Playground Complete . . and DEADHANG PULLUPS!

I am SO happy to announce that my Backyard Playground is finally complete!

Here’s some pics of my completed Squat Cage (w/ spinning pull-up bar and wall-ball target), pull-up bars, and ring bar:

I’m heading to Alamo CrossFit in San Antonio this weekend for an Olympic Lifting Certification with Coach Burgener (YAY!!), and when I get home I am going to finish up my class work, and then it is ON! I am so excited that I will finally be finished with school, and have the time to take my training up a notch!

On to food – Still staying 100% Paleo 🙂 I’ve successfully reduced the amount of carbs I’m eating by cutting back on fruit, and I’m feeling really great! The extra fat is helping me to maintain good energy levels, and I’m already feeling like I’m running more “efficiently” w/ less bloat, ect.

I found an AWESOME “hummus” recipe that is 100% paleo here: http://www.sonofgrok.com/2009/06/primally-delicious-hummus/

Enjoyed it with some fresh broccoli for a snack today!

I’m getting ready to bake some chicken, grass-fed beef, and veggies to take with me this weekend so that I can stay 100% on the Paleo Wagon while in San Antonio.

Then I’m going to knock out as much schoolwork as possible before the end of the night, and then crash by 10pm so that I can get up early and leave for SA tomorrow morning 🙂

OH – I ALMOST FORGOT – MAJOR HUGE GINORMOUSMILESTONE/ACCOMPLISHMENT TODAY!!!

A little background first – I’ve been CrossFitting for approx 18 months or so now, and I kip all of the pull-ups in the WODs. My kips aren’t bad, but I’ve got grip strength issues to work on – right now I can only do about 5 in a row before my grip gives out. . .

Anyway, Long story short – I have not ever done a dead hang pull-up before. I tried (extremely unsuccessfully!!) for the first 3-4 months, but just couldn’t do it – I mean not even close! Then I learned the Kip, and kind of forgot about my inability to do “strict” pull-ups.

Earlier in the week, I was reading a bunch of stuff about dead-hangs on Melissa Urban’s blog (http://www.urbangetsdiesel.com/ ), and decided that I needed to make mastering the dead-hang my next priority.

Sooo. . .I strolled into CC CrossFit this morning, warmed up, and then casually grabbed the bar, hung, and attempted a pull-up . . .

I’ll be honest – I had already pretty much convinced myself that I would not be able to get one, and that this was something that would require a few weeks of work. . .

So imagine my surprise when I practically floated up over the bar!!! OH MY GOD!!! I almost fell off the bar out of pure shock! So I lowered myself back down, still in shock, and then said to myself “okay, that was a fluke”.

I got Mary’s attention, and said “hey – check this out!” figuring that it didn’t count unless someone saw it. Again, I hung from the bar, and BOOM – before I knew it, my chin was a good inch over the bar again! Mary’s jaw hit the floor!

So I grabbed Eduardo, and was like – hey – CHECK THIS OUT! And proceeded to do it again. . and again. . and again!!

So guess what – it’s not a fluke! Apparently my strength has increased significantly over the last 6 months through CrossFit and Olympic Lifting. . . and I hadn’t even realized it!

Sometimes it is hard to notice progress because I train every day, and typically only improve my times or lifts by a few seconds or a few pounds at a time. It is easy to get a little impatient with myself or feel that I’m not progressing as quickly as I could or should. . .

Then I get a wake up call like this, and it really reminded me that I AM making weekly progress – and when I add up a bunch of small weekly accomplishments, and look back at where I was 6 months ago, compared to now, I really have nothing to complain about.

Can I do Chest To Bars or Muscle-ups yet? No

Does that bother me a little? Sure!

But am I going to continue to work my ass off and appreciate even the little improvements until one day I wake up and surprise myself with a Muscle-up or Chest to Bar? HECK YES!


PROOF of Dead-Hangs!
at home tonight. . . a little tired, as this morning’s WOD involved 120 Kips! But I’ve still got it!