Holley’s Athlete Journal 18:

Happy Holidays!!

Recently, I made the move back from the Olympic Training Center in Colorado to my home in Dublin, Ohio. It’s been wonderful to come home, but reverting back to the “real world” is going to be a challenge. When I was living in the OTC, my meals were ready for me, which is something I really took for granted. I am trying to stick to the healthy meal plan that was set up for me, and it’s a challenge cooking healthy meals for myself. Beyond the dietary difficulties, I am really missing the sports medicine people who fixed me up daily. Now, I have rehab exercises that I need to keep up with while I’m sitting on my couch.

The closeness of the gym is also a luxury that I’ll miss. Instead of being able to walk to the gym, I have to drive the twenty minutes to the YMCA. I absolutely love my coach and training partners who train with me in the YMCA’s Olympic weightlifting section. However, just on the other side of the glass is the part where all of the “normal workouters” go. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but there’s a different attitude between people who jog to look good in a bathing suit and people who work out in order to be elite athletes. There is a competitive vibe that you get in the OTC that you don’t really get from everyone in the YMCA. 

Training wise, I have been able to snatch 25 kilos. I’ve been working on the clean part of the clean and jerk, but I can’t bend my wrist far enough for the whole lift. I do a lot of squats and cardio right now. When I lift, I make sure to tape both wrists as tight as possible so that they feel similar. That helps me balance the bar.

Below I’ve posted a sample workout. I am back to working at City Barbeque, so my workouts are only once a day. While at City BBQ, my job is to lift big boxes of food, so I’ve gotten pretty good at lifting with one hand.

During the holidays, I will be attempting to get in workouts and remain healthy. It would be fantastic if I had a bar that I could carry around with me so I’m always ready for a workout. I’m working on that!

Monday’s Workout:

1-arm Snatch 70kg 3 singles

Back Squat 180kg 3×3

Tuesday’s Workout:

Snatch X-6 sets of 2

Clean X-5 sets of 2

Press, from split depending on flexibility: X/3-5

Front Squat: X/2-5 (Try putting your hands straight out.)

Wednesday’s Workout:

1-arm Snatch 50kg 3 doubles

Cardio My Choice 30 minutes

Thursday – Off

Friday’s Workout – 

Snatch X-6 sets of 2

Clean X-5 sets of 2

Press, from split depending on flexibility: X/3-5

Front Squat: X/2-5 (Try putting your hands straight out.)

Saturday’s Workout:

Cardio – My choice, 30 minutes

The post Athlete Journal: Holley Mangold, Entry 18 – Back Home From the OTC appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Holley’s Athlete Journal 17:

This week I am enjoying being with my friends in Colorado and attempting to not sabotage my healthy diet with too many Thanksgiving helpings. I am trying to keep my mind on training through the holiday instead of indulging.

Currently my training is about recovering from getting the metal bar out of my wrist– I am starting to look normal again post wrist surgery. I only have two sets of scars that look something like vampire bites. It’s hard to see my wrist looking normal and remember that it’s simply not back to full strength. I am still doing one handed snatches, but previously the metal bar was holding me back from flexing. Now I have to try really hard to only flex one side of my body as to not injure the healing wrist. I have to constantly work through attempting to get stronger while managing special exercises for my wrist rehab. On top of my normal lifting, I am trying to incorporate more cardio. A lot of my cardio has some sort of weight resistance built in. The hardest thing about recovery is watching other people do the thing you love. Everyday I go into the gym wanting so much just to be able to lift but I can’t. I’m excited to see the day when I can two-handed snatch like a normal weightlifter.

