Ben Nuttall | Blog: A Day In The Life...

On reflection, 2006 has been a brilliant year for me. The best so far, I'd say. Off the top of my head, I assume these to be among the contributors to the general success of the year:

- Training more often
- Training harder
- Watching less TV
- Eating healthier
- Not having a girlfriend throughout the entirety of 2006 (woo!)
- Making new friends (parkour, TF, school)
- Broadening my music taste
- Working harder at school (only applies from fairly recently...)
- Domain name and webspace (thanks to Shane)
- Going to NYC
- Turning 18 (how could I forget?)

A few minutes ago I had the idea for this post, and I started to plan it on paper, but all I ended up with was a list of things I'd scribbled out. So...here I am again, square one, just a bunch of random ideas floating around inside my head. Here goes...

We're approaching Christmas (although it doesn't feel like it AT ALL!), and the end of the year. 2007 will hopefully bring even better things, and I aim to work on all the key areas of my life in order to make the most of it.

Training targets for 2007

I am to:

- Train Tuesdays and Saturdays in town (normal parkour training, including repetitions)
- Train Thursdays - conditioning sessions (Sheffield's version of Blane's 'Hell Night')
- Train by myself more often (whether it be parkour, running, conditioning, specific (i.e. upper body, leg strength, mental, etc.)
- Go to Manchester every month (usually the third Saturday, if I can't make that one I'll go another week) to train with our NP friends
- Make the most of each session (less sitting around, more repetitions)
- Try to eat healthier still (more fruit + veg, less crap...)
- Eat a good breakfast (Currently I never have the time to eat breakfast, but I intend to get up for a good bowl of varied cereal)
- Get to bed earlier (which means getting homework and online tasks finished earlier)
- Spend less time doing nothing on the Internet (acceptable things are blogging, reading blogs, checking NP (in moderation - excuse the pun...), reading articles and watching vids (in moderation), but I need to spend less time looking for things to do online, just chatting or wasting time on unimportant sites)
- Make use of Sunday night Lifeguard sessions (I am currently lifeguarding Sunday night sessions in a 2-hour block, and I aim to use any time I am not on duty to either swim or do hardcore lifeguard fitness training with the trainers), although I will be running an indoor canoeing course for one hour each session throughout the Winter months in the new year, it just means I'll have to make the most of the other hour.
- Take up climbing and/or cycling (These are two activities I have been keen on getting started with while I've been in The Unit. I have friends who are willing to help me out as they suspect I will get used to the basics in no time and should be fairly competent due to the nature of my lifestyle and the other activities I do. As for cycling, there's a challenge coming up in the summer that caught my eye, it's a cycle across the width of the country, coast to coast, in 24 hours. I should be able to do it if I put the training in...and bought a bike. If I decide to go ahead with this then I will try to spend the minimum possible on a bike which will manage to take me from one side of the country to the other! Any suggestions welcome!)
- Do more kayaking of my own (I currently spend the majority of my canoeing time teaching kids, and I don't spend enough time improving my own skill level)
- Continue to gain coaching experience (indoor in the Winter months, outdoor once it gets to Spring)

Ok I realize I've tailed off a bit there, but the list contains many of my targets for improving my parkour, whether it be direct (i.e. parkour training on Tuesdays and Saturdays) or indirect (eat healthier, take up climbing...).

I didn't mention filming parkour. I'm not sure about this. In a way I'd like to film more of my own parkour in order to record achievements and show my blog readers what I'm up to. On the other hand, I think I would benefit from putting the camera away for a while, and get on with training. I think I'll compromise and obviously not waste time filming, but film whenever I feel something's worthwhile. Some days I won't film at all and just keep a one track mind. Some days I'll just whack the camera down, hit it to record, and just go for it without thinking too much about it. I'll see how it goes.

I also intend to create some sort of weekly training schedule in the new year, but rather than draw one up now, I'll just train and when I feel I've comfortably go into a schedule I'll write it out and stick to it, altering it as I see fit.

I have 7 exams in January, so as soon as I'm back from Wales for new year, I'll be revising and I can't be putting too much time into training when I have to do well in the exams, so I aim to be comfortably into a schedule by the end of February.

My overall aim is to reduce the time I spend doing unimportant things, use that time to do thing I need to do such as homework, then instead of doing homework late at night I can be sleeping, or instead of doing homework in the evenings, if I've already finished it, I can spend that time training instead. I also aim to build my body up in order to reach my potential in parkour by becoming fitter and healthier by training hard and conditioning.

Wish me luck.