About four months ago, I decided I wanted to do a weightlifting competition. I talked with my coach, and she was on board to get me ready for my first competition. I started to prepare at the first of the year. This would be a long 14 week cycle. My snatch and clean and jerk have trailed behind my other lifts, since I have only been doing these lift for about 4 years, where as I have been doing power lifts for 21 years. Overall I have had the most to improve on with the these lifts and therefore I wanted to take on the challenge of competing in the weightlifting. This entire cycle I knew it was all about getting a decent total at the competition and not really about hitting big PR's at the meet. I ultimately wanted to compete at a national meet, therefore I put my head down and worked hard for the 14 weeks to have a great competition. I blogged about the preparation over the course of the preparation, so I will not discuss the entire cycle, but wanted to say a little about how sometimes things don't seem to be going as planned, but when you work hard you can still accomplish a goal.
At the beginning of my last 4 week cycle, I was not feeling 100%. I was congested and just feeling sluggish for about a week. This really limited my lifts, I kept on pushing and holding back when I needed to make sure I could recover properly. In my head, I should have been snatching about 240# , which is about 10# more than best snatch from back in December. I think I hit 227# once over the past 4 weeks and I missed 215# at least 6-8 time in training. This made for a very frustrating 4 week training cycle. After this first week of being sick, the rest of my family was sick, this entire time I was still not training great, I was just not getting that energized feeling I was hopping for while training.
My clean and jerk were at least a little more consistent hitting much higher percentages during training, but in my mind I can't help to think that this lift was also being limited by my lack of sleep and recovering immune system. Again I just kept plowing forward toward my competition, and had mentally accepted that I would have to open with less weight than I was hoping in about week 10-11 of my competition preparation.
While I was feeling run down and fighting sickness, I was also fighting with muscle tightness making my lift less consistent as well. I was working on mobility like crazy, and I was seeing amazing improvements, but I was still getting a pinch in the bottom of my squat making it difficult to push in my training. A visit to the PT and I would be back to training, but the issue would return. I also put in my head that I just need to through this competition, and then I would take a step back to really find the cause of these issues with my psoas, adductors, and other tight muscles leading to a pinch in the bottom of my squat.
Talk about a downer going into my first weightlifting competition, I was fighting my own body on all fronts while trying to perform my best. I was one week out from my competition, and I had a competition style training day programmed. This is a training day you treat like a meet day, warm up the same and only give yourself 3 attempts on each of your lifts. This is to give me more confidence going into the meet. My plan was to open with 195# snatch, move to 207#, and then 215#, this is only 93%, so should be easy. Well, I hit 195# but missed 207 twice, talk about being defeated. I moved on the to clean and jerk and worked up to my opener at 265# and stopped. The bar was not moving well either so instead of feeling defeated on both lifts, I stopped on a successful opener. I took a rest day following this sad mock competition training day, and started fresh Monday with the last heavy snatch day on my taper week.
Monday I woke up feeling fresh, recovered and ready to get after it on the platform. This was the first day in 4 weeks that I felt great. I worked up to 220# on my snatch with no misses and everything felt easy, I also worked up to my clean and jerk opener again. Great confidence booster only 6 days away from my first meet. Tuesday, 5 days out from my first meet I get up early to hit some front squats, and Power clean and Jerks everything felt very easy, and I head off to the the PT to get everything in order for my competition. Dr. Lamar from Georgia Sport PT, goes to town getting me ready, dry needling is amazing at resetting the body. I take Wednesday off from training and by Wednesday night, I start to feel what I think are major allergy issues. Thursday I get up, with some congestion and a little cough and I think dang these are the worst allergies, but still get after my programmed training day. I worked up to my opening snatch based on how Monday's snatch went, I had decided to open at 200#. I was also programed to work up to last warm up on my clean and jerk 245#, both move well even though I am not 100% due to what I think are allergies. Friday, I wake up feeling worse than the previous day, but nothing so bad I can't function. I did a lot of mobility and just worked on recovering for my meet the next day. I ate a lot of food, drank a lot of water, even took a nap.
