Time and time again I keep finding things to do to keep myself busy, to give myself the excuse that I haven’t got ‘time’ to keep this Blog updated. It is of course utter rubbish. All I am doing along with what seems like the rest of the planet is losing my life on social media. To be fair to myself last year was crazy busy for me and I had a really successful year’s lifting, became a national and international referee and very heavily involved in organising some stupendous competitions.
This all gave me a plethora of great stuff to write about and yet I didn’t. Instead I chose to waste countless hours ‘relaxing’ scrolling through miles and miles of meaningless shite. Like most things that you put off, once I actually get started I quite enjoy the writing even though I don’t particularly think what I have to say is very interesting or important. Maybe there-in lays the secret. It doesn’t have to be important and whether it is interesting is up to you, the reader, to decide.
I have never really been one for making New Year’s resolutions. I do however like me a good list and on my 2016 ‘to do’ list (along with play more Ukulele, start sketching again and learn 4th language) is to blog more. Now that in itself is such a vague goal. Blog more? More than whom? Blog more what? Write longer Blogs? Write more frequent Blogs? And what the fuck do I Blog about?
Simple ‘blog more’ as a goal is meaningless. It has no plan. It is not measurable. It gives me no idea what I am working towards or how to break it down into bite sized chunks that I can tick off my beloved lists. Yet I know the importance of planning, of having a structure, of having set goals that I can accomplish along the way in order to achieve what I ultimately set out to do. I do this week in week out with my training program.
As I said last year was pretty special for me in powerlifting terms. I became the first UK female to hit a 500kg raw (with wraps) total. Now it just didn’t ‘happen’ and when it did I didn’t even know how momentous it was. 500kg was a target I had in my head and my 12 month plan was to come as close as I possibly could with each platform outing. I knew exactly what numbers I needed to get and I knew I had to really put the work in to get them. These numbers were as far as I was concerned just out of reach for the time being but I was putting the work into the plan to get me there.
All that changed on 9th June 2015 at GPC European Championships when I hit 180/115/205=500. I will leave the details of this day for another post. The point is once you commit to something, have a plan, a way of working through the challenges and a way of monitoring your progress. Then you have to be prepared to put in the time and effort. Even though you may not really know where to start you just have to do it. You will learn as you go along. The only wrong way is by not starting at all. Remember plans can be changed if it doesn’t work for you, they can be adapted and tweaked. You HAVE to be willing to start and give that plan your all.
Every training session I have a plan. As part of my plan I have a target rep range for my main lifts along with how I would ideally like to hit that target. So for example the plan may be:
4 sets of 3 reps
Total = 12 reps.
So ideally this is how it would go to plan. Some days though things are not ideal. So for me the target rep range is what I want to walk away with and it is irrelevant whether I get that volume in;
4×3=12
6×2 =12
2×3/2×2/2×1=12
What is paramount is walking away positively because I can adapt to suit the body I have on that day. Without the set target I have no direction. Without the set plan I have no structure. Without the adaptation I set myself up for potential failure. Delroy McQueen, my much suffering mentor and I called it ‘getting the job done’ and boy did we get the job done last year.
Now just by writing this I have started to formulate a plan, I realise that I have some good transferable skills that I can put to good use here. I have also identified at least 3 more ideas to write more about. I know that just like my numbers on the platform something magic is not going to just miraculously happen. Just by starting I have begun to formulate a plan with set targets. And that plan may not be perfect but I have to be willing to commit, put in the time and the effort, be willing to adapt and find what works for me so that with each entry I hit ‘upload’ with a positive feeling of getting the job done.
#JackedAndClassy
#WomenWhoPowerlift
#ThisIsWhoIAm
#ThisIsWhatIDo
#NeverEverGiveUp
#FindAWay
Stay ROARSOME!
T x
