Weightlifting – Sweet Natty Dee

Las Vegas

I spent August driving my dog and my belongings from California to New York. This wasn’t the average road trip as I was training for a weightlifting competition in September. This is the culmination of all of my work, enjoy!

September 12, 2018

For those of you that don’t know about USA Weightlifting, it is a national organization for weightlifters to compete in the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk. You start competing for total in local meets. If your total is good enough, you move on to the American Open Series, then Finals, then Nationals. The very best of the very best of these competitors go on to the Olympics!

Now, now, I’m definitely not that good and I don’t intend to be but I qualified for the American Open Series in 2017 but didn’t compete 😦 so I was super excited for 2018. There are three American Open Series events every year and in 2018 they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Las Vegas. My friends and family are in the Bay Area so I invited my mother, her twin, Grace, my very best friend, Sarah and my good friend Olivia to watch me compete.

Coach Brian and I arrived on Wednesday morning and we went to a buffet at the Cosmopolitan. The interior looked like it was straight out of Alice in Wonderland’s tea party! I had been weighing in at 47kg all week so I splurged a little bit and got some sprinkles with ice cream hehe.

My mother, her sister and Olivia arrived on Saturday night and we took the tram to dinner at a Tequila Taqueria’s in Bally’s. I didn’t eat too much because I knew I had to make weight at 49kg in the morning but I enjoyed (kinda) watching everybody drink their margaritas.

Did I mention that Olivia is an amazing hairstylist and I desperately needed her to do my hair for the competition? I hadn’t seen her since before the road trip and I couldn’t go out on stage with my hair a mess.

Sarah arrived in time for my hair cut and I was so excited to see her, we chatted a little too long, whoooops.

Weigh in was early in the morning so I went to sleep as Olivia bleached and colored my hair. Yes, I am sleeping in these photos. How did I breathe sleeping like that? Not sure.

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Chicago

August 19, 2018

Tyler and I have been best friends for many years and I was sad we had to part ways after Nashville. But! He was kind enough to drive me to Chicago and show me how to take the L around. I know Tyler and Piccolo were really sad to have to say goodbye. Aw 😦

After being with people for 19, let me say that again, 19 days straight, I was ready for some alone time so I walked around and around and around before heading home to order in delivery. I know Chicago is an amazing food city but, hey, I was exhausted!

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Moab

August 8, 2018

Moab, UT has been on my bucket list since my best friend drove 9 hours to me straight through Utah to Denver. But first, a note on travel and self care.

No matter how much I adore my travel companions or how well we get along, by day 7, I will most definitely grump out on them (sorry!!) and need alone time. I bet you’ve felt the same before! I know this and try to recognize the symptoms before taking it out on them. When traveling with people, know your limits and know when you need your down time and save yourself the headache. You do not need to be and probably should not be with people 24/7 when traveling! It’s fun to be alone sometimes 🙂

Now for the road trip from Arizona to Utah.

Jay and I arrived in Utah in the dark after a long, cranky drive. More snacks would have probably helped my mood. Kinda weird but the Airbnb was much too big for two people. It could easily fit a family and a half! Space is nice but then the Wi-Fi was terrible so we lounged around on the big leather furniture before heading to bed.

Have you seen those baby goat videos trending on Facebook lately? Welp I never would have guessed that I was going to wake up with goats in my backyard! They were so cute and friendly! Piccolo was very confused and wanted to play with them. I hope to own a goat of my own someday.

The WiFi was so bad, I couldn’t get any work done so I went down to CrossFit Moab to get a quick workout in. Everybody was so friendly, I hope to visit them again someday!

Weightlifting notes:

Everything felt really good and my coach programmed heavy deadlifts which are my favorite!

After the workout, we planned to grab some sandwiches and head into the park. For some reason, it took the sandwich dudes like 30 minutes to make to sandwiches. We just couldn’t understand. But hey maybe Jay and I were just tired from being on the road for so long our stomachs skewed our view of time, idk.

The Arches were EPIC. I don’t think anything could have prepared me for the size and beauty of these rocks.

I got to climb on HELLA rocks.

I got to rest on some smooth af rocks.

I was slightly disappointed by this small arch.

As we were leaving the park, we decided to make one more detour and it was the best decision ever! There was a double arch and, well, I climbed on it, rested on it and was not in the slightest bit disappointed by this arch. High five for arches!

Have you ever planned a picture and it doesn’t go the way you think it would?

On that note, if you don’t know me personally, I’m going to tell you that I’m extremely graceful and never, ever fall down.

Moral of the story, this was absolutely my favorite part of my road trip.

Grand Canyon

August 6, 2018

In case you didn’t know, since I work from home, I did have to get some work done every morning UGH. I also had to train for AO2!! While in Arizona, I had the pleasure of working out at Crossfit Can-Do. Everything in the gym looked brand new and the owner, Brandon, was very responsive and accommodating to my needs. If you’re in the area, check it out!

Weightlifting notes:

One good 35 snatch complex, one bad 35 complex. Saw that I was catching forward to cause the drops. Pulls felt great! Dropping at the top is nice and makes me reset before each pull. Squats were easy. Noticing huge difference when I lift with my butt vs quads.

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