In the meantime here’s a video of my one-armed snatch:

Below is a sample workout from this week. I hope to keep adding reps and weight in the coming days:

• One handed snatches up to 50kg
• One handed pulls up to 130kg
• Back squat with safety bar up to 175kg set of 2
• Dumbbell presses with 40lbs 6 sets of 6

Cardio workout:

3 rounds of 4 min. 20secs on 10secs off:

• Round 1 KB swings
• Round 2 running stairs
• Round 3 battling ropes

Then 15 min cool down on elliptical

The post Athlete Journal: Holley Mangold, Entry 17 – One-Armed Snatch Practice appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Holley’s Athlete Journal 16:

Since the Olympics I have been slowly coming down from the excitement and back to reality. The whole Olympic experience made me that much more excited for the next four years. Knowing that I have experience and time to prepare is awesome. But the road to Rio will not be an easy one – I have lots of things on the table right now.

The first step is recovering from injury.

I shattered my wrist during the Olympics and am now on the road to recovery. Before competing, I had some torn ligaments in my wrist. During the competition I was so determined to total that I tore every ligament, which made the bones scatter throughout my wrist. I came back to Colorado to do my surgery.

The surgery was intense, but the doctors expect a full recovery!

My mom came out to help me get through the whole process. Doctors had to put pins in my wrist to reposition the bones and ligaments. The pins connect to an external rod that runs the length of my forearm. It obviously hurts a lot, but it’s also a pain to clean and protect from oncoming walls. I am usually pretty reckless and am having a hard time remembering that I need to be cautious.

After eight weeks, I will be able to take the pins out and start rehab.

Right now, however, I have to do workouts that do not involve my wrist. That alone is one of the most frustrating things because for the past four years or so, I been doing the clean and jerk and snatch as my primary workouts. I miss being able to Olympic lift.

I also miss being in the weightlifting gym with the other lifters – right now I workout with an Olympic Center trainer in the general-purpose gym. It motivates me to work hard and get back to where I feel most comfortable. The most important thing for me to do at this time is to recover and get healthy. I will be posting my workouts below to show the progression.

In the near future, I hope to finish my degree and get back to my normal training schedule. I absolutely love the people out here in Colorado and our hiking trips that rejuvenate me for the upcoming weeks, but I definitely miss my roommates in Columbus, Ohio! With my bum wrist, my video game playing has taken a toll and I would love to get back to my much-needed downtime!

Sample workout for when you have a pins in your arm:

One handed snatch with bar from blocks –

3x20kg, 3x30kg, 2x35kg, 1x40kg, 3x30kg

One handed pulls from blocks below knees –

6x55kg, 5x65kg, 4x75kg, 3x85kg, 2x95kg, 1x105kg

Back squat with safety bar –

6x65kg, 5x85kg, 4x105kg, 3x140kg, 2x155kg, 1x170kg

The post Athlete Journal: Holley Mangold, Entry 16 – Recovering From Surgery appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

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 15:

London 2012 was awesome. The city was so caught up in the Olympic spirit that it just made it even more fun. I loved seeing the athletes from all around the world in the Olympic Village. Most of them were in niche sports, like mine, which made them really different. Each athlete seemed to have different builds – from the super tall, thin type to the short, muscular gymnasts, and everything in between. There were throwers and water polo players that didn’t fit the stereotypical norm for an Olympic athlete, but amazing all in their own right. It just really showed my message that athletes come in all shapes and sizes!

The Olympic experience has been more than amazing – it was surreal. I can’t believe that it’s over already. Leading up to the games I trained as hard as I could, followed a strict diet, and tried to mentally prepare for the biggest meet of my life in front of the most spectators ever! Its crazy how much of this sport is mental and I had to make sure that both the mental and physical were ready.

Unfortunately, I hurt my wrist really badly training just a few days before leaving for London. It was awful physically, of course, but it also mentally challenged me. From the moment I arrived in the Olympic Village right up until I competed, I worked with the physical therapy team trying to do everything I could to make my wrist normal again. The days leading up to the meet became more and more stressful worrying about exactly how it would hold up. We ended up taping it and shooting it with cortisone. The pain was ridiculous, but I’m very happy that I was able to total (complete both lifts). That was most important to me – to total despite torn ligaments in my wrist.

