Practice Meet

Neil, Gabe and I had a mini (by-ourselves) practice meet before I leave for a short trip to FL. 

It was...interesting.   I found out that perhaps I am not so great under pressure.  I was SURE AND I MEAN ABSOLUTELY100% SURE that I could snatch 40kg.  I chose it for my first lift.  I snatched 38 and then 40 with no problem in the warm-ups.  I felt great. 

First lift...BOOM.  I missed it.  The bar fell forward.  I think I was a little shocked.

I have no idea what happened.  I know I can lift 40!  Neil told me I should go up for the second lift, so I did.  42kg.  

Second lift... !@#$!   Another miss. This time backwards.  I landed perfectly in the squat but then just could not hold onto the bar!

This was turning into my worst fear.  That I would miss all three lifts.  I wasn't nervous at all before this happened, but suddenly this was NOT fun.  I decided to stay at 42kg.

Third lift.  I approached the bar.  Took a breath.  Snatched.  Good lift.   WHAT A RELIEF. 

All in all, the snatch portion of this practice meet did NOT go the way I had been playing it in my head.  I thought for sure I'd snatch 40.  Then move up to around 42 or 43 and then possibly go for a PR at 44 or 45.  My original goal for snatch was 40kg, so I am pleased with 42 at this practice meet.  But if I miss 2 lifts at the REAL meet I'm not sure if and how I will recover.  Ugh.

The C+J's on the other hand felt ridiculously easy!  I opened with a way low lift based on my snatch experience (48kg).  Then went to 52 and 55kg and just killed both of them.  My jerks felt just absolutely right on.  How the hell that happened I have no idea.  But I'd love if it happened again.

Especially since Neil and Gabe both went 0 for 3 on all their C+J's!  Where I am limited by my jerk, they are both limited by the clean.  Neil wasn't able to get out of his squat and Gabe kept catching the bar incorrectly.  It was really bizarre.  I feel a little like bad luck and wonder if I shouldn't go watch them...

Training Week, 8, Day 3

TWO PRs!

Snatch - 43kg
C+J - 55kg

At least I think so.  My left elbow still feels a little wobbly in the jerk.

The big difference today was that I did power cleans as opposed to full squat cleans.  I'm debating whether to do those in the competition.

We're having a practice meet on Tuesday.   I think I'm going to set my lifts like this:

Snatch 40kg / 42kg / 44kg
C+J - 50kg / 54kg / 56kg

That is assuming that I make all three lifts.   I know I can C+J 50kg every time.  However I'm much more unsure about snatching 40kg.  Some days the snatch feels right on, sometimes it's way off.   But if I start much lower, it would be hard to work my way up to where I'd like to be.

I don't want to hit a 38kg snatch and then miss 2 attempts at 40kg.  I'd like to hit my first 2 lifts safely and then make a PR.  My huge fear is to miss all 3 lifts.  That would be AWFUL.

Training Week 8, Day 2

Today I decided to rebel.  I deviated from my schedule.  That's right.  Deal with it.

I ignored cleans and worked on the jerk only.  Mainly because mine sucks.  So, I racked a bar and jerked up a ladder, increasing weight by 1kg increments.  Around 50kg I felt uncomfortable dropping the bar back down to my chest, so I just dropped to the ground and did the last few sets as full clean + jerks.  I went up to my PR successfully (54kg) but missed at 55kg.  I'm glad I did it.  It made me realize that full squat cleans are exhausting!

Hopefully this Friday I can put up a new PR of 55!

Clean + Jerk (heavy single) - 54kg
Front squats - skipped these because we did Fractured Fran the day before
Snatch Push Presses - 5 sets of 3 - (went up to 37kg)

Oh Boy Another Post About Food!

I thought I would track today's food intake to see if it was very different than the last post. I guess I eat a lot of chili, mixed greens and canned tuna, because all three items make a repeat appearance.  Oh and chocolate.  I swear I don't eat those things every day.  Well, maybe the mixed greens.  And the chocolate. Wheee, here we go!

