Finally!!!

YAY!!! I did it! I finally got my very first muscle up!!! I know it is not pretty, but I am soooo happy! The video posted below was on Wednesday right after completing the WOD "Nasty Girls" with 21 scaled muscle ups. My wrist still flips over on this one, but I fought through it and kipped out of it. I had watched a video of Rebecca Voight demoing a Mainsite WOD (Nov 4) last week with Muscle-Ups and her wrist flipped over, too. So, when this happened again to me on Wednesday, I thought I would just try hopping out it like she did and see what happened. It worked!
Do I recommend you doing it this way? No. Jeff Tucker wouldn't like this muscle up, I know. But, from here I can only get better, right?
Now I can move on to the next goal. Hmmmm, maybe walking on my hands?
Okay, here are the WOD's from Wednesday through today.
WORKOUT OF THE DAY

Wednesday
"Nasty Girls"
3 Rounds
50 Squats
7 Muscle Ups (scaled from knees)
10 Hang Power Cleans (83lbs)
Score:11:33
I have to say that after this WOD was over, I was disappointed. I messed up by watching the original "Nasty Girls" video. When I saw Nicole Carrol struggle with the 95lb hang power clean, I thought to myself "I have no business doing that. If she is struggling, there is no way I can do it!"
At the end of the WOD, I realized that I should have gone heavier. AT least 93lbs. Oh well, I guess that means I need to do it again, and wait until I can do the WHOLE thing as Rxd!
After the WOD, was when this video was taken and the Happy Dance was performed. :)

Thursday
For Time:
In ascending and descending order, alternate between the two movements
Pullups 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 reps
Deadlifts (140lbs) 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 reps
Score: 8:31 - got all my pullups unbroken except for rounds 7 and 6. Deadlifts smoked me!!

Friday
STRENGTH DAY!!!
Back Squat: work to heavy single (175lbs) then, 90% x 2 (155lbs), 85%x3x5 (145lbs)
Squat Snatch: 60%x5(48lbs), 65%x4(55lbs), 75%x4(63lbs), 85%x4x2(73lbs)
Squat Clean: 75%x4(103lbs), 85%x4x2(113lbs)
Split Jerk from the back:60%x5(75lbs),70%x5(85lbs),85%x5x3(105lbs)

Well, today is the last day of September and the deadline for the WOD Love's muscle up challenge. I went into the gym this morning very confident. I didn't immediately jump on the rings, instead I went ahead and started my strength WOD. As I was working on the Snatch Balance I was very appalled at how awful I am at that movement. I have a 125lbs Overhead Squat but a 45lb Snatch Balance was awful! Part of the problem, (aside from the fact that I haven't done this movement very much) is my arms. My forearms and my triceps are toast. I knew then that it wasn't looking like a very good morning for muscle-ups. BUT being the stubborn me that I am, I wanted to at least try. I gave it only 3 attempts and then my arms were aching so badly they were visibly shaking. They hurt so badly I wanted to cry, because of pain and frustration.
So, I felt defeated. The fact that I had PR'd my back squat today by 15lbs was overshadowed by my sense of failure on this one thing.
I feel like I just lost a race that I ran my ass off in. But, after a while, I stopped the self-inflicted beatings and reminded myself that tomorrow is another day.
My husband is back in town for the weekend and we all went out to dinner tonight. He is the reason my mood brightened considerably. I decided at dinner though, that I wanted to give it one more go. I mean, the day wasn't over yet, right?
When we got home, I didn't even go inside. We all stayed in the garage and I told my husband and my boys it would only take a minute. I was going to do it and then take a week off!
Oh my goodness! I came soooo close! What you can't see in the video above is the cause of my inability to dip out. My right wrist flipped over and I couldn't get it straight. I hung there as long as I could trying to flip my wrist over but then my wrist really started hurting and I began to fear I was about to injure my wrist. Damn it! I have NEVER been that close before! I have NEVER been able to get my head through the rings! And I did it tonight!!! Even if I didn't get that muscle-up, tonight I had a small victory! I really believe that if my arms were not as fatigued as they are, I would have had it. But right after this last attempt my arms began to spasm. My husband had to roll them out for me. Oh they hurt!
I waited one more hour and tried one more time, much to my husbands scolding, but after that very last go at it, I could tell I was pushing my limits. The last thing I want to do is give myself a stress fracture and then be unable to workout for the next few weeks.
As it is, the fatigue in my arms has already affected my overhead lifts this week. So, I am taking the weekend off and seeing how I feel by Monday. I will be smart about it. I missed this deadline for this challenge, but I will not miss my original one, October 16. I got this!

