The last few days...

Things have calmed down and normalized in my life... finally. yay. good. This weekend I didn't have to work, and I had my apartment to myself so I decided to make a big mess out of everything... baking, arts and crafts, reorganizing, and in the end a little bit of cleaning up... My baking adventure this weekend was a pumpkin angel food cake with home-made honey cinnamon whipped cream.  It might have been one of my favorite things I've made recently.. but that list isn't too long because I haven't been doing a whole lot of baking (trying to drop weight and baking don't go together very well!).  One thing I would change for the angel food cake next time is maybe add a little more pumpkin and then more whipped cream.  Other than that it was delicious! Here's a photo of the cake in the oven....

Here's the mess that preceded the lovely cake in the oven... 

counter top covered with baking supplies

 Folding in the delicious Pumpkin-ness

beating the egg whites and sugar.... these photos are backwards, but you get the point.

Here's the angel food cake cut in half and a little 'trench' for the whipped cream...

and a few dirty dishes :)

Here's the crafts I was doing at the same time :) 

Since I was in such a creative and crafty mood Friday and Saturday, I also decided to make myself a face mask out of honey, cinnamon and nutmeg.  A lot of the things I did this weekend weren't for any specific reason, but more of a "Why not do this?" If I had been thinking a head, I would have taken a before picture of myself so everyone could see how awesome the mask I made was... But I didn't so y'all will just have to deal with the face mask... 

It ended up dripping off of my face, so I tucked a paper towel in my shirt so it wouldn't drip everywhere

I left the mask on for 30min, rinsed it off and then......

Smooth, soft, and beautiful!! 

Another productive thing I did this weekend was organize my nail polish... Ellyn and Lorie gave me a bag of nail polish (wahoo!!) so my new little friends had to have a home..

11 new friends!! 

One section...

Second section...

A little bit of lifting on Saturday, which was successful, and I've found another exercise I am amazing at: bent over rows. they make me want to cry. But I have a weak back and need to do them! ;)  that's all for now!

when it rains it pours...

Another day at the gym.  It was quite the interesting one from my perspective.  Things were still off for me/with me... not exactly sure what was/is going on. But I felt mostly like a blob.. or a shell.. Yes, my body was there, but my emotions, thoughts, feelings, personality, etc were gone. I made my lifts, but on more than one occasion during a lift I would be fighting back tears, or go to the bar with tears in my eyes or finish a lift and just want to cry.  Not sure why.  I was just feeling awful from an emotional standpoint.  If I want to be completely honest with myself (and my readers) I really didn't want to go to practice today.   Was it a good decision to go? or did going just make things/my feelings/attitude worse? I'm not totally sure and I don't know if there is a right answer.

From a lifting perspective, I guess it was an okay day.  At the very least, it was better than yesterday because of the number of lifts I successfully completed.  I'm pretty sure the squats on Tuesday, Ellyn did more of them than I did.. but that's already been written about. Today I still was snapping my knees back with snatch pauses... still not sure how to stop doing that... I don't want to do that, I don't like that I do it, and I am tired of doing it, but I don't always feel like I have the tools/key words/knowledge etc to fix it. And the snapping of my knees is 58997324 times worse when I do the snatch pauses.  When I snatch at 'full speed' it's not as noticeable...? (maybe just because I'm going faster?) idk. but I actually feel like i'm doing it better when i go full speed... maybe that's me trying to save my pride and confidence in my abilities, maybe i'm doing the exact same thing and I'm too dumb to notice? maybe I am doing things better? D. all of the above? E. None of the above?

I made all of my snatch pause lifts and snatches.  With front squats, I didn't need as much of a spot as I did with my back squats the other day.  Squats today were hard for me.  Again, the 'shell' of me was all that was there.  I'm pretty sure each time I came to the bar, had the bar on me, or re-racked it, I wanted to cry. I just felt so awful. So sad. so weird. so alone. so stuck. so nothing. so everything.   Again, not sure why this was happening, or why I wanted to cry after every lift.  It's kind of funny in the most pathetic kind of way.  Just re-reading this last paragraph it's laughable (and slightly embarrassing) to be blogging about how much I wanted to cry and probably could have cried at the drop of a hat... oh well. I think I made it through the day without an actual tear falling. So that's a success and I'm getting realllllly good at being able to NOT cry.  Gotta find a silver lining somewhere, right?

yucky lifting

Yesterday I said this lifting cycle was going to be a heavier cycle, but I would like to rename this cycle as: everything-carly-doesn’t-do-well-and-add-weight-and-see-how-long-it-takes-her-to-fall-apart.  Fantastic, right?! Personally, I am a huge fan of it all.  At least today I did the agility ladder and box jumps without being yelled at by the boys.  (last time they said I had to make my own agility ladder ‘run’ and I couldn’t think of anything- so they yelled. But then I pulled the puppy-dog face and I got out of it!) But today, I had no one yelling. 

