I'm a gymnast! ...kinda.

One of my training goals for the year was to do a kip (and I do mean a kip). I do gymnastics with Mike, Melinda and Becky twice a week, and in every block before this one, I've simply been building my strength while the three of them flip and twist and spin like crazy around me! Becky looks like this, and I've been doing pull-ups and basic strength things on the high bar...kind of embarrassing sometimes.

When there is evidence all around me that I'm behind in training (nevermind that Becky was a level 10 gymnast and Melinda and Mike have done this before) I get extremely motivated to improve.

I quietly have worked on improving my strength on the high bar (3 pull-ups the first day to 3 sets of 10 now) and on the rings so that I could have my shot at learning some tricks!

Last week was rest week. You may remember that I thought the week before that was rest week, but I was wrong. That means I really needed to recharge my batteries this weekend! I took full advantage: got away from the training center, borrowed Ian and Stacy's dog London, a vizsla, and took her to the beach, went to the zoo with Russ and even met some of his family we didn't know lived here! I was ready to come back to practice on Monday, and I was extremely ready to try some new moves on the high bar on Tuesday afternoon.

I did a kip.

Then I did like 7 more of them! Then I tried some muscle-ups, and I did those, too! I am absolutely loving gymnastics, because progress is so measurable. You either can perform a skill, or you can't.

As Dr. Ross said when I told him I had achieved a year-long aspiration on the first day I tried, I need to modify my goals a little. :)