Breakfast:

1/2 sweet potato microwaved with a pat of butter

Cup of hot water with lemon and grated ginger (much easier on the stomach than coffee)

Pre-workout snack:

Half avocado

A couple spoons of greek yogurt drizzled with honey

Cup of peppermint tea

Lifting session 10:45 am

Post-workout protein shake:

1/2 frozen banana, handful frozen blueberries, a little greek yogurt, coconut water, tsp fish oil, scoop of vanilla protein powder...blended and chugged.

Lunch:

Mixed greens, hard-boiled egg, 1/2 avocado, 1/2 can of albacore tuna, oil & vinegar

Cup of coffee with tsp of coconut oil

Snack:

Apple, small piece of chocolate dipped in almond butter

Dinner:

Large bowl of pumpkin, butternut squash and coconut soup (yum)
Small bowl of beef/bacon chili (also yum)

Very large glass of red wine (fuels me while I work)

Typing this, I'm still kind of hungry.  I may slice and warm up some peaches and cinnamon before bedtime.  Maybe a little butter on there would be nice too.  Hmmmm.

The end!

Training Week 8, Day 1

Time is slipping away.  The competition is 3 weeks away.

Snatch heavy single - 39kg.  Felt off today.

Snatch balance - 3 sets of 2 - Went up to 27kg.  I have lost ALL confidence on these for some reason.  Neil mentioned that you should be able to snatch balance as much as you can snatch.  And on the first day I tried these, I thought they were easy.  I'm not sure what has happened, because I would take the bar off the rack and just stand there frozen.  My body would not allow me to drop down into a squat.  It felt like jumping off a cliff.

Back squat - 5 sets of 3 - Went up to 61kg.

Tuesday is C+ J day.  My jerk is awful.  I really want to spend time working on my speed, confidence and positions.  I think I may rack the bar and do a jerk ladder instead of just cleaning it up every time.

My original "low" goal was to snatch 40 and C+J 55.  I'm letting the 55kg goal go.  I performed a very messy 54kg, but I'm not sure if I can repeat it.   At this point, I want to focus on hammering home 40 & 50 to make sure I can confidently hit those weights at the competition.

Training Week 7, Day 3

Heavy lifting day.

Snatch - 42 kg (new PR yay!)
C + J - 51kg (3kg below my max boo!)

And here's a video of my failed attempt at snatching 43kg.  I like to call it "Failed 43kg Snatch Attempt" or "Ohhhhhhhhh SHIT."  Enjoy.

Training Week 7, Day 2

(Tuesday, Oct. 16)

Clean & Jerk, heavy single - 54 kg (new PR!)
Front squat  - 5 sets of 3 (up to 53kg)

Overhead squat - 3 sets of 2 (up to 40kg)
Clean deadlift - 3 sets of 2 (up to 75 kg)

Training Week 7, Day 1

If you read my last post, you would know that I participated in a powerlifting meet yesterday.  So, lifting today was a little harder than usual.  Yep, that's my excuse.  Take it or leave it.

3-position snatch up to heavy.  Went up to 30 kg.

Then heavy singles.  Went up to 36 kg.

Back squats, climbing, 5 sets of 3.  Went up to 50 kg.  Yes I know.

Push press, climbing, 5 sets of 5.  Went up to 36 kg.

Snatch deadlifts, 2 sets of 2.  55kg.  That was rough.

Here's me working on the 3-position snatch.  Doesn't look good.  It looks so slow to me.  And I'm not getting enough power on that top pull / hip pop.

Bookmarking this video for reference before I try these again.

Mini Powerlifting Meet!

CFPH hosted their first (annual?) powerlifting meet on Saturday.  It was so much fun to lift with all the amazingly strong girls at the gym.  My scores were at the bottom of the pack (which I totally expected) but I still managed to set some new PRs for myself.  It was also interesting to see how I would react to a competition setting, even if that setting was in my own gym surrounded by athletes I know.  In other words, about 1000 times less intimidating than the FRCF Olympic meet.

