Year end review, and return to the pumpkins

So I began this year with the plan to make the AKC's candidate for master of sport rank ("CMS") in Long Cycle with the 28kg kettlbells my wife and kids bought me for X-mas 2009. (See my post "The Great Pumpkins"). I put this plan on backburner in March when the District Attorney in my area announced his plans to resign and run for judge, giving me the opportunity to run for the DA position.
The stress and workload of the campaign was too much for me to continue using the 28kg KB's as my primary training tool, so I returned to concentrating on the 24kg KB's for most of my workouts. I had some unexpected progress with the 28's, and then some more with the 24's.
Eventually, the 12-16 hour days of the campaign were too much, and I had to drastically cut back on my volume and frequency. By the day of the election November 2, I had cut back to 3-4 days a week (down from 5-6) and was averaging only one 4-5 minute set of 2x24kg long cycle per day. During the month of the runoff, I sometimes used the 20kg KB's that I had all but abandoned.
Since the runoff I have gone back to 5-6 days a week, and have increased my volume to pre-election levels.
I'd like to reach CMS with the 28's by July, when I expect the Georgia State Championships will be held in Atlanta. I'd also like to reach CMS according to the IKFF's ranking table, which would mean 96 reps with 2x24kg KB's (the IKFF awards CMS rank using the 24kg KB's, which follows the traditional Russian system).
In the meantime, I'll list a few milestones I reached during the year, listing date, weights used, total reps and rpms. I hope to have many more to list as the months go by.

April 11 LC 2x28kg 6:00 48 reps. 8,8,8,8,8,8.
July 25 LC 2x28kg 32 reps in 3:00. 11,11,10.
August 12 LC 2x24kg 4:00 49 reps. 12,12,13,12.
August 18 LC 2x24kg 5:00 60 reps. 12,12,12,12,12
August 28 LC 2x24kg 10:00 93 reps. 10,9,9,9,10,9,9,9,10,9.
My lockouts weren't great on the 10:00 set but I was proud of it given that I did it at 10:30 at night after campaigning for 12 hours.

Since the runoff on November 30 I've completed a 2x28kg 55 rep 8:30 set and a 9:00 54 rep set.

With regard to the election, although we made the runoff, we did not get the result we hoped for. Still, I'm proud of the job we did and honored and humbled by the support our campaign received. For now, I'm spending a lot more time with my family. I'm back at my old job, although I have a new assignment that allows me more time with my wife and kids. Below I posted a snapshot of my wife holding the X-mas gift my kids gave her this year. It's a set of sculptures depicting the three wisemen.
I wish everyone a blessed and prosperous new year. God bless you all.
-David

More unexpected progress

So I've drastically scaled back my use of the 28kg kettlebells as my campaign for DA has intensified. Still, I've unexpectedly set some more personal records. They include (all are Long Cycle performed with 2x24kg kb's):

70 reps in 7:00.
66 reps in 6:00.
55 reps in 5:00.
49 reps in 4:00.

A couple times I've been within 2:00 of my goal of 90 reps in 10:00, but it was so hot and humid in my garage I did not think it was safe to go beyond 7 or 8 minutes.

Still, I've been happy with my improvements with the 24's.
Until next time...

Unexpected progress

So I scaled back the intensity of my training since I started my campaign for District Attorney. But an odd thing happened. Somehow I set new personal records ("pr's") despite backing off the intensity. Here's how it happened:
I resumed using the 24kg kettlebells instead of the 28kg's. The 24's felt so much lighter after the 28's, that I often set a fast pace just to get a good workout. I set new pr's with the 24's, including 60 reps in 6 minutes for 2x24kg Long Cycle.
I got so used to keeping a fast pace with the 24's, that using the 28's for a slower pace seemed less intense. So occasionally I resumed 2x28 LC for slower paced sets. Sometimes I would not pace the sets, and would merely set the timer to go off at the end of the set instead of once a minute.
Tonight I performed 52 reps of 2x28kg LC in eight minutes. That is a pr for time as well as reps. The irony is that, tonight, like many of the nights I've set new pr's, I was so tired I doubted I would work out. But I decided to just give it a shot. Eight minutes later I had a new pr.
I'll take it.
Now for a video. In keeping with my last post, this video is a campaign-related video instead of a lifting video. It depicts my speech to the Macon City Council in favor of an ordinance to regulate massage parlors and therefore drive out of business the sex trafficking operations that operate under the banner of massage. Combating sex trafficking is a major issue in my campaign, and has been a primary mission and specialty of my career. My speech begins about 3:00 in.

Kettlebell Sport on backburner

Most of you know that this sport is my one real hobby. Basically, I work a very stressful job, I have a wife and three kids, and we are all very involved in our church. I only have time for one hobby, and that's kettlebell sport.
About a month ago, I learned that the District Attorney in my town is resigning to run for judge. I have always wanted to be the elected District Attorney, and I knew that if I ever wanted to run for the office, this was the time. The district happened to have a real need for someone with my experience (there is a severe problem with sex trafficking in my jurisdiction, and prosecuting sex crimes is a primary specialty of mine, so its a good fit).
All that is to say I have begun campaigning for the job in earnest. While the campaign does place demands on my time, I still have enough time to exercise as much I would need to achieve my kettlebell sport goals. The issue is intensity.
Political campaigns require a high degree of stress on the body. This is in addition to the high demands of my day job, prosecuting crimes against women and children as chief prosecutor of a Special Victims Unit (SVU).
The practical consequence of this is that I dropped down in weight to lifting the 24kg kettlkebells instead of the 28kg size. Although I've occasionally had the energy to set new personal records (say, 60 reps of 2x24kg LC in 6:00) I just don't have the energy to lift the 28kg bells on a regular basis.
So I have pushed back my goals of making CMS and MS this year, in favor of being elected District Attorney. Once that happens, I'll return to the goals and begin working on them.
Here's a different kind of video than you are used to seeing here. Me reading my announcement speech. It was raining, so there were only about 40-50 people there (I had over 100 set to be there a week earlier before I had to reschedule to allow the Secretary of State to make sure there was going to be an election instead of a gubernatorial appointment):

