RKC Part Two

                                       

Saturday started out great! We all got into our groups to start by reviewing all we had learned the prior day.  Swings, cleans and presses. Following this review, my team leader Mark Toomey taught the Turkish get up .While we learned the get up we were told we would be bonding with our snatch weight kettlebell.  Err, what does this mean you ask?  It means wherever I went on Saturday my 16kg kettlebell came with me. I went to the ladies room and my bell waited outside for me. I had lunch and she waited outside the lunch room for me I came in from the field, she came too.  The above picture is from lunch the last day (mid chew thanks to Can ;) ).That's Amanda and I my HKC sister .We worked on the get up for several hours. The great thing was the weather was finally nice enough to go outside. We went onto the field to practice our get ups. After get ups we had another work out. It was called the Beauty and the Beast good times =). We then had lunch followed by squats, both goblet and rack  squats.This day was pretty tough for me, my hands started callousing from all the carries with the bells. I remember starting to freak out about the idea of my callous tearing.  Tomorrow was technique testing, snatch testing,volunteer and graduation workouts. I'll never forget my partner Candice calming me down and helping reign in my emotions. For all of you who know and love me know I can be a tad dramatic and sometimes unreasonable .LOL. I was so thankful and grateful for her because she just hugged me and said it's going to be alright.  That evening  was the RKC group dinner. This was a great time to talk to other candidates as well as other RKC team leaders and assistants. Immediately following dinner I crawled back to my room to bed . Sunday was game time after all. The picture below is Candice and I on the last day boy we look happy ! Stay tuned for the grand finale =)

My RKC Part One

It’s like the calm before the storm! I’m on the plane flying to St. Paul for the RKC 2012.  When I arrive I will get my luggage with my foam roller. I couldn’t leave home without it. I will find my HKC SISTER, Amanda Perry, pick up the rental car and head to the hotel. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that every possible emotion is running through my head. At this very moment I’m calm, almost eerily calm. I don’t expect this calm to last the entire weekend. I do, however, expect myself to rein it in when I start to get a little nerve racked and on the verge of being overly emotional. I will remember what I said in the last blog I wrote before leaving, “All of you are coming with me!” Your strength and determination and belief in ME will get me through this. Tonight will be the meet and greet. I find out who my team leader is and see who will also be in my group. This is exciting and funny because I have toothbrushes for them, hahaha. The dental hygienist in me rears her ugly head =)

I meet up with Amanda and we head to the hotel. We go to the meet and greet, which started around 7 pm Thursday evening. We find our name tags and are very disappointed to find out we are on different teams. Once we walk in Amanda says we have to find shed30, or Candice Clem, (they interacted on twitter prior to RKC). When we find Candice, I notice she’s so happy and excited and standing next to my team leader. I introduce myself to Mark Toomey and explain that I’m a dental hygienist. Approximately thirty seconds into my conversation with my coach Candice starts yelling, “Hey we’re on the same team!” I started laughing because her next question was if we could be partners. I said, sure why not. Little did I know that this was going to be the beginning of the most amazing weekend for me and my partner.

Amanda and I met and spoke with a few of the other leaders, assistants and candidates. We retired to bed around nine so that we would be ready to go bright and early in the morning. I told Candice we had rented a car and that she was more than welcome to join us in the morning.

Friday morning I woke up at five am started getting ready, did mobility, listened to explicit rap music =) and re-read a quote my dear friend sent me the day I left for the RKC. We arrive at the gym at around 7:30, hand in our paper work and get ready for the strength test. The strength test consists of a 15 second flexed arm hang or five chin/pull ups for women. The mens’ test is five tactical chin-ups or pull-ups, no kipping is accepted. I meet the rest of the women on my team as we all do our flexed arm hang . I can already feel the bond starting to form with my group as all of the girls cheer each other on and we all rocked it. We began the day with some mobility as a group.  We then started with deadlifts and swings. We did A LOT of swings. I pressed the 18kg on both sides twice, which was a PR for me, and almost pressed the 20kg .The day was such an overload of information and so much learning. It was amazing! My presses felt awesome at the end of the day though I was completely exhausted. We had to earn our dinner though.  The workout was “I go, you go” 10x5 with a heavy bell, which means Candice and I used a 28kg. Thanks coach/evil bf for having me do one arm swings with the 24  =). Stay tuned for part two !