Of course, I didn’t do my best numbers, but at the point I was at, I’m still satisfied that my wrist held on. It would have been wonderful to put up bigger numbers and push myself to PRs, but it just wasn’t in the cards. It makes me even more excited to train hard the next four years and make the 2016 Olympics be my Olympics to medal. I know that with the amount I’ve progressed these past four years, the next four years can be even more amazing.

I just want to also say this time in my life wouldn’t be nearly as cool without all of the support I have gotten from family, friends, and random people who share their stories with me. It’s a great feeling to put so much into a sport I love and get such positive feedback. Hopefully this experience helps others to work towards their individual goals, whether it be in sports or in life in general, knowing that failure is probably going to happen at times, but success won’t happen either without trying!

The post Athlete Journal: Holley Mangold, Entry 15 – My Olympic Games Experience appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

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 14:

London has been amazing! Unlike any other experience! I arrived in London with two torn ligaments in my wrist, but was optimistic that it would heal enough to not effect me too much. The day I hurt it in practice was a huge blow – the first time any of my coaches/training partners have seen me cry out of pain.

The wrist injury was not really on my mind when I got to the Olympic village, though. It’s such a huge, awesome complex! There’s a shuttle that can take you around it, although you can also take a long walk from building to building. The dining tent is massive and delicious! The rooms are a little dorm-styled but great.

I was fortunate to have a great team around me to prepare for Sunday. My coaches, Mark and Drew were there, as well as one of my first coaches, Dan Bell. Outside of the weight room I had seventeen of my family members there supporting me (even though they had a British vacation without me!).

The day of the competition I was full of emotions – I was worried about my wrist holding up, totaling, and of course competing! Getting physically prepared is obvious, but getting mentally prepared is equally if not more important. I focused on letting go of everything else and just focusing on the lift. Although I didn’t have my best totals, I’m very happy that I was able to get lifts up despite my wrist giving out.

Competing and getting the experience of the Olympics was most important to me. It makes me more excited to see what I can do in 2016 (The games that I was originally slotted for!)

After the meet, it was nice to relax with my family and friends. It felt awesome to know that what was done is done and I could have a beer or two with some bar food. Of course, when I get back to the States, training starts up again! Can’t wait to see how much more I can add to my total.

Overall, this experience is wonderful. Being surrounded by athletes of all shapes and sizes is really cool. I’m proud of team USA’s success and am enjoying watching the Olympics as a spectator (with athlete credentials)! It’s also been cool to do a little sight seeing. I’m excited for Closing Ceremonies – even though our dresses are see through!

Go Team USA!

The post Athlete Journal: Holley Mangold, Entry 14 – The Big Day Happened appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

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 13:

This week has been exciting in so many ways! Before leaving for London on July 24th, my sister and mom came to help me pack up my things for the move to our new house. That was a huge weight on my shoulders – not the kind of weight that I like to have over my head! Just before leaving I was hurrying around trying to get my credit card and phone issues in order. The lady at the bank laughed in my face when I told her that I am competing in the Olympics. I know I’m not the normal Olympic mold but she could have at least nodded along!

Leaving for London was awesome and exciting! The flight over had the female wrestling team on it, which was so cool. I had met some of the girls at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) already. It was great to see them again and obviously very cool to make new friends. The flight attendant gave us a shout out, which was nice! The time change didn’t work well on my body. I could not get comfortable to sleep through the night, so unfortunately I had a raging headache the whole next day. That was terrible because we were being outfitted for our uniforms and all I wanted to do was find a bed and recover from the trip!

After the headache went away and I was feeling normal, things have been awesome! The Village is more amazing than I imagined. I’m loving every second of the experience. I’ve loved having my coach and training partner, Drew, here. He has made my travels easier and calmed my nerves. I’m happy that Drew is enjoying his host family and I appreciate all of the people who have been helping my family and friends make the journey to come see me. A special shout out to my lake friends and family in Georgia who are having a “Super Bowl” type celebration the day I compete.