April 6, 2019, meet day, I wake up at 1 am coughing up a lung and having major drainage. I wake again at 3:30 am to use the rest room and coughing again, 4:45 am I wake up again with a bad headache and again feeling super congested. I think this is not good, and not what I am suppose to feel like the morning of my meet. I get up at 7:15 am and start getting ready for my meet. I make coffee and eat a protien bar to get something in my stomach. I don't want to go overboard because I have to weigh in at 9:30 am. In my mind, I am still hopeful I could make the 89 kilo weight class, although I didn't really try anything. My head is pounding and nose is stuffy and my chest feels like I have a brick on top of it. So I do what I think everyone would do, GO BACK TO BED .... JK, although any other day that is what I would have done. I suck it up, and get ready to dominate my first meet. I make two PB and J sandwiches to eat after weigh in, pack my Pedialyte drink, water, bananas, candy, and my C4 preworkout. I take 2 Mucinex, 2 flonaise shots up each nostril, a zyrtec, vitamin C, Multivitamin, and 4 advil, and it then it's time to go. I pray all these meds kick in and I can perform on the platform.
I get to the Crossfit Garage where my meet is being held, and I am the first to weigh in. I weighed 90 kilo, crush my two sandwiches, and my 32 oz of the Pedialyte and finally my headache starts to dull. I do a little stretching and loosening up while the kids and women finish up there sessions, and I talk with a few of the other lifters. I met some great guys, and they helped show me the ropes since this is my first meet. I am the only one at the meet that doesn't have a coach or a friend helping them in the back. My coach lives in North Carolina, so I would not expect her to drive to GA for a small local meet. She was also kicking ass competing in a power lifting meet- setting unofficial world records. The men's session is getting started, so I slam my C4 pre-workout drink, put my lifters on and start moving the bar around. I am thinking how long do I have before I lift verses the first lifter because I don't want to warm up too quick. I ask/meet a random guy walking by, Tony Garay, how long it will take to get started and move through the lifters. He is the coach of a youth lifter, the first lifter in the session. He volunteers to help keep on me on track and help count for me. He basically tells me to hit whatever weight is on the main platform in the back which will time my warm ups to when I am up. He watches my lifts and checked in with me a couple times. I had this same plan, but just didn't really know when to start.
I decided to open with 89 kilo snatch (195.8#) since I was not feeling great. I kill the lift like it was nothing. I jump to 94 kilo (206.8#) and I kill it too, so I make a little bigger jump to 100 Kilo (220#). I almost throw it over my head, but saved it. Snatch is done and I have gone 3/3. I think, I could have hit 110 kilos (242#), the way things were moving on the platform. Now I am pumped, but I have some time before I have to start getting warm for Clean and Jerk. I slam some Powerade, eat a banana, and some candy to refuel for my next big lifts.
I am excited to get back on the platform and get a little ahead on my warm ups for my clean and jerk. So I end up standing around waiting to lift my opening Clean and Jerk of 120 kilos (264#) a little longer than I would have liked, but it was not problem. I am hit my opener, and the announcer/head judge is waiting for me to tell him my next lift. He is telling the loader what to put on the bar, and as I tell him I am jumping to 130 kilos (286#), it takes him by surprise because that is a big jump. I think there ends up being like 3 lifters before my second attempt. I ask Tony to watch my second attempt to gauge how hard or easy this lift looks. I hit 130 kilo lift like it was my opener, and he said go for it man, so I take the announcer by surprise again by jumping another 10 kilo to 140 kilo (308#) 3rd attempts. My best clean and jerk in training was 305#. I hit the platform and killed the 140 kilos. I finish the meet 6/6 giving a competition total of 240 kilo, with 1st place finish. I am fired up to move on to my next meet.
To qualify for the American open masters, I needed to only hit a 175 kilo total, which is nothing for me. If I had competed in the American Open 1 at the Arnold classics in OH in Feb, in the 96 kilo weight class, I would have had a 5th place total and a silver medal in the Clean and Jerk. This gives me the confidence that as a master lifter, which is not saying too much, I can be competitive at the national level. This total would have put me in the top 10 at masters national, and I am within striking distance of top 3. I have 16 weeks until the American Open 2 in Albuquerque, NM on July 24-28. This is my next goal for my weight lifting. I want to refine my technique and get my nagging training pains under control and see what I can do in Albuquerque.
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