Allow Me To Bore You With My Vacation Photos

Last year's trip to the Ancestral Health Symposium in L.A. was super-educational, but I enjoyed PaleoFX less for the content and more for the opportunity to connect with old and new friends. I was primarily in Austin to support M as she prepared for her panels and cooking demonstration, so my focus wasn't on figuring out whether Jack Kruse is a visionary or a loon, or whether safe starches are in fact safe. Yes, I learned a bunch of new stuff (more on that later), but for the most part, I treated this as my Paleo vacation. And although I had a bit of a nasty cold throughout my time in Austin, the warm weather, meaty eats, and insanely great company made it a trip to remember.

Rather than trying to describe the experience in words, here are a crapload of snapshots (by me and Bobby Gill) that summarize our latest Paleo nerd-a-thon:

Wandering around the University of Texas at Austin

The Salt Lick in Driftwood

M & Melicious

A big pile o' meat!

A few of our housemates at Paleo Blogger Nerd Central: Diane Sanfilippo, George Bryant, Bobby Gill, Hayley Mason and Bill Staley, M (Not pictured: Liz Wolfe, Spence Wartman, Diana Rodgers, Stacy Toth, Laura Schoenfeld)

Nom Nom Sox

Post-WOD photo at CrossFit Austin

More after the jump...

Wednesday's Workout: CrossFit Austin

Sorry I've been M.I.A. -- we're down in Austin for the inaugural PaleoFX conference (a.k.a., the Gathering of the Paleos), and our schedules have been jam-packed. 

M and I are staying in a house filled with Paleo people, including Bill and Hayley (Primal Palate), Diane (Balanced Bites), Stacy (Paleo Parents), Liz and Spence (CaveGirlEats), Diana (Radiance Nutrition), Bobby (UltraGrassFed), and Laura (Ancestralize Me). And of course, you can't have large gatherings of Paleo folk without a visit to a CrossFit box.

Clad in Nom Nom Paleo socks, about most of our house's residents -- plus George of Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations -- visited CrossFit Austin today. The box is just five minutes from our house, so even though we got a late start to the day, we managed to hustle over there for the noon class.

I've been under the weather for a couple of days, so I wasn't feeling super-awesome as we pulled up to the gym. But I was hoping a good workout would knock the cold right out of me.

After a directed warm-up (very similar to what we do at CrossFit Palo Alto, down to the lunges and punter-kicks), we got down to business.

Skills Practice:

• Kipping Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups (3 sets of 10, with 45 seconds of rest in-between)
• Ring Push-ups (3 sets of 10, with 45 seconds of rest in-between)
• Lateral Step-ups (3 sets of 5 per leg, with 45 seconds of rest in-between)

These were fun. I enjoy the rhythmic motion of kipping pull-ups, and chest-to-bar pull-ups were a nice change of pace. The lateral step-ups and push-ups were a pleasant way to knock some rust off, too.

But then came the metcon workout.

Metcon:

2-3 Person Team Workout - 20 Minute AMRAP of:

• 500-meter row
• 200-meter farmer's walk (55lb / 35lb in each hand)
• Sumo Complex: 10 sumo deadlifts and 10 sumo back squats (135lb / 95lb)

In this workout, each person starts at a different station, and you can move onto the next station only after your teammate has finished that movement. I was on a team with George and Spence -- two incredibly strong guys -- so my only goal today was to avoid slowing them down...too much.

I started with the sumo complex, and had Spence on standby in case I couldn't hoist the 135-pound barbell over my head and onto my back. But I managed to get through all the squats, deadlifts, and the rowing without too much trouble.

The farmer's carry, on the other hand, was rough. We carried 55 pounds in each hand, and it felt like our wrists were going to explode. Here's Diane, expressing how all of us felt:

I managed to get two-thirds of the way through my third round. Spence and George got through three rounds each, so we ended with a score of 8 -- almost 9! -- full rounds as RXed.

We were pretty wiped by the end of the hour, but still had enough energy to pose for photos.

And one of us (*cough*Diane*cough*) had enough left in the tank to climb a rope using just her arms.

[Note: The crappy photos above are mine; the good ones are by Bobby Gill]