I don’t want to give too many details away, but will be sure to go into more details about all the activities soon! For now, I’m happy to be here doing what I love in such a fun environment. And, I can’t help but love the endless amount of Coke Zero! Thank you to our sponsors!

The post Athlete Journal: Holley Mangold, Entry 13 – I’m In London! appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

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 12:

Between meet and greets in my hometown to CrossFit games in California, this past week can only be topped by London. It was amazing all around. I appreciate my dad for setting up opportunities to see people before venturing across the pond. I was at Elsa’s Kettering and Dublin Pub in Dayton and absolutely loved the amount of people who came out to support me. It really meant a lot to see old friends and meet new supporters. After the Dublin Pub we had an awesome time at our neighborhood pool, Dunsinane. Its so much fun to revisit my childish side every once in awhile.

Over the weekend, I met a ton of awesome people at the CrossFit Games. It was probably one of the coolest sporting events to attend. There was a huge crowd and lots of strong competitors. I think it’s awesome to see how much CrossFit has grown. They use Olympic weightlifting in their workouts (for those of you not familiar with CrossFit), which is exciting from my point of view because it adds popularity to my favorite sport. I was able to hang with people from Rock Tape, which was very cool. I wish I would have know about Rock Tape when I first started working out to help with my aches and pains.

Getting ready for the Olympics has had its ups and downs. Training has been going well and I am feeling confident in my lifts, whereas packing and household issues have been putting some stress on me. My roommates found a new house for us to move into, which is great, but they are moving while I’m in London. While I don’t really have a whole lot in my laundry room to pack, I do have to worry about moving the big things, like my “Big Girl Bed.” I’m hoping I can have things all sorted out before leaving next week. I absolutely can’t believe that this time next week I’ll be in the United Kingdom. It’s funny how with all of the training and talk about the Olympics I feel like I’ve been waiting to show what I can do for so long, yet on the other hand, because of being busy, the days have really crept up! I am so excited to report on the whole experience!

This week’s highlighted athlete is Natalie Burgener. She is in the 63kg weight class (about 140 lbs). She was a 2008 Olympian and a strong competitor at the Olympic Trials this year. She has accolades such as Junior Championship Team, Worlds, and Pan American team, just to name a few. Natalie is such a strong woman both physically and mentally. Her determination in training after injury is what makes this sport great. Here is a picture of us after the Olympic Trials in March.

The post Athlete Journal: Holley Mangold, Entry 12 – This Time Next Week appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

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 11:

There was a huge meet this week at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) that was the highlight of my training since the trials. It wasn’t necessarily huge because it won anything, but it was a major confidence booster: I PRed, adding about 10kg to my combined lift since March. Although I know I will push myself more when August 5^th comes, it felt good to get some good numbers up – 118kg in the snatch and 147kg in the clean and jerk. Other lifters had a great meet as well. I think there was just such positive energy there that we all felt at our best. I have videos up on my Facebook where you can see my lifts and watch an incredible lift from Zach Krych (who has been retired and still had great numbers).

Over the weekend I helped teach another CrossFit course for CrossFit Hypoxia. It was awesome because it was up in the mountains and had the most amazing view of Colorado. It was breathtaking to be so high up! Its always a good time to be around CrossFit people, but when you add in the scenery it really was the best.

I am now back in Columbus and it truly feels good to be home. I’m so excited to be back in the gym with my coach, Mark, and to see my unrelated twin, Heather Smith. We look enough alike that she might as well be related.

I realized the biggest thing I’ll miss about the training center is not the food or the schedule, but it’s the super cool people at the OTC. I wish somehow my favorite people there and my favorite people in Columbus could just all live in the same region. It would make things a lot easier. Although, if missing people and being sore were my only problems I’d say I have it easy enough as it is.

