Texas State Meet

Last Saturday, my 31st birthday, was the Texas State Weightlifting Championships in Alvin, TX. I drove down on Friday evening (what a boring drive! Next year I'm definitely going to fly!) and slept until about 9:15 the next morning. I'd been hovering between 62.7 and 63.2 all week, so I was worried about weigh-in. Thanks to Bobby and Richard's advice, I weighed in at exactly 63kg. I'm thinking about going Zone/Paleo so that weigh-in is the least of my worries on a meet day. Weigh-in was at 2 p.m. with the Open Women's session at 4.

I was seriously nervous about my snatch because only recently have I finally gotten the hang of finishing my first pull. In and since the Copperhead in October, I kept cutting off my first pull, making me cut off my 2nd pull, which ultimately resulted in a miss. I successfully hit 54kg two weeks before the State Meet, which was a 1kg training PR, and I clung to that mental state/remembrance as tightly as I could for the meet. I started at 50, which was easy of course, and then 54 was easy, as well. Richard had me try 57kg, which I should have made. I was too excited from making 54 and started the lift out all wrong--on my toes without rocking back onto my heels. I feel confident that I will have 57 very soon. I'm likely going to compete in Dutch Lowy's Black Box meet next month. With a 4kg meet PR from October, I was feeling rather awesome! Then I had to settle down for the Clean and Jerk.

Warm-ups felt easy, and I opened with 68--already 8kg over my opener in October. I didn't clean 68 as solidly as I would have liked, and my jerk was okay. Teammates said it looked fine. Richard reminded me not to worry about how the lifts feel but whether I make them. Then I hit 71kg--clean was so easy and I put extra drive behind the jerk. I can clean 73kg rather easily and have jerked 75kg in training, so I thought I should be able to C&J 74kg just fine. Well, the clean felt awesome, but I lost focus on the jerk and bailed it behind me. As I was catching my breath at the top of the clean, I thought about my breathing too much, so my dip was way too shallow. I'm going to really work on my jerk for the February meet. Can't complain about a 6kg C&J meet PR, though! Both PRs brought my meet total to 125kg, a 10kg gain from October. Happy birthday to me! Jed was so sweet and got me a birthday cake (with my name on it and everything!) and 3 and 1 candles. Everyone sang to me, and I made a wish. :)

Overall, I'm quite excited about how I did, although I'll admit I keep playing the 74kg jerk over in my head and regretting my miss. It makes me determined, though, to make it the next meet! :) Stay tuned...