Category: parkour

Python helps you with your running sessions

Time back I was trying parkour, but I got some old injures that didn’t let me practice it properly. Also there was too much sedentary life… I needed to start from the beginning. I needed to create a good baseline for my training.

I also started of doing some rock climbing again. Sport that I really love 🙂

I was gaining some strength and I could doing again some pull ups and some boulders. But I found, as I did before with the parkour that I needed some stamina.

I also realized that parkour is a way to run, so I should be able to run. And I wasn’t…

So I’ve decided to start to run. I used to do it time ago when I got into the university. And I liked to be a bit methodical, so I could see the progress and train better. So I decided to buy a good pair of running shoes, a pulsometer and chrono. Then I realized that things have changed since I was at the university and there are a lot of stuff and software to help you with your training.

But the most of the applications I found weren’t open source and neither for Linux. Very fancy stuff like Ipod+Nike , but nothing for Linux. Nothing until I found Pytrainer !!! 🙂

Pytrainers years stats
Pytrainer's years stats

This is a Python + Gtk+ application oriented to track your sessions and show you your progress. It’s for running, bike and mountain bike, but I think you can add other sports alike those ones.

It has also plugins for that fancy Ipod+Nike system and others. It seems to me a really cool stuff. I have to test it more, but I hope someone with more running training skills than me, test it and give me (and to the developers 😉 ) some feedback.

Well, let’s run! 😛

Some updates

It’s been awhile since the last post. I’ve been a bit busy with Guadalinex and some personal stuff. So here I leave some updates to keep my personal log no so empty…

Parkour:

I’ve got some problems with my back and I had to quit (for a while) with this new passion… Anyway, it was useful because it farce me to go to the doctor make a real check and found old and deeper problems. And what it’s better, it also force me to keep doing some exercise, which is helping me in many ways 🙂

Rock Climbing:

I leave parkour by now, but I’ve started to climb walls again. It sounds kind of weird, but this was a previous passion for me and it’s helping me with my back.

Ok, I’m not climbing like I was doing 8 years ago (that was more or less the last time…), but I’ve decided to start slow. Step by step.

I had to much injuries from my previous climbing period. I don’t want to do the same mistakes again.

I found some artificial walls for climbing but I’m actually doing some boulder in “el Puente de Triana” (the Triana bridge), here in Seville. There are always people climbing and people are very nice and open.

I hope soon I will be able to go to some real rock outside of  Seville…

This reminds me that in Gran Canaria are really good spots for climbing (also fot others mountain activities) so if anyone who is going to the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit like to know places, let me know. I¡m from there and I know quite well those places. Just let me know before the summit and we can do some excursion or something 😉

Guadalinex:

There is already the Ubuntu Jaunty, the one we use as base to derive. We were quite busy setting up all the building systems, updating our projects for being working on Jaunty and trying to help Ubuntu a bit with translations, bugs and patches.

No so many patches as I would like, but we are very few people and we spend a lot of time learning how Ubuntu works. There is a lots of procedures, documentation, wiki pages, tools, place from where get info… We are still learning, but I thing the next version and collaboration will be much smoother. And we’ll be more useful for them 🙂

We have alpha already in the streets and we are close to have a beta, which will be more Guadalinex alike.

Ubuntu Jaunty is a really good base. I have to said that for me is one of the best Ubuntu versions in many ways, so I expect Guadalinex be at least as good as Jaunty.

We’ll change some things from Ubuntu, as the notifications stuff. We like the new notifications but we need interaction on them for one of our main projects: Hermes. And the new notification system doesn’t allow to do any interactions.

By now we’ll deactivate this and we’ll use the standard of GNOME, at least, until the new notification implement some kind of solution for those use cases.

Few days off (offline):

I’ll go tomorrow to Vigo (Galician) until Sunday and I’ll be very offline those days. It’s my first time in Galician and I know I will love it 🙂

So many time wanting to go there and just 3 days there… But sure it’s just the FIRST time and not the last 😛

bad weather, but still parkour

As I told you on a previous post, I’m starting to practice parkour, thanks to one friend who really pratices this from time ago.

But now the weather is quiet bad. Ar east for me, at least for practicing parkour. It’s kind of dangerous to jump and run over wet floors, steps, walls, and so.

We were about to go out to run on weekend, but was rainning, so we didn’t. I was with some friends in a funky concert, which was also fun, so wasn’t bad weekend after all 😉

Funk gruop called La Mula
Funk group called La Mula

Anyways, I was reading info about parkour. Techniques, trainings, moves and so. And also watching lots of videos and movies to learn the flow.

I watch movies like District 13, a not very remarkable action movie, but for the moves and runs of David Belle, known for being one of the father of parkour. The guy is really amazing…

And I found stuff to read on Parkourpedia, from where I got some pdfs with good stuff about techniques and how to start. Nice 🙂

The good thing of parkour is that you can practice anywhere and when you start to feel the philosophy behind the discipline, you see all the places and things as part of your playground. So you beginning to see the obstacles, not as so, but as things you can overcome and ways to pass through 🙂

Ok, I just start, but it’s not very different of the free and urban climb I used to do time ago. I still remember that time where I wasn’t seeing walls, but ways to climb up, neither buildings, but things and place where climb around… I use to feel free on those moments… Really zen moments 🙂

The next week I go to Gran Canaria (my real place 🙂 ) and I guess there will be a better weather and I will practice more.

Anyways, even today, when I was frozen waiting fro the train to come home from work, I was playing some moves to work out my balance and precision (and, actually, to keep me a bit more warm…).

Well, I’ll tell you my progress and things I learn. I hope you enjoy as much I do 🙂

Parkour session

Today was my first parkour‘s training session.

I liked this discipline (or sport) even before I knew the name or the history (which is quiet interesting by the way). I think it’s like my free software beginning. I knew there was a way of understand the software and knowledge before to meet the FLOSS community.

I used to practise martial arts, rock climbing, trekking and liked to run free through rocks and trees. I also liked to practise urban climbing, so when see people who run, jump and climb so fluent across de cities I felt I had found my path 🙂

As I said, it was like with the open source 🙂

Ok, I’m 31 years old and I don’t feel like jumping building, but the good thing of the parkour is not just the spectaculars, but the philosophy.

It is not just jumping and messing around is to train your body and your mind to keep running. To keep your path, your way. No matters what obstacles you have, you train yourself to pass them.

Some times you have to climb them, some to jump them, others to make a detour and some times even take another direction, but never give up.

This is good training not just for the sport, but for your life.

Anyway, this was my first session. It was very basic, but for my was very interesting and instructive. We were making precisions, cat passes, vaults, turn vaults and some rolls.

All this thanks my workmate José. Thanks José! 🙂

PS: I think I going to work out a bit to avoid injuries. (I used to have a lot where I was climbing… too young, too impatient, too enthusiastic…)

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 España
This work by Juanje Ojeda is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 España.