There has been some talk about how little weightlifters make in comparison to other athletes and people have asked me how I feel about this. I get a stipend from USAW for $400 a month and they pay for food and travel when I’m at the OTC. In addition there’s City BBQ and CrossFit money, but really, my expenses are so low that as long as someone feeds me, I’m a happy camper. I feel really blessed to be doing what I love and the fact that people take notice and I even make anything at all off of it is really lucky. My sister loves to run, but no one pays her to train. We do it for the love of our sports.

I have a couple upcoming events in my home town that all are welcome to: July 12^th I’ll be at Kettering Elsa’s at 4:30 and July 15^th I’ll be at the Dublin Pub in downtown Dayton at 2pm. I’ll be doing a weightlifting demo and a meet and greet at all locations. I’m excited to see family and hometown friends that I haven’t seen in awhile before I leave for London. I’m especially excited to see my little sister who I haven’t seen in awhile.

Last, but never least, my highlighted athlete for this week is Hilary Katzenmeier:

She is in the 53 kilos weight class (116 lbs) and has several accomplishments under her belt: World Championships 2011- 20^th place, 2009- 12^th place, Pan American Championships she placed 5^th in 2011 and 7^th in 2009, Junior Worlds in 2008 – 11^th place, Senior Nationals 2007 Champion, American Open 2011 and 2010 Champion, Junior Nationals 2008 and 2007 Champions, School Age Nationals 2005 Champion. She is a great lifter and friend who brings a lot to the sport.

I appreciate the following on this blog and hope everyone keeps up with my Twitter and Facebook as well!

The post Athlete Journal: Holley Mangold, Entry 11 – The Love of the Sport appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

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 10:

This week was another strong week at the Olympic Training Center. I’ll be in Colorado until the beginning of next week. It’s been awesome having my routine here and not having to worry about work and chores. Every day I get up about 7:00am to report for my morning weigh-in and warm up. Breakfast is at 8:00am, then the first training session starts at 10:00am and lasts for about 2.5 hours, after which I head to the recovery room for ice baths and occasionally a deep tissue massage (which sounds nice, but is ridiculously painful). Lunch and down time is about 1:00pm. I love hanging with the lifters and other athletes at lunch. We usually have a good time with inside jokes and what-not. My second training starts about 4:00p, which is another 2.5 hour session, followed by recovery. Dinner is about 7:30pm. After dinner and any other time we can get, we love to play charades. I’m getting really good at it – expert charades should be the next Olympic event! I’m loving my eat, sleep, train schedule and wouldn’t trade preparing for the Olympics for any other job.

In between training, I occasionally do phone interviews for various articles and one of the most frequent questions I get asked is something along the lines of, “What do I think is the biggest misconceptions about weightlifting?” I think for a lot of people, it’s surprising to find that just because you’re in weightlifting, it doesn’t mean you’re automatically a big person. Just like being a super large person doesn’t automatically make you a good person to ask when needing furniture moved. I’m going to try to highlight a new weightlifter each week leading up to me competing to hopefully bring more popularity to the sport. I don’t want women to think that it’s automatically going to make them huge and that weightlifting is a manly sport.

This week, I’d like to highlight Kelly Rexroad Williams. She is in the 48kg weight class (105 lbs), so she’s light but powerful. I asked her to write a brief bio to try bring popularity to the sport:

I started lifting my freshman year of high school in the fall of 1993. A friend that I cheered with asked me to come train with her (her sister became a world champion and attended the first Olympics for women’s weightlifting). So the next Saturday I rode with Christy Byrd up to Marietta, GA and met John Coffee of Coffee’s Gym. He liked my arm lock and the assistant coach Jane Vlack said I was a “quick study.” That Saturday visit was the beginning of the many adventures, accomplishments, tears, pain, and pride that weighlifting would bring to my life. Weightlifiting not only helped me to become who I am today, but it lead me to my husband, allowed me to see the world, and brought me the best friends a girl could ever have!

Kelly is a three-time junior national champion, 1995 senior national champion, four-time junior worlds team member, 1996 Bronze medalist at the Junior World Championships, three-time senior world team member, 2009 best female lifter, 2010 Pan American team member, and 2011 Pan American games team member. And she did it all while being a tiny ball of muscle!

