A few months ago I went to my first Olympic Weightlifting competition at West Wythenshawe and on Sunday there’s another one, which I was really looking forward to. I don’t know if the BWLA guys will be there again, I hope so. The thing is, I don’t feel ready for it at all.
Having done the gladiators trial last week, I didn’t go to Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club as I would have normally done. Then having come away from the gladiators tryout with various bumps and bruises and a sprained wrist and ankle, I decided to take the week off doing any Crossfit workouts too. So today I went back to Bethnal Green, having done very little exercise for 10 days. I’ve also not been eating too well this last week if I’m honest.
Worse than that, having watched the Snatch and Clean & Jerk DVDs I bought last week, I find myself wanting to change my style, particularly with the Snatch. The big thing I was doing wrong, which to be fair I knew about already, is impacting the bar with my thighs, rather than above the family jewels if you know what I mean, specifically above the pubis bone (about the top of your zipper).
So I was trying it tonight and of course, when you change any style in a sport, things get worse before it gets better. So tonight I struggled to snatch just 50kg which I dropped 3 times before doing a ropey power snatch to finish. Not a good situation to be in 5 days before a competition! Further the 6 pairs of clean and jerk practice at 75kg felt heavy and not at all a formality, but then I suppose that’s a good thing, 75kg IS heavy after all!
I’m intending to go back again tomorrow, hopefully I’ll feel better then. Oh and I’ve decided to stop being a wuss and taking the bus, so I ran the 2 miles to the gym tonight. Well I actually managed about 75% of the way, that was with a backpack with weightlifting shoes, water bottle and jumper, and walking the last bit was a good idea to recover before I arrived.
