Raptron: Winds of Change

[raptron]

I'm Raptron and I flip a lot. My gymnastics season (on an adult recreational team that competes at a college club level, basically) has kicked off and I've got a meet in late January. My 30th birthday is also coming up (Jan. 19!) and I'm planning on doing a scavenger hunt situation, but need to actually PLAN THE CLUES and do some decision-making on that front.

 

But, I'm also trying to move (apartments, not cities), find a new job, and get my shit together for my workout plan for the next few months. It's a busy time, you guys. I've noticed I've dropped a few of the balls I'm accustomed to juggling well and I think writing all of the lists and doing all of the check-ins with you guys will help me stay on track. 

 

Notus: the South Wind

A raging storm calls on me and drives me to action. 

• Gymnastics conditioning finisher 1x per week (any sprint circuit, abs circuit, jumps workout, etc.)
• Lifting conditioning finisher 1x per week (kb swings, jump lunges, etc. will be good options)

Zephyrus: the West Wind

The soft, gentle breezes of the west wind carry the the promises of growth, future, and well-being in the coming spring.

• Check 3-4 resources on peaking for gymnastics
• Write out a program/plan for the next 4 months
• Take note of my recovery status between weeks
• Comment in this thread about whether I'm maintaining my good sleep hygiene and habits from the last challenge 

Boreas: the North Wind

The cold breath of the north wind drives me to seek shelter for the winter. 

• Apartment hunt: check listings and reply to possible options at least 3x per week until a new place is secured
• Take on the bedroom and my clothing inventory
• Take on the living room and my weird stuff inventory
• Take on the kitchen and my appliance/cooking supply inventory
• Ultimately determine what's coming with me to the new place and get it PACKED and moved
• Job hunt: once an apartment is secured, swap to browsing job listings 3x per week instead

Eurus: the East Wind

The... Other one.

• Plan my birthday party!

[Mad Hatter]

You look so graceful and elegant in that gif. 

Busy busy bee this month. Best of luck on the flat hunt!

[sylph]

56 minutes ago, raptron said:

Eurus: the East Wind

The... Other one.

[KB Girl]

Peaking for gymnastics.. interesting! 

I really really love your scavenger birthday hunt idea. Will you share the clues?

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following. 30 was a great birthday for me.

 

[Stronkey Kong]

That's a lot of wind

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

How did I not post this on my first response?

 

[Mike Wazowski]

OMG that gif - so elegant!

 

Love the way you're tackling the big life challenges - and can't wait to hear about the apartment and job hunting, along with what you find out about gymnastics peaking. I have no idea how one would even approach that but it seems like it's a fascinating topic.

[WhiteGhost]

Heeeeeere for this!

[@mu]

Very much in as well, as I am going to have to ride similar winds in a couple of months (flips not included helas ).

[annyshay]

[raptron]

Day 0.3

I went to the gym and started up the good ol' standby: a 10s volume block. 

I'm still theorizing about how I am going to distribute lifting through my gymnastics season, but some volume early in the season definitely never hurt. My cardio was so woefully unprepared for these. The last set of squat 10s was particularly brutal. I deviated slightly and did 2x10x205 and then 2x10x195 -- same for bench, 2x10x110 and 2x10x105. 

 

I also watched a video with two PTs and their thoughts on approaching gymnastics competition season, but honestly, it was very theoretical and spoke a lot about issues dealing with juvenile athletes, which like... hah. Not meee. 

 

Notus: 0/1 gymnastics conditioning, 0/1 lifting conditioning

Zephyrus: 1/4 peaking resources, 0/1 program written, 0/5 recovery updates

Boreas: 2/3 apartment listing searches (2 upcoming apartment viewings/meet the roomies this weekend now), 0/4 steps to moving complete

Eurus: still need to - create fb invite, text people not on fb, and start working on my scavenger hunt clues

 

[raptron]

17 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Will you share the clues?

Definitely! It's going to be more in the vein of the UofC's annual hunt than a more traditional one of just trying to figure out places around the city: http://scavhunt.uchicago.edu/lists/list2017.pdf

 

Once people get enough points, I'll give them the clue that will help them figure out where the party is.  

[CourtnieMarie]

Here for this - as always!

[Asa Pond]

I love that you just casually have gifs of yourself being badass. 

 

Following!

[miss_marissa]

Such a pretty Valdez! <3

[karinajean]

omg, such grace. also love your self-gif library. I think this is a level of self-care that many of us have not yet reached. 

[RogueLibrarian]

Big changes! So much stuff! You got this, bud.

[KB Girl]

6 hours ago, raptron said:

I also watched a video with two PTs and their thoughts on approaching gymnastics competition season, but honestly, it was very theoretical and spoke a lot about issues dealing with juvenile athletes, which like... hah. Not meee. 

Yeaaaah... I have that problem a lot too. It's like "the russians do it this way" 

"yes...... but you havent lifted bells since you were 12 and you're 30 and you don't take drugs and you have a job etc"

 

6 hours ago, raptron said:

Definitely! It's going to be more in the vein of the UofC's annual hunt than a more traditional one of just trying to figure out places around the city: http://scavhunt.uchicago.edu/lists/list2017.pdf

 

Once people get enough points, I'll give them the clue that will help them figure out where the party is.  

Reading that pdf was a bit like going down the rabbit hole

[Mike Wazowski]

11 hours ago, raptron said:

The last set of squat 10s was particularly brutal. I deviated slightly and did 2x10x205 and then 2x10x195 -- same for bench, 2x10x110 and 2x10x105. 