Today's Strength WOD
At the Oly-lift Cert this past weekend, I talked with Coach Burgener about my strength training and asked for his coaching advise. I explained to him that my goal is to get stronger with the Oly-Lifts. So, I am changing my strength bias up a bit.

Back Squat- Work up to a heavy single (175lbs-15lb PR!) then did 90% at 2 reps, then 85% at 3 reps, 3 sets
Front Squat-80%(115lbs)3 reps, 3 sets
Snatch Balance- this is a new movement so I worked on the skill 45lbs-45lbs-45lbs-65lbs(awful!), 45lbs, 33lbs

Muscle Up Work and Muscle Up Work

Eating:
Day 25 of WHOLE30
Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs with almonds
POST WOD: Progenex
Snack: Larabar
Lunch: Turkey burger (patty only), cajun spiced sweet potato wedges, crackling cauliflower (from Whole Foods-yum!!)
Snack: Raisins
Dinner: Peeled Shrimp, Crab legs and broccoli

Closer than I was Yesterday

Well, my forearms and triceps have let me know that this past month of heavy muscle up work has really ticked them off!
Yesterday was my rest day, but usually on my rest day I will do something. Play on the rings, work on handstands, double unders just something! Not yesterday. It was very hard not to jump up on those rings but I really wanted to give my arms a full 24hours off, feeling confident that this was all I needed in order to jump up on those rings today and get that muscle up...yeah, you guessed it. Didn't happen.
I did work on it, but within minutes my forearms and triceps were screaming at me. I had been thinking it was my elbows, but today I realized that it is actually the muscles surrounding my elbows that is so sore.
To be this close, and to be too sore to work on this movement, well, I can't even describe my frustration! I just knew it was going to happen this week! :(
Tuesday after class, a few of us were hanging around talking and visiting and I was messing around on the rings. Coach Mark was watching me try to kip up there and he stopped me. He turned to everyone and asked them to come over to where we were so they could watch us for a minute. Then he asked me to get my false grip and just pull straight up, no kip. Ok, so I did. Then he did the same thing, but after he paused (where I paused) he went on into a dead hang muscle up.
He then asked everyone that was watching, "who got higher on the rings, Dawn or me?
They all said, surprisingly, "Dawn".
They said WHAT?!?!
Yeah, from a dead hang, I am pulling myself up higher than ever. Plenty high enough for a muscle up. The problem is that I get up there and can't figure out how to get my head through the rings.
After I finally realized that I really was getting high enough, I was ready to do it again. I felt my confidence completely shift. I knew I could do this!
I went to pull myself up again and my arms said "forget it!"
This was Tuesday. Yesterday I just coached, no WOD, no strength. REST.
Today, still no muscle up. I did work on the dead hang some more and Coach Mark gave me a buddy assist to go over into the transition by putting his hands on my hips and tilting me a bit forward. I thought he really pushed me through, but he said he barely did anything, that I did it mostly by myself. I AM SO CLOSE I COULD JUST SCREAM!!!!
But I had to stop because my arms started aching so badly.
I will roll them out tonight with a foam roller and hopefully, prayerfully it will happen tomorrow. I know you are sick of me blogging about this damn movement. Believe me, I am sick of it too, but I can't give up. I am obsessed with it!

TODAY'S WOD
3 ROUNDS of
3 minute AMRAP
3 Handstand Push ups
6 Slam Ball (all we have is a 12lb ball)
9 jumping squats
at the end of the 3 minutes, rest 1 minute then go to round 2 picking up where you left off.
Score 12 rounds + 7 reps

Eating:
Wednesday, Day 23 of WHOLE30
Breakfast: 2 Hard boiled Eggs
Snack: Cashews and jerky
Lunch: Grilled Chicken Salad
Snack: banana with almond butter
Dinner: Meatloaf, butternut squash

Thursday, Day 24 of WHOLE30
Breakfast: 2 Hard boiled eggs with almonds
POST WOD: Progenex
Snack: Salmon and sweet potatoes
Lunch: Spaghetti Squash, mixed fruit
Snack: LaraBar
Dinner: Meatloaf, baked sweet potato with Cinnamon, green beans
Snack: Banana with almond butter and blueberries (ate too much fruit today.)

Train smart, leave the ego at the door.