First two exercises: awesome. Second two: awful. I guess today was kind of a test run for when Ellyn is going to be gone. It was not my best day.  I guess part of the difficulty with today was 1.) being without ellyn 2.) adjusting to Steph and her coaching (not better or worse, just new to me and me to her) 3.) doing a new-ish exercise (jerk balance) and then doing an exercise I’m awful at and still trying to do the right way (RDLs).   Lots of places to go wrong, and most of the wrong probably happened today. 

Before this cycle started, Ellyn warned me there were going to be a lot of exercises that would put me in my worst positions, and trying to get my worst positions to the right positions would lead to frustration.  Yup. That happened.  When the jerk balances started I was, probably almost excited for the challenge and being told they would be hard for me.  The first 4 or 5 sets went well, challenging and I had things to work on, but they were going up and I was completing the lifts.  After those first few sets texting Ellyn, listening to Steph, listening to teammates, and trying to process everything and put it into the heavier lifts… no good.   When I had Steph help me with my positions, I decided to take some weight off so I could get into positions and do them properly.  I texted Ellyn with that information and I got yelled at.  Going down in weight isn’t going to help me and isn’t in the program- so I had to go back up in weight.  Went for my last 2 sets. Missed all of the jerk balances (4) and missed the last jerk. Let me tell you how amazing that felt and what a confidence booster that was. Devastating and crushing.

And that brings me to another one of my favorite exercises… RDLs. I was pretty frustrated by the time I got to these. My weight is still pathetic with those and they are still hard for me to do.  Not sure when I'll be up to 140k like my squats are.. I'm literally only half way there. daunting when I think about it like that. {{heavy sigh}}

This post isn't nearly as positive or hopeful as some of the other ones...  I know I will get better and I know I am getting better, but it's frustrating that it hasn't happened. I guess that's why I come back every day... waiting for that day to come. 

**thanks for the chat today Joooooh.  I appreciate it. and wanted to give you a shout-out :)**

friends.

I have friends!! here's the proof!! I finally went out on the town in Fabulous Bridgewater.  wahoo. lol It really was an enjoyable time and it was nice to meet some girls my age! 

Back to lifting. . . It felt like it had been forever since I lifted, but it had only been 2 days!  This cycle is a heavier cycle and it will be even more challenging after this week because Ellyn is going to 'Florida' for 3-ish weeks.  So poor Steph and Lorie will have to deal with me at practices.. i bet they're excited. Sorry in advance... 

I have no hips. Hello. I cannot figure out how to get the last pull/push/clink/contact with my hips.  I was stuck on blocks in my worst position not knowing where or how to move from there. So i jumped. and had zero hips. or i pulled the bar with my arms first. or i did something different. something besides what I was supposed to be doing. luckily the hang cleans didn't last as long as I usually feel they do.. and I started on clean and jerks.  For some reason, as much trouble as I have trying to get proper and solid contact with the bar by my hips, the cleans dont look or feel too bad.  When I clean I actually hear a 'clink' and sometimes i even think they are 'adult clinks'!  My jerks are getting better too.. I'm working on getting a quicker dip and drive. Most of the time it works out pretty well, and when it doesnt, Ellyn lets me know.  :)  The pulls I did today were also better than the hang cleans I did.  They were close (mostly) and they clinked and I was tight and solid.  and it was one kilo more than I had been doing :).

Squats: I think ellyn did most of my 5 sets of 4.  She said we were going to fix my poor positions/techniques etc wednesday.  So that will be good. waiting.. waiting... waiting....  

videos from last week...

Sorry these didn't come up earlier! Here are videos from last... Tuesday?  Another Blog post to follow.

