ian haya

This past weekend, I travelled to Collingwood, ON with a few members of the Gas Hut/CrossFit Ottawa Weightlifting Club for our first meet of the season. There were three other lifters from our club competing. For all of them, this was their first meet. It’s been less than a year since my first meet, but I have a few meets under my belt now, so I was the seasoned veteran among them.  I did my best to offer advice from my experiences so far.

Since this was the first meet of the weightlifting season, the goal wasn’t to put too much emphasis on the amount of weight lifted, especially since I’m just getting back into it after dropping almost a whole weight class since provincials in March, mostly due to a bad case of food poisoning. I’ve managed to put some weight back on, but not all of it. I was more concerned with making my lifts and just getting more meet experience.

Here’s the skinny:

bw: 64.9 kg (lightest I’ve weighed in at so far)

Snatch – 75, 78, 84

Clean & Jerk – 92x, 92, 95

Total – 179 (3rd Place)

Video:

I pretty much power snatched my first two attempts, so Pierre decided to move me up to 84, which is just 2 kilo’s under my PR. It felt good to make that, as it’s been a while  since I’ve gone that heavy.

I was a bit disappointed to miss my first clean, since it shouldn’t have been hard, I just got a bit too far back  on my heels. I managed to recover and make my next two attempts. I kind of wanted to go for 100, which would have been a competition PR (and would have moved me up to 2nd place), but fatigue was starting to set in. The ~7 hr drive up and not enough food were probably the main contributing factors. I’ve decided I need to eat more during the break between Snatch and Clean & Jerk.

Overall though, I was very happy with how this meet went for myself. I managed to sleep much better the night before and I didn’t have the nervous shakes when I went out onto the platform. This was probably more what I was looking to get out of this meet; building confidence and being comfortable enough that I can perform my best.

One final note, I have to congratulate the other lifters from our club. They all did very well in their first meets, especially Rob (94 kg) who went 6 for 6 and hit PR’s in both the snatch (101) and clean & jerk (125). The way things are going, he has a legitimate shot at qualifying for nationals this year. Christa and Liz also had strong showings going 5 for 6, and 4 for 6 respectively and lifting close to their training PR’s in a competition environment.

The next meet is scheduled for North Bay on October 17. Hopefully we get a few more lifters from our club out for that one!