crazy week on so many fronts

It's been nuts this week on a few fronts, some good some not so good as well as some EXCITING stuff going on over here. Crazy...but exciting. On a training front it's been a bizzare week. The last two weeks my training has been a little lackluster. Meaning...the workouts weren't that great. Every lift I did would feel HEAVY. Everything sucked. My kb snatch went to hell in a handbasket as well as my elbows started to be a little sore which meant i wasn't doing them right...which means: STOP DOING THEM. Ok...they weren't *that* bad, but they weren't good by any means. It was frustrating. It felt like my body was rebelling to the training. And then on sunday i woke up exhausted...like memories of last year exhausted. Which considering it has been about a year since all of that happened, slightly horrifying. But...fortunately after a couple days of rest I started to feel better. And I had an ok training day on Tuesday. And then I got to my session with my RKC instructor and...well...it was awesome.

In order to pass the physical aspects of the RKC weekend a woman has to do a flexed arm hang for 15 seconds and depending on her weight has to do 100 snatches with a 12kg or a 16kg bell. Women weighing 123 and less use a 12kg and those weighing more than 123 pounds uses a 16kg. Considering I literally have 123 pounds of lean body mass on my frame at at the moment and I don't have 0%bf...I'm in the latter category.

Flexed arm hang...check. I could do it before I started training. But the 100 kb snatches with the 16kg. This takes a lot of cardio/endurance as well as strength. When I first started I could barely get close to 100 with the 12kg...but with time.... strength has a way of creeping in when you consistently train. Funny how that works. But the other component is training well... meaning doing only quality.

First things first was technique...i had to work on the technique so that I had efficient enough form to get me through the 100 reps. First my 12kg improved. But last week my 16kg looked bad, but the 12kg was fine. Mildly frustrating. I went and worked just on one arm swings because I was losing the 'swing' on the downward side of the snatch. And...weirdly...i didn't train as much this week. I just *thought* about the technique because I need to get my elbows to bend on the way down. And you know what...today was fantastic.

So...here are a few milestones that I need in order to pass the RKC certification. Flexed arm hang for 15 secs and then 100 snatches in 5 mins with 16 kg. The milestones I think are good to get to that goal of 100/5 mins are these:
1)100 12kg snatches...in any time...check...able to do this a few weeks after I started.
2)100 12kg snatches in 5 mins...check...and now I can do it and it feels like a good workout, but not killer.
3)100 16kg snatches in any time. CHECK. I DID THIS TODAY!!! We planned out a 10 minute 100 snatches...5 each side and then rest the rest of the minute for 10 mins.

YEA!!!

AND...form was great.


next milestone...100 in 5 mins with the 16kg.

After my body rebelling for a few days...this was an awesome thing today. That boost of confidence to know that I physically can handle 100 snatches with the 16kg is awesome. There is a cardio aspect of that now I have to improve to get to 100/5 mins as well as more strength...but I'll get there before Aug.

The flexed arm hang and the snatch test are the two physical requirements but there are other testing aspects to the weekend that I am working on strength for as there is a lot of two kettelbell tests and right now it seems we are trying to get me strong enough to test with 2 x 16kg. Those overhead presses are refusing to improve quickly, but progress is never linear. I find this true especially with weights. So one day you are kicking butt and the next you can't lift anything. It's interesting.

awesome...on a few fronts...happy training

Rest and recovery

Last week was a forced week of recovery. No kettlbells as I was out of town for work and work was CRAZY as it was. Considering in a 60 hour time frame I got about 6 hours of sleep...and not all at once, oye...vey. Not fun. But the day before that chaos started I did get to the gym (sans kettlbells) in a new city and mucked around for a bit. I always hate the first few times you go to a new gym because you just can't *find* anything or the equipment is just a little bit different or you don't quite know how to work something so you end up looking silly for a moment or two.

I did have some 15 year old guy call me beastly because I was doing pushups between my squat sets and apparently he couldn't do that many. I was only on set 2...which is only about 20 pushups...so the comment was kind of funny although don't kids have to go to PE and do pushups on a regular basis? Then some other kid had to help me with the silly power squat rack as I was trying to do deadlifts and didn't realize it was one of those 'high tech' racks where you can just take these pins out and you have a nice place to put the bar so you can actually pull the plates off of the bar when you are done. I was appreciative, but felt silly all the same. Granted I got ten shades of stares between my turkish getups with a dumbell and my free weight lifting (apparently women with the free weights are a rarity). I have learned to just put the eyes down and ignore it...but sometimes it's hard not to fight the stares.

Since I've been focused on kettlbells I haven't been near anything but the kettlbells I have at my house (so much fun to be able to just workout in my living room!)...so I haven't played with a barbell in awhile. I wasn't trying to go for any crazy but was able to pull on my deadlifts @ 205 (93%) of my max (220) at 2 sets of 1 so that is a good sign!

Coming home after no kettbells last week I wondered how I would fare...and it went well. Definitely rested and stronger...did the most Turkish getups to date, did the most 16kg snatches to date, could press the 16kg 1 x on each side a total of 2 full sets before my left arm started to fail and could do it with my right side another 2 times. Sweet! 20kg one arm swings feel more controlled and less crazy.

Back to business!