January 18th, 2009 Workout – Snowboarding
As I was writing this I started wondering if I should even consider these workouts since I’m really just going out and having a blast, ha. Anyway, I took my little brothers and a friend out boarding for the day.
The friend had never gone boarding ever and wanted to try it out. I was able to teach him how to come down on his heel edge and then start doing the falling leaf going side to side. Eventually he started to learn his balance and was able to make it down most of the time without falling. He really liked it and I think he’ll be coming out with us again.
We ended up building a little kicker on the edge of the run and hit it over and over again. I got a good feeling for launching off of it and landing and then started trying to do 180’s off of it. I found it hard to get a proper ollie off it while thinking about spinning. Out of a dozen attempts I landed good once, sketchy twice and then ate it the rest of the times. All together I probably went over it 30 or 40 times. I haven’t fallen that much in a while, but it was amazingly fun!
The only way I’m going to progress is by doing harder and harder techniques and falling is going to be a part of that. Bring it on!
January 10th, 2009 Workout – Snowboarding
I went night riding at Blue for the 9th day of the season. I’ve been wanting to get out somewhere with longer runs and Blue had them! Conditions were good, not too cold and I made a lot of progression.
I did a couple of grinds on a table top and got over my fear of jumps even though I spilled off it. I’m getting better at ollies too – I can’t always pop off the tail properly, but I’m getting more comfortable at doing them with more and more speed and landing flat and in control.
I think I passed a big mental block when riding in switch now – instead of hesitating when turning I was able to just lean and let it happen.
So far this season has been way more fun than last season. I feel like I’m really progressing as opposed to learning to balance / ride like I was last season. Tuesday is my freestyle lesson – should be fun!
January 7th, 2009 Workout – Snowboarding
Went out for my 8th snowboarding session of the season tonight at Glen Eden. We had a decent dumping of snow today so the conditions at the hill were pretty good. Unfortunately one of the lifts that services half the runs was down with a technical issue, so the other lifts were really busy.
Since the lifts were so busy I spent some time on the flat ground and worked on some tricks. I’m getting better at getting my weight over my back leg and doing a tail press. I can ollie pretty well when not moving now and am starting to get the nollie motion as well. I can almost do a 180 too. My balance has gotten a lot better recently. I’ve been using the balance board for a couple of minutes whenever I walk by it and it’s working!
Hopefully I can get up to Blue Mountain on Saturday… I’m dying to get up to a bigger hill.
January 5th, 2009 Workout – Balance/Core
Today I did a new kind of workout, focusing on strengthening my balance and core muscles to improve my snowboarding. I used a few pieces of equipment for this workout:
- Home made balance board – instructions here: http://www.surfstuff.eu/balance-boards/make-a-balance-board
- Exercise ball
- Pull up bar
I’ve had the pull up bar for a while, but I just built the balance board and bought the exercise ball.
I did a quick warmup, then did the following with each piece:
Balance board:
- balancing with feet wide, as if snowboarding
- balancing with feet wide and both pointing forwards
- squats / lunges – these were really tough – my legs were shaking!
- push ups
Exercise ball:
- crunches
- hamstring raises
- push ups
- back extensions
Pull-up bar:
- pull ups
- chin ups
I haven’t done much of this type of workout in the past – working while unstable really forces your whole body to work at stabilizing you during your movements. Instead of isolating muscles, you work your whole body in a very functional way. I can already feel the burning in my legs / core. I’m going to do this routine at least twice a week for the next 3 months.
Tomorrow I’m going snowboarding after work – I have 90 minute freestyle lessons once a week for the next month – I really want to push my progression this season. Can’t wait!
21 days
I was in a bad mood early this morning and it put me into a bad state for pretty much the whole day. The reason was because I was going through my goals and realized just how much I’ve been slacking the past few months. I’ve gained a bit of weight back and now I’m going to be a few months behind to reach the goals I set for myself a year and a half ago.
I knew there wasn’t much point to thinking about it while in a bad mood / state so I cleared my head by putting on some music and going snowboarding. I got in 4 good hours of riding and left totally relaxed and in a much better mood.
I’ve picked up some bad habits over the last few months and they are affecting my energy levels and progress, so the first thing I’m going to do is eliminate them completely. It takes 21 days for the brain to register a new behaviour as normal so for the next 21 days, I’m going to act consistently to fix these 3 habits.
- Using the computer in my bedroom – I have a separate room that I use as an office and I’ll be doing all my work in there. When I do my work in my bedroom I’m tempted to lay down while I work with the TV on in the background. I get less done and often pass out with the TV on and the lights on – which leads to bad sleeping patterns and not enough rest. I’m not bringing my laptop into my bedroom at all anymore – period.
- Failing to log my workouts – I’ve been putting off doing my logs / journal entries for my workouts. This has just been plain laziness / procrastination on my part. By not logging my workouts I lose insight on my progress which is both a powerful tool and motivator. From now on I will be keeping a log during my workouts and writing my journal entry immediately afterward.
- Eating unplanned meals / convenience foods – over the past few months I’ve eaten a lot more convenience foods / fast food / unplanned meals. Besides being less healthy and having more calories, eating unplanned meals leaves me less in control. It makes grocery shopping harder as I don’t have a definitive plan / list of ingredients which leads to wasting produce which I absolutely hate doing. From now on I’ll be planning my meals every Sunday and doing my weeks worth of grocery shopping then.
I am going to change these 3 habits by January 24th. After that, I’ll pick three new things to work on. I feel the determination I had before and I know I am going to do it.