Monday, July 18, 2011

Just Show Up

This weekend I proved the adage "you can't win if you don't play." My training was just starting to become more stable, and I was feeling confident in the gym. However, I've only done two meets in the past eight months, so my competition confidence was shaky at best.

Despite hitting 80kg in the snatch and 95kg+ in the clean and jerk solidly several times in training, I only managed to make my openers at 76kg and 93kg at the Nationals. However, I showed up and made a total. And guess what? It got me a bronze medal in the snatch and the total. I lifted poorly, but with the right calls made by my coach, it turned out to be my day after all.

I could blame my poor showing on all sorts of things; I'm changing careers, the travel is rough, there were people there I'm less than friendly with, etc. But what it comes down to is that outside the 2-3 hours I spend in the gym, I'm not treating myself like an athlete.

My competition mentality shows my lack of recent competing has left me rough around the edges. While I take my vitamins and supplements, they don't make up for a poor diet. I don't do the extra work that keeps the body running smoothly (foam rolling, stretching, mobility), and I don't always insist on the right sleeping conditions.

This was a bit of a wake up call. I need to go to every meet that I can, even if I don't peak for it. I need to treat myself like an athlete, and put that ahead of some distractions I've accumulated, namely being lazy. I know that once it is put in my daily routine I'll be good to go, it's making the initial change that's hard.

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