In the last entry I had just finished diagnosing my neck injury and was preparing to prepare (heh) for the American Open. It's now two months later, so as usual my perspective has shifted quite a bit.
First, the American Open: 5th place. 263kg total. Beat the two guys who beat me at Nationals, but I barely had anything to do with that (Mike Soha bombed and Dave Boffa went extremely light). 1kg behind 4th place, and except for that was at the top of the major pack of lifters in the largest weight class (19 contenders) including 2x Olympian Chad Vaughn. My first time selected for the A session. In other words, looks pretty good on paper!
Except.., I didn't perform nearly up to my potential. Three for six, missing both openers, and pulling out only 118kg and 145kg. I've snatched 120kg for a double, no misses anywhere, and 145kg is a routine clean and jerk now. I was a total of 18kg under my practice bests. I really didn't expect to see anything less than a 270kg total. So, no, I'm not happy.
But now it's the new year, and I have hung up my 2009 National Team shirt (really!). Besides getting better in general, my major goal is to bring my meet lifts up to the level of my practice lifts. I want to be a serious contender by selection time for the 2011 Pan Americans. To these ends I will be attending more meets this year to find and fix the problems. I will continue to close the ever-narrowing gap between my strength and my technique, and I will seek out and destroy the magic 300kg number!
I am taking it one week at a time, and I make no predictions for individual meets during the year, but expect to see a major jump in my meet totals.. 2007-230kg, 2008-257kg, 2009-272kg, 2010-???!
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