The Waterbed

Workout date: 2/27/15

There are so many different ways I can approach what happened at the gym this evening.  Part of the reason I wanted to write this blog is to show all the different emotions I go through at the gym.  There are highs, there are lows, there are some more lows...wait, I'm getting off track.  Since I tend to be a little pessimistic, let me go with the highs first:

• The Open is one of the best times to be at the gym.  The only other time the atmosphere is that electric is at King and Queen, and even that has a different feel to it.  The Open is that time when people overcome those barriers they didn't think they could get beyond.  It is a time of firsts and it is a time of PRs.  More than anything, it is the biggest showing of camaraderie in a community that regularly exemplifies it.
• Rachel threw up a clean and jerk of 165, getting her name on the gym leaderboard, only 5 pounds away from the top spot.  Take a wild guess at who is showing up on the "lows" bullet points.
• Her boo, Michal, had a 35 pound PR on her clean and jerk.  Jill C hd a 10 pound PR on her clean and jerk.  There are probably many others who can say they PR'd tonight as well.
• Within the last 30 hours, I've heard "I don't think I can do that".  Within those same 30 hours, I've watched those same people do that.
• I saw high fives, fist bumps, hugs, goofy pictures, and people wanting to hang out even more after it was over.

The lows?  Well, the lows are pretty much all going to be self-critical, but you should know that about me by now.

• I lost by 31 reps on 15.1 and by 25 pounds on 15.1a.  So, not very close.
• I thought too much and it cost me.
• My weights for the clean and jerk disappeared during the AMRAP.  True story.
• I got greedy once again.

Let's start with the last one as we try to magically turn those lows into a positive story.  I stated yesterday that my goal for the AMRAP was to get through 3 rounds.  I got through 3 rounds and an additional 8 reps.  Time to crack open the champagne, right?  Of course not, because there was definitely that sense that I left some reps out there.  I strung all 15 of my original set of toes-to-bar (slowly, but I didn't drop from the bar).  The deadlifts were light and the snatch wasn't much of an obstacle.  When I came back from round 2, I dropped from the high bar to the low bar to do quick singles.  Why?  Because I'm a wimp.

Had I even given the high bar a chance, maybe I knock out 5-10 more reps.  And if I had gotten 7 more toes-to-bar, I could have sprinted through 10 deadlifts, maybe even the 5 snatches.  Wasted reps.  All I know is that when I completed the third round, I didn't have that "YES!" moment.  It was more of a "how did I mess this up so badly" moment.

The other tough part was going to do the clean and jerk and discovering that my 10 and 15 pound plates were gone.  Before we started, I talked with Giulia about whether we were allowed to just grab weights from anywhere.  She said I should stockpile my own.  Having no 25 pound plates, I got those, but I was set otherwise.  When 15.1 ended after 9 minutes, there were no 10 or 15 pound plates to be found.  That wasn't good.  I eventually got some 15 pound plates and later stripped a women's bar for some 10 pound plates.  But having additional reasons to stress during these workouts is not helpful.

For the clean and jerk, 165 was fairly easy, 195 more of a struggle, and then 215 was an adventure.  Tonight made me realize that the front of my body is like a waterbed.  When I went to clean 215, the bar got caught somewhere between my belly and my boobs, which I believe is referred to as "Weightlifter's No Man Land".  The bar kind of swam around in that area as I rolled it up my body to my shoulders.  When I went to jerk it, I felt a little apprehension, but I got the bar mostly up.  With a little finagling, I stood up with the weight and realized I had 30 seconds to try my goal of 225.  I threw on some 5 pound weights and had a chance with less than 15 seconds to go.  But you can't rush lifts like that, and I was done soon after it passed my knees.

So as of now, Rachel is ahead 2-0, but I'm strongly considering re-testing 15.1 and 15.1a on Sunday.  I suspect I will still fall short, but I'll have a great time doing it.