Getting back in the swing of things…

After the meet this weekend and the tomfoolery and shenanigans (which were amazing!) Saturday, Sunday and Monday, it was time to get back into the swing of things and practice. J   OHHH before I get to practice, I have to say I am the proud owner of a NEW winter jacket… it’s a double edged sword because I am excited about my jacket and kindof want to wear it, buuut wearing it means it’s going to be FREEZING.  Not excited.  I also bought a cooling rack and a much nicer spring form pan for all the baked goods I won’t be making because I’m dropping weight. Not excited.  Getting back into the work schedule. Not  excited. But all of the things I’m not excited about are necessary/inevitable, so I guess I need to get excited.

Practice for me, wasn’t at Kelly like it usually is.  I got to train with Ellyn in her basement gym and it was probably one of the more (if not the most) productive training session I’ve had.  I was focused, refreshed from the shenanigans, purposeful with each lift and each rep, driven and motivated by the fresh memory of the competition, and where I ended and most importantly... where I want to end up.   

Here are videos from todays practice.  Everything felt really good and I think a switch flipped with me because I can now feel (or maybe I'm just paying more attention) what my body is or isn't doing.  Taking my time setting up off the floor, being tight all the way through the lift, being purposeful, everything came together nicely.  I guess all my complaining these past 5 weeks about wanting to get better may have been slightly skewed... because I am getting better and I am better.. WAY better than I was before I got here.  Thanks for all the hard work by my teammates and coach for pushing me to get better and helping me learn the lifts!  Enjoy the videos...

Meet update! Beast of the East

Woahhh!! I'm so far behind on my blog!! Sorry for those of you who have been checking in on a daily basis and have been left high and dry with my (lack of) typing.  Here's what I started typing on Friday, but never finished..

"Friday before the "Beast of the East" meet.  My first meet "officially" with Robinson Weightlifting, a team, a consistent and available coach.  Ellyn says she doesn't expect too much from me this meet because so many things are 'new'.  She's also mentioned that this meet should be more like a practice for the American Open in December. Hahhh all of those things drive me crazy to hear, but the more I've thought about them, the more sense they make...."

Fast forward to the meet (Saturday).... Leading up to the meet, I wasn't really excited or even looking forward to the meet, even up to the morning of, and once we were in the "cow palace" (more on that later) the feeling didn't really change.  After introductions and once warmups started, things got better, I was getting excited, focused, and ready for the competition.  Before warm-ups started, I asked ellyn to put me into the right starting position for the snatch and when I got into position, she said it looked perfect. Ha. I'm getting better! The nervousness about the meet and not having Ellyn right there with me was eased by the fact the competition platform and the warmup area were practically inches away from each other.  Lorie was in charge of warming me up and telling me when to go and when to wait, and that worked well.  There weren't any bumps or hiccups with the warmup process. We (Ellyn and I) talked about the speed of the warmups from nationals and I felt like there was too much time between the sets, so we sped up the warm-ups.  I liked it a lot better because I had to stay focused on the lifts and there wasn't a lot of (any) time for my mind to wander and for me to be unfocused.  When it was my turn to go, I was ready and from what everyone says, the first two attempts looked easy. yay for that.  I was just happy I made the first two attempts! The third attempt came and Ellyn had put 72kilos on the bar and out i went.  Another successful lift. 3 for 3.  Only the second time I'd done that... ever.

When snatch was over, I had a long time before I even started jerking. So I ate, waited, and just relaxed before it was time to turn the switch back on and get ready for clean and jerk.  I was the last lifter to go for the clean and jerk so I followed myself after each lift.  I opened at 96 kilos, made it. went to 100 kilos. made that one. and then Ellyn asked me what I wanted to do next, and I said it was up to her.  We went to 103kilos and I made that. My second meet where I went 6/6.  The only other meet I've gone 6/6 was almost a year ago, so it was about time I had another one.  :)

All of my warmups for the meet felt great! Everything that I've been working on seemed to have come together when I needed it too.  Ellyn even said I didn't have any crazy feet!! HUGE! :) I wasn't sure what to think about snatch warmups (because I'm still learning the technique, positions, and feeling of the lift) and maybe not thinking about it all was what I needed to do for snatch. . .  Clean and jerk was a different story.  I have a little more experience and confidence with those lift, and I can do a better job feeling what the lifts are supposed to be like.  My cleans were tight, my jerks were fast and solid- and they were so much easier! :)  I think over the past few weeks I've had good clean days and I've had good jerk days, but I don't think they've ever come together as nicely as they did this weekend. yay!

