In Transition

Transition is good right? I know the answer to that and I'm sure most of you do too. I am working on a new blog and some other shameless self promotion stuff so I haven't blogged in a few weeks. Kind of weak and not what I promised all of you.
Just want to give an update from my last post on how I did at my first sanctioned Olympic Lifting meet. Not well. Actually, you could consider it a choke. I started my snatch with 85 kilos (#185) which is something I usually workout with and is a fairly easy weight for me. Scratch! Second attempt I bumped up to 87 kilos (#187). I was angry with the first lift and was bound and determined to not get a scratch. Well I was aggressive and let the bar swing way out in front of me and let the bar go behind my head. Something that is VERY out of the ordinary for me. The last attempt was the same weight and with a little more control and patience I failed to fully pull myself under the bar. Done with the competition.
The truth of the matter is I could have continued on with the clean and jerk and not have any of it count. But I did something I normally don't do and let the misses get the best of me. I had already checked out mentally from the competition and pulled my card. Not one of my finest moments. One thing I can say is that my first meet was a humbling and a great learning experience. I realized that I need some help if I was going to dedicate my full time and attention to training and competing in the Olympic Lifts.
So...I solicited a coach, a top notch one at that and have proceeded to have my lifts broken down and rebuilt. I can already see the changes and can only imagine where I can take this. I'm starting a little old to have any grandeur expectations but I could do well enough to surprise some people.
I'll keep you all posted on the training and look for a lot of new and exciting stuff coming from me in the near future.

Ladies of Oly Lifting Crushin' It!

Several weeks ago Crossfit Central had an all women's challenge called the Iron Belle. There were two divisions, the fun division and the competitive division. The ladies in the pic below are the top three teams of the competitive division winners. I am very proud to say that two of the ladies on the 1st place team are athletes that I coach.
Claudia in the front right and Alexis peeking her head out in the back. These two ladies attend the evening Red Black Olympic Lifting class and come to extra training on Sundays. They have elevated there game and are true competitors. I also want to give a shout out to Stephanie who also is in the same Olympic Lifting class as Claudia and Alexis and competed in the fun division. During the competition she earned a new dead lift PR and rocked the house. She is the young lady pictured in my previous post performing the back squat beautifully.
One more shout out to Claudia who is also one of CrossFit Central's Diesel Athletes. I feel privileged to coach these ladies, and to watch their progress makes me very proud.
Congratulations girls! Now we need to get you all into an Olympic Lifting meet!

One last thing to let everyone know. This weekend I will be competing in my first sanctioned USAW Olympic Lifting competition in San Antonio. Since most of you know that read my blog or follow me on Twitter my passion lies with Olympic Lifting. I pretty much exclusively train Olympic Lifting and now want to see how I fare against other athletes that have the same passion as me. I will be wearing a singlet for the first time since high school power lifting. For those of you that aren't familiar with it you can check it out here. I don't think I'll be making that face though, I hope. I will be tweeting out how I'm doing and will have video and pics of the competition so be on the look out for that. I also want to give a big thanks to 210 Crossfit for putting on the competition.