Mid-week reflection on competition training

This past Monday through Wednesday I followed the structure VF recommended. I did the exact same workout each day:

20kg--Three sets of Jerks, five minutes each set. I did 6rpm, so 30 reps per set, for 90 [turns out I was mistaken--he only wanted me to do one set per day over three days for a total of three sets, instead of three sets each day--whoops! Oh well, at least I got in some good lifting!]
24kg--one set one-arm jerk (OAJ), 20L/20R pausing at the top to feel fixation.

20kg--One set Snatch, six minutes total. I did 14rpm, for total of 42L/42R.

24kg--One set swing, 40L/40R.

The biggest challenge for me was the Jerk sets, where I had trouble staying comfortable in the rack position. My elbows currently do not reach my hip bones, and I constantly struggle to keep my elbows connected to my body and not sliding off to both sides. I need to stretch. I don't feel so bad, however, because I know it's not an easy move to master. As VF puts it, "If it was easy, everybody would do it, or nobody would do it." I am also encouraged because my cardio is strong enough that if I could find a stable rack position I think I would be successful in a 10 minute set, even with 24kg or above.

I also worked on opening my wrist, and I feel like I am getting more comfortable doing so. For the past three years I trained with a neutral or even slightly closed wrist, so this new grip feels like a big change. I need to get used to the kettlebell sitting on the bone in the heel of my hand and lower on my forearm. I know that the discomfort with go away, however, because I previously felt the same type of discomfort when I was first learning to hold the kettlebell with my grip all the way into the handle.

The next technique I practiced was breathing in on the way up and out on the way down, both in Jerk and Snatch. I tried not to force my breathing into a pattern by counting the number of breaths between reps, which seems unnatural. Instead I breathed normally and I made sure to breathe IN on the way up, and OUT on the way down. The IN breath takes some getting used to, because I have always trained to breathe out on exertion, but I am acclimating to this new style, and so far my breath and cardio are very strong. I will keep it up.

I have two more days at this routine, then I rest over the weekend, and move on next week to training with my competition weight--24kg.