This is my very talented, strong, beautiful best friend & fitspo at her first weightlifting meet this weekend! I aspire to be as bad-ass as this young lady someday <3.
Follow her at GalGardner :)
Looks like I have to give some kind of meet report now that my pictures on the Tumblarghs, right?
Basically, I did okay. What you’re seeing here is me snatching 35 kilos at a bodyweight of 67.3kg after almost three months of Oly lifting. Going into this, I was hoping for a total of at least 100 kilos, with a final attempt at 45 kilos for the snatch and 65 for the clean and jerk. My starting weights were set at 35 and 50 (got dropped to 45) respectively. I got messed around with by the meet registration a little bit, and I only really found out I was confirmed to lift on Thursday.
I didn’t know what I weighed going into the meet (just had a ballpark range), and in my jeans and hoodie, I was a solid 68.5kg at 9AM in the morning. By 11:30, my weigh-in time, I was 67.3 kilos of nerves, nerves, nerves. Worrying: the easiest way to drop pounds, fast! Except don’t actually do that, that’s bad for you.
I missed my opening attempt at 35kg — I couldn’t understand what happening, but I think my hands were shaking so much I couldn’t lock it out. Then I missed the second one. I pulled it together for my last attempt, which is what’s in this picture. As much as I wish there were more impressive plates on there, I’m pretty proud of myself. As cheesy as it sounds, I didn’t think I had the mental strength to pull myself together like that, and once I did that, the rest was easy.
My coach lowered the starting weight for the clean and jerks to 40, but warm-up went well so we went back up to 43. Nailed 43, 47, and 53; felt like I could’ve done 60 or 65 EASILY. Minor nit-picks: I still dip too low jerking, and my last clean was caught a little high, but the second half of the competition felt pretty awesome. Every lift just floated into place.
Over all, despite the crappy total, I had a great time. I got to watch some incredible lifters (including my lifting buddy Amanda) and talk to some really cool folks with experience in the sport. I’m stoked for my next meet in February! This was a fantastic experience, and I can’t wait to do it all over again.
