I'm currently in the early stages of preparing for 2016 USS Strongman Nationals which will be held on June 11th, 2016. My training focus is to continue to get stronger overall, continue adding some size and start working in strongman events again. I'm working with teammate Mike Mastell on my programming.
I almost always train alone on gym lifts and it's been that way for most of my lifting life. I've had a few training partners over the years here and there, but the large majority of the time I've trained alone. The only exception would be for strongman event training. I've had a crew of various guys over the years most of the time, however the past couple of years I've done a lot of my event training alone. The biggest reason for this is because once I had a son I didn't want to be gone on Saturday mornings for 2-3 hours training while he was up and playing or watching Mickey Mouse. So I moved it to his nap time, which varied week to week. Once he was getting sleepy and ready for a nap I'd head to the gym (it's about 10 minutes away).
He's now settled into a schedule with his nap time, so I typically train at 10 or 10:30 am on Saturdays. The majority of my training is done during his 2 hour nap window, but now it's allowed me to train with some people again. Yesterday I trained with Shane Solomon and Shawn Nevels, who actually was the original crew for my first few months of strongman back in late '08 early '09. We all had a good time and it was nice to train with a group and the original group at that.
This session kicked my ass and made me realize I'm not conditioned. I'm getting there though. Everything felt good on this day, but I did strain my brachioradialis on stones. I was working on speed and loading to a high platform with a light weight. I got in a hurry on my third set and didn't have my arms set quite low enough. As I exploded up I felt a sharp pain in my forearm/lower bicep region. So I stopped there. It's nothing major, just sore today. I won't make that mistake again.
1.23.15
A. Keg Carry Medley - 40 ft. each
1 set @ 210#/230#
2 sets @ 230#/250#
B. Sandbag Carries - (These were supposed to be max distance, however I know my body and 1 true max distance carry is all I have in me. Especially with my current conditioning levels. There was no way after kegs I could do a true max distance for 3 sets and follow that up with stones.)
225# bag x 160ft., 160ft., 200ft.
C. Atlas Stones loaded to 60 inches
1 set of 3 @ 165#
2 sets of 3 @ 230#