Outside of the lifting world, it was interesting being in Colorado for the Fourth of July. It was the first Independence Day that I wasn’t able to see fireworks – the last thing Colorado Springs needs is another spark. It was fun and exciting to be at the OTC with so much national pride during the fourth, though! I am living the dream/pleasantly anxious for a mere three weeks more, eagerly waiting to represent the United States!

Can’t wait to make my coaches, family, friends, and county proud!

The post Athlete Journal: Holley Mangold, Entry 10 – Weightlifting Isn’t Manly appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

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 9:

This week has been action packed. I have been in Colorado for about the past two weeks. It kind of feels like longer though – not really in a bad way, I just get wrapped up in the Olympic Training Center (OTC) world and time goes out the window.

I have been training really hard as usual, but at the OTC we’ve been doing a lot more aerobics than I’m used to. Meaning, I’m a lot more tired than usual and somehow still have energy to goof around post practice. We’ve been having some fun goofing off in the gym after extra hard workouts. Being with other Olympians and crazy dedicated athletes daily is so exhilarating. I’m really getting used to my routine and having awesome meals in the cafeteria.

I’m not sure how the adjustment is going to go when I come back to Columbus (reality). This past week I bought my first Mac. I was spoiled using my sister’s computer while she was out of town, so I had to get one for myself. It’s been the best thing to have on my down time, since I don’t have my Mario Cart partners with me out here in Colorado. Truly it’s been my only splurge ever and it’s been very worth it! While on the computer, I’ve been able to Tweet and Facebook a lot more. It is easy for me to keep up with Twitter since its just short blurbs that I can get to between practices. Follow me @HolleyMangold.

I’ve been very lucky to meet some of the great people of Colorado Springs because of a very unfortunate event. This past week there has been a terrible wildfire that is affecting the whole area. While they’re trying to handle the fire, the OTC has been a relief center for the displaced people. The smoke cloud is intense and I feel terrible for not only all the people with damaged property and the injured people, but also for the endurance athletes who came out here to train and have to endure the smoke. It’s all around terrible and I hope the fighters can get it under control soon. I’m not sure why, but natural disasters seem to follow me and hit at the most important training times. I’ve endured a volcano erupting, a terrible earthquake, and now a wildfire. I need to break that trend somehow!

This upcoming week is just getting more and more exciting as I count down the days to London. I can’t wait and yet I wish for more time to prepare. Here’s one of my workouts from the past week:

• Drop snatch + squat up to 105kg
• Hang snatch from knee + squat up to 75kg
• Snatch from low blocks up to 107kg – then a double with 100kg
• Pull Snatch 3 stops up to 125kg
• Squat in split forward up to 145kg

Follow me on Twitter! Looking forward to a great training week to come!

The post Athlete Journal: Holley Mangold, Entry 9 – Wildfires in Colorado appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

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 8:

Another exhausting week! I keep trying to have relaxing weekends and it never seems to work out that way. This past weekend we had a fundraiser Friday night at CrossFit OKM, then immediately following we drove to North Carolina to teach a USAW Level 1 Certification course. I’m not very good at being crammed in a car for hours on end, but I survived and had a lot of fun as soon as we got there.

We rented out a beautiful southern home for the weekend. It had an awesome wrap-around porch that was fun to hang out on. The NC group was really fun. The event was hosted by CrossFit Vitality, but it had a mix of CrossFit and strength and conditioning coaches. Here’s a video on YouTube that gives a better taste of what we do at CrossFit courses:

After our trip to North Carolina, I had to make a quick turn around to travel to the Olympic Training Center (OTC). The altitude and the time difference always messes with me for the first few days. I love being out in Colorado, though. As I’ve said before, it feels so great to be in such a prestigious facility and just hanging out with all of my old friends. It’s an athlete’s dream place. Its hard work and I don’t get to wind down with my roomies playing Mario Cart, but it’s all worth it. They work me so hard, but I also get the luxury of recovery rooms and cold tubs that I don’t really have access to in Columbus. The prepared meals at the OTC are another wonderful perk to being there!

