4/30 - heavy...

Today was a heavy day and I LOVED it!  That being said, I also feel like I've been beat up by a barbell but I'll get to that. 

Strength:
5-5-5 back squat
40-50-60kg

Matched my PR on this one though I didn't know it at the time.  This time however it was a 5RM instead of a 3RM.  It was definitely hard but I think I might have been able to go higher if I was feeling it (I wasn't).  Getting stronger though - I really do love seeing the improvement. 

Note - I have to hold the bar lower on my back rather than up near my neck - I'm feeling sore/bruised today from having the bar too high.  Ouch!

WOD:
9-7-5
HSPU
Power cleans (50/75kg)
8:36 (Rx, 45kg)

We have a team doing the WOD Team Championships this weekend and their Rx criteria for women on hspu's is 60cm so I had my hands on 10kg plates and my head down to an ab mat.  I managed the first set in 5-4 reps with kipping and surprisingly didn't fall off the wall as I did (usually I do).  The second set of 7 was broken down as 2-3-1-1.  The last two were hard.  I really had to set myself up for a solid kip and give it everything I had on the push.  The last 5 were ugly, all singles and I did no-rep myself on one of them because I fell off the wall before being fully locked out at the top with my feet on the wall - by this point everyone else was finished but I didn't care.  I didn't see a reason to cheat myself by counting the rep just to save a few seconds - I got stronger because of that one full rep.

The cleans were HEAVY.  To put it into context - I'd only ever squat cleaned 45kg twice and that was last Friday during our clean and jerk session, not during a WOD.  It was hard - but that's the point isn't it?  I actually didn't squat clean these as I'm still learning to be comfortable in that movement.  I power cleaned them all though by the end they were anything but pretty - I have the bruises to prove it too!  The one thing I was aware of was to feel the tension on the bar and pull my shoulders back before starting the lift and to be smooth from the ground until exploding in the hang position.  Coach Luke was definitely in my head on these - I'm learning.

I was the last person finished by a minute and a half - most people were done by 4 minutes.  I realized on my last set of hspu's that it was only Oli and I and then only me on the cleans and the entire class was watching.  Coach Match was cheering me on through which helped, I pushed as hard as I could to the finish but it was not fast at all.  Just steady.  I loved it though - the heavy cleans made me feel like a beast if only for the moment.

Barbell won this one!