Progress...

Since I last wrote a post, I have got a total of 107kg (made up of 60 and 47) three times! This is a new PB and I'm feeling very confident about the next competition (April 24th - British Junior Championships). The shoulder has also been slowly improving. I have been doing various exercises and stretches to help it along so it hasn't been causing too much trouble!

This Saturday my coach John and my training partner Holly competed in the British Masters, getting totals of 120 and 96 respectively. Holly won her category, so congratulations are in order!

I am hoping to go to Kent to train with Zoe Smith ('strongest girl in Britain'!) in the next couple of weeks which should be very educational!

I am also trying to keep my weight under control and have lost 2 kilos in 2 weeks :)

This Week

Well, I was in The Argus on Monday! This isn't a great photo, but you get the idea.
I then trained with John on Monday evening and used some new 'visualising' techniques which I learnt in a Sports Psychology book by Steve Backley called 'The Winning Mind'. It really helped and I managed to clean 60 and squat snatch 45 without feeling too scared! Thanks Steve!

When we got onto jerking it all went wrong though. My shoulder started to really hurt, so we stopped and went onto front squats.

On Tuesday evening I had an hour long sports massage (OUCH!), which hopefully will have sorted it out. I still have to rest it until Friday now though! I hate not being able to train!

Training and The Argus

YES! On Friday I clean and jerked 60kg for the first time since before my last competition! It felt so good and was a real confidence boost.

Also - I am going to be in The Argus tomorrow (Monday 15th March)! Check it out :)

The Argus

Yesterday, The Argus (local newspaper) came to my gym (ZT fitness) and took photos of me weightlifting, and with my coaches and training partner, Holly, to feature in an article in a few weeks time! It was very embarrassing, but hopefully the press will do some good! Maybe someone out there will want to support me and buy me some weightlifting shoes *nudge nudge hint hint*!
I will let you know when it's out so you can all go and buy a copy :D

Last week's training

Last week didn't start too well. My shoulder was giving me more grief, so I booked a sports massage, which seemed to have done the trick, until I clean and jerked 57.5kg again and it went 'twang' and started hurting a LOT.
I went back to the gym on Friday on my own and tried doing some snatching again, because I haven't gone very heavy with it recently, and to my great surprise I 'snatched' 47.5kg overhead - a new PB! Admittedly it wouldn't be legal in a competition but it has given me a confidence boost! Now all I have to do is sort that shoulder out...