I’ve started seriously thinking about the BWLA British Masters Olympic Weightlifting Competition at Lilleshall (I came 2nd last year) at the end of March and how I’m going to prepare for it. For reasons I won’t bore you with, I’ve not done as much lifting as I should have done in preparation for this competition. It’s too close to the comp now to actually consider improving strength really, so I’m just going to focus on technique and get my confidence levels up for what I want my starting lifts to be.
The rules say that you must start within 15kg of the qualifying standard, which was 165kg for the 77kg M1 category. So starting at 150 would be an easy 60kg snatch and 90kg clean and jerk. I think I’m going to do a bit better than that and work towards 65kg and 90kg as starting weights, and see how it goes this month, I may up them both to 70kg snatch and 95gk C&J openers. I do need to be confident of getting a total though, so will err on the side of caution if training this month doesn’t go smoothly.
My aim for training is to not try anything that will cause me to drop a lift in the next 4 weeks. I want to go into the comp with utter confidence that I can lift my openers, then just increment each one by 5kg say on the day for the 2nd and 3rd lifts. That would mean if all goes perfectly (ha, when does that happen?!?) my current PB’s of 77kg and 100kg are in range.
With that in mind, my training this week was:
Tuesday
Hang Snatch and Snatch: 2×40, 2×45, 2×50, 2×55, 1×60
Snatch + 2 Over Head Squat: 2×60, 3×65
Snatch Pulls: 3×70, 3×75, 3×80
Then ½ the Crossfit.com WOD, which was 8 rounds (I did 4) of run 400, with 90 second rest between runs. I only did half as I’m not that used to a lot of running and I had brand new Evo Viva Barefoot running shoes and didn’t want to over do it first time out.
They are Vibram FiveFinger substitutes, as I don’t have the right shaped feet for Vibrams (boooo!). Certainly, they have not a lot of sole to speak of and you do feel a lot more of what you’re walking on. They’ll take a bit of getting used to, but should help the Pose running that’s for sure.
Wednesday
Hang Clean & Jerk + Clean & Jerk: 2×50, 2×60, 2×70, 2×80
Clean & Jerk Singles: 3×85, 3×90
I followed this with a Crossfit WOD from a few days ago: Row 5k. I’ve never done a 5k row before, in fact the most I’ve ever rowed has been 2000m, and only once at that, so this was a bit daunting! In fact, it went better than I’d hoped. Each 1000m split was faster than the one before, and I had enough left to end with a bit of a sprint, finishing in a respectable (I thought) 20:28. Will have a go at beating 20mins next time.
Actually the biggest battle at the moment is making the 77kg (169lbs) weight category. I’m down from a portly 13st5 after Xmas to 12st7 as of this morning, so only 6 lbs and 3.5 weeks to go. Should be no problem, as long as I can continue to be good, hoho.