Jerk work

After my last post I posted several videos on IGX of my Long Cycle practice with the "pumpkins", AKC's orange 28kg kettlebells.
Although I've been steadily increasing my ability to lift them, a number of experienced lifters and coaches told me what I already knew:
My technique stinks.
To be more accurate, the jerk portion of my Long Cycle lift stinks. The cleans are pretty good. And, according to more than one authority, I will never truly progress until I improve my jerk technique.
So the last couple weeks I've been doing some remedial jerk work. To make sure I improved my speed with the bells (one major issue I have), I've dropped back down to the 24kg bells for jerks. I must say I'm not thrilled by the idea, but honestly, it had to be done. Its best to use a comfortable weight when working on technique.
The last couple weeks, I've done a set (or two, or three, or more) of 2x24kg jerks. After that I switched to 2x28kg cleans.
The cleans have actually been pretty easy.
The jerks, not so much. Part of the reason I chose Long Cycle as a specialty is my discomfort with jerks. With Long Cycle, if the bells don't sit right on your forearms, you can reset them by virute of the mechanics of the lift. With the jerks, you are stuck with the position you choose in the beginning. If your wrist gets bent back, you are toast. End of story.
I'm sure that biathlon specialists know how to set the wrists to make this less likely. But that doesn't really matter to me. Long Cycle, to me, is the perfect lift. It has the jerks of biathlon, plus double cleans (which I find superior to the one armed snatch).
For now, though, I do the jerks. I'm looking forward to my return to pure Long Cycle work.

Here's one of my jerk sets:

Here's my work with cleans:

Building volume with the Pumpkins

Since my last post just after X-mas I've been enjoying lifting the "Pumpkins", AKC's orange 28kg kettlebells. I am such a freak for these things that I have really enjoyed it.
At first they felt noticeably heavier than my 24kg bells ("The Wonder Twins", as I dubbed them in my earlier review last year). I only clean and jerked them 25 times in 4 minutes (just over 6 rpm) the first time I lifted them on December 25th. Less than I month later I can maintain over 8 rpm for that same time period. I've had a number of sets of five minutes and over. My form with these heavier bells has improved as well; smoother and less jerky, and sticking the lockouts without pressing them.
I've had two primary means of acclimating to the heavier bells. One is to increase the volume. Typically, I perform just one "money" set with my competition weight kettlbells. This set ranges from 4-10 minutes long, 90% of the time between 5 to 7 minutes. Occasionally I will do an extra set with lighter kettlebells. But usually its just one set, then a set of squats, then stretching and done. This has worked well for me.
But to get used to these heavier bells I decided the best way was to spend as much time under them as possible. And the way to do that was to do shorter sets, but more of them. I started with 5 sets of 2 minutes. I did this for 4 consecutive workouts.
Then 3 sets of 3 minutes. I did this for 3 workouts.
The next step was transition to 2 sets of 4 minutes, but I had to travel for a few days and could only do one 4-5 minute set for a few days.
I returned home and for the last couple workouts I've done 2 sets of 4-5 minutes each.
I think for the time being I will make set one the set that I work on building duration, that is, the ability to lift the bells for longer and longer periods of time. Set 2 will be a slightly shorter set that I use to increase my pace.
For example, last night's first set was five minutes long. I set the timer for five minutes, and lifted without regard to pace. In my head, I did internal "7 counts", that is, I lifted 7 reps then paused/rested in the rack for a few seconds, then resumed for another 7 reps. I repeated this process until the timer went off. Using this method, I completed 32 reps, which is 6.4 rpm.
I rested a few minutes, then did a 4 minute set. This time I set the timer to go off every minute, and intentionally tried to complete at least 8 rpm. I ended up with 33 reps, completing 8 reps per minute for the first three minutes and nine reps in minute 4. Rpm for the second set was 8.25.
Set one was easy, and I spent the entire time working to improve my technique. Set 2 was challenging but manageable, and I spent the entire set in "clock management" mode, simultaneously considering technique and pace for every rep.
The upside is that I have grown very accustomed to the weight of the new bells, I have increased my baseline rpms with this weight, and I can lift them longer at a faster pace. While I diverged from the AKC approach for the few workouts that I used to build volume, my new template (one long set for duration, one shorter set for pace) is very AKC-like. I'm not one to be a slave to orthodoxy, but their approach has really worked in producing CMS and MS athletes quickly (can you say "Ice Chamber"?).
In any event, the bells feel lighter than they did on December 25.
One other thing I've done to improve my lifting is video recording. I bought a second-hand Flip Ultra for $50 a few weeks ago. Since that time I've been recording almost every workout, then reviewing the video to look for flaws I should work on. Last night was no exception. Here is the recording of my 33 rep 4 minute set below. Thanks for reading...