300!

For every lifter there are certain meaningful numbers. Numbers that seem out of reach or special. Numbers that you do not associate yourself with because they denote a lifter that belongs to a more elite class.

Today I reached a new milestone: 300kg.

What does it mean? Honestly, not much. It counts for nothing but a footnote until I do it at a national meet, and I was lifting up a class at 80kg bodyweight. But it is very encouraging, seeing as I can pull ahead of every other active American 77kg lifter except one with relatively conservative third attempts.

"300" has been the sole item on my whiteboard under "Goals" for over a year now. I have been saying "this is the year I'll hit 300!" since 2009. It's finally time to cross that one off the list. Which means it's time to make a new goal!

Even better, making this total was only incidental. I entered the 2012 Baltimore Open (South Baltimore CrossFit's inaugural meet) without even considering the number. Actually, I was focused almost totally on the snatch. I'm tired of that lift being more inconsistent and lagging behind my cleans and jerks.

As I knew would be the case, if I had a good snatch session I would total well. Due to some missed warmups we started light at 122kg, but I made a great lift, and we jumped right to 129kg, practicing big increases AND taking a stab at the MD state record. When I made THAT, we put 132kg on the bar for a small all-time PR, and it was good! Certainly better than the 131kg I did in training two weeks before.

I didn't really have any doubts that I would be cleaning and jerking a PR. We opened a little conservatively with 158kg, but I made it just fine. 165kg, however, was my first and only platform miss of the day, as the clean crashed on me so that I couldn't quite hit the jerk. It was just a technical issue, though, and only when Leo looked at me to confer about the last attempt did I realize I could add three kilos and make 300kg. Apparently he hadn't realized either, because he wanted to know why I wanted 168kg. Of course he quickly agreed, and the ensuing clean was much better with a passable jerk (video!).

For a little while I'm allowed to bask in this glow, but next week it's right back to training, because Nationals is where it really counts!