Another great weekend in the books.
Sunday June 5, I was down at the Academy of Lions gym for the 2nd Annual Agatsu Kettlebell Competition. The whole experience just reminded me of how much fun these events really are. Maybe it’s the people, the energy, comradery among competitors, the lifting of round heavy objects overhead, or simply the adrenaline rush of finishing your time right up to the last second. There’s something there. I haven’t put any serious training into kettlebell lifting or competed over the last 5 months, and it was only a couple of days ago that I decided that this event was going to be my comeback. The only objective I set out for myself this time was to compete for the fun of it and get over 100 reps of long cycle with the 16kg kettlebell. I was confident that I could lift the 16kg for 10 mins and that was all I needed. As long as I’m able to finish my time, I’m a happy camper.
My Sunday morning was off to a good start. I took advantage of the late start time and got a few extra hours of sleep. My body was feeling a bit tight from the intense interval kettlebell workout and hours of Indo boarding I did the day before. Thankfully, this was quickly remedied shortly after I got to the gym. I was there around 1pm, weighed in at 67.5kg, then went straight into warming up.
My warm up consisted of 10-15 mins of indian club movements outside followed by a short break, then I lifted the 12, 16, 20, and 24kg kettlebells – did 3 clean and jerks on each arm. After that, my body was fired up. I was feeling strong and ready to go.
2:15pm
It was time for my set. After the countdown, I was off. For the most part the set felt good and I was going at a steady pace of 11-12 rpm. Towards the last minute, I was really feeling the weight of the bell more but powered through to the end.
All in all, I was happy with my set and actually surprised that I was still able to even get over 100 reps after such a long break from training. I got a total of 102 reps long cycle! I went slightly longer than 5mins on my right hand, as it is still my more dominant arm. Got 60 reps on my right and 42 on my left. Unfortunately had a few no counts because I went too fast and didn’t have enough separation between my clean and jerks. Too bad, otherwise I probably would’ve had close to 110reps.
In the end, I won a Gold medal for 16kg long cycle in the 60-70kg weight class and a was the 2nd top female lifter overall (coefficient)!!! It was a good day and I’m really glad I pushed myself to come and compete 😀 Shout out to Shawn Mozen and Boris Terzic for putting on another great event!
There is a lesson to be had from this. That is, it is healthy to take an off season from kettlebell sport specific training. The body needs time to recover and the way I see it, it’s a good opportunity to try something new as a change of pace, especially if you’re like me and have ‘fitness ADD’. I also found out that day that a few of my friends have been feeling burned out from training and taking a bit of a break from it too, which made me a bit less guilty. I say embrace the time off and when you get back at it, chances are you’ll come back refreshed and stronger!
