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I've managed to quickly adjust my sleep cycle in response to daylight savings. I'm not sure how, but I'm actually managing to get up earlier despite having lost the hour. But it's seriously screwing with my schedule. I had made it a goal to be winding down by 10:30 every day for this month, but that seems highly unlikely for the next few days since I managed to get busy with work and lost the hour at the same time. I've been winding down around 11 p.m. a lot of nights, and not until midnight one day. Sigh.

I dropped the weighted dips and pull ups this month in favor of muscle ups on the rings. Happily, I'm still able to bang them out, though I'm still not quite up to a solid set of 10 muscle ups yet. I realize now that my abs and core aren't quite strong enough for me to make it through 10. I was strong enough to force myself through a 7th rep using mostly my arms. I paid for it later though. My biceps have been sore ever since that muscle up workout a couple of days ago.

Oops. I apparently set the bar too low for my March fitness challenge. I did 27 total muscle ups and still had some extra left in the tank (probably could have made 30). That breaks the 25 goal I had set. I still have to make 10 straight muscle ups though.

February has come and gone, and my 30 day (or more accurately, 28 day) challenges were mostly met. I'll give myself a break because I was traveling for 4 of the days. My I-Liq Chuan practice habits have definitely gotten better because of the month long challenge. I wasn't particularly good about keeping up my handstand practice, though I did discover something about my hand positioning which should improve my future practice. And I didn't do my daily anatomy studies. But I made good progress overall despite the missed days.

February wasn't my best month for keeping my training goals. But that's ok. It was a short month, and I was in NY for 4 days. Traveling tends to screw with my daily routine, and it takes me a day or two to get back into my groove.

Well, after two months of training, I think I'm just about ready to get back to the rings. Weighted dips and pull ups have improved my strength, but I feel like I'm losing a little core strength. That could be an unwarranted misgiving since my dragon flags actually feel better now and I had no trouble holding a support on the rings with my hands turned out and my arms 45 degrees out to the sides (getting closer to that iron cross, yeah!).

Gen and I had a conversation about silly sports mascots, and I'm always amused when I remember some of the weird mascots out there. My own alma mater, University of Chicago, has a phoenix as a mascot, which isn't very related to the sports teams being the "Maroons." Nothing strikes fear into the heart of your opponents like a fierce abstract visual concept.

After my 4th I-Liq Chuan intensive, my brain still feels oversaturated after 3.5 days of training. This time I at least made it to mid Sunday before my brain felt overwhelmed with information. Now I just need to find a way to get in the necessary practice to physically manifest the concepts I learned.

Gandhi

“They say the means are after all just means. I would say means are after all everything. As the means, so the end.” — M.K. Gandhi