I competed yesterday in Columbia, South Carolina at the APF Spring Break Meet.
It was held at Progressive Sports, and was hosted by Will and Marge Millman and
Donnie Thompson. I don't have a clue where to even start on this write-up,
honestly. This was such an emotional day with so many gifted and inspirational
people. I guess I'll start from the beginning...
This training cycle has gone well, with the exception of a three-week lapse due
to a pinched nerve in my back. I went light and had a ton of chiropractic and
body work done in hopes of rehabbing in time for the meet. It would've been nice
to have had that extra time in my gear, but all that really matters is that I
didn't sustain any permanent damage.
WEIGH-INS
Wednesday evening, my weight was 153. I ate a big meal and took a mild dose of
Ex-Lax (a word of caution here: unless you want to reenact your own version of
that famous toilet scene in Dumb & Dumber, do NOT take more than the
recommended dosage – really, I mean it). All day Thursday I drank plenty of
water and had three protein shakes.
By Thursday evening, when Matt, Chad and I were ready to leave, I was 149. It
was really nice not to have to sauna this go-round. I think a lot of it had to
do with keeping my training bodyweight a bit lower.
Friday morning I weighed in at 145. Cool! We arrived at Progressive and got to
hang out with Will and Marge, Donnie Thompson and his beautiful girlfriend
Jessica. The facility was awesome – plenty of room and lots of equipment to warm
up on. By the time we left weigh-ins I had already hoovered down two liters of
Pedialyte. (By the way, the fruit and grape flavors are decent, but the
unflavored is not for the faint of heart. I won't be wasting any more money on
the unflavored kind. I feel sorry for the poor babies who can't tell their
parents how bad this stuff sucks).
Less than thirty minutes later we were getting our food at IHOP. I ordered
T-bone steak and eggs, double hash browns, four strawberry crepes and pancakes.
The crepes were, of course, the best part, since I haven't been eating that kind
of stuff for a while now. On a normal day the steak would have been one to send
back to the kitchen; I ordered rare, and it was overdone enough to pass for shoe
leather. But no, not today. Today it was the best steak I've ever eaten,
especially since I doubled bites of it with strawberry crepes. People at the
surrounding tables must've felt sorry for Matt and Chad, because my food took up
the whole table, and I was slapping any hands that came close to my plate(s).
I repeated the feeding frenzy at Fazoli's for lunch. I may have mentioned this
before, a long time ago, but Fazoli's did to Olive Garden what Sam's Choice did
to Coca-Cola: it's cheaper and it tastes just as good, but you might have to
fight some illegal aliens to get some. Unfazed by the line, I waited patiently
and ended up going back to the register to get seconds of the baked chicken
parmesan.
Dinner was Chili's. Keep in mind that I supplemented all day with 6 (six) liters
of Pedialyte. In retrospect, this was NOT a good idea, as you'll see later.
Moderation is not an oft-used word in my vocabulary, but overdoing the Pedialyte
is not a mistake I'll make in the future.
Going to bed at 10 PM, I was 152 pounds. I felt great and slept like a baby
(must've been the Pedialyte).
THE MEET
Meet day morning at 7 AM, I was 153 pounds. Hmmm. How did I GAIN weight
overnight? Anyhow, we got to the meet, set out my gear and started warming up. I
then put my Ace briefs on. It was at this point that I started noticing just how
bloated I was. I mean, I weighed in with visible abs and veins everywhere, and
now I looked like a candidate for The Biggest Loser. I know it's funny
and I know I say it a lot, but the "two pounds of shot in a one-pound cannon"
phrase was not even applicable. This was more like loading two cannonballs into
a water pistol.
Within ten minutes my legs were BLACK, and I wasn't even done warming up! I
singled 315 and was headed to the locker room to get my suit when I noticed what
appeared to be, for lack of a better term, a Problem Area. This was a section of
thigh that had somehow escaped from the confines of my briefs on my right leg,
and since I was so bloated, had quite effectively jacked my right brief leg up
to the Point Of No Return.
I knew before I even put my suit on that getting those briefs off was going
to take more magic than a blindfolded Houdini escaping from handcuffs. Inside an
upside-down underground coffin. Filled with scorpions and spiders. Poisonous,
angry ones.
But I had more important things to worry about at the moment, so I put my
suit on, singled 330 and waited for my turn. I was one of three females in the
meet – it was SO great not to be the only girl! – and I was 11th out of 16 in
the flight. I opened with 375 and got three whites:
Second Attempt: 405 pounds (5 pound PR), 3 White Lights
Third Attempt: 430 pounds (30 pound PR), 3 White Lights
I was THRILLED to hit 430 pounds on my squat. I've never been as confident on
my squat as I am on my other lifts. I've been training hard with plyos and
stability exercises to really firm up my squat stance. Watching the videos, I
can really tell a big difference in the way I handle the weight. Standing up out
of the monolift, I was tight and solid. I felt very confident stabilizing the
weight, and it was no problem to hold it for the rack command after the lift. I
must say, my new ACE briefs are AWESOME!
