Hiking Odds and Ends in Alachua County

Lochloosa and Gainesville adventures...

Imagining Dragons...

No dragons, but lots of imaginings of wind and fire as I worked on these drills on Friday, courtesy of Coach V and my training ride-or-die T. Harris.

First there was the actual movement we worked on: clean deadlift + high hang clean + clean.

And then I had some fun with clean and jerks.

Strength and Power Fun

So I've been working on my lifting and a bit of gymnastics (with chiropractor clearance, of course).  The first is a hand-stand wall-walk with a hold, inspired by J. Philyaw's Func-Train series.  Of all the coaches I have had anywhere, he has certainly been the most successful in getting me to overcome my fears as well as getting me to safely test and push my limits.

And then there was a bit of piano work I did with Nightwish's "Last of the Wilds" - still tenative and slow because of the minimal sheet music and trying to improvise, but hoping to clean it up soon and add a little more expression and speed.

Then tonight, I was able to get some of my lifts a little more together under the supervision of V. Freeborn, who may not say very much and is much more of a whole systems type vs a super fine detail type. There were the snatches, which I can be notoriously slow with at times.

And then the clean & jerks, where I have returned to split jerking now that I'm a little more confident in my proprioception as well as needing a little more caution with my shoulders as a recurve archer.

The Grab-Bag of Fitness: Func-Train Style

I have been branching out a bit in my training style, courtesy of two amazing athletes who have provided me with a mix of entertainment, inspiration, and wisdom, although my focus is still on barebow recurve and Olympic weightlifting (under the keen eyes of both J. Philyaw and V. Freeborn).

I have been incorporating different archery drills under the watchful and keen eyes of genius T. Muntyan with the occasional bit of wisdom and insight from B. Garcia, a barebow recurve archer I met about a month ago at Southeastern Sectional.  One of them is the maximal effort hold. Suffice to say, it is NOT very pleasant, but knowing that I can do it when I couldn't do it before has been very comforting. 

And then today at the VERY end of practice with my full set of stabilizers and weights after what can be referred to as the "Death by Hanging" Func-Train I did earlier today...

It wasn't all masochism though. I also had many blank bale rounds with and without the clicker to help me make sure that I'm focusing on full expansion.

There was also the Olympic weightlifting as well. Today was a snatch development day, and I was able to video two post-class drills. There's the snatch push press + paused overhead squat and the challenging power snatch.

The biggest highlight today was slowly overcoming my fear of hanging-type drills, including one that I don't remember who inspired me to attempt it (either C. Duenas or J. Philyaw, equal probability, both have been inspiring me to branch out further, with me also trying to put some pressure on them to run faster), but the drill involved a hanging L-sit and alternating moving my legs.  All I can say is that I don't have anywhere near as much grace and strength as my fellow musician / geek, but I tried! Here's the link to the workout he posted for hanging:

And before I forget, I did get a bit of musical work done as well... "Turn Loose the Mermaids" by Nightwish...

Odds, Ends, and More During Lockdown

It's been fairly quiet here, but here's a little grab bag of some of my recent adventures, mostly revolving around focusing on barebow recurve along with exploring bits and pieces of Olympic recurve.