Competition Recap - Kanama Summerfest

Guelph Barbell Club

Since my return to Ontario this spring, I have been trying to compete in as many weightlifting meets as possible to increase my comfort with this type of event. Thankfully, Ontario has a much larger number of weightlifting clubs than the East coast and there have been 4 competitions in the past 5 months. I have had the opportunity to compete in the last 3 out of 4 OWA competitions and I have learned that I seem to have a mental block where I can hit better numbers in practice than I can in competition.

Today, we left at 9:30 to begin our drive to Scarbough where we were going to compete at the Kanama High Performance facility. There were 4 sessions in total and we were in session #3, scheduled to weigh in at 11:15 am and begin lifting at 1:15 pm.  I had a bit of difficulty making weight this time around, so I had to hit up the sauna and go without food/drink for about 18 hours prior to weighing in. The combination of me without food & coffee in the morning + highway 401 gong-show traffic, made for a very, very HANGRY Marcy. Thankfully, I stepped on the scale at 74.6 kg and quickly began re-hydrating/refuelling.

My goals for this competition were (1) to hit both my opening snatch and clean & jerk and (2) to hit a new C&J personal record. Annnnd.... I accomplished neither.

Making her weightlifting debut in my old wrestling singlet!

My teammate, competing in the 69 kg division and the only Masters lifter, had a fabulous weightlifting debut. She hit 5 out of her 6 lifts, and if I remember correctly, I think she hit new PRs for both. Being the only Masters competitor, she impressed the hell out of everyone. The crowd was particularly fond of her, cheering as she bounced like a giddy school girl after making her final snatch.

In the practice room, my snatch has been plateaued at 140 lbs (63.6 kg) for 8 months. My C&J, on the other hand, has been continuously improving and is now up to 175 lb (79.5 kg).

Today, I competed in the 75 kg division and planned to open with a 57 kg snatch and 75 kg C&J. I felt great this morning (after re-hydrating and refuelling after my weight-cut) and didn't miss a single lift during warm up. Then I walked out on the platform, ready to hit my first lift - AND I failed at 57 kg. Frustrated, I walk back to my coach who gave me the swift kick in the ass that I needed, and then walked back out to my second attempt. I hit the 57 kg snatch the second time so coach and I decided to try 60 kg for my third and final lift. Thankfully, I hit the 60 kg, which tied my best-ever competition lift from the Toronto Pro Show. But much to my irritation, a 60 kg competition lift is a far cry from the 63.6 kg I hit in practice just last week.  

After reading an article from Catalyst Athletics about the dos-and-don'ts of competition day, I decided to try eating the recommended Snickers bar in between the Snatch and the C&J (I'm not exactly sure if it helped though).

Again, I easily hit all my warm up lifts for the C&J, but I failed my opening lift at 75 kg. And it was UGLY! It looked as though I had never hit that weight in my life! I struggled up out of the bottom and found that both my pinkie & ring fingers were stuck under the barbell. I had to bounce the bar of my collar bone twice, just to get my fingers in the appropriate place from which to jerk. I tried to centre myself, take a deep breath but I completely bailed on my jerk (which is my strongest lift, by the way). So again, I get the necessary kick in the ass from coach. I KNOW that I can hit this number, I have been hitting it consistently for weeks. So I go back out there, I ripped the bar off the ground, cleaned it up easily, and punched the jerk hard. There was actually an audible sound of shock from the crowd, they were seemingly amazed that this lift came up so easily after the last attempt was such junk. Feeling good about this lift, we decided to try for a 79 kg third and final C&J (as my last competition PR was 78 kg). Unfortunately, I didn't pull back on the bar enough and caught the clean on my toes, failing to get up out of the bottom of the clean.

In all, we had a good day. We saw some fantastic lifting, including a 64 kg woman hitting a 100 kg C&J, and had a lot of fun. I scored a 135 kg total and have thus qualified for both the OWA Fall Classic and Winter Lift. But I am still disappointed with my inability to get out of my own head. I need to get to the point where I can consistently hit my opening lifts, regardless of how heavy they are. In the meantime, I will be heading back to Royal City CrossFit to hit up another strength cycle and work on my headspace! And maybe hit up a few CrossFit competitions in the area just for some fun! Until next time, LIFT ALL THE THINGS!