Block Cycle 2018, Training

Block Cycle 2018: Week 6 of 6

Oh hey look, another week with only 3 days of training instead of 5. This is becoming a habit.  I had kicked off the week great, but again, the lack of sleep catches up to me quick.  I had a few days where I woke up and just didn’t have enough gas in the tank to get rolling, so I opted to sleep and try and recover.  I have been telling myself “you are not signed up for a meet” and nothing is really on the line right now, so it is just a matter of going in and going through the motions.  I don’t want to lose any of the momentum I have built up but there is always that drive deep down that wants to keep pushing things.  I am just trying to find the balance to it all right now to say moving, recover, and not get injured.

BC18.W6.D1.0710

  • Snatch: 2@70% / 158, 2@75% / 170, 2@80%/ 180, 3×1@90% / 192
  • CJ: 2@70% / 235, 2@75% / 250, 2@80%/ 269, 3×1@90% / 287
  • Clean Pull (Deficit, Eccentric): 3×3@90% / 287
  • BS: 2@70% / 355, 2@75% / 380, 2@80% / 405

The heat and humidity was a killer this morning.  Walking into the gym at 4:05 a.m. and its already 85 inside with no AC and no real powerful fan over on the side where I am.  That’s brutal.  The snatches felt really good which usually means that the CJs are going to be crap.  On the first CJ, I came completely out of the hookgrip on the pull.  I was so sweaty and couldn’t keep my hands dry when gripping the bar.  I made the second CJ and then failed the jerk on the last one.  I have joked around with some friends about saying when the humidity and heat are so high, to take 5-10% off the lifts but I really feel there is a lot of truth to that.  Normally that 90% wouldn’t have given me troubles, but not being able to hold on to the bar and having my body temp so high, it was hard to work around.

I also took a misstep on the final BS rep at 80%.  I tipped too far forward and at that moment realize I was close to the rack and the blocks.  I couldn’t dump the weight forward because I would have died a tragic death.  Like a real idiot, I forced the weight back up in some really awkward and unsafe good morning type motion.  But I was so exhausted that, coupled with the heat, I couldn’t rack the weight.  So I ended up dumping it behind me.  I had one of those moments where I didn’t want to turn around for fear of who saw me do that.  I know we all make mistakes and I think I took that 80% for granted.  I wasn’t zeroed in like I normally am and nearly paid big time for it.

All the mistakes aside, I left the gym feeling accomplished and happy I wasn’t dead in between the blocks.

S: 3 | N: 4 | F: 3

BC18.W6.D2.0713

  • Snatch: 1@70% / 158, 3×1@75% / 169
  • CJ: 1@70% / 235, 3×1@75% / 251
  • Snatch Pull (Deficit, eccentric): 3×2@90% / 205
  • Superset: Bent over rows (115,115, 115, 137) & DB curls (35)

Despite staying up about an hour and a half beyond when I normally go to sleep, I managed to wake up this morning feeling energized enough to go in.  Perhaps it was knowing that I was planning on sleeping in on Saturday or that I only had lifts at 75%, maybe both.  Today was just one of those “go in and do nothing super special” days.  Really tried to focus on quality movement.  Since the weights weren’t heavy, I took the time to record some of the CJ, especially from the side, to look at a few things.

S: 3 | N: 3 | F: 4

BC18.W6.D3.0715

  • Snatch
    • 2x (3 pulls from the hang + 3 SNPP + 3 OHS)
    • 3×3 Snatch pull unders
    • 3 high hang snatch: 85
    • 2×105
    • 2×125
    • 2×145
    • 2×165
    • 185
    • 195
    • 205 (95%)
    • 210x
    • 210x
  • CJ
    • 2x (3PP + 3BTNJ + 3PFS)
    • 3×3 Pull from the hang
    • 2×155
    • 185
    • 225
    • 250
    • 275
    • 295x(C)
    • 295
    • 306 (93%)
    • 316x(J)

Well, not exactly what I was wanting, however, I cannot really be entirely upset either.  I have written recently about the lack of sleep and general feeling of being worn down during this cycle.  I was actually surprised that I was able to work back up to the numbers that I did.  I drew my line on the snatch at 195 which meant that 205 would have been my opener, which I hit without any problem.  I really believe that 210 was in my head for some reason, as I pulled it more than high enough but just didn’t get under.  On the CJ, I had a little bit different experience, missing the clean on 295, which would have been my last lift in the warm-up area.  Making 205 on the snatch, I only needed 302 on the CJ to hit the total I would normally shoot for in order to qualify.  But loaded with 306 anyway because I knew I could get it.  I think that lift probably felt the best out of all of them.

I took a shot at 316 and was too tired to split so I missed the jerk.  It was a pretty interesting miss as it went behind.  Just glad that I ducked out of the way.  I skipped taking another attempt.

All in all, I was just happy to finish with 93/139/232 and to wrap up this training cycle.  It was a pretty brutal one.

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