Here are my scores:
Back Squat - 73 kg (current PR was 62)
Bench Press - 30 kg (awful)
Deadlift - 94 kg (current PR was 82)
Bodyweight - 64 kg

I made all three lifts on my back squat and was feeling great.  The women were all very supportive of each other, cheering every single lift made...even the missed lifts.

My bench press, however, was a DISASTER.  This meet was the 2nd time I had done a bench press in my life, so I'm not comfortable with the lift at all.  When you consider that I have naturally weak floppy arms, well....it wasn't pretty.   My first lift was at 30kg, something I knew I could do.  My second lift was 33kg, but it was judged a "no lift" because I didn't touch my chest.  For my third lift, I decided to go up to 35kg and just bombed.  I touched my chest with the bar and then couldn't push the weight up more than 2 inches.  Keep in mind that 35kg was by far the lowest weight bench pressed by any competitor.  Every other woman STARTED higher than 35kg and had at least 2 successful lifts.  So yeah, a little humiliating.  I honestly had a hard time shaking it off and felt super nervous going into my deadlifts.

Luckily I was able to pull all three deadlifts up successfully starting at my current PR of 82 up to a new PR of 94.  It was a really fun day!

Here are some photos so you can see my weird lifting face...apparently I do an impression of a blowfish.

73 kg squat

Meditating with 94 kg OMMMMMMMM

All the strong ladies.  And me.

Training Week 6, Day 3

Max effort day.

Was feeling like absolute crap last night.  Baby E has a cold, is constipated, teething and pretty much downright miserable.  Unfortunately I caught her cold.  (Luckily I'm neither teething nor constipated.)  That said, my performance today was a lot better than it could have been.

Snatch - 40kg (PR!!!!!!!!!)
Clean + Jerk - 50kg (Awful).

Jerks felt soooo heavy today.  Not really sure what was up with that.

Knock on wood, it looks like I may be reaching my lower set of weight goals for this competition.  If you'll remember,  5 long weeks ago, my coach asked if I had specific goals for the competition.  At the time, my PRs were 29 snatch / 45 c+j.   I was completely new to the lifts, so I had no idea how far I could go in 2.5 months.  I said that lifting 40 snatch / 55 c+j on competition day would make me feel proud... and lifting 50 / 65 would make me feel like a badass.   So, looking at my progress, I think I have a decent chance of reaching my conservative goals on competition day.   Here's hoping...

This Blog is Boring.

When I started this blog I thought I'd write about a bunch of stuff, not just make it a training log.  But the last several posts have been all about training, training training.  So now for a big treat I will bore you even further with a post about what I eat.

Shortly after beginning this weightlifting program, I ended my ~6 year career as a vegetarian.  I did this for a couple reasons.  I'll probably write more about it later, but the main reason is health.

Remember these lovely bruises?  That was only the tip of the iceberg.  I would have big purple welts on my shoulders after clean days.  And upper thigh bruises from snatch pulls.  Basically, it was time for some more iron in my diet.  I had a choice:  I could eat sixty cups of spinach a day and try to make it up with vegetarian-sourced supplements.  Or I could stop listening to my whiny bleeding animal-loving heart and just eat some GD beef already.

My significant other, also a former vegetarian, went full-fledged paleo when he started the Whole Life Challenge.  I (briefly) tried dropping all grains out of my diet as well, but honestly it made me feel awful.  So I'm down to 1 or 2 servings of grain a day.  There's no way I'm giving up dairy.

Here's an example of how I eat on a lifting day.  The times are all approximate and this really varies from day to day.

6:30am :: Oatmeal with a handful of "stuff" thrown in (banana, coconut flakes, walnuts, dates, mango, etc.).  1 cup of coffee with teaspoon of coconut oil.

8:15am :: Lifting session.  GRAAARRR! (that is my roar).  I drink cold water and hot peppermint tea during the session.

9:30am :: Shake made with scoop of protein powder, frozen banana, pumpkin puree, coconut water.

11:00am :: Lunch.  Bowl of beef chili (recipe based on this one) except I add beans and top with soft goat cheese...mmmm

1:30pm :: A snack.  A peach, a carrot, some hummus.

