Lifting Updates

Quite a bit has happened since the State Meet! I competed in Dutch Lowy's first annual Black Box Lifting Meet in late February. It was a fun time! I hit 56kg in Snatch and 72kg in CJ. I had the 75 jerked, but my foot got stuck on the very sticky platform and I lost the barbell from overhead. :( Cleaning the 75 was a PR. I placed 2nd to Candice Ruiz, who kicked my tush with 65(?)kg Snatch and 80kg CJ. She could have competed in Nationals if she'd wanted to with that total, I think. But she was training for the Crossfit Games. Then I PRd on my Clean last month, jumping from 75kg to 78kg. I need to hit 80kg on CJ to qualify for American Open.

More recently, I PRd my Snatch and Clean and Jerk (and total) in training. Three weeks ago, I did 20s with Mel on both lifts. The goal to 20s is to get 15 reps with increasing percentages followed by 5 bonus reps, ideally hitting a PR. On Snatch I did 1) 5 singles at 50, 2) 5 singles at 52, and 3) 5 singles at 54. Then I hit 56, 58 (PR), and 60 (PR). Then on CJ I did 1) 5 singles at 63, 2) 5 singles at 66, and 3) 5 singles at 69. Then I hit 71, 73, and 75 (PR). Those 20s take a lot of energy and focus, but I like doing them when I'm going for a PR. The 15 reps before the PR attempts serve as quite a good warmup! My new training total is 135kg, a 10kg improvement from the February meet.

The video above shows my most recent PR--82kg (180#) jerk. My old PR was 75kg. :) These kinds of high points keep me motivated to stay focused and determined for the meet next month. If I can qualify for American Open at the May 19th Lock and Load meet in Van Alstyne, I can shift my focus onto improving my total to qualify for Nationals. I love training and the feeling I get from pushing my body and mind to the max. My coach just told me tonight that he feels fortunate to be able to train me. What an awesome compliment! American Open, here I come!!!!