Thursday, April 23, 2:23 PM: Just arrived in Dubuque and checked my
weight against the meet scale. Currently I am sitting at about 250 pounds, which
is down roughly five pounds from this morning due mostly to not eating after
breakfast (oatmeal with whey protein) and normal bodily functions. I am just
getting ready to start cutting and don't expect this cut to be a problem other
than the fact that I will feel like I am spending the night in the fires of
hell.
Thursday, April 23, 4:22 PM: Well, I’ve spent most of the first
several hours in the hotel hot tub and being fairly well hydrated. Thus far, the
weight is coming off at a pretty decent pace, but I can tell it’s starting to
slow just a little. I am now 242 on the nose, and soon the work will begin. I am
just starting to remember why this whole process sucks so badly.
Thursday, April 23, 10:36 PM: Down to 234 and feeling like total
shit!!! Only doing half hour rotations with 5-10 minute breaks in my steam
bathroom, and it's miserable but effective. Feeling hungry, exhausted and very
thirsty, but in another 11 hours or so this will all be over.
Friday, April 24, 1:53 AM: It's about 2 AM, and I'm about 10 pounds
over with 7 hours to go until weigh-ins, which is pretty much on schedule. At
this point my brain is functioning at about 50%, and I sort of feel like I'm
dreaming or half awake. I feel as weak as a newborn baby and just standing up
seems to require tons of energy. During my last bout in my homemade steam sauna
I noticed my hands trembling, so I felt it was time for my lone snack that I
allow myself during the cut: a single slice of bread with all natural peanut
butter on it. The funny part was how hard it was to eat it with cottonmouth.
Still, I feel slightly better now – and I emphasize slightly. The last ten
pounds of the cut are the worst, as your heat tolerance is seriously diminished
at this point and the rate at which you sweat begins to seriously decline. Well,
time to get back to it. I'll update this again soon if I haven't succumbed to
heat stroke.
Friday, April 24, 4:30 AM: I’ve officially entered the man's territory
of weight cutting. I've dropped approximately 28 pounds (since my peak weight of
255 after breakfast) and I have 7 pounds remaining with 4.5 hours until
weigh-ins start (it's currently 4:30 AM). Let's see...an update of my physical
and mental state looks like this: rapid shallow pulse, respiratory rate higher
than normal, vision blurry, hands shaking, weaker than Dave Tate on a diet, and
I feel like I'm half drunk and my motor skills would confirm that. At this point
I am dreading every f-ing minute in the steam room, but I know that it's
necessary and that I have no other option, so I put my head down and go forward.
My weight loss rate has slowed considerably and I'm barely eking out a pound an
hour, but I'm going to try to push it a bit over the next few hours and see if I
can't get it up so that I can be right on weight when weigh-ins start at 9 AM.
The last thing I want to do is spend more time doing this.
Friday, April 24, 9:06 AM: My weight loss has slowed considerably.
Still 3 over, but I will keep going until I make it. Basically hating life at
this point.
Friday, April 24, 12:21 PM: I finally made it and weighed in at
100kg/220.4 pounds. I’m still pretty much brain-dead at this point, so I won't
make this long. I am now chugging Gatorade and preparing to head out for a
monster breakfast. Today will consist of eating, drinking and sleeping and more
eating and drinking and sleeping as my reward for torturing myself for the last
24 hours.
Meet Report:
Well, as most of you have probably heard by now, the meet went very well for
me and I ended up going 1003-738-810 = 2551 for a new all-time total record in
the 220 pound class.
Squats
As I had mentioned here in my log, I was most concerned about my squats because
of issues I’ve been having with shaking. To try to minimize this, I contacted
the meet director and asked him if we could possibly use a Mastodon bar. He told
me we could if I could procure two of them (one for the platform and one for the
warm-up room), and that he would also have to have a vote at the rules meeting
to ensure that this is what the majority wanted. Well, after making a nine hour
round trip by myself to pick up the Mastodon Dave uses at the Compound, and the
vote getting passed 14-8, we still ended up using the
Texas Squat bar when we
found out that the Ivanko meet plates wouldn't fit on the end of the Mastodon
bar.
I opened in my briefs at 749 and hit it easily, using it to ensure I got to
bench and deadlift, and also as my last warm-up. After that, I threw my suit on
and took 1003 on my second, getting it on a 2 to 1 call. I passed on my third
attempt, as my main goal was to get the total record and I knew 1003 in the
squat would position me very well to accomplish that.
Bench
My biggest weight cut ever definitely hurt me here. Warming up, I could tell my
strength was down a bit and my shirt was also a little looser. I was weighing
around 250 on the day I lifted, versus 255 prior to the weight cut, and although
it wasn't a huge difference, it did make some difference. I hit 738 on my opener
but it was a grinder. We were debating whether to go 749 or 755 for my second
attempt, and in hindsight 749 would have been the better call as my second
attempt with 755 was very close but got stuck about 3/4 of the way up. We jacked
my
shirt for my third attempt, and as it turned out, we over-jacked it and I
couldn't even get the bar much past halfway down, and I believe I ended up
dumping it toward my feet. I was disappointed with my performance on bench, but
I also knew that I still had a chance to get the total record with a big pull.
Deads
Going into deads, I knew I needed 810 for 2551 to get the total record, breaking
Shawn Frankl's mark of 2545. I opened at 771 and pulled it solidly, giving me
2515 and the second highest total ever at 220. I passed on my second attempt to
give me a little more rest and time to get myself mentally ready for the 810
attempt. Had I not cut so much weight or been successful in gaining it all back,
I feel I would have been good for at least 821, but under the conditions I knew
810 was going to take every ounce of everything that I had within me. I knew it
had to be a balls-out, 110% effort, or it wasn't going to go.
I spent a good 15-20 minutes pacing back and forth alone in the back corner
of the warm-up room mentally preparing myself for the attempt. I reminded myself
of everything I had done to give myself this opportunity, of all the things that
motivate me, of all the reasons why I knew I was able to pull it, and I reminded
myself that all I had to do was go balls out for 5-10 seconds at most and
everything that I have been working toward for the last few years would be
realized. The pull itself was a long slow grinder, but I didn't quit until I had
my shoulders all the way back and I was fully locked out.
When it was all said and done, I felt a giant sense of relief more than anything
else. I had been feeling a lot of pressure leading up to this meet and I felt
that anything less than the record would be a failure. I also knew this would be
my last shot at the 220 record, as I’ve simply gotten too big to make the huge
weight cut that it requires. Now I feel like a lot of weight has been lifted
from my shoulders, and that I can just concentrate on training and getting
bigger and stronger, and I expect my strength to increase considerably due to
this.
I want to say a big thanks to my training partners Ken Richardson, Josh
McMillan, Chad Walker, Mark Schott, Kirk Ballard, my brother Kurt Kroc, Dave
Tate, Jim Wendler, Mike Szudarek, Jeremy Frey, Bill Carpenter, Rob Luyando and
the guys at MuscleTech (Aaron, Dave, Coy, Andrew, Dan) for all of their help in
the gym, their advice, honest opinions and unwavering support and belief in me.
Thanks, guys. It really has meant more to me than you know and that I can
accurately describe with the written word.
