This road to the 2015 American Open has not been an easy one. I’m sure you could tell from the lack of posts in the last few months. I cannot believe I’ve been so far behind on my training log! My apologies…it’s been a crazy last 10 weeks or so since my last training log post. In that time, I’ve traveled to Kansas for a strength clinic; Toledo for a wedding; Boston (Cape Cod, actually) for a wedding; all around Colorado for a mini-vacation; Orlando for our National Conference, and Cleveland for another wedding. Needless to say, my training has suffered a little.
PR Extravaganza?!
I’ve made some big PRs along the way, especially in my jerk. I also hit a 1kg PR in the clean and jerk a few weeks ago. Snatch, however, has been a little shaky in this preparation. I did manage to get up to 98kg on the same day as that PR clean and jerk. I also hit a huge front squat PR 1RM at 150kg, which beats my previous best of 137kg by quite a lot!
All that aside, these numbers were all hit around a month ago or more and my knees are getting to be achy assholes. This Saturday is the big meet, the Rocky Mountain State Games. It’s where I put all my training over the last several months into six attempts on the platform; amounting to somewhere around 10 seconds of total work. Crazy, right? I’m not sure I’m quite ready, but I won’t really know until I step onto that platform. After all, there’s much more than just the strength and power that go into this sport. I have to consider the nerves and adrenaline that come with competition anxiety, which I have not felt for two-and-a-half years. Also, there is the psychological factors that can play a positive or negative part in performance on the platform.
Competition Week
Day 1 (Monday) – Snatch and C&J – 4×1@78-85%
Day 2 (Wednesday) – Snatch and C&J – No heavier than 2 singles @ opener
Day 3 (Friday) – Snatch and C&J – 4-5×1@50-60%
Traditionally there would be heavier squats on a couple of these days (days 1 & 2), but because of my knees I am taking the week off from squats to hopefully recover for the meet.
Next?
All-in-all, I believe no matter what the result happens to be on Saturday, I will feel good about the work I put in to compete.
I should note that this will be the first time I ever have to cut weight for the 77kg weight class. As of today I am currently just under 79kg. I plan on dropping the last kilogram Friday night to be ready for weigh-ins on Saturday.
Wish me luck! I’ll write a follow-up post this weekend for the meet recap.
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