Today was a stength day for me. My back felt so much better this morning! I redid my 500 meter row and got it under 2 minutes -1:56! a PR for me! I was in such a great mood! We had a great group there this morning, the music was pumpin' and we were having fun! I love my box, I really do!
BUT, during my last set of cleans, as I was pulling the second one, I felt my back twinge again, same place! Damn IT! So, I rolled it out with a ball and finished the set but the clean pulls just weren't happening for me today.

STRENGTH WOD (all percentages are based on 1RM)

Front Squat: 60%, 5 reps (83lbs), 70%, 4 reps (98lbs), 80%, 3 reps-4 sets (113lbs)

Clean: 60%, 3 reps (83lbs), 70%, 3 reps (98lbs), 75%, 3 reps(103lbs), 80%, 3 reps-3sets (110lbs)

Clean Pull: this was supposed to be 3 reps at 95% then 3 reps at 105%, but I could only do 2 at 95%. I was just too nervous about my back today. Me really hurting my back is NOT going to help me train. Train smart, leave the ego at the door!

Bench Press: 60%, 5 reps (60lbs), 70%, 5 reps (70lbs), 85%, 5 reps-3 sets (85lbs)

Skill Work:
Spent about 20-30 minutes on just muscle-up progressions. Using my feet on the box and shooting my head through. Did 30 of these. Next week I will start working on transitions while sitting on the floor. Only 20 days left for the Muscle-Up challenge!

Eating:
Day 4 of Whole30
Breakfast: 2 hardboiled eggs, 1 piece of canadian bacon
Post WOD: Progenex
Lunch: Left over Cabbage Stir Fry
Snack: Larabar
Dinner: Paleo/Whole30 stew. Yum!!!
Dessert: banana with almond butter and blueberries.

Need a rest day!

I am so excited that some of you have decided to join me in the Whole30 challenge. For me, this is day 4 and so far, so good. I think just knowing that I am not doing this alone makes it so much better!
As always, I will be posting what I eat, but if there is a meal that you would like the recipe to, just let me know. I love to share!
Today was a great day but I am whooped! I have always stuck pretty true to the 5 days on, 2 days off schedule. That just works best for me...most of the time. But what I have discovered over the past two weeks is that I can't do these heavy strength days and keep a 5 day on, 2 day off schedule. Today, I really felt like I was only at about 75%. How does this help me?
I have gone pretty hard this week and today I really felt it.
After doing my strength training Tuesday and then that heavy WOD yesterday, my back is smoked! It is still really tight from those heavy deadlifts yesterday, but it's not a "Oh my God I've hurt myself!" pain, it just needs a rest day!
We were supposed to do our best 500 meter row today and I just couldn't give it my all with my back so tight. My best time is right at 2:00. Today it was 2:15. I was just too sore! So, I am going to finish out this week and next week, I will be going to 3 days on 1 day off, 2 days on, 1 day off schedule and see how that works.

Today's WOD

Strength and Training
3 rounds
12 cleans (65% of 1RM=83lbs)
rest 30 seconds
max handstand hold

Today's WOD
"Annie"
50,40,30,20,10 reps
Double Unders
Situps
Score: 7:43 (PR by over a minute!)

I am pleased with my double unders during the WOD today, I only had to break up the 50 double unders, after that they were all unbroken. I still can't go fast on situps. The first round I was able to go hard, but after that, it was a struggle to keep the situps unbroken. I don't know why I can't go fast on the situps, but I guess I did go faster than last time, so I am happy with that.

This afternoon I went back up to the gym to work on Muscle-ups.
My coach took video of my muscle-up attempts and he is going to look at it at home and see if he can't figure out where I am getting stuck. He is as frustrated as I am. Have I mentioned that I have been working on these for over a year? This is getting a bit ridiculous!
I did about 10 attempts before becoming completely frustrated. I can get my hips way up there, above the rings actually. I can get my chest to the rings, but I can't get my head through. So...back to transition work. I spent the rest of the time working with my feet on a box and band assist. It's obviously my transition, but where exactly am I losing it? I have the transition when I do band assist, but that's it.
I think if I spend the next week off of the higher rings and just focus hard on the transition, I will see some progress.

Eating Today
Day 3 of the Whole30 challenge
Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs, 1 piece of canadian bacon, black coffee
Post WOD: Progenex
Lunch: Left over Zucchini casserole (Left overs ROCK!) Unsweet tea
Snack: Lemon Larabar
Snack 2: Sea salted almonds and grapes
Dinner: Cabbage stir fry, frozen banana for dessert, unsweet tea