4:00pm :: Hungry again, but it's not really time for dinner.  Mixed green salad with 1/2 avocado, handful of grapes, olive oil & vinegar.  Handful of almonds.

6:30pm :: Now it's dinner time but I'm not that hungry.  Tuna fish.  Green salad.  Bottle of beer.

9:00pm  :: Hot cocoa with heavy whipping cream, cinnamon, sweetened with a tbsp of maple syrup.

I don't measure anything.  I eat as much as I like.  I'm probably not eating enough because most nights I wake up around 2am feeling very hungry.  This is totally new for me since beginning weightlifting.  It's nuts.  Lifting doesn't really feel like that much work at the time.  I'm doing it 3 hours a week along with one CrossFit WOD.  I stuff myself with food.

My husband has dropped over 35lb since he started eating and exercising this way.  I am starting to see my stomach muscles!  I will never go back to hours of running and counting calories.

Training Week 6, Day 2

Clean + jerk - heavy single (52kg)
Front squats - (climbing) - 5 sets of 3 - (Up to 54kg) new PR!

Snatch push presses - (climbing) - 3 sets of 3 - (Up to 31kg)

C+J deadlifts - (climbing) - 2 sets of 2 - (Up to 80kg) new PR!

Today Neil told me I need to forget about the percentages when doing my lifts.  So, instead of trying to calculate 80% of my current front squat PR, I was supposed to just warm up, find a weight that feels difficult and then do climbing sets, adding on weight each time.  This is a little tricky for me since I'm not sure what my max is on several lifts.  

For example, the PR I had written on the board for front squats was 46kg. Last week I worked up to 45kg. This week I started at 45kg and went up to 54kg, a new PR.  It's different working by "feel" instead of just a prescribed percentage.   But it was nice putting new PRs up for both my front squats and deadlifts.  

Training Week 6, Day 1

Snatch ladder.  Here's a thrilling video of me going from 25 to 37kg.

I sent this video to Neil since he wasn't there today.  And, apparently I am an idiot because I was supposed to do the THREE POSITION snatch, working up to heavy and THEN the full snatch for the last 2 lifts.  Whoopsie daisy.

I also did 5 sets of 3 back squats, working up to 55kg.

By that time, everyone was done, so I didn't fit in my snatch balances or snatch pulls.

Also, snatchity snatch snatch snatch.

Training Week 5, Day 3

I HAVE A LIFT PARTNER I HAVE A LIFT PARTNER!

Her name is Nadia and she's not a boy.  :)   We're going to lift together Sundays and Fridays.

She's on a starting strength program, but said she'd follow my lead, so we did max effort day today.  Also Neil watched/coached us instead of lifting, which I really appreciate.

Snatch - 38kg (hit my current PR, failed at attempts of 39 and 40kg)
C+J - 53kg (new PR)

Clean + jerks felt good today.  Settling my weight back on my heels and thrusting my head under in the jerk really helps to make the bar go up and not forward.

Training Week 5, Day 2

Writing this a little late.  This was Wednesday's lift day.  This week is not going so well.

Clean & Jerk, heavy single (48kg)
Front squat  - 5 sets of 3 (went up to 50kg)

Overhead squat - 3 sets of 2 (went up to 35kg)
Clean deadlift - 3 sets of 2 (went up to 55kg)

Training Week 5, Day 1

We moved to a new apartment over the weekend.  I'm going to blame my crappy day on all the energy I spent moving boxes.

Snatch Heavy Single: 35 kg.  And it felt HEAVY.
Clean + Jerk Heavy Single: 45 kg.  And it felt HEAVY.
Both lifts 70% x 3

I took some video of myself and noticed that my snatch starting position is way off.  My shoulders are supposed to be over the bar, not 4 inches back.  I've been trying to keep my weight on my heels, which meant my shifting my hips and but back further, pulling my shoulders inches behind the bar.  Then, the bar swings out and back as I clear my knees.  I'll try to fix this on my next snatch day.