'No news is good news' = Not true!

Sorry folks! The reason I haven't blogged for so long is because nothings happened! Training's going rubbishly! I haven't had a 112kg total since before the British Juniors!

I have, however, got my first pair of weightlifting shoes! They're beautiful, and I paid for (most of) them with the £70 grant I got from Wave Leisure. The company I bought them from (Risto Sports) in the USA didn't make the postage charges clear though so I ended up paying £35 extra! Not cool!

Tomorrow I have the London and South East Open. I am soooo hungry because I am trying to go down a weight category to under 63kgs. I'll let you know if I make it!

The British Junior (Under 20) Weightlifting Championships

I woke up feeling OK (considering it was 4am!), and so happy that my emergency sports massage the evening before had sorted out my hamstring injury which I had obtained through fencing! 

We left Lewes at 5am(!!) and arrived at Lilleshall national sports centre at 9am. I then had to weigh in: 64.6kg which put me in the 63-69kg category with 2 other girls. 

The warm up went OK, so I started on 45kg snatch, which went fine. Then 48kg which I failed - it was too far forward and I almost threw it off the platform! So I took 48kg again and got it. 

Then I started the clean and jerk on 57kg, which was fine. Then 60kg which the judges said I failed, but looked fine to everyone else!! So I took 60kg again and got it. 

So I ended up with a total of 108kg, which put me in second place. I was a little disappointed, as I was only 5kg off winning, which I could have done if I hadn't failed two lifts. I was annoyed because the total which the girl who won had put on her entry form was 80kg, which is significantly less than she actually had, which fooled me into thinking I stood a chance of winning in the 69kg bodyweight category. If I had known the truth I would have gone in the 63kg category, and won it!!

Even so, it was a good day. I overcame a lot of the fears I had last time, thanks to reading Steve Backley's book. I also came home with a MASSIVE silver cup (see picture above).

Zoe Smith was there, even though she wasn't competing, and she filmed my lifts (well, actually, she missed half of them!) which you can see on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/zoraphina

Quick Update...

On Monday, I had a brilliant training session. I got a 112kg total for the second time and I was feeling great, then today I had my last session  before the comp and it went appallingly. Only got 105kg total, and dropped the bar... a lot!

Last night Zoe Smith was on the BBC program Olympic Dreams! She looked great! I suggest you watch it on iPlayer!

This evening I went fencing, when I should have gone to bed because I've been feeling really run down this week, and I pulled my hamstring! 3 days before my big competition! Now I'm icing it, trying to get it back to normal for Saturday! Will let you know...

Training with Zoe Smith!

On Monday Rob (coach 2) and I were driven to Kent by John (coach 1!) where we spent a couple of hours training with Zoe Smith! The British champ! She's a real inspiration. She's 15 and can lift more than men twice her age! To give you an idea of how strong she is - I can C&J 62.5kg and she can C&J 110kg!! I learnt a lot from watching her and she was very encouraging. She is off to Spain in a couple of weeks for ANOTHER international competition, but she is still coming to the British Juniors next week to watch and cheer everyone else on! While training with her I managed to snatch 50kg again, and got a total of 110kg.

The rest of training this week hasn't been quite as successful. My totals haven't been very high, and I only have 2 training sessions until the British Junior Championships next Saturday! Will let you know how it goes!

Quick Update...

In the last week I have had some good improvements. On 30th March I got a new total of 110kg (S-47.5, C&J-62.5), then my next training session went pretty badly and I only reached 102kg total. However, yesterday I got a new total of 112kg! I snatched 50kg (but it was a bit dodgy!) and clean and jerked 62. I'm feeling very pleased about this :D

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!