Departure Day and Sponsors

Today is travel day for me. It’s a little hard to wrap my head around the fact that I’m going to leave at noon on Wednesday and arrive at 10 PM on Thursday and yet only be in the air 22 hours. This is my first international weightlifting trip and as with anything new there’s always a little bit of fear of the unknown. Will I have the same amenities afforded to me that I have at every other meet I’ve been to! What will the good be like and will I be able to eat it? Will there be a check scale at my hotel? What impact will the flight have on my stiffness and bodyweight? Is the time difference really going to make that big of an impact on me?
All of these questions really remain unanswered until I hit the ground in Thailand. It takes a certain level of trust and a large level of flexibility to recognize there’s not much I can do about those questions and there are very few things I can do to change the circumstances on this trip. Stress and worry certainly won’t change it.
As far as expectations for my lifts, everything could change when I get over there but I do have certain numbers in my mind that I would like to hit and that I feel capable of. When they released the start list I was ranked fourth on the list back 1 kg in qualifying total from the third-place guy. (That could all be wrong but who knows). That certainly gave me an expectation that I could find myself in the medals. My training has been different than it’s ever been in my life because of so many changes having happened last six months. As a result I don’t feel like my strength is where it used to be but technically I feel much much better. In a perfect world I will snatch 127 or 130 this weekend. The clean and jerk is always hit or miss for me. Everybody calls the clean and jerk the “king of lifts.” For me much of my success rides on my success in the snatch. If I can have a good snatch day and get three or four or five kg ahead of my competition that might be enough to push him to a weight he’s not capable of in the clean and jerk. Right now I feel capable of 152 or 153 in the clean and jerk but depending on how the results stack up after the snatch what actually goes on the bar will be determined by possibility of ranking. Unfortunately I’m not the lifter that wins with the clean and jerk. I’m the type that is forced into trying to hang on to a lead with the clean and jerk. For that reason, I need to have a good snatch day.
Ultimately I’m gonna put the weight on the bar that is necessary to grab a total as high as possible. What that weight is I guess we’ll find out in a couple days.
I’m getting ready to get on a plane today and could not be more thankful for the people in my life who have helped make it happen. From a coaching standpoint There are few coach out there who are as equally committed to my success as they are committed to me as a person. Ursula Papandrea is one of those people. I could not be more grateful for Ursula for her programming, constant push to get me to reach the peak of my abilities, and her uncanny ability to know when I need criticism and know when I need compassion. Added to that, our national championship club, Texas Barbel Club, supports all of our lifters in miraculous ways financially. We are not a business or a company that makes any sort of money but every time we go to a competition Ursula finds a way to get the club to help us get there. I don’t know how she does it or how Texas Barbell manages to send so many lifters to so many different meets but I could not be more thankful for their sponsorship to Thailand.
Secondly, Cryo USA in Dallas, Texas has always been a massive supporter of my career. During my time in Dallas I got to know Mark and the team at Cryo USA, they have always been supportive of me both financially and with their services. Mark, one of my mentors when I was in Dallas, made it his personal desire to see me achieve everything I was capable of in the sport and as a Christian. Cryo literally is one of the reasons I’m still held together after so many years of training. If you don’t know what Cryo therapy is you’re missing out and if you’re in the Dallas area there’s no better place to check it out at than Cryo USA.
Lastly, when I was getting everything together to head to Thailand and book flights etc. One of my athletes stepped up to help support getting me there. Cherisse Kellemen is an Isagenix rep and her involvement in the company not only provided massive financial help for my trip but provided some supplements that I honestly rolled my eyes at the first time I got them. I’m not a huge supplement fan and in my mind 99.9% of what’s out there is more filler than anything else. I can’t vouch for all of Isagenix’s product but what I can vouch for are the Isa-Lean bars and the E-Shots. When I start cutting weight, I have to get creative on how to consume the right kind of calories at the right time. The Isa-Lean bars were a key to that over the course of the last three weeks. She provided those to me and you can trust they are in my bag for this flight to Thailand. What’s more, she gave me a huge amount of the E-Shot energy boosters. This is the product I really rolled my eyes. It looks just like a five hour energy or one of the little energy boosters you buy at the grocery store. I told her I would give it a shot and because my afternoon training always requires a spike in energy after a day at King’s Ridge, I gave it a shot one afternoon before training. Just as effective as coffee, just as efficient at spiking my energy levels, and I was able to get it into my system in five seconds. That’s a product I’ll be taking before I lift this weekend. If you’re interested in any of these products check out their website here or email Cherisse at Cherisse.Kellemen@djoglobal.com.
The organizing committee for the World University Championships has not released the tentative schedule as of yet. They should have a schedule out after the technical meeting before the competition begins. When that schedule is posted I will make sure it hits this blog as well as the live feed link. Live feed link I think is on the USAW website already but I’ll be sure to post it here once they release the final schedule.
If you will say a quick prayer for me if you think about it and pray for PR’s and podiums. Hopefully I’ll be able to post a picture this weekend riding an elephant with a metal around my neck.