees are in the morning. My goal is to go to two classes tomorrow, Weaponry and Workout with Chad...(they need to come up with a better name for that class...)

Russian Pull-thrus!

Class last night provided what felt like a huge personal win! The focus of the Beginning Freerunning class was called "Russian Pull-thrus" and it was not the first time I had attempted them. About two weeks ago, during the Women's class, we started doing some underbar work and spent about 15 minutes on Russian Pull-thrus. They are these really neat suspended flips using two bars at a 90 degree angle. The basic variation uses one hand on a horizontal bar at about head level, and your other hand on the vertical bar next to you. As your arms extend, you kick your legs up in front and through the square-shaped opening  between your arms, you end up landing facing the same direction you were originally. Anyway, the first time I was supposed to do this move, I was still recovering from a weight lifting session I had had a few days prior and my back/shoulders/arms were useless. I felt weak and embarrassed when I was the only one who couldn't do it. My feet kicked up and smashed into the bar without being able to clear it. I kept getting freaked out when I doubted my arms could support me through the twist. To be fair, I seriously don't think they could in the state they were in, but I hated looking weak.

Last night, I got off work a little early and decided to go to the gym to hoop a bit, knowing that the Freerunning class was covering these again and doubting I would actually stay for the class. I'm finding that showing up is 99% of the battle. Once I'm there, my fears are pretty well gone and I can just give it my best shot. I'm glad I did because the feeling of getting it on the first try, with fully recovered arms, felt AMAZING!!! I don't care that Skinny says it's a stupidly easy move. Little wins like that are the best. :)

Making friends is becoming easier as well. I feel like I hide my insecurities with bitch-face sometimes and it makes talking to new people very difficult. The more I lighten up, the more I realize that just about everyone there wants to see everyone else succeed at whatever pace they are going. There are a few that probably couldn't care less about fluffy crap like that, but that's okay. I was praising this adorable 10-year-old kid for is awesome monkey-like skills, telling him how much I wish I had this kind of thing when I was his age and he just beamed with happiness while swinging into another impossibly effortless one handed pull-thru with that care-free "look what I can do" attitude.

Tonight I'm going to another weight training class, hopefully I won't be too broken for the next week. I'm looking forward to the time when working out doesn't feel like being run over by a steamroller the next day. My body just isn't used to this stuff because I've always wimped out before I saw results. The fact that all of this is helping my confidence so much is fueling my desire to go more often. I'm even getting over my fear of the "normal" classes!

Motivation and Mobility

I'm at the point in a new habit where I have been most fragile. The 3-4 week mark is where I get a little self-defeatist, lose the spark and get distracted by something new and shiny. I've done it before with parkour when I tried starting last year. I made excuses for myself to quit, I wasn't strong enough, I wasn't making friends, I was afraid I would ruin my knees, etc. I saw all of the guys doing things I couldn't, vaults, jumps, rolls... I felt inadequate and weak so conveniently other things started coming up and I couldn't make it to training days any more. I'm not sure why this time feels so different. A good chunk of it is probably because I got in the habit of going to the gym for something I could do right away. When I started taking Krav Maga at Fight or Flight Academy in mid-December last year, I was able to catch on quickly and everyone in the class was welcoming. I started making friends on the first day. The community of a hobby is generally what draws me in and keeps my attention the longest. Seeing people do amazing things makes me happy and gives me hope that I can overcome my own limitations. I needed that to get my foot in the door and after training in Krav 1-3 times a week for 4 months, I feel more confident.

Earlier this month, I saw that the owners of the gym were offering a women's parkour class. It kind of felt like they were meeting me half-way; they offered a more comfortable environment for me to start training in, I just had to show up and show that it had value. After three weeks, I can say that the classes are still humbling, but I'm not comparing myself to guys that already have the upper body strength to do practically anything they want. I'm to the point where I actually kind of want to start going to the normal Beginner Parkour and Freerunning classes to get more training time in. I don't think I'm much farther along in my ability to overcome the physical obstacles, but some of the mental blocks are more manageable than they were before.

Last week I officially made myself an Unlimited Member at FOFA, which means instead of only being able to take 8 classes a month, I can take whatever I want, whenever I want. Two months ago I was struggling to make it to the 8 classes a month and feeling like I was throwing money down the drain, but this month I was having trouble choosing between classes I should take without going over my limit. I took away that barrier and now I'm just running with it.

As a nice bonus, I'm starting to see and feel results. My weight has remained pretty constant, but I'm feeling more toned, which is a bigger win in my book anyway. More importantly though, my knees are slowly getting used to the idea that their vacation is over. After years of telling myself "I can't do that, I have crappy knees", I've silenced the excuses and decided that if I never try, I'll never be able to do anything. With the number of knee replacements and severe joint pain in my family, I'm realizing that if I don't do anything now there could come a day when I can't do anything at all. Over the past month or so my range of motion has improved greatly. I feel myself actually wanting to crouch down, making my knees do more of the work than my back and arms. I still feel a little grindy pain, just not as much. I'm not entirely sure if it's the classes or if it was a mental block the whole time and I'm just giving myself permission to move now. Crazy how things work.

I'm going to wrap this up now, but I want to leave you with a video that really drove some of these things home for me. Rooster didn't let Cerebral Palsy stop him from doing what he wanted to do. Major props to his mom and his training-mates that encouraged him instead of holding him back.