Saturday's sneer at the previous two and a half month's form

I trained well today and for the first time in two or three months, I felt rested and ready to go. I managed to fit in a nap on Friday afternoon and a decent night's sleep that night; sweet sweet bliss as a result. We had a great atmosphere in ECB today and it was great to have Barry Whelan along and he recieved the inimitabley sage advice from Coach Harry Leech. Killer lifted very well and the one and only John McDaid also kicked ass alongside the man who makes me feel small and insecure: Cathal "Big Guns" Byrd.

I started off doing a few box jumps to kick start my cns and they felt great. I hit a conservative 46 inches and left it there. I worked up to a double with 80kg and because my lifting felt about as smooth as Murph's back, I had a quick five minute break and started off with 60kg again with Byrdie. I hit that for a double and then did singles with 80, 90, 100, 104, 107, 109 and 111kg. This is the heaviest I have lifted since the last week of July and I was happy to get it. My 109kg was by far my best Snatch of the day; the other ones were muscled up a bit and about as elegant as any of the Tiger Woods' scandals. Like Tiger though, I said screw it anyway. My days of obsessing over technique are over. I hope.

Here are some of my lifts. Apologies for how dodgy the video quality is: Harry still is unable to use his iphone properly so that the videos come out straight. It is embarrassing for both of us really.



I took five minutes to eat some fruit, relax and stretch the hips out a bit. I felt reasonably sharp in the Clean and Jerk warm ups and started with doubles of 60, 80 and 100kg. I then worked up to singles with 110, 120, 130, 135 and I missed the Clean with 141kg because I did not finish my hip drive in the Clean. I took it again and hammered it home.

I left it there, determined to learn from my mistakes in the past. I have not lifted near these weights since I hurt my hip and now that it is healed again, I will bide my time. What really counts is that I bring everything to the table when I am lifting over in Scotland in two weeks, in the Northern Ireland Open the week after and then in the London Open on the fourth of Decemeber. I will get my 272kg total in London and that is my focus one hundred percent. I know if I can hit anywhere close to 110/140 in training that I can tear up in competition and hit weights I have never even attempted before. Each week, I need to build slowly and stay patient. The only thing that matters is that I qualify for the Senior European Championships and I believe and have complete faith in my ability to do so.

My program now has me lifting three days a week for many of the reasons that David Woodhouse espouses in his article "The System" a few posts back. I have invested a whole lot of time and volume into my training since the end of June and now it is time to reap what I have sowed. I just need to make sure I avoid screwing it up by letting my ego drive my training, which is what I did by not following the program properly in July. Patience and faith. Let's hope that we have all learned this from our mistakes.