Here are a few pictures of the team and my teammates from this last week (most of them are at the meet), but here's Joooooh and I stretching together in Kelly the week before the meet.  If I would have been on top of my blogging, this would have been up sooner!

3 days...

What have I gotten myself into?

4 days

4 days until my first meet with Robinson Weightlifting... ohh I'm not sure if I officially mentioned I switched teams when I renewed my USAW (usa weightlifting) card.  For those of you new/unfamiliar to weightlifting, the club aspect of the sport I'm still trying to figure out! There are clubs (teams) and you lift for whatever team you want or however people pick their teams... But sometimes coaches from other clubs can and do coach athletes belonging to other clubs, but the coaches themselves are part of a different club... anyone following..? Maybe this will help if anyone is confused.  Athlete 1 (A1) belongs to club A (CA).  A1 has a coach who belongs and coaches for club B (CB), but also coaches athletes belonging to CA... lines are crossed and mixed and mingled and the club line (for me anyway) gets confusing.  Regardless of my explanation and lack of understanding about clubs, I have officially switched from East Coast Gold to Robinson Weightlifting.  boom.  moving on.

Practice today was another day of 'clusters' today was snatch.  Again, it was the same format as the cleans where I would do 5 singles one each at 75%, 80%, 85%, 80%, 75% while teammates loaded and unloaded the weights.  Ehh. They went okay today.  The positions didn't feel the best,  I made all the lifts, but They weren't as nice, crisp, quick, tight, or on point as I would have liked them to be.  They were all over the place.  Here's the video.  the first part of the video the lifts are in full speed and the second half, I slowed them down so everyone can see how wiggly my feet, toes, knees, back and uhh pretty much everything else..  (it's not supposed to be like that) 

**YouTube is being awful and not done processing my video, it's too late to still be up, so I will add this later** aka in the morning. 

After the clusters there was some light strength (?) work (pulls and RDLs).  My pulls got better today.  I had a big CLINK off the hips instead of my usually baby clinks... yay. progress. My good friend the PVC pipe helped me stay in the right positions and my knees (on the big CLINK) didn't snap back. wooh. RDLs got pretty crazy today.. a new max of 60kilos. yes, i said it. 60 big, freaking huge, kilos. be intimidated and jealous. ha! But I'm doing them right, so I'm getting better. slowly. Here's a little humor for the day.  Jooooh was getting a nice stretch on the jerk boxes, so Ellyn and one of the other athletic trainers decided to join in!! it was pretty freaking hilarious.  :) 

Look at all that stretching!!!

New and exciting News!!

Well, I still can't edit videos because... somehow... my flip videos got transferred onto Ellyn's computer and deleted from my camera.  Oops. I think I have some videos from Friday's workout saved on my computer and will probably add them on here just so everyone doesn't have to just read my (not always interesting) analysis of my practice.  But this is exciting news that I am surprised I haven't mentioned yet... My first meet with Robinson Weightlifting is this Saturday! Yipes! This will only be my second local meet- my first meet having been almost a year ago.  The next 4 meets I had were National level meets and then I moved to Bridgewater, and here I am.

I've told Ellyn and a few other people that I'm more nervous for this local meet with 13 lifters than I am for Nationals.  Weird. It doesn't make sense, but I think part of the nervous-ness about this meet is not having my coach right next to me.  I'm used to the 1 on 1 attention and I won't have it this meet- yes she'll be there and be taking care of me and watching me lift, but she'll also have 5 other people. I've already been told I'll get less of her time because I'm one of the last lifters.  Patience...? I will be fine, but I'm just a little bit nervous. Sometimes... usually a little bit of nerves are good for me.

Practice today was shorter than usual because of the tapering for the meet- which was weird- I didn't have to rush around like a mad woman showering, eating and getting ready for work! It was a nice change of pace! :)  Today we did clean and jerk "clusters" which were new to me! With the clusters you take a percentage of your lift (today it went 75, 80, 85, 80, 75) and you do each rep right after each other.  Teammates help load and unload the weights so the lifting goes quickly.  I made all the lifts. yay.  My cleans feel good. Better than they have ever(?) they are getting closer, tighter, and faster.  I am still working on keeping the bar close and not snapping my knees back, and I think I'm doing a better job.  Jerks are still a little wobbly.  Not as fast or as tight or as crisp as I want them or that they need to be.  I've got to be better about holding my breath and staying tight through the dip of the jerk.

