1/2/10 Oly Lift Training Recap

I've been training with Roger Nielson up at WCS Gattone Sports Performance on Saturdays since November whenever I've been in town. He is an amazing weightlifting coach, and I've improved a ton on my snatch and clean & jerk with his help. This Saturday, I decided to go heavy and see what I could do. I hadn't tried one rep maxes since the Windy City Weightlifting Meet, which didn't really go particularly well since I didn't plan my progressions well enough. Winning the weight class was fun, but since 1) it wasn't the weight class I belonged in, and 2) I didn't get a PR in either c&j or snatch, I know I could have done a hell of a lot better.

Note that even though I list reps after each lift, these weren't quick rep progressions or anything. There was a lot of getting re-set and ready between lifts. I just wanted to record how many times I did the lifts. All weight is in kilos, since that's how we roll in oly lifting...

Snatch

30 x 3
35 x 3
40 x 2
42 x 2
45 x 1 - barely moved my legs and apparently made the lift through sheer will. Roger said it was impressive that I got it up. I just felt goofy.
47 x 0
47 x 1
50 x 0 - didn't commit to the lift
50 x 0 - got under the bar but couldn't stand up from the bottom
50 x 1!!! PR! Finally hit the 50kg threshold (110 lbs). So happy!

C&J

35 x 3
45 x 2
50 x 2
55 x 1
60 x 1
65 x 1
70 x 0 - got the clean, but it was such a battle that I failed the jerk
70 x 0 - got to bottom of the clean, but I couldn't stand up with the weight and my right knee (the ACL knee) kinda bowed inward, which demonstrated that there is still a strength imbalance in that leg.

70kg would have been close to my previous 1 rep max on clean and jerks, which was 155 lbs back in September. I'm a little confused as to how the hell I was hitting the PR then and not now, but there were a couple London trips in between, which wreaked all kinds of havoc on my training.

Hitting the 50 kg snatch was thrilling for a couple reasons. First, I'd obviously never succeeded at that weight before, so that's always fun during a time when I have basically stagnated in a lot of my lifts (cue the frustration). Second, it felt easy. It really left like the two failures before were at a completely different weight because the third attempt went up so easily. I am finding myself getting really addicted to this type of lifting because of the technique and challenge. Don't get me wrong; I'll always be a deadlift girl first, but I'd love to really push this olympic lifting stuff as far as I can take it.

Roger also told me to compete in their weightlifting meet on January 30, too, so I am viewing that meet as a nice "midway" competition to get my mental game in gear for the February Sectionals.