So far, one of the most notable things that has happened while training is running into Michael Phelps in the cafeteria. One of the most bizarre things about seeing him is knowing that he and I are on an Olympic team together competing for the USA. I think that we’re all in the same boat out there. Working our butts off trying to make our country proud.

In all honesty I’m wiped out from training two-a-days and really can’t think well being so tired. I’ll try to have a better, more detailed account of what I’m up to in Colorado when I return to Columbus and can focus on my thoughts. We’re pretty much just machines out here without time to think!

The post Athlete Journal: Holley Mangold, Entry 8 – Life at the OTC appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

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 7:

This past week was busy, but a lot of fun. My sister flew into Cleveland Thursday so I came up to hang out with her for the day. It was great to have some sister time since we don’t get to hang out as much as we used to.

Friday she came with me to train with my coach Dan Bell at a new gym near Cleveland. He was one of my first coaches and even though I don’t get to see him very often, he’s the one that I turn to for advice. It was wonderful to train with him one-on-one! It really made me miss the countless hours we spent training and talking. Between lifts there’s a lot of downtime while resting for the next lift, so our conversations ranged from lifting drama to parenting advice – the poor guy has two teenaged step-daughters and I love to share stories from the trouble we gave my mom as teenagers. After training, I was able to enjoy the day catching up with friends in Cleveland. I miss all of those friends and had fun reminiscing about the glory days at Ursuline College.

Saturday was the State Meet in Sandusky, Ohio. It was a fun meet in the sense it wasn’t too big and I had my family and friends there. I won the snatch and was able to clean 150kg, but didn’t successfully get the jerk up. I was looking forward to trying to PR, but didn’t want to push to hard to as to prevent injury. It felt good, however, and made me even more confident for London – I perform well under pressure and know that I can make that lift.

My teammates did well, too, and Columbus Weightlifting won as best team at the meet. After the meet we went out for pizza, which I cannot have on my diet. I had to watch the whole table eat the most delicious looking pizza as I munched on plain lettuce and chicken breasts. As soon as I finished my meal I bolted out of the restaurant so I wasn’t tempted to try anyone’s pizza. Hands down, not being able to eat and drink anything I feel like is the hardest part of training. I know it will be worth it, though, so I just have to keep repeating that to myself.

Tuesday was a fun day because we were hanging out with Sports Time Ohio so they could report on my more fun side outside of weightlifting. We went to one of our favorite restaurants, Rule 3, where they had a Slip and Slide set up. My inner child leaped out! I had so much fun! We should do that every weekend! Not going to lie, I was a little sore the next day because its possible that adults aren’t supposed to be sliding full speed on their stomachs, but it was way too much fun to worry about being sore.

While there my friend Heather and I were playing Ski Ball and somebody came up to Heather, mistaking her for me. This happens pretty much on a daily basis. I feel bad for Heather that she keeps having to tell people she’s not me, but I also feel bad because Heather is built like a house and looks more like an Olympian than me. I look like the Olympian’s lazy sidekick – I’m just built bigger. That fact alone gives me the extra drive to eat healthier so I can look the part!

This weekend we will be doing a fundraiser, then off to North Carolina for a USAW level one certification course. I always look forward to being in the CrossFit environment and North Carolina should be a great trip! However, in all honesty, my scheduled events are too hectic to keep up with, so even for this blog I have to defer to my training partner and manager, Drew, for all of the details. I’ve gotten more responsible about a lot of things, but keeping the schedule straight is just one more thing I’d rather not think about.

I know I compete August 5 for my country in London, all else is just extra at this point.

The post Athlete Journal: Holley Mangold, Entry 7 – No Pizza For Me appeared first on Breaking Muscle.