10 minutes to 16 minutes, I mean 18 minutes!

Looking at my GS sets today I had 16kg jerks, 32/32, which is a PR for me.  I did not have a time limit so all I had to do was complete it, period....which I was successful at!  More about my jerks later...



I'm a snatcher.  The tens of thousands of reps I've done in the past 6 years is paying off in a very tangible way.  (it's very possible I've done over 300,000 snatch reps, based on 50,000 per 6 months, conservatively).  I'm not worried one bit about the snatch test because I don't have any judgement about my strength or conditioning for that movement.  What I mean when I describe it is, if for some reason I don't complete a 10 minute set, from this point, it's got nothing to do with my strength, it would only have to do with having a "bad" day.  But that being said...

When I looked over my weeks' training I noticed what I thought said "16 minute 12kg snatch"!  What?  Sixteen minutes? That has to be a typo!  Sure, I've done 10 lots of times, I've done 12 minutes, and with a 14kg, but sixteen?  One-six, 16!  That's crazy.  Eight minutes R and L is 3 whole minutes longer per side than I have ever done w/12kg.  Three minutes is more than 50% of 5 minutes (the most I had trained before).  Wow, now that's a jump!

I do have the entire 18 minutes on video, but in addition to not wanting to bore you with close to 350 snatch reps, it was taken during Team training, with many other people in the background doing "their thing", so I do not want to expose that much of their privacy.  But I will share with you the last minute (or so) and at about the 14 minute mark because I think it's kind of funny!

I was apprehensive to begin with, of course.  But the worst thing that could happen would be that I would come really close to the goal of 8 minutes R and L.  Let me tell you...when three minutes passed and I realized this is the point where a traditional "10 minute set" would START, I had a itsy bitsy freak out, but then it was back to business.  8 minuets approached....I decided to keep snatching R, just in case I just didn't have enough gas on my L to complete another entire 8 minutes L.  16 minutes was my first goal, how I divided the workload was my second priority.

I still felt confident at 8 minutes to continue on another 30 sec...and then, still feeling sort of fine I decided to go to 9 minutes.  This left me with another decision.  9 min R, done. but is the priority to complete 16 minutes total? Or is the priority to complete at least 8 minute R AND L?  I call John over, my coach, to ask...and this was quite a risk for me at this point!  Talking and snatching, much less communicating a question was not exactly easy!  And the next part of the story explains more!

As I approach my 16 minute mark I'm not sure which goal is more important, so, I say...."John, come here, come here!", (video #2)



"So, I switched at 9 minutes because I wanted to make my 16 (min).  So, I will have only to do 7 minutes this side (L), should I even it up and go 8 (min)?

"Do nine! (9 min)"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, do nine and take it to 18 (min set)!  That was one hand switch?"

"Yep"

"Yeah, finish it up you psycho!"

I kind of missed this part about "evening it up"!  I understood him to say, yes, keep going, complete the 8 minutes L....until it hit me...."do another NINE minutes and even it up"!  The "psycho" part I missed, but such a compliment, eh?

But shit.  Instead of another minute I had to complete another 2 minutes!  Okay then....

Afterwards John told me that he had thought I had switched hands more than one time because as he looked over at me, about the middle of my set, just before 9 minutes, I was still on my R....which he thought I had switched L once and back over to my right....now he might actually be impressed!  Hence the surprise in his questioning!

As of this moment I sat through another 18 minutes of video, and no surprise the first count was a miscount.  "Official" count?  158 R/ 161 L = 319 (17.7 rpm)

Thank you to everybody at Juno this afternoon! You guys are the real deal, living examples of strength and commitment....and loyalty!  Characteristics we should all strive for!