What changes from week to week... day to day..? Do my physical abilities vary day to day or is it my mental abilities. From the readings I've done and conversations I've had with Ellyn the biggest variable in my training is my mental strength/focus/determination. My body doesn't talk me out of lifts it's my head. My body knows what to do. I've put in the time with my physical training. My body is fine. It's my mind. my feelings. my emotions that need to be trained more. Saying I need more work in these areas doesn't mean there hasn't been progress with the mental aspect of my lifting.. but it is my weakest part of my package... also something Ellyn and I have been working on since day one. She loves to tell stories of when I first moved to MA and where I would LITERALLY have hissy-fits on the platform when I missed a lift.. or cry when I would try to RDL with 35k... There are times when I love hearing those stories and times when I absolutely CRINGE when they get told. But all in all they show progress....
Too bad progress isn't a linear. Any kind of progress. There have been good, bad, ugly and near perfect and as far away from perfect practices on the mental front... but more and more often the good and better days appear and stay for longer.
This last practice (the last heavy day before we compete at collegiates) had it's ups and downs... mostly on the mental front... downside: being too focused about NEXT Sunday and worrying about things I 1. have no control over and 2. aren't my job to worry about. But an upside of the day was being able to put the lack of focus and distractions from the first part of practice behind me and head into the second part of practice with a calmer and more focused inner dialogue. Ellyn and I had a little pow-wow after the snatches (that didn't go as ideally and I would have liked... Ellyn was fine with them... we were able to learn from them) because I was feeling a whole bunch of negative emotions that typically get carried into the clean and jerks.. Ellyn and I talked about what we can do to get better about leaving behind the snatch "issues" (I say "issues" because there really wasn't anything wrong with them... just didn't make as many as I would have liked) so I asked her if she thought it would be a good idea to write down and "Purge the Negative" from my mind... and I did. Boy did that piece of notebook paper get full quickly! :)
When I showed Ellyn she said, "Oh! This is easy! You're worrying and trying to do my job." Here's a little secret that I've had to learn the hard way... slow. If you let your coach do their job and trust that they will... that means you, as an athlete can do yours! It's so much easier that way!! But sometimes easy to forget and get wrapped up in wanting to control and be in control of everything... and those thoughts, feelings, and impulses of wanting to be in control of EVERYTHING make lifting heavy weights hard to do.
The biggest success of the day was probably the transition from the snatch to the clean and jerks. I didn't feel weighed down by my thoughts and feelings from the snatch and I was able to focus on what I was supposed to be doing. They didn't go perfectly- but it was a big step in the right direction. My body knows what to do and my body will be fine when Ellyn and I step on the platform next Sunday... my mental strength is growing as well. My mind will be there on Sunday. I will be focused. I will be ready. Anything she puts on the bar she knows I can do. Trust. We're ready....
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Shaking off the Dust pt. 1
Welllllllll hellllllloooo again!! I'm back at this.. hopefully one more time and more consistently with the postings! One can hope! One day at a time :)
Well a lot has been happening over the last year plus. But that's not important... yet. I'll hit the highlights and big updates below...
Probably one of the most significant things that's changed within the last year has been the success Ellyn and I have had with cutting weight. At any given day or time I would weigh around 80k which put me in the Super-Heavy weight class... which may seem ridiculous because there were times when I was LITERALLY competing against girls who were TWICE my size.. yes 160k. Theres no way I'd EVER be able to realistically compete with those girls... or even the girls who were 120k. So Ellyn brought up the idea of cutting weight for the "camp meet" that was about 2 weeks away (again, remember this was during the summer). We discussed the options and possibilities and decided we had nothing to lose and might as well try it. We were trying to hit a 202k total that would qualify me for a World Team Trials a few weeks after that.
I think it's funny looking back on the conversation because I can see the whole thing happening. I know where we were standing, I know what was said and one part of the conversation sticks out for me... Ellyn asked if I wanted time to think about our talk about trying to get down to 75k and we could start tomorrow if that was what we both felt was best. I stopped her right there and said, "Let's do it now." I can't remember what my dinner plans were... but I know they changed significantly!
The two weeks of cutting weight (aka eating vegetables and cooking real meals) wasn't as awful, painful, torturous, miserable etc as it was when we had started 6 or 8 weeks out! I may have been all of those things, but it wasn't for long! :) **Serious note. The dieting was no where nearly as challenging and draining as it was before**
The two weeks went by quickly... one week was spent at RWL 24/7 which was awesome and may have been part of the reason the dieting went so smoothly.. the other was working my 3 hours a day at the y... all things i can handle ;)
The day of the meet comes and after a sauna session and a few layers of winter clothes I get to the meet and step on the scale. 74.9. okay quick get off! made weight. now lets eat and hydrate! Ellyn and I talked about the numbers we needed to hit 85/117 and how we would get there 78/82/85 and 107/112/117. My first though... WOAH. Okay. This is crazy. SHE is crazy. But wait... the Crazy works.. okay one thing at a time. Our work isn't done. . .
Well a lot has been happening over the last year plus. But that's not important... yet. I'll hit the highlights and big updates below...
Probably one of the most significant things that's changed within the last year has been the success Ellyn and I have had with cutting weight. At any given day or time I would weigh around 80k which put me in the Super-Heavy weight class... which may seem ridiculous because there were times when I was LITERALLY competing against girls who were TWICE my size.. yes 160k. Theres no way I'd EVER be able to realistically compete with those girls... or even the girls who were 120k. So Ellyn brought up the idea of cutting weight for the "camp meet" that was about 2 weeks away (again, remember this was during the summer). We discussed the options and possibilities and decided we had nothing to lose and might as well try it. We were trying to hit a 202k total that would qualify me for a World Team Trials a few weeks after that.
I think it's funny looking back on the conversation because I can see the whole thing happening. I know where we were standing, I know what was said and one part of the conversation sticks out for me... Ellyn asked if I wanted time to think about our talk about trying to get down to 75k and we could start tomorrow if that was what we both felt was best. I stopped her right there and said, "Let's do it now." I can't remember what my dinner plans were... but I know they changed significantly!
The two weeks of cutting weight (aka eating vegetables and cooking real meals) wasn't as awful, painful, torturous, miserable etc as it was when we had started 6 or 8 weeks out! I may have been all of those things, but it wasn't for long! :) **Serious note. The dieting was no where nearly as challenging and draining as it was before**
The two weeks went by quickly... one week was spent at RWL 24/7 which was awesome and may have been part of the reason the dieting went so smoothly.. the other was working my 3 hours a day at the y... all things i can handle ;)
The day of the meet comes and after a sauna session and a few layers of winter clothes I get to the meet and step on the scale. 74.9. okay quick get off! made weight. now lets eat and hydrate! Ellyn and I talked about the numbers we needed to hit 85/117 and how we would get there 78/82/85 and 107/112/117. My first though... WOAH. Okay. This is crazy. SHE is crazy. But wait... the Crazy works.. okay one thing at a time. Our work isn't done. . .
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