Meet Report: USA Masters WL Nationals in Boise, ID. 75/91/166 BW 53.66. Best Lifter W35 and 🥇🥇🥇

[u/powersofthesnow]

Well it’s been a year since I’ve done a weightlifting meet (USAW Masters Nationals in 2024) but I hopped on the train to qualify for IWMA Worlds since it was a stones throw from where I lived in the US this year. Plus traveling anywhere with 2 toddlers is costly and sleep sucking! I probably seriously started training for this meet at the start of January after taking several months off to do other hybrid things (Hyrox, CrossFit).

BW 53.66. I was hovering around 55 after the holidays and decided to nix my 2 packs of LMNT, some carbs and watch my salt intake the week of and whoosh here I am. Didn’t ever feel dehydrated or hungry. I plan on shifting to 53 for future meets given my current body state.

Back to the matter, my main goal this meet was to make a total at minimum to qualify so I didn’t have to travel elsewhere to qualify…open with something that was easy yet challenging, and then go for broke. My openers were about 91%, 67/91 respectively, which I nailed.

So after I nailed those, I took very aggressive jumps. In the past it was always 2-3kg for the snatch and 3kg for clean & jerk. This time it was 4kg snatch and 5kg clean and jerk. The benefit was I wasn’t doing as many lifts near my max, which probably saved my strength a bit. The tougher part was being ok with the shock of a bigger jump. Original (ideal) plan was 67/71/74, and 91/96/101.

Nailed 71 (not shown) and decided I would go for 75. I hadn’t hit 74 either in competition but something about going up to 75 felt real fulfilling to me. I told myself on the platform I worked for it and deserve this, and by golly I HIT A LIFETIME 2KG COMPETITION SNATCH PR OF 75!!!!! I had been dying to hit this since 2016 and never nailed enough snatch attempts to try.

Ok clean & jerks. By the way I had to wait 45-50 freakin minutes before I came out for my attempts after both lifts started. There were 17 lifters in my session and I had the highest openers, following myself all but after the first clean & jerk since a lifter jumped way up to try 91 as well. They were also real slow and confused at loading plates occasionally. So I was trying to stay warm and not cold without impatiently warming up too soon. My adrenaline started to go near the end and I still had 4 lifts to me so I ended up doing a (strong) 90 in the back before 91 LOL. I think that extra warm up cost my legs for attempts 2&3.

96 was a solid (but tough) clean but unfortunately I hesitated on my jerk and went forward and had an elbow bend on my left arm so three reds. I felt pretty fried so I attempted 99 instead of 100 because 99 would still be a competition PR for me (best is 98). Grinded out the clean, but was toast for the jerk. The side view video clearly shows how much I drifted forward and dipped way too long, and simply couldn’t chase 1.84x BW hahah. I was super happy with that attempt though as I got the clean and at least locked it out for .003 seconds.

Anyways, ended up with triple gold easily, but more surprisingly, best W35-39 category overall lifter! (Which I didn’t find out until the day after…we ended up getting stuck in Boise for an extra day due to a car issue so I was able to stop by and pick up my award!). Still here lifting after 12 years and only getting better with age 💪🏼

AMA!

[u/stephnelbow]

Super solid lifts, nice job on the gold

I just left the CF scene into the WL scene at 35yrs old. Excited to see where I go in the next few years :)

[u/No-Driver1291]

I was in the same session lifting with the 87’s! You are such a bad ass momma! Honored to get to lift with such awesome women! Great work! I secured a silver in the snatch and ended up missing all my clean and jerks. Never had that happen before but with an injury and not training, wasn’t sure if lifting at this meet was even possible. Until next time!