Only BADASSES decide to make their 10's block even harder! Go you!

 

11 hours ago, raptron said:

I also watched a video with two PTs and their thoughts on approaching gymnastics competition season, but honestly, it was very theoretical and spoke a lot about issues dealing with juvenile athletes, which like... hah. Not meee. 

I feel like there's the same dearth of info when I try to look for dance stuff. Lots of stuff for ballerinas and under 18 dance competitions, not so much out there for people who compete into their late 30's or early 40's and DON'T need to go en pointe or have all their splits. I'm hopeful there's some good info out there somewhere for you though!

 

ALSO, your scavenger hunt birthday idea sounds amazing! I'm always in awe of people who can create something that engaging just for the fun of it.

 

[SymphonicDan]

I'm blown away by your challenge, mainly by the South wind

 

For gymnastics season are you working more on new moves or improving the ones you already have?

[raptron]

18 hours ago, karinajean said:

omg, such grace. also love your self-gif library. I think this is a level of self-care that many of us have not yet reached. 

Ahahah. Well, I have the videos so it's not hard to turn them into gifs and I find gifs to be the most forum-friendly media format... >_> 

 

16 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Yeaaaah... I have that problem a lot too. It's like "the russians do it this way" 

"yes...... but you havent lifted bells since you were 12 and you're 30 and you don't take drugs and you have a job etc"

10 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

I feel like there's the same dearth of info when I try to look for dance stuff. Lots of stuff for ballerinas and under 18 dance competitions, not so much out there for people who compete into their late 30's or early 40's and DON'T need to go en pointe or have all their splits. I'm hopeful there's some good info out there somewhere for you though!

Yeah, it's tough! 

 

I feel like it also doesn't help that I'm an asshole who can't stick to one sport. Maybe I'll expand my search to also include "off-season" training resources for powerlifting because there are a buttload of those. I know most of them definitely say volume/hypertrophy, so I'm already on track for that for the next few weeks at least, but I still need to get a better grip on managing fatigue for gymnastics. So many things to consider. 

 

16 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Reading that pdf was a bit like going down the rabbit hole

10 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

ALSO, your scavenger hunt birthday idea sounds amazing! I'm always in awe of people who can create something that engaging just for the fun of it.

My list is going very well, I think! I have NO IDEA how into it people are going to get, so I am trying to give a wide variety of options for earning points. I think I have about 90 things on the list so far...

 

2 minutes ago, SymphonicDan said:

For gymnastics season are you working more on new moves or improving the ones you already have?

I am working on two new things this season. I'm trying to change from a dive cartwheel + cartwheel series to a front walkover + round-off series on balance beam. On floor, I'm hoping to change my first pass from front handspring + front tuck step-out + round-off + back tuck to front handspring + front pike + front tuck instead. I'm also hoping to vault again (probably just a front handspring) for the first season in a while and try a new connection on uneven bars.

 

Day 0.4

Gymnastics practice! My legs had pretty significant DOMS from the volume squats, but they seemed okay to jump and tumble anyway! DOMS does not always equal fatigue, after all -- though now I want to read more about this so I'm actually informed and not just spouting off what I think to be the case. I did a moderate amount of front tumbling including 3 attempts at front handspring + front pike + front tucks -- I only landed on my feet on the third one but I'm still really happy about that because I hadn't done any since before the holiday break. 

 

I went to uneven bars for the first time in couple of months (since I sprained my middle finger on beam) and just did kips and kip + freehip + kips. I anticipate the abs DOMs will be delicious, but it hasn't kicked in yet. I ordered new grips and need to work on breaking them in and getting them to fit, but I hadn't gotten them prepared for this practice, so I just skipped them for now.

 

Balance beam was wonky for some reason -- I kept tilting to the right? But I did lots of full turns with a pretty good success rate (they're my nemesis), switch leaps, jumps, and some dive cartwheel + dive cartwheel combinations. Ended with some short approaches on the vault -- just doing an abbreviated run, hitting the springboard, and going up to handstand rather than a real vault, and ankle PT and went home.

 

Notus: 0/1 gymnastics conditioning, 0/1 lifting conditioning [not doing during 0 week]

Zephyrus: 1/4 peaking resources, 0/1 program written, 0/5 recovery updates

Boreas: 2/3 apartment listing searches (2 upcoming apartment viewings/meet the roomies this weekend), 0/4 steps to moving complete

Eurus:  party planning --  create fb invite, text people not on fb, finalize scav hunt clues and distribute them, order prizes, pick final location!

 

Plan for the rest of the week:

Friday - lift, wash my grip wristbands, prep the new grips... go to bed early probably

Saturday - gymnastics, view two apartments, surprise bday party for a friend

Sunday - maybe lift, but maybe just rest? + bedroom and clothing inventory/purge

[WhiteGhost]

59 minutes ago, raptron said:

did kips and kip + freehip + kips.

Is there a difference between freehip and front hip circle?  I tried to google this but I couldn't find a difference.

[raptron]

4 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

Is there a difference between freehip and front hip circle?  I tried to google this but I couldn't find a difference.

A free hip/clear hip circle is a backwards hip circle where your hips do not touch the bar. The ultimate goal is to hit handstand like this:

 

But at my level, we're aiming for just greater than 90 degrees, more like this:

 

[WhiteGhost]

That looks soooo hard...  Of course now I am going to have to go try it next time I go out