I honestly don’t know where to start. First, I want to thank my wife, Steph, for being so supportive in life and through the entire roller coaster process, including coming to Chicago to get me ready for my lifts. I want to thank Molly for being the greatest training partner, helping me to improve, kicking me in the ass when I need it, telling me to pull back when I think I am stronger than I actually am and for giving up four days of her life to come help me in Chicago. I also want to thank Dave Tate for his generosity with equipment, gear, advice and his personal time. Without these three people, none of this would have been possible.
Pre-Meet
On Thursday, June 3 I woke up weighing 202. This is the first time I was over the required weight at which I wanted to compete. I thought that it would not be a big deal and planned on eating like normal in the morning and cutting my food and water off at about 15:00. At about 18:00 Steph, Molly, about 1000 pounds of powerlifting stuff and I piled into my Honda Civic and headed for Chicago. After speaking with Molly, we decided I should eat again about 18:30 and continue to drink water until about 21:00. I had two FiniBars at 18:30 and drank ¾ a gallon of water between 19:00 and 21:00. I could hear the water sloshing in my stomach. At about 21:30 I had to pee so bad it hurt. We ended up stopping so I could pee and then did so about every hour until we arrived in Chicago around midnight. The drive was not bad until we hit Chicago and traffic got stupid. We got settled in our room and I was weighting about 198. YES! But I felt like shit. I usually eat about every 2-3 hours and going 7 hours already had my body freaking out. Also, I was a little dehydrated and dizzy.
Thursday night/early Friday morning was not good. I slept terrible and did not sleep at all after 05:00. Nerves and the fact that I just kept reviewing everything I knew about proper lifting in my head kept me awake. I got out of bed at 7:00 and weighed 197 on my scale — good to go. I just had to wait 2 hours until weigh-ins. I had a pretty bad headache and felt really weak, and dehydration was my guess. I have no idea how some people cut 20-plus pounds for a meet.
At 09:00 I headed to weigh-ins and made weight at 89.2 kilos (196.65 pounds). I was relieved and I already had a gallon of Gatorade mixed and waiting in the room. I got about a quarter-gallon down on my first drink and almost instantly I started to feel better. I then mixed a double serving of Biotest Surge Recovery and ate some rice cakes with peanut butter. After this, I chugged 20 ounces of Anaconda/Mag 10 and then we headed to breakfast. Breakfast was my usual egg whites, oatmeal and toast with Gatorade. At the end of breakfast I felt a “high” from all the carbs. We headed back to the hotel and I took a nap. After waking, I felt much, much better. I continued to eat several clean meals throughout the day and finished the day at Outback with Matt Vincent, Hunter, Molly and Steph. Before going to bed I weighed around 206 and felt pretty good.
Meet Day
I awoke at about 06:30 on Saturday and weighed 200. I felt 100% besides being really nervous and I could hardly eat anything for breakfast. I attempted to eat my usual but got very little of it down. I did have a couple of FiniBars before lifting, though.
Squat
Warm-ups:
135x5x2
225x3x1
315x1x1
Put on Metal Ace Pro Briefs
405x1x1
Put on Metal Ace Pro Squatter- straps down
495x1x1
Straps up
545x1x1
The flight had now started.
I opened with 650 — GOOD LIFT! It felt strong. It also really helped to calm my nerves. I’M IN THE MEET!
2nd attempt: 705 — GOOD LIFT and a PR!
3rd attempt: 749 — NO LIFT. It felt good but I did not get the lift on depth. The judging was solid and depth caught a ton of lifters.
We headed back to the room and I ate some chicken, rice cakes with peanut butter and drank more Anaconda/Mag10.
Time to bench.
Bench
Warm-ups
135x5x1
225x3x1
315x1x1
Put on Metal Ace (pro) Bench Shirt
405 to a 2 board, then to the chest (two reps).
I’m good to go.
Al Caslow arranged to have his friend SHAWN FRANKL hand off to me on the bench. Both are great guys and helped me a lot throughout the meet.
I opened with 450 — GOOD LIFT and a PR! I'm still in the meet!
2nd attempt: 479 — GOOD LIFT and another PR!
3rd attempt 501 — GOOD LIFT and another PR. I finally broke the 500 mark in a meet.
Honestly, I was scared shitless the entire time I was benching. My opener was for shit as I could not calm down and my setup sucked. My most solid lift was the 479; it felt smooth and strong. The 501 was slow and labored — a true max.
With less time before deadlifting I just had some more Anaconda/Mag10 and FiniBars.
Time to finish this.
Deadlift
Warm-ups
135x5x2
225x3x1
315x1x2
Put on Metal King Sumo Pro Deadlifter
405x1x1
495x1x1
545x1x1
Good to go.
I opened with 600 — GOOD LIFT and I have a total!
2nd attempt: 639 — GOOD LIFT and a PR!
3rd attempt: 705 — MISSED. I simply was not strong enough.
While the 639 felt strong, I was going for broke and shooting for a 1,900 total but it wasn't in the cards this meet. The deadlifts did go really fast as many of the competitors had bombed in the squat and bench.
I finished with an 1,845 total and 1st place in the 198 weight class. Admittedly, I was not the strongest 198 competitor at the meet, not even close. I believe the class started with 7 competitors and only 2 of us finished the meet. The rest bombed. Whatever the reason, a win is a win, and I got PR’s on every lift and learned a ton. The huge difference for me at this meet over the last is I played my own game. I did not worry about a total. I did not worry about winning. I just came in and lifted. I based my attempts on my previous lift (except the last deadlift) and let the chips fall where they fall. It was a lot more fun and ended up qualifying me for the Worlds!
I ended up finishing with a 20-pound squat PR, a 61-pound bench PR, a 29-pound deadlift PR and a 110-pound total PR.
This was one of the best weekends of my lifting life. I met some great people, including Al Caslow, Shawn Frankl and a ton of others. Both Al and Shawn are great guys and without their help and encouragement I would not have been nearly as successful at this meet. All of this came from both of them after just meeting them this weekend. They are just awesome guys.
I have a lot more rolling around in my head and as time permits I will share things I learned and things I want to adjust in my training.
For now, I’m going to take a break, rest and look at meets taking place over the winter/early spring.