It's that time of year now where people start thinking about their resolutions and goals for 2013. Well for starters I think resolutions are stupid since 99% of the population makes them about getting in-shape and most have given up 2 weeks after making those resolutions. Not to mention it shouldn't take a date change on the calendar to be resolved to accomplish something in your life. As an athlete I'm constantly making goals, whether its a small goal for what I would like to achieve this week in training or what I would like to achieve in a few months at my next competition. Hitting the next mark and going a little batshit crazy in the weight room is what keeps me going despite setbacks. It's a bit of a passion bordering on obsession I would say.
In reviewing my goals for 2012 I found that I came very close to most of them. My training book is littered with PRs for the first half of the year. As the year progressed they tapered off, by September they completely disappeared, and by November this is what my training log looked like:
Snatch - my goal was to snatch 80kg and I managed to hit 77 in both training and in competition. That's 10k over what I would normally be hitting for openers and a 4k improvement over my all time best. I jussssst barely missed the 80k the last time I was able to compete.
Clean - my goal was to clean 100k and ultimately also clean & jerk it. I was able to clean 98k pretty early in my training. which equated to an 8k PR on my best ever clean and at least 10k above my best clean & jerk. On the actual clean & jerk side I managed to hit 95k in training, a 7k improvement over my best clean & jerk, and actually hit 93k in competition. The next two videos show both the PR clean and the PR clean & jerk.
On the straight up strength side of things I also got very close to hitting my goals. Most notably I finally got within reach of the double body weight back squat goal of 137k, ultimately hitting 131k. As I've mentioned in previous posts the double weight is actually now more resembling 150k thanks to moving up a weight class. I also deadlifted 140k and benched 66k which are both PRs but I never had goals for those having never really trained those or aimed for high weight on them. The 140k deadlift is actually the most weight I've ever moved in any lift ever!
So overall 2012 treated me quite well. Adding almost 20k to my total, whether I achieved it at random moments in training or in competition, is a huge success for me. It was a huge upswing in my abilities and gave me the confidence to really go after big lifts.
This year I'm starting off a bit different than I started last year. This year my first and ultimate goal is to overcome whatever the hell is going on with my hips and back. While doing that I have to get my my mind right and find the big inspiration inside me that before I had found from outside sources. This year its entirely 100% up to me.
The goals for this year include but are not limited to:
Get healthy - most namely my back/hips but also overall general health since I kicked off 2013 with a nice sinus infection. I would like to be able to bilateral squat, lift from the floor, and perform full lifts again some time in the near future.
Stay healthy & get ridiculously strong. Strong everything, everywhere.
Snatch 80+
Clean & Jerk 100
Clean 101+ yep I put 101k because I think 100k might be one of those stupid mental block type weights so we'll just go ahead and skip right over it.
Squat 137-150
Deadlift 150+
Bench 75 - yes I am fully aware that this has no particular function towards Olympic lifting and tends to be on the douche-y side of things but it would also mean that I'm getting stronger overall, not to mention I think benching body weight would be a pretty cool accomplishment. And let's face it, upper body lifts in any capacity are not my strong suit and could use some work anyway.
Total 180k - obviously in a competition would be great but I will also take training total.
Hit the podium at a national level meet - shouldn't take a genius to figure out why this would be awesome.
So those are a rough outline of the goals that I would like to accomplish this year. They're mostly carry-overs from last year and since we're starting from a totally different place physically speaking I think they are reasonable enough. I'm not putting a deadline on any of my goals. It's not about accomplishing them all right away. It's about setting myself up to be successful. Let's do this!