There's not a whole lot of negative things to say.  The work I've put in the last 4 weeks will be what makes the difference this weekend.  I've worked hard and gotten better, and now it's focusing on the the technique work this week and letting the strength, confidence and technique work I've improved upon shine and to the work! The work has been put in, now I can just go and enjoy it! Alright, I think I'm a little less nervous for the meet now!

Here's an exciting link to share.. USAWeightlifting sent me an e-mail a week-ish ago and asked for some information on me so they could put together an athlete page for me.. here it is!! http://weightlifting.teamusa.org/athletes/carly-mauch  It's an exciting and cool honor to be on the USA Weightlifting website for my accomplishments, but it also means I've got a lot of work to do.  Always more work to be done!

I should be editing videos but...

Here's my kitchen counter with a few bottles of nail polish and my test center for marbling :)

I decided to have yet another CRAZY Friday night.   My crazy night started with me missing my exit on my way home from work. amazing. and then left overs at the apartment, catching up on some bad reality tv shows and then with all my extra time I decided I would paint my nails since they haven't been painted alll week!  But because it was a friday night I wanted to do something a-m-a-z-i-n-g... I had seen "water marbling" done before (via YouTube and other blogs) but I had never taken the time to actually do it.  So tonight was the night..  The way you get the marbled effect is by putting drops of nail polish in a dish of water and then dragging the polish around to make a marbled design.  see.....

Drops of light blue and orange...

more drops..

Swirl until satisfied...

Dip one or more nails in water/polish mixture..

The first time it was awful.. looked like this:

What a Mess! (they alllllll looked awful!)

The second time the marbling came out a lot better and my nails, although the colors are gross, looked kinda cool! Here's a the second time I 'painted' my nails...

The thumb I used the same orange as the rest of the nails, but instead of light blue I put dark blue in the water. Im not sure what the trouble was with the first time, but the second time turned out so much better! (don't mind the excessive amounts of nail polish on my skin either!!)

Well, I'm sure these nails will help me lift more! 

Practice today was... hilarious.  Everyone seemed a little bit crazy, giggly, odd, random, goofy and amazingly funny!! Somehow conversation (in the middle of practice) turned into confessions of emotional eaters.  ALL of the boys confessed they were emotional eaters and it was so hilarious to hear each one come to the center of the gym and tell their story.  Derek with the doughnuts, Jooooh with the chips, Bill with the ice cream- some of the most hilarious expressions on their faces as they were talking about their 'emotional eating'.  There were a few odd ones in the lifting group that said when they are emotional they are 'non-eaters'.. weird.  I can't relate to that nonsense :) Oh and if anyone is interested there is now an "emotional eaters" support group/phone tree with our first meeting being next Sunday after the meet.  But more on that later...

Again at practice, the whole team took a vested interest  in my lifting.  Today was pulls.  Snapping the knees back and snapping them forward.. (I'm trying NOT to do that) Yesterday I said it would be hilarious to record Ellyn (and others) trying to snatch (or in today's case, pull) like I do, but yet again I dropped the ball with recording the attempts, but there were a few more participants.  Again- HILARIOUS! I think i laughed more at this practice than I ever have... especially when I was being a spastic and not doing the lifts the right way (usually I'm frustrated and/or more focused).  For some reason today everyone was feeding off of each other and the mood and atmosphere was great! Jokes, laughing, picking on everyone, laughing at how awful I can be at some of the technical parts of the lifts, facial expressions, comments, pretty much anything and everything ANYONE said got a laugh...  


I did fix (i think?) some of the knee swinging (which leads to crazy feet) today.  At times I feel ridiculous for having a PVC pipe in my hands and sweating like no other because I'm trying to get in the right positions for a pull or a snatch... but the feelings of ridiculous don't last long because I'd rather do it right at zero weight than keep the weight the same (or add more) and be doing the same crazy things with my feet/knees in ANOTHER 3 weeks... no thanks. I'd rather be feel silly and get in the right positions than continuously do the wrong thing. Fix it now or fix it later.. i choose now. I don't know if I'd ever rather wait for something instead of having it right now. (Kat made a comment about my patience .. or lack of.. when I was trying to get my marbled nails done right the first time.. oops. I guess it's not just with lifting).   


That's all the fun and excitement for one Friday night.. until next week