EDITOR’S NOTE:
Welcome to the Athlete Journal of Olympic weightlifter Holley Mangold. Holley is part of Team USA headed to London this summer. Follow her journey here as she trains for the 2012 Olympics! Holley’s journal will be posted every Friday.
You can catch up by reading her previous journal entries!
Holley’s Athlete Journal 4:
This past week I’ve been going back and forth with dreams. In both, it’s the day of the Olympics. In one, I’m totally prepared and I feel wonderful, whereas in the other, I’m not ready and completely bomb out. With the latter, I wake up panicking just to realize it’s a dream. The feeling of the second dream stays with me throughout the day – I obviously want to do well, but the idea of letting the whole country down weighs on me. I’m hoping to channel the nerves into motivation. This will be one of the first meets where my results matter more than just personal success. I’m honored and consistently nervous. I take that pressure to help me through my practice lifts – as if I had an audience of a nation staring at me.
This week was spent trying to have as normal a week as possible (I’ll post my week’s workout at the end of this blog). Training felt great! Social activities were fun as well! Thursday we had a “Gym Party” at the bowling alley. It was in a back room just for us, and so much fun. Those are the types of parties that I like to go to prior to the Olympics because they are a great break with positive people, but not too crazy to lose focus. Friday and Saturday were spent in Dayton with my sisters and the days leading up to this post were spent with my roommates in Columbus.
The bulk of the past week, and the week to come revolves around training and family, with some City BBQ work sprinkled in. My biggest struggle as I drive back and forth to visit my family is knowing that I love seeing them but the shooting pain in my knees says that I should be alternating in the cold/hot tub instead of having my knees pressed against the dashboard. Its so bittersweet when hanging out with my sisters – I wish for the next months that I could be an emotionless machine that just “lifts big weights,” as Arnold told me at his title meet. So while I loved seeing my sisters over the weekend, the constant thought of what I “should be doing” hangs over my head.
The other thing that has proven to be a really hard thing to deal with is injury. Not that I’m necessarily injured – besides my constant knee problem – but the worry of what injury might happen, especially one that’s outside of my control. Sometimes I feel like I’m turning into my sister, the hypochondriac. Now, for my sanity, I’ve decided that the short trip to Dayton to see my family occasionally will be the only trips that I’ll make. There will be plenty of time for travel when the Olympics are over. Right now, it’s one strong day at a time with every action or inaction focused on London.
Here’s my past weeks workout as promised. (Numbers are in kilos.)
Hope you guys enjoy!
Monday:
Snatch deadlift: 120-1-5 pause at knees
Clean and Jerk: 125-1-3
Front squat: 160-1-5
Seated good mornings: X-5-5
Abs: X
Check body weight and list
Tuesday:
Power snatch: 75-1-5
Clean deadlift: 150/1-5 with pause at knees
Pendlay rows: X-5-5
Abs: X
Wednesday:
Snatch: (90/1, 95/1, 100/1) 2
Clean and jerk: 130/1-2
Snatch deadlift: 125/1-5 no pause
Back squat: 170/2-3
Supermans: X/5-5
Abs:X
Friday:
Power snatch: 80-1-5
Power clean: 110-1-5
Abs: X
More to come next week!
