Saturday, April 24, 2010

Reflections on an Ascension from weightlifting purgatory


Looks like I made the world university team, relief. Maybe going up 2 weight classes did work out afterall.

Quick aside.. and some whining
First off, I have to say – Thank God for the new qualifying total system. It took our new BOD only a few months to design a qualifying system that actually makes some attempt to send lifters to intetrnational meets ased on abiity to place higher. Our past qualifing totals heavily favored 48’s, 75’s, and 75+’s --yes, I said finally it, a 75 could get on a team with 180kg total, a 48 with 135, while a 53 had to do close to 160!!! With the qualifying system totday,I would have been ranked much higher in my former life as 53. Still, going up two weight classes is not for naught.
Back to where I left off...

The last last few years of weightlifting have been strange. I look back, and as a 53kg lifter I won a National Collegiate championships, out-snatched a bunch of people at Nationals, and made the Olympic Trials. I think it had been the best lifting I had ever done in comparison to my past life as a junior lifter (and can you believe I made more teams as a junior?).

Then came the implosions. Missed opportunities. At least 3 national meets I should have won or placed a lot higher based on my entry total. Wild fluctuations between what I did in training and what I did at a national meet. I guess it was the iterative weight cutting. Without even realizing it, I subsisted on protein shakes to make weight, eeking out each 10th of a kilo of weight. Even worse, people complimented me at these meets with, “good job” . Good job for being 20kgs under my best sanctioned meet total? I think they forgot that I had talent, that I lifted more.

I think the final implosion was 2009 nationals. AND I really began to listen to coaches and corworkers on my weight class.

The turning point –
It also came at the 2009 nationals/ Pan AM championships. We grabbed the priceless opportunity to get technical consulting from Cuba’s national coach. Instant improvements.

Then this DEC-March, I had the great opportunity to work on my thesis fulltime. With no fixed schedule to plug-in my 60+ hours of a work week, I could creativcely squeeze in more training sessions.

Now, I'm back to work fulltime and pumping out the last pages of my thesis. Training doesn't feel as majical when you just roll out of the car from 8 hours of making the world a better place for jet engines and a 1 hour commute. I need to actually lift in a competition wht I've done in training. Time to snap out of the mediocrity and get back to work. I will find a way.

1 comment:

Barry said...

I understand Gwen. I work in school and then coach after school. Then I am able to train. Now that the rugby season is over and I am strting my own weightlifting and strength club, I can add this into my itinery also. Love it! At least we are doing what we love!

Barry

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