Yesterday, I went to olympic weightlifting in Frederick. Various lovely opportunities have sprung up for the young adult crowd at the gym and, as is typical for young people full of potential, they took it and they have left the gym (all on pretty good terms). Good for them! But then I find myself strangely and inexplicably a core member of Central Maryland Weightlifting. Perhaps the core member of an olympic weightlifting gym – it is as strange as if I have grown green feathered wings from my back, or if I became a Formula I race driver, but what can I say, life is full of strange and unexplainable things. Just look at our current administration.
My main coach Ward, who learned of this under-30 departure few weeks ago, told me that perhaps they were going to close down the gym and give all the equipment to the young folks and then 25 years of CGM would come to a close. And then I got…sad. Would I have to give up my dream of flight as a green bird? Or my other dream of kissing Brad Pitt driving around a fake race track? I was like – maybe I’m done with olympic weightlifting.
So I showed up yesterday unsure of my continued participation and they said that they were going to keep it going and that they would slowly build up the gym again. I’m not sure this is possible, but it made me…happy. I was there about an hour and a half and I did about 10 snatches. And they were the most beautiful snatches I’ve ever done. In the middle of moving this weight, there is a weightlessness to it. A easy sensation where the bar is almost floating in mid-air, suspended. And your body is moving quickly, but relaxed. This is the feeling that I always want in everything – doing a hard thing, but floating through it, relaxed, but effortful. I was elated, coaches were elated. It was about 35 pounds, not even up to a typical empty barbell. I will be thrilled when I can just do that empty barbell.
I went home and told Jeremy and said – that took almost 1.5 years. He was encouraging – ahh, you are doing great.
What is a snatch? I’ll show you a video of a favorite of mine – this is 206 pounds a weight at which I cannot even begin to lift up off the ground: unbelievable