The day I’ve been waiting 2 months for has finally arrived – the Northern Open Olympic Weightlifting competition, held in Mytholmrod, West Yorkshire (England that is).
First the important stuff: I made the weight. For the last 5 days I’ve been at or under my target weight, which is the upper limit of the 77kg weight category (169 lbs, or 12 stone 1 in old money). On my more accurate scales, this morning, I weighed 76.5kg (168.8 lbs), happy days! Although not happy enough for me to be able to have any breakfast or indeed drink much in the next 4 hours till the official weigh in. See my previous post for how I tweaked the zone diet to loose the weight I needed in just 3 weeks. The zone diet comes through for me again. Here’s my weightloss graph for the last 3 weeks:
I was asked yesterday if I was ready. The answer is: I’m never ready! Well I never feel ready anyway. On the face of it that sounds bad, but think about it for a moment. If I felt ready, that is comfortably ready with the knowledge that I was perfectly able to lift the weight I wanted to, then wouldn’t I be trying below my potential? I don’t know, but I do know that I’m relying on that bit of adrenaline to out perform my previous best ever lifts, either in competition or training.
I’ve been nominally following a Hungarian weightlifting program, set weekly by my coach at Crossfit Manchester. It will be interesting to see whether I’ve progressed in the 2 months I’ve been doing it. I certainly think I have, but whether I can translate that into performance on the day, we’ll see.
Just to recap, the purpose of this comp is to qualify for the European Masters Weightlifting Championships in 2010. I’ve already qualified for the 2010 BWLA British Masters Championships. For this I need to improve on my current personal best total of 177kg, and lift the qualifying weight of 182 total. Here’s the game plan (and anyone who knows me, knows that A LOT of thought has gone into the following):
Snatch: Warm up to 70kg. Open with 75, then 78, and then 80. Current PB is 77, but I’ve only ever lifted over 75 twice ever. To be honest, opening with 75 is the big risk, just 2kg below my PB and whilst I know I can do it, I’ve not been consistent in training, dropping four 70kg snatches in a row only last week for example! There’s a significant chance I will bomb at 75 (fail to get any lifts).
Clean and Jerk: If I make the 80kg snatch, then I open with 97kg (current PB is 100), then I get 2 cracks at 102 which would give me the 182 total I need. If I get the 102, then 105 will be just for fun.
However if I get the 78kg snatch, then I’ll be starting the C&Js having just dropped a lift, so will start at a confidence building 95, then 100, and finish with 104 for my 182 total. There’s a temptation here to start higher, at 100 say, and potentially get 2 goes at 104. That will depend on how the C&J warm up has gone and how comfortable I feel.
If I only get the 75 snatch, I’m in real trouble and will need a massive PB increase; starting with 97, then 102, then the big 107.
Either way it’s PB territory or bust today! Now to stay busy and forget about my empty belly…
