The only thing I really knew how to do for exercise was run. And that was getting old. I wanted to shed some baby weight and, lucky day, there was a CF gym less than 1 block from my house! It only took 3 months for me to find the courage to contact them. I made an appointment with Neil, the owner. On the first day in a private meeting, Neil put me through a simple fitness test and I nearly puked. I loved it.
Four months later and I'm almost completely brainwashed. I don't eat paleo and I don't wear cheesy t-shirts with quotes about burpees, but I love walking over to the little garage to be tortured 4 days a week. I don't have my pull-up yet and barely have a pushup. But I can crank out double unders with the best of them. And apparently I have a pretty good clean + jerk for a beginner.
And that's where this all begins. A week ago, I hit a clean + jerk PR at 45 kg. Neil pulled me aside after class. He complimented my lift and mentioned an upcoming olympic weightlifting contest.
"I think you should consider entering it. You have a natural talent. Talk it over with Mike."
If I was interested, Neil would start me on a weightlifting program and coach me up to the event. I said I'd consider it, but on the walk home I knew I'd do it. And so I registered. Why not? Anyone could enter. You didn't have to qualify. It would be fun. What do I have to lose? I pranced around cutely, telling Mike he was going to need to step up his game or his wife would soon be out-lifting him.
I went to bed still riding high on my coach's praise and my 1 nice clean + jerk. Then, around 2 am, I sat straight up in bed horrified. Oh God. What Have I Done. What was I thinking? Can one simple compliment really make me cocky enough to enter a WEIGHTLIFTING competition? With WEIGHTS? That you LIFT? I checked out the scores from last year's competition and saw that the woman who took last place in 2011 lifted *significantly* more weight than I do. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead.
Slightly calmer in the morning, I rushed to the computer and watched a bunch of clean+jerk and snatch technique videos. I looked for blogs on this topic, but couldn't find anyone stupid/brave enough to enter a competition a couple months after learning how to do a snatch. Or at least no one willing to publicly write about it. So, that's what I'm going to do. This blog will be both a (boring) log of my lifting progress and (probably more boring) journal of the experience. Maybe I will help some poor gal out there in a similar situation in the future. Note to future gal: What were you thinking?
The competition is November 10, 2012. There's a good chance I will come in dead last. But I'm determined to get back to my original goal of having fun. I have to think that my coach saw something in me; I trust him and know he wouldn't tell me to enter as some kind of 8-week long sick/complicated practical joke.
The competition is November 10, 2012. There's a good chance I will come in dead last. But I'm determined to get back to my original goal of having fun. I have to think that my coach saw something in me; I trust him and know he wouldn't tell me to enter as some kind of 8-week long sick/complicated practical joke.
Wish me luck.
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