Death by Pull-ups and Heavy Back Squats

I made it to the gym today.  It seems like more often than not these days that's something of a miracle.  It made my second day this week, which is better than the 1 I thought I was going to get, but still not quite the 4 I would like to be getting.  I have stopped looking at the WOD's before I go because I've found that I will talk myself out of going if it's something I don't like, or am feeling like, right now, I'm particularly bad at.  Like pull-ups.

Not getting to the gym on a regular basis, my pull-ups, dips, HSPU's and all things that require regular application to keep consistent with, seem to have become a goat for me.  It's been frustrating at times, but I know that the only cure for this is simply to get to the box more and practice more.  So, when I walked in and saw death by pull-up, I knew I was going to get an opportunity to "practice more".  For not having done any pull-ups lately, I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to do as many as I did.  I don't really have many calluses any more, so holding onto the bar was a bit painful, but despite that, I was able to start at 5 and make it through 9 minutes (missed it by 1 pull-up as time expired). So all in all, not too shabby but it's definitely an area I still need to work on improving.  Again, doing them will help immensely, so I just need to keep focused on the idea of finding a better balance at work and making sure that I am getting to the gym so I can get in that "practice time".

After death by pull-up it was 10 minutes to find a heavy 5 rep back squat max.  We did this last week immediately following sets of heavy cleans, so last week I had some Jelloesque legs when we did this, but still came up with a 5 X 205.  Death by pull-up didn't really kill my legs, but I still felt tired under the bar, but managed to come up with a 5 X 210. I think my 5RM for back squats (with just doing back squat day) is somewhere in the vicinity of 5 X 225.  So, to be doing WOD's beforehand, being that close to my 5 RM is pretty solid, and I'll definitely take it.  As odd as it may sound, I think all the walking/stairs/lifting I do at my job does help to keep my strength up.  It just unfortunately can't help me with things pull-ups or HSPU's.  Although, maybe I could install a pull-up bar or an abmat in my corner so that I can do things when I need to stop placing orders......... hmmmm.... an idea has emerged......