Cinco de Traino

Lots of people are referring to Cinco de Mayo as "Cinco de Drinko" on Facebook, which I think is kind of embarrassing. So I'm calling it Cinco de Traino (even though it doesn't make sense gramatically), because instead of drinking my life away like all these other people, I'm going to be training.

Okay.. I'm alive. I'm still not 100%, but I am alive and I'm glad that I feel better. It's Tuesday, which means that Parkour class is tonight. Normally I would do a WOD before I go to the class, just to make sure I get my metcon on.. But today I think I will just do the class. Whatever he has us do I'm sure will be enough for my not-fully-recovered-self. Last week was the first time I went to the class and I was a little disappointed when I got there and found out that it was open gym. I was looking for a structured class and I went on a day that was open gym. Don't get me wrong, I still practiced a lot of skills and got some instruction, but this week should be a little better for learning. We'll see..

Being a personal trainer is tough sometimes. It's nice being able to create your own schedule and set appointments when you want to, but it also is sometimes a pain in the neck trying to coordinate with other people's schedules. Sometimes it takes MONTHS to get someone on my schedule for their first FREE session. You would think getting someone in for a free session would be easy, afterall, people like free stuff. But NOOO, not so easy! And the cancelling and rescheduling, oh man, some weeks it's enoughto make me want to scream. Afterall, training people is the only way I get paid. Consistency, commitment, and flexibility are the most important qualities in a client. If I could have like 15 clients all with those three characteristics, I would be stoked. I have a few now.. But a few ain't gonna cut it. I know it can happen though!

I signed up for Robb Wolf's Nutrition Certification (CrossFit) which is coming in June to CrossFit Portland. I'm super stoked for this. Many people go to it and rave about it afterward and the changes they were inspired to make in their own lives. I'm already inspired to make some changes toward a strict Paleo diet, but I guess I just don't fully BELIEVE that I can do it. It doesn't seem that hard in writing: Eat meat, vegetables, nuts, seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. EASY. Until I am faced with a piece of carrot cake when it's not time for a cheat meal, or I get home from work have a delicious Paleo dinner and have serious hankering for some dark chocolate. Are they SURE there wasn't chocolate and wine in the Paleolithic times?! And then, just like that, I'm not on a Paleo diet. Now, for the most part, I am doing it. But it's those tiny little, kinda crucial parts that I need help with. I ordered two books (that will hopefully help me focus!) to study up on before the cert: "Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival" by T.S Wiley, and "The Paleos Diet For Athletes" by Loren Cordain. I'm super excited to read both of these books and will surely be posting about what I learn. Meanwhile, I am doing my best with the Paleo thing.

Now it is the next day- at 5:25am. This Wednesday shift might be the end of me.. Okay, I'm being dramatic, but really, it sucks. I can't go to bed early one night of the week, my body is used to going to bed at midnight and waking up between 8 and 9am. So this waking up at 4:15am business is NOT COOL. But these are the kinds of things we have to do when we work for people and their establishments. Well, I'm over it.

Here's what we did in Parkour class last night:
LOTS of Bear Crawls up and down stairs
Rail Balancing & Walking, Pivoting
LOTS of Safety Vaults & Lazy Vaults
Precision Jumps
Conditioning: The workout we did was pretty easy, used dumbbells for some pressing variations, old fashioned, non-functional exercises, some good core work, and more bear crawls... I worked up a good sweat but none of it was very hard.

I was a little disappointed with the class structure, or lack thereof. I would like for it to be a little more structured with more specific direction by the teacher, but he is kind of young and obviously has experience doing Parkour, but not a lot of experience organizing effective classes with large groups of people (and lots of unfocused & hyper kids). I'm going to continue to go for the rest of this month because I paid for the whole month, so maybe each class will be a little different. Not sure I like his workouts for conditioning. Yesterday it was fine because I was getting over being sick and didn't want to do too much, but next week I might risk doing a WOD before I go to class.

Looking forward to the hand balancing workshop put on by Ido Portal, this guy from Isreal who is incredibly good at hand balancing, acrobatics, and capoeira. Scott (Hagnas) got him to come to CrossFit Portland for an afternoon, so I cancelled a couple of appointments so that I could go. It should be pretty cool! Here's one of Ido's videos on YouTube: