Jake L Clean and Jerks 310lbs
Jake’s Write Up On His Meet:
An Olympic meet is a VERY LONG day, most of it comprised of anxiously waiting and watching, second guessing yourself and asking WHY IN THE HELL you are doing this??!!! My weigh in was at 1pm so I showed up at around 1230. I was a bit worried all week that I wasnt going to make weight as I was consistently weighing around 211-12 (my weight class is up to 206.8). I had a very light breakfast, eggs and some bacon, and ZERO carbs or water until the weigh in. I made weight easily at 205.
After the weigh in you sort of sit around and wonder when in the hell you are supposed to start warming up. The lifting session before you is still going, you arent sure when it will end and how much time you have before your first lift. Luckily, and this turned out to be crucial, the head olympic coach from Lost Battalion Hall, Artie Dreschler, took me under his wing (thanks to my olympic lifting coach Frankie Murray who was a fellow “competitor” in the 94kg class. He’s a member of the national team and is a truly phenomenal lifter.) Anyway, Artie timed ALL of my warmup lifts to the minute, told me when to take them and when to just sit and chill. This proved INVALUABLE. The timing for my warm up was perfect and i was ready to go when I needed to be.
All week i was constantly worried about my opening Snatch (220). Its my first meet and all I can think about is NEEDING to hit that opener, get on the board and get in the game. During the warm up i was shocked at how light all the weights felt. I took my opener once, about 5 minutes before I went out, and it felt like a joke. I basically power snatched it. I wanted to keep the first lift somewhat conservative so I MADE SURE I hit it and got on the board.
My name was called, “Jacob Leivent, opening with 100kg”. I wasnt nervous, just really JACKED up on adrenaline, and ready to get that first lift in. Stepped up to the bar, waited for the 30 seconds to pass on the clock (There is a funny buzz that goes off at 30 secs), and just went. I trusted all the training I had done, set my back tighter than I ever had, pulled like fuck, and before i knew it it was over head, half power snatched, and done. YES! First lift is good, ready to rock. Second snatch I had no doubt i was going to hit it, I was feeling fast and powerful. 231, boom, done, on to the next. I decided to go for 246, not a PR, but I didnt open with a heavy enough weight to go for 256 or something like that. I hit the 246 reallly easily, adrenaline…its a hell of a drug!
On to the Clean and jerk. I planned on opening with a very conservative 275#. I wasnt too worried about making large jumps with the C&J. I hit the 275 like it was nothing, the jerk felt so light. Next lift…297, ADRENALINE, easy lift. I decided to go for a PR and hit 310. There was never a doubt in my mind that this thing wasnt going to go. I have never felt so confident and strong. It is unbelievable what the atmosphere of a competition can do. HIT IT, 310 felt like 225.
I wound up taking 2nd place in the 94kg (with a 253kg total) and going 6 for 6. Frankie wound up winning by probably close to 100 lbs! All in all this was one of the better experiences in athletics I have had since I played college tennis. Training is fun, it feels good, but there is nothing like the feeling of putting it all on the line, stepping up, and executing when you need to. Seriously, everyone should compete in something!
To see Jake’s 246lb Snatch, check out our Flickr Page
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Brandon R also lifted at this meet and hit 65 kilos on his snatch and 98 kilos in the clean and jerk taking 2nd place in his weight class. Great work, guys!!!
Great job, Jake. That did look easy…for you!
LBBS–Wendler 3 week
215×3
245×3
275×11 (This was my last heavy 3 before we started Wendler.)
WOD: 41.4, 41.5, 43.4, 43.5, 43.8
That was a smoker. More out of breath than I've been in a while.
BSQ with Ariel and Dan. 130×3, 150×3, 170×9. My first three reps on the rep-out, as McD pointed out, were the worst! Then I woke up, smelled the propane, and decided to squat for realsies.
WOD: hideous. I can't really post my time without giving away what it is.
6am with Jess and McDowell. Press: 130×3, 150×3, 165×6. Dragging a bit this morning. The bar felt heavier than normal. Missed the previous wendler-3 week, so I have nothing to compare this to. Metcon with a 65# DB: 6:58. Fox urged me to do the snatches from the floor and I dutifully complied. Not sure if that made much of a difference. Muscled up a few of the snatches, but had some nice reps in there too where the weight just floated up. The third run was horrifically slow. And now I struggle to type with popeye forearms.
Those were some beautiful lifts, Jake. Nice job.
Great write up Jake! It's good to see that all the hard work you've been putting in really paid off.
I would just like to take a moment to publicly thank Coach Josh. We've been working together for about a year now, once a week. I've improved at many things because of him, notably the olympic lifts, but he is largely responsible for helping me get my kipping pull ups, which i just finally got about a month ago. And today, I did them in the WOD for the first time ever! Sure, I only did 5 instead of 10, and sure, they're not too organized yet, but they're getting there. I honestly thought that I might not ever be able to do them, but because of his help, there they are. I think all of the coaches here are the absolute tops, but Josh deserves a special shout outtoday. He did all sorts of drills with me over the past year, everything from banded pull ups, to partner assisted pull ups, chinese rows, bicep curls, etc, but what really helped me was his cueing. A great coach has a hundred different ways to say the same thing, and he really went over with me how to engage my lats, use my core, utilize my hips, etc, and that was what finally made it all come together. This summer is my three year anniversary at CFSBK – proof that sometimes it takes time for things to click! Thank you Josh – you're an awesome coach and an even more awesome person.
KH! AWESOME!
If anyone knows of any potential recruits interested in joining, my wife is looking to pair up with one or two people for a semi-private foundations class. She can't make any of the times currently being offered. Let me or the front desk know. Thanks! My email is stephenryan14 at yahoo dot com
That's a great looking clean and jerk!
Nice Job!!!
Jake and Brandon, Great Work!
KH, I share your fondness for Josh's amazing coaching ability. There is nothing I love more than an empty OG with Josh on duty.
Mngmt: Don't know if you'll get this in time but can I bring my pup to the 12 o'clock class?
Great work Jake and Brandon.
Thanks for the write-up, Jake. Inspiring!
8am with Jess
Press 3×5 @ 95#
WOD 45# db, 8:23
Peter, after reading your WOD time today I'm tempted to try it again tonight…
Jake that's awesome, nicely done!
One very interesting aspect of the event that I forgot to mention was how the relationship with the bar completely changes. When you are training on your own, loading your own weights, you have a much more intimate relationship with the bar. The sense of how heavy the bar is going to feel is much more personal since you put the weights on yourself. On the flip side, during competition, I didnt even watch the bar being loaded, resulting in a pretty significant disconnect. Additionally, the color scheme of the plates were different…red bumpers with a yellow, instead of 2 blues (visual cues that have become embedded in your memory, reminding you how heavy the bar will feel.) All those little cues are absent during the comp. All I did was walk out, step up to the bar, and think, "well, now its time to put this over my head".
Anyway, sorry for the rambling, but this was actually one of the more interesting aspects of the competition that I forgot to write about.
Fun 12:00! Thanks for welcoming Martika!!
Great read Jake. Great seeing all the detais filled in from our convo yesterday.
Would love to get into Olifting myself if I had more time.
KH-Congrats! It's been a privilege to watch you and Josh working together and I'm psyched I got to witness that pull up!
meat csa folks
i finally figured out what to do with the cube steak.
I put up a blog post on the cube steak we got in our CSA bag, but of course squarespace ate it because it had a link.
Honestly, I don't get it.
Drop in at Crossfit Balance in DC
Warm up Run and DROMS
EMOTM for 15 (5 @ 115# 10@ 135#)
2 x Squat Clean
1 x Split Jerk
Thought I'd go up higher but this was super taxing, especially having to lower everything under control rather than bail.
Then 3 rounds NFT
10e 1 leg reverse bridge extensions
Max rep strict T2B (14,10,10)
Back tomorrow, see ya'll for squats.
Oh and nicely done Jake and Brandon!
wow that's awesome Jake. great job!
5:30 with DO.
Everything felt terrible. It was the first day that was really hot and I wasn't prepared. Also holy crap it's only May. I'm going to die in August.
Press 58x3x5 – failed on the last two reps of the last set. I did this last week, but the last couple reps were ugly. Apparently 60 is much further away than I had anticipated.
WOD was a sludge fest. Thank you to McDowell for telling me to grab the #25 over the #20 db. #25 was totally fine. Actually it was pretty quick, which was great because my run (per usual) was slow as could possibly be. Jumping pull ups are ALWAYS harder than you think they are going to be.
132x3x5 LBBS, another PR. Thanks Josh and KiKi for the awesome support! Maybe I'll make it to 140 by the end of the cycle?
I like the heat but it makes me smell terrible. Sorry to all that interacted with me today.
Michele, your post is freed!
Back Squat
260×3
260×5
260×1
Press
120×5
120×4
140×4
Snatch
135x2x6
255 at CF Reebok 1 felt great. Maybe the best squats within 20lbs of that weight. I was pumped to go in and get 260 but all the warm-ups felt heavy and I really had to grind these out. No bueno hoy.
Press feels fine until rep 5.
Snatches were a little inconsistent today. Some days I feel like I'm getting worse at them.
Great day at the gym today. Loved hanging out on the sidewalk
Coming back after extended time off is so very humbling. On the edge of disheartening.
Press:
33×5, 48×5, 53×3
58x5x3 (3 sets of 5)
Felt good. David's reminders and cuing at the beginning of class were key. I'm a big hyperextender, and it was perfect focus to just keep my front body tight. Weight felt a bit uneven going up, but there was decent speed on most of the reps.
WOD:
-270m row instead of run b/c i twisted my ankle a couple nights ago and it's being cranky
-db snatches @ 25#. would've gone to 30# but eased up for sake of the ankle and coming back moderately
-scaled to 5 kipping pullups per round as my hands are a bit torn up already and i've lost a lot of endurance on any amount of pullup reps over 5.
hoping i can run by monday for murph. also hoping pullup capacity comes back very quickly :-/
feels SO GREAT to be cooking again and eating a lot of veggies 😀
Huge thanks to everyone for the great support!
Snatch waves
(70%x1, 75%x1, 80%x1)x3 which is 183, 193, 204
Snatch Pulls
253×3, 275×3, 286×3
HBBS
329 3×5
Row-
Something
Weighted dips W/25#
3×10
Press rep out: 140×7
WOD 55#, forget my time. 12:30ish?
Hot as hell, everything felt weak but I made decent reps and decent WOD work.
Swimming stays awesome, once a week IF stays awesome.
Josh. Yeah, that's my dog.
Made up Mondays workout
Press 45×5, 65×5
85×3, 95×3, 105×6 – Felt heavy
WOD (3 rnds for time, 270m run, 7 db snatches each arm, 10 kipping pullups) in 9:30 @ 50#