That being said, it took 40 (forty) minutes to get OUT of my ACE briefs. At one
point it was me, Matt, Ms. Anita AND Donnie Thompson attempting to remove the
briefs from around the Problem Area. I'll post the extent of the damage to my
legs later, and it's gruesome. I have bloody fingernail scratches EVERYWHERE
from hands trying to pull the briefs off. It was excruciating; more than once
the motion as made to cut them off, but I knew I needed them to deadlift in and
they've been working so well, I hated to ruin them.
On to the bench:
First attempt we jacked my shirt just a tad too much; it took a lot to bring the
bar down. But the press came up super fast, so I can't really complain.
First Attempt: 255 pounds, 3 White Lights:
Second Attempt: 275 pounds (10 pound PR), 3 White Lights
Third Attempt: 285 pounds (20 pound PR), 3 White Lights...And yes, I did
eventually get up off the bench – I just had to flop around like an upside-down
turtle for a few minutes before anyone noticed.
It had been a LOOOOONG day already before deads started, and I was tired. But
deadlifting has always been my favorite, so it wasn't hard to get fired up. It
quickly became apparent, however, that I had made a MAJOR training mistake.
Thinking that it would make me stronger to pull either only in briefs or only in
my suit, I never wore them together. I was supposed to be full gear for the last
few weeks, but after hurting my back I shied away from anything super heavy for
fear of aggravating the injury. Besides that, I'm sure everyone's seen the video
where I pulled 405 easily in just briefs. So, naturally I was thinking this was
going to be a piece of cake. I warmed up in my briefs up to 350 and put my suit
on for 375.
It was here that I ran into a major issue: my suit added an extra layer of
thickness that I haven't been used to training with. 375 felt like 450 trying to
get it past the hump of my suit and briefs at the top of my legs. I got a
gut-tightening feeling, realizing that I had made a grave oversight in my
training, but it was too late to drop my 405 pound opener. I was also out of
warm-up time and was just mentally not focusing well at all. My first attempt
got hung up so badly at lockout that it took ten seconds before I completed the
lift. 3 reds. I honestly should've just put it down, but it was the mental
principle of the thing. It wasn't a choking feeling, I don't really ever get
that. It was more of a sickening realization that I might have just screwed
myself out of a PR total. I came into this meet hoping to pull 430 at least, and
now here I was in danger of bombing out.
Matt and I RUSHED back to the locker room and took my briefs off. I'm glad I got
smart and used trash bags under them this time so they slid off. Also, the
Problem Area didn't give me any trouble since I wasn't squatting, so it was all
good. With just my suit and belt on, I ripped 405 for my second attempt and a
huge feeling of relief overwhelmed me.
I had already pretty much exhausted myself for the day, but I stayed with 430
pounds just to give it a shot. My total was safe, so why not? I was about to
give OUT at this point, but I gave 430 a big effort. One white and two reds; I
hitched a bit at the top. Still, it was a good feeling to be able to get it off
the ground, considering the way my deadlifts started out.
Overall, what I remember most about this meet is the PEOPLE. Yes, it was a
great day for me. Yes, I did even better than I had expected. But the people –
the fellow lifters, the promoters, the judges, spotters and loaders, the
audience...THEY make the meet! There are too many names to list, but a very
special thanks to Will and Marge Millman, Donnie Thompson and Jessica, all of
the judges – Todd, Gary, Karl, Barry, Jason, and the others (I'm not the best
with names, so I apologize). Judging was strict, fair and consistent. I
appreciate and respect a judge who can be friends with a lifter off the
platform, but who still upholds the integrity of the sport and gives the
appropriate red light when it's warranted. I think that was shown more than once
at this meet.
It was also good to see lifters helping each other. Not once did I hear
negativity or drama, there were no big egos and there was no trash-talking.
Everyone supported the lifter on the platform, and that's how it should be.
A big thanks to the audience and especially the Roller Derby Girls, who were
amazing with the cards! Coming from someone who is grossly uncoordinated, you
girls rock!
Thanks to EVERYONE who mentioned that they read my logs. I am humbly grateful to
be given the chance to share my training with ya'll. Many, many thanks to Jim &
Dave and the staff of EliteFTS. I am so glad to be a part of this team!
As always, I wouldn't have videos and pictures to share if it wasn’t for my best
friend and videographer Chad. And (you knew this was coming) My Everything Matt,
who is the underlying reason why I am successful.
There was more than one time at this meet that I just lost it and cried like a
kid. Once was after my 430 pound squat. Marge Millman grabbed me, hugged me and
asked if six months ago I would've thought I could compete again, especially
this soon. That did it; I Tammy-Faye-Baker'd the whole left side of Marge's
shirt. It was a day to be thankful just to be alive and healthy, and even better
to be PR'ing!
