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!