Another crazy week in the books.
Last Thursday, I stepped up to the plate and led the Thursday 5:30 class while under the watchful eye of Coach Hannah (mind you, she had her trusty notebook and pen going to give me lots of stellar feedback). I am not going to lie – I was nervous coaching a strong group of people (one of which is my powerlifting coach!) on the snatch. But I made it. And, thankfully received a lot of great quality feedback from Hannah. Feedback can be hard to take if you’re not willing to hear it, and it reminded me of an exercise we did while I was away at camp last month – a little self evaluation on just how accepting you are to feedback. In this particular instance, I WAS/AM SO ACCEPTING because I want to be an excellent coach. In fact, most of what Hannah told me was that I need to be more ‘take charge’ (which, omg, can you ever imagine anyone having to say something like that to me?! It was a nice change of pace!). She’s right, too. So get ready, kids. Next class is tonight and I AM IN CHARGE. NOW DROP AND GIVE ME TWENTY. I MEAN IT. (Omg how did that sound? Was it believable? Am I selling it?!)
Cut to last Saturday and I competed in my second USAPL sanctioned powerlifting meet at Allegiance Fitness in Mounds View. Mounds View is a pretty okay place, it turns out. I didn’t know! But now I do. The meet was great – really well attended with over 35 women competing in various weight classes. In my weight class, there were seven of us – one of which set three records AT THE MEET. So, I was up against some pretty tough competition. I was thankful to have my pals and training buddies along for the ride (Alice, Ariel, David, and Mindy!!) because we’ve been in this together since the beginning and know what each other is capable of. I was on a different lifting platform than the three of them which made things feel a little awkward but we did our best to catch each other’s lifts and cheer accordingly. It really does a lot to have your crew behind you. Special shout outs to our pals who came out to cheer us on (Morgen, Lauren, Kaeti, David Harris, Coach Hannah, Hannah P, and Elena!), I really love you guys. And of course, Coach Sampson!!! Or, just Sampson as we like to call him. The first lift was squats and I hit my first one at 246# no problem. An easy opener to get me onto the board. The second one was set for 264# (my current 1RM at the time was 270#) I failed with an illegal double bounce. You can see it in the video here.
I was so caught of guard with the fail that going into my third squat I was not in the right headspace yet still wanted to see a gain and shot for a 275# new PR. I couldn’t even stand up as evidenced in the video here.
I was mad.
Pissed.
Because I knew I could do better and should have done better because I HAVE done better.
Some days just go that way (as I’ve learned from my teammates and dear friend Alice as she writes about here). That’s okay.
As the meet went on, my head started to come back into the game with a 132# bench press (not a PR, but I feel a 140# bench is right around the corner!) and a 319.6# PR in the deadlift (this is a 5# PR from May):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edDQphCNlRo
I ended up closing out the meet taking 5th in my weight class – not last by any means – despite missing 3 lifts, so I’m chalking that up to success. After all, I’m still a total n00b in this sport.
The best part about all of this is that last night, at the gym, was max out day on squats. Since I was so royally off my game on Saturday I decided to try to see what I could achieve last night. And I have to say, it was way better than I could have even imagined.
Saturday, I couldn’t hit a 264# squat. Remember?
Last night, I hit a 285# squat!!! That is a 15# PR gain and I was floating and ecstatic about it all night long. Okay, who am I kidding. I still am. 285#!!!!!! This particularly felt redeeming after my poor showing on Saturday. And that’s the point, you guys. Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don’t. Either way, you’ll get it. It’s just a matter of when.
Check it out:
Can’t wait to compete next time. I’m gonna rock it.