Know the Difference

Yesterday I had to complete 50/50 16kg jerks.  I say "had to" because apparently all the folks at Juno hold you hostage to the bell until you finish your programmed reps....no crying kettlebell for me yesterday.  But it did take quite a bit out of me, partly because I stalled for over an hour before I even started my set!  I had never done 50 jerks, on my left side for sure and not even close, so I was convinced it was a programming mistake.  Nope.

Yes, I did complete 50/50 16kg jerks.  No, I did not complete them with only one clean.  I had to reclean on my R once (I think), but the L was a ter-rip!  I think I let it fall out of the rack on some crazy low rep, like 17 or 18!  How the crap was I going to get to 50?  So I made up my mind to pray to get to 25. Twenty five was all I was going to do, and then I could move on with my life!  So I put the bell down at 25.  What was I thinking? Last week when Rebecca told me to "rack" the bell I thought it meant put the bell down, put the bell away, but this time I knew different.  No one was going to let me give up.  Re-rack the damn bell!

Oh, it wasn't easy, it wasn't pretty, there were plenty of re-racks and swings in between those last 25 jerk reps.  But I had to do it, and I knew it.  I was being held hostage.  Looking back I can't believe I did it.  John's words of wisdom right afterwards;

You know when you don't want to be there anymore? You know when you want to quit?  You have to ask yourself, is it because you don't want to, or is it because you don't have the ability to?  Know the difference."

I let myself get so worked up, I felt pretty miserable.  Miserable that I made it so hard on myself to begin with and I spent so much energy of fighting having to do it rather than focusing TO do it!

At this point I had also miscalculated my caffeine and food that morning all I could think about was eating (it was 1:30pm).  I was programmed to do a 12 minute 14kg snatch set at 20-22 rpm, and I could have done it.  But I let myself be a baby and justify rescheduling it for first thing this morning (Sunday) knowing I have to train anyway, I'll just throw it in, blast it out and be done with it.

Well, I maybe, could've, should've just finished up at Juno, but it worked out almost as good since all three of my Sunday clients/training partners are also getting ready for their first competition next Sat!  Maribel is competing the 10 min 12kg snatch, Meg 10 min 12kg biathlon (jerk and snatch), and Brenda the 16kg 5 min snatch!  So while I was snatching away they were doing their sets too!

Here's mine.  14kg snatch 120 R/ 114 L.  My program called for a 20-22 rpm pace, which I was able to keep for the most part in the first 5 minutes both R and L, averaging 19.5 rpm.  Here is the break down per minute;
R 24-23-22-21-18-12
L 21-20-20-19-19-15

Our workout went on to include a 10 minute swing set (or 5 min) with our competition weights (me w/16kg = 400 continuous reps), and I believe this was in between 5 sets of 40, 1 min work, 30 sec rest (w/14kg for me).  So 800 swing reps total in less than 30 minutes (not including any other warm up swings)  We finished the last 30 minutes with some light clean and press, both single and double bells.  Whew!