Back at the gym with a flashback thrown in
With only a brief recovery day it was back into the gym. Worked Monday, then headed home grabbed my gym stuff walked over the gym and slowly plodded down the stairs to the bog. I admit my ass was dragging a bit, but my knees have been tender lately which is strange for me. Right under the knee caps.
To get to where I train you essentially walk through a changeroom (whichever gender applies) and down some stairs through a hall pass the combat room and enter “the bog”. So as I was turning the corner I see a guy sitting on the metal storage container outside the bog and I kind of stare at him like he looks familiar (however I just assume it’s because I’ve seen him workout in the gym and he’s on one of the varsity teams) but he is staring back. I look away and look back and he goes “Bridget” at this point my best guess is a guy I went to elementary school with so I reply “Mark” and thus is goes a guy I have not seen since 1998 and I are reunited up at SFU. Apparently he is now on the football team and attending SFU in the fall. SMALL world. But cool, we ran track together. The only reason I could even make a guess is because I had seen a recent pic of him on facebook.
Back to the task at hand. Training was lightish. I was supposed to power snatch but read my program wrong. One of the girls I train with brought the programs yesterday because coach was running late.
Snatch (not power as it was supposed to be) up to 51 x2 for 4 sets Power Clean (I started reading at this point) up to 65 x 2 for 4 sets Back Squat up to 95 x4 for 3 sets Snatch Pull up to 65 x4 for 3 setsTraining was alright, I’m slow like usual have a competition. I’m not experiencing any excessive muscle pain, but knees are getting annoying. I’ll pick up some frozen peas today to use on my knees at night. The focus in this next cycle if I had to take a guess will be cleans. I’m lucky to have a great coach that fiddles with my training as necessary and invests his own time in making the best program possible for each of us.
A totally random post about Coffee
I love coffee, I loved it before I worked at Starbucks and had an even greater appreciation for it post indoctrination at Starbucks.
Usually in the mornings, now that I’ve moved, I grab coffee in my handy travel mug (an attempt at eco friendliness) at the coffee shop on campus that I love, however in my infinite wisdom said travel mug was left at work on thursday and I’m working on conserving money for when school starts and I am unemployed. I decided to just drink the coffee from work, I brewed a fresh pot when I got here, poured it in to my travel mug took and a sip and remembered exactly why I spend the 1.35 to get my coffee before I leave home. Not all coffee is created equal and yes I am a coffee snob, but if I want to make it through the day of coding I need some caffeine and I need to stay awake so I can go to training…woohoo first day back after the competition.
Why am I so hungry?
For some reason today I am abnormally hungry, I eat pretty much the same thing everyday. So hunger is not usually a problem, but at 10:30AM today I was ready for lunch and not just wanting a break I was so hungry it was distracting. So I ended up stalling and eating lunch at 11:30, still early but acceptable. I’m still hungry, I don’t think I’ve had enough protein in the past couple of days. But enough by about my random hunger.
Yesterday was workout 1 of 3 in this pre-competition week. Nothing too crazy, just making sure to finish the pull and bring the hips through. Snatched up to 60 for two singles, then back down to 50 for a triple. Clean and jerked up to 70 for two singles, then down to 60 for a triple. Did three sets of triples with 105 in back squat and 3 sets of triples with 75 for snatch pull then called it a day. Nothing out of the ordinary. Called it a day and went home.
Train today and tomorrow and leave Friday.
Head colds suck
As you can see by the title I’m a little bit bitter having woken up Sunday morning with a lovely summer head cold. I am a big baby when it comes to having my nose plugged, I don’t like it all, I hate feeling like I can’t get enough oxygen. All that complaining aside the weekend was quiet successful. I moved on Sunday and got all settled in to my new place. Didn’t sleep well the first night which was probably a combination of being sick and it being a new environment. Last night I slept much better and I’m loving having half the commute to work. Today is the first day of my last month at the GSC…I’m ready to get back to the books, but the past 7 months have been an amazing learning experience and having research I’ve been involved in published is pretty awesome!
Now to the part that this whole blog thing has been created for. Training. Friday was a bit of a bust my body was fatigued. Not sore per-say, but the stabilizer muscles along my spine wouldn’t tighten up so i kept losing snatches forward. Did a couple other light exercises and called it a day. After training headed home to hang out with my Dad who ended up ordering Chinese food, my diet lately has been really clean so I splurged…bad idea, 20 minutes after dinner and the MSG and sodium had swollen my limbs up like crazy. Note to self stick to the clean diet haha.
Yesterday’s workout was intentionally light since coach knew I was moving. Did some power snatches up to 60 for doubles. Not heavy, need to finish the pull, I’m feeling more rested today than I did during Monday’s training so I will finish my pulls better tonight. Then some jerk from behind the neck, off the rack, up to 75 for a single. Mostly position work, practicing driving straight up and dipping deep enough, rather than the shallow dip I sometimes do and driving forward. Back-squats up to 115 for a triple, did two triples at 105 before 115. My legs still aren’t tired after 115, so that’s a good sign. My leg strength is coming back at a decent rate. Then just some snatch pulls at 75 x 3 for 4 sets. Nice and easy, today I think is power work, then we’ll do a couple more heavyish days before tapering down to the comp August 11th. Less than two weeks until I compete for the first time in 4 years and the first time I compete in 5 years after any training.
Being the lover of random facts that I am I often check what people have googled to find my blog. Today someone googled very specifically “45 degree hyper extension on craigslist” and found me. What they were looking for I’m not sure, I’m quite certain they did not find it on my blog. A few days ago someone googled “nothing feels as good as a snatch”…something tells me they weren’t looking for gym info that day. The rest make sense, but those two stick out and made me laugh.
I bought the new Smashing Pumpkins CD yesterday, I’ve only had time to listen to the first half, but I’m quite enjoying it. I also bought “The Con” by Tegan and Sara – and it’s only made me love them more. Not workout music, but I’ve listened to the whole CD 4 times through already.
A two post day – things I assume, and maybe shouldn’t
A conversation I had the other day with a friend has inspired me to post a couple of general musings about what olympic weightlifters do on a daily basis.
Paraphrased interaction: Friend: Congrats on the 95lb backsquat Me: What 95 lb backsquat (realizing to myself this friend has probably taken a look at this blog)…ooo that was 95 kgs and now I’ve done 105 Friend: WowTo her 95lbs (43 kgs) seemed like a pretty decent weight, so saying I did 95 kgs made it even better. At the same time I was thinking that 95 lbs isn’t very much at all.
What we do is strange to a lot of the world. Why we chose to go into the gym and lift for the sake of the weights and strength, rather than tone and mucles. These come to some extent as by-products. But the way I see it Olympic lifters walk into a gym to battle the weights. My first coach used to repeat something he heard Doug Hepburn say “The weight is never too heavy, the lifter is just too weak.” To me 95 kgs is an almost shameful back squat, though keeping it in perspective I’d only been back training 4 weeks then. I’m proud to be part of this sport and I love it even sitting here with 4 freshly torn callouses from last nights workout. It’s part of me, once you’re in the sport it’s got you.
To all you lifters reading this keep at it. To my non-lifting friends reading this yes I am a bit crazy but that’s why you love me.
