blog

Nov. 21, 2010–Winnipeg–So here it is, my first official blog entry. Unfortunately it happens to be on a day that I am absolutely furious with my performance in the gym. The workout for today went as follows; 4 x 2-position squat cleans, 4 x 3 jerks off the rack, 1RM high-bar squat. Sunday is typically lighter because it is the end of a long-ass week, and I am tired. The cleans went well. I’m way faster under the bar and doing a really good job of pulling under instead of trying to pull the bar higher to catch it in a lazy power clean. Mike has decided no more power cleans. They make you lazy. So I did my work sets on the cleans at ultra-light at 95 lb. to work on that speed. By Set 4, I was moving much faster than before. Next came the source of all my frustrations: the jerk. I started with 75 lb. and drilled 3 reps no problem. The back leg needed to be more bent, but by the third rep I corrected that. Up to 95, then 115–same thing. Nice and strong, and they felt light. I put on 135 and everything goes to shit. The core is wobbly, the bar is out front, I dip too low and I’m slow, and the back leg crumples. Everything I do wrong in the jerk is immediately obvious with a little bit of weight. I can push-press 135, so I should damn well be able to jerk it! For the record, I have worked to 143 on the jerk, but it has been a while. Frustrated, I moved on to a heavy squat. My old PR is 230 with a low-bar back squat, but I’ve spent the last 6 months working on my high-bar squats. They are basically two different squats that emphasize different muscles. I decided to attempt 235 without discussing the difference with Mike, and I fail twice. In hindsight, it was a mistake to make that jump. Currently in training I am working on the high-bar back squat and doing 4 x 5 at 200 lb. This week I will increase to 205. I thought 235 was reasonable, but 220 would have been smarter. I threw some impressive tantrums, almost cried out of frustration, and called it a day. One day I’m smiling and thrilled with my Fran PR (5:10 on Friday), and today I am angry with my weaknesses and thinking well, crap, my Fran PR wasn’t even that great. Bad attitude, I know. Tomorrow is a new day!