Pulling-up my socks

Pull-ups...a beautiful thing to see.  Flaring lats, rippling back muscles (I prefer rippling to ripped), a rhythmic movement that almost sings on it's own.  Unless you're me...wait...I'll  give myself flaring lats and a rippling back minimum.  The rhythmic  pull-up movement is where I fall short or...have my greatest potential. My daughter, Justine, described my pull-up motion to me like this: we were driving somewhere together, she swings her hand down and slams it into the window. That's pretty much what you look like, Mom, at the bottom of your pull-up. And then she does it again, slams her hand in  a downward swinging motion into the window...a little harder the 2nd time. OK, then. She really loves me to be that honest.  I'll get a video of my pull-ups and start watching the progress. You've had this experience, right? A vision in your head of what you look like doing something? You can feel how you look? Well, I feel like I'm really swinging forward on the downward part  of my pull-ups but Justine was pretty clear with the visual explanation that that is not what happens. And then there's the butterfly pull-up.  Right now my butterfly pull-ups looked like wounded caterpillars.  I will master this movement this season. There's my first commitment to me and you.  

I'm bring up pull-ups because we just did Jackie at the end of last week. (1000m row, 50 empty bar thrusters, 30 pull-ups for time) It's great programming to have a benchmark WOD at the end of a training week.  It gives us the chance to catch ourselves saying, "Sheesh, he could have put that at the beginning of the week when I'm not so tired", AND, rephrasing it to, "Good, I'm going to PR this."  Say this aloud, "I love doing Fran.  I'm taking 5 seconds off each of the next 3 Frans." "I love Jackie. I'm going to row 3 seconds faster and do one less set of pull-ups."  I start saying things like this as soon as I see something programmed for the week. Do it...you will feel prepared. 

Back to Jackie. I did Jackie on Saturday with Dawn, Rob and Charla.  Dawn and I stepped off the rower at the same time, put down the thruster at the same time and met under the pull up bar.  I can't tell you at what time I stepped off the rower or when I finished the 50 thrusters! Really not smart when you are planning on competing at the Crossfit Games.  These are important things to know.  Dawn, did you get those numbers?? :) That's the beauty of team mates...they can cover your butt sometimes.  Anyway to finish Jackie...Dawn does her butterfly pull-ups in 3 sets of 9, 9, 12.  Phenomenal!  I do 4, 3, 3, 4, 3, 3, and 5 sets of 2 I think.  I finished in 8:44 and Dawn 7 something.  I'll have a 7 minute Jackie next time she shows up since I'm going to work on my pull-ups.  It's just practise.  I know this.  I have so many experiences to draw from when learning a skill.  Keep at it. Be consistent, get feedback, watch videos so to understand the correct technique. Then put the time in.  

Before Jackie, we did some snatch technique work and I could not complete a snatch off the blocks for nobody.  It was just one of those days where I could not get that bar close to me or turn it over fast enough.  This is often how competition goes too.  A WOD doesn't play out like planned. I easily could have talked myself into a weak Jackie because of a poor snatch session.  Finish it and forget it.  Look ahead and prepare yourself to be your best...better than your best actually.  Go into every WOD looking to be better than your best.  We all show up voluntarily to workout.  Why would we show up to do anything less than our best?  It's way more fun that way.  

Look for some videos coming soon of me slamming into the window.  

Not for long though...I'm not just talk...I'm putting my money where the pull-up bar is!

Proverbs 14:23 In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.