Me and the Twenty KG (long story, long, and testing day for Brenda and Maribel!)

Ah, today.  Thursday is usually a heavy heavy swing day for me that includes double 16kg's and the 32kg, but last week I finished a 5 week strength and conditioning cycle and this is my week off before I hit it again next Thursday.  It is our "rest and recovery" week (10 days) from our training cycle, but for my two Thurs. training partners, Brenda and Maribel, it was testing day!  See below*

I'm trying to combine my HS and GS sets on Thursday mornings, but looking over my program a couple of days ago, I neglected to see that the 20kg snatch was part of my GS training today. Problem. I don't own a 20kg for our garage gym and my workout starts at 5:30am, the one I have access to is at the studio Mark and I work at, and I didn't know to bring it home the day before.  So, I emailed my coach, John, the night before and asked about replacing the 20/20 swing snatch w/20kg for an equivalent work w/18kg, which I do own.....  You know I wanted the 20kg though, right?  Decisions, decisions.  35/35 w/18kg? Tough enough for sure, but not the 20kg.

I chose to wait for the 20kg, and do some light (for me) swing training in the morning (and test my training partners) saving my GS sets for the late afternoon, so Mark could coach and count for me. I really love having Mark's expertise and energy, but to be honest it's always easiest to just piggyback my GS sets onto my early morning workout.  I'm already "on a roll", and warm, and I can get it done then go on to the rest of my day with no worries.  Fine, I'll sacrifice.

And then around 11:30 I got a text.  My hairdresser let me know that I missed my appointment on Tuesday and the only time she could reschedule was this afternoon from 1:30-3:30!  What?  No nap, no food, but no gray hair!  No brainer!  I was just going to have to hunker down and do what I needed to do.  After all, I made Mark drag the 20kg bell home!

Long story long, 4:30pm.  15 minute warm up and on to my 16kg jerk set was 24 R, rest 2 minutes, 24 L.  Not bad, although if I could only clone my right side onto my left I'd kill it!  But that's a different post (notice I'm not posting video of my jerks!)  Then "swing / snatch" w/20kg.  Personally I don't like making little jumps in weight as a warm up, and mostly I don't even do one snatch rep with the heaviest weight either.  I've got plenty of work ahead, so why waste it on a warm up?



A couple of sets with the 12kg, a couple/three sets with the 16kg and boom.  20kg, 20/20 swing/snatch.  The first ten felt light, the next ten? Still relatively light!  But the alternate movement of the swing, along with a bit of fear and stress, messed up my breathing pattern and it caught up with me as I switched to my left hand.  I never felt like I couldn't do it, it just got harder than I felt it should have.  As it got "harder", the first reminder from coach Mark was to slow down (relax), but I never really reorganized my breathing....and should I add in the fact that my middle back was killing me, and tight since the moment I picked up a bell at 5:30am?  It wasn't until I started to "warm up", my first 16kg jerk sets that it became clear as to the reason why.  The reason was the 10 minute 5x5 16kg jerk set I did on Tuesday, exacerbated by Bikram's yoga yesterday...but now I know!  But to be honest I was worried.  Mark gave me an back adjustment before I started my sets and that made a world of difference.  Once I got "warm" it was much less of a concern.

I have many, many things to work on, and I know this, but I'm fine with it! I never claim to know it all, but even knowing what I do know, and doing it can be two different things!  "It's all easy 'til it gets heavy!".....hmnn, where have I heard that before?  (my brilliant husband, of course!)  I can honestly say that 50% of what I know about technique went out the window!  Too much unpredictability beforehand and too much focus on just "getting my numbers".

Moral of the story?  All I could think about all day was how many times in the past I had to "rise to the occasion".  All three of my Certification courses that demanded me to train at a high level for 8 hours, three days in a row.  Or having to demonstrate and train super High Volume two days in a row because of video taping DVD workouts (1000's of swing reps).  I also thought about many of the athletes that compete Internationally and have to literally get off a plane and perform with jet lag and constipation (probably!).  I could not be that much of a weenie!  Maybe I'll post some of my jerk sets...nope, I AM that much of a weenie!

*Brenda completed her first 5 minute 16kg snatch test with a competition bell!  I should of had her practice with the comp bell more than just, well, this past Tuesday!  Anyway, she killed 105 reps in 5 minutes and I fully expect her to crush that number in the August OKC Bay Area Kettlebell Competition! Maribel, who just got back from 2 weeks vacation in the Yucatan, with only an 8kg bell to practice (she took one with her last year and left it there!), completed her very first 10kg 6 minute (one hand switch) set!  Fingers crossed she will compete with the 12kg in August for 10 minutes, GS style!  So proud of both of them!