By Hayley.
Photo by Alejandro Chryses Dahlgren.
I’M BACK 10,000 gymnastics montages, 10,000 parkour videos, the 2000 WAG AA final, and the world freerunning champs 2009, later… (I could write you a thesis on four). – I might post some of my fave moments in the media section later for your enjoyment.
Hi everyone, it’s been awhile but I am almost back on my feet again after my strange twist of fate… Wednesday was my first real training since the injury so it was a good test of the ankle. I am suprised at myself for taking it this slowly, I remember last year when I jumped back in soo quick, and walked around the podium ripping the tape of my ankle after every event and melting all the ice in Nelson. I guess the circumstances are slightly different however my willingness to slow down concerns me slightly… maybe I am scared. I have never been afraid to train after an injury before so I’m not sure why I am now. Maybe it’s because it has happened twice and therefore it’s completely rational to think it will happen again. If it was the kind on injury I could prevent maybe I wouldn’t be so scared but it was a complete accident. But everytime something like this happens you learn a lot. It’s the best training there is. You can wake up in the morning and say ok today I am going to train my body…i will do sit ups, push ups…But you can’t decide to train your mind. I decided to take the opportunity to do so.
Training…so Wednesday afternoon I went out for a little jump to test out the ankle…(scaffolding heaven) I trained solo for about two hours and then I found out some of the others were training so went back to the city centre to try to find them (I tend to just parkour randomly around and never actually have a clue where I am).
On the way I found an awesome ground is lava traverse (I will get you a picture) which the others eventually found me negotating and decided to try themselves (until he who shall not be named broke a flower pot). Then we went and did some precisions (good ankle test, it seemed very strong but I was very scared to jump on uneven surfaces). A while later the academy class started (oh I also found an awesome tummy slide outside central station). Then a number of strange things happened,that lead me to believe that Stockholm is the most amazing city in the world.
A – I was casually doing a quad in the city centre with like 20 other people and this man just walks up to me and says “Are you Hayley?” so I said yes (a little concerned at this point) he then tells me he is the father of one of the girls that I have been training with sometimes. Weird…I man whom I have never met somehow manages to identify me in a city of a million people???
B- I made a silent friend on the subway (he was staring at me maybe because my hands were completly black…probably looked a bit suspicious) we said nothing to each other the whole ride and when he got off at his station he waited to wave at me when the trained moved off which made me smile.
c- waiting for the bus to finally get home and another man approaches me and asks me if I was jumping around in town with some guys earlier…so I say yes wondering where this is going…(now this is the strange part I can’t imagine anyone back home ever saying something like this. I mean a lot of people appricate what you are doing and yell ‘cool’ or ‘nice’ or whatever) He said…”I wanted to thank you, your movement made me happy to be alive” I was blown away. I mean I have been thanked for parkour before but usually by someone involved like when showing someone a new skill or training spot. But I could never have imagined in a million years being thanked by some random on the street, in a city of a million people.
d- of course talking to the guy about caused me to miss my bus, so I turn up at the bus stop and there are two other people there…long story short I end up in a taxi with a Danish couple who just had an exchange student from Rotorua!
So wednesday ended up being pretty much five hours of training which having not run or jumped for three weeks was pretty intense (realising this the next day when I couldn’t walk down stairs without intense pain).
Friday was my forth ‘Hell Night’ last week we were three (until one guy got a fever) then we were two, this week again we were two (I think people are just afraid of our awesomeness )Hopefully now that the weather is warmer more people will be keen. The weather is already heaps warmer +10C just like Dunedin! I’m also starting to see heaps off stuff to play on now that the snow has melted(big cities are awesome, can’t wait to heal, there are just soo many un-needed walls and rails which seem to serve no purpose other than making me itch like crazy). Hell Night was good still not quite up to where it should be but I think I’ll get there. Fortunatly ‘the one other’ mangaged to come up with some equally crazy if not more so excercises (like a 2m app. high hanging underbar, which simply cannot be explained) and I was defeated by insane double taps but never fear it will be done!
Planning to head to Göteborg for a few days over Easter to visit some old friends so hopefully I will get a chance to have a jump there also. Do you know what would be cool…to have jumped in every city in the world.
Thats enough rambling for now…bring on Spring Stockholm!
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