"The Myth that women shouldn't lift heavy is only perpetuated by women who fear hard work and men who fear strong women."

It was a big day today, Blogland!

The last few days have been pretty good - been getting in workouts, going for walks and trying to keep plugging along. I've been struggling a little bit with my nutrition and feeling frustrated.... BUT, today was definitely the pick me up that I needed!

After completing our full 12 week Hatch (the Squat program), it was time for a re-test.

My new Rehband knee sleeves came in yesterday, so I got to try those today. THAT was a new kind of awesome. To be clear, I don't *need* knee sleeves, but part of me thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a little extra protection given the heavy weights I've been hitting. I'm thinking of it more as injury prevention. However, they definitely were a pleasant surprise! I have achy knees in the winter, particularly when I'm carrying this much weight, due to some old compressed cartilage when I was younger. These sleeves kept my knees really warm during my lifting session, which made them feel SO much better. I may start wearing these on an off for recovery, as I've heard this can be helpful, too. Overall, they were an expensive purchase to get the ones I did, but I'm really happy with them. Who doesn't want a warm, supportive, hug for their knees when they're lifting??

Anyway, geared up and ready to go, Robyn and I started warming up and ramping up the weights. When testing for a one rep max, it's always a fine line between not being warmed up enough, and wearing out your legs doing too many reps.... I'll spare you the details, but I'm SUPER EXCITED to report that I successfully stood up (back squat) a new personal record of....
303 POUNDS!! EEE!! (... and I think maybe I could've gotten 313, had I known I would go that far..)
(video proof!)

AND.... rounded that out with another personal record of a 263# front squat.
Both of those were up 50 pounds from when I had tested each one of them, 12 weeks ago. WOO!
I think the lesson I've learned here is that when you just follow the plan and do the work, you get the results. Imagine that?

Although I haven't been super happy with what my body is doing lately (WHY will you not lose weiiighhttt?!!!?), I can say I'm pretty proud of these lifts. I've been doing them consistently and I'm making progress there.

In addition, I'm feeling pretty honored - I won the "Spirit Award" for my gym this week... basically, our gym is having it's own mini team comp of the people competing in The Open. Our teams earn points for wearing the team colors, for showing up at the scheduled times - and for having a great attitude. Apparently,  after having a really fun week meeting other gym members (for judging!) and just throwing myself at the WOD, despite it being decidedly not in my wheelhouse - I won the Spirit Award (and 3 pts for my team!).  I'm pretty excited. Not to bad for the Fat Kid in the box, just doing the work!

Now, after a really good week, I'm sitting at my comp, anxiously awaiting the live announcement of the 16.2 WOD...... Please Dave Castro.... Short and Heavy???