Like usual, I made an abrupt and last minute decision concerning my competition plans. I will be competing in Northern Nevada's Strongest Man on August 13, 2016 in order to qualify for Master's Nationals in Vegas at the Olympia on September 16. In short, I changed my direction because of my love for grip and as a long time advocate to see the return to more grip inclusion in strongman. Northern Nevada's Strongest has max distance farmers and Master's Nats has an awesome farmer's type medley and frame hold for time. The events were calling me. In short, I am in love.
From July 30, 2016
Rolling/Mobility
I am still split between training for two competitions and going mad. This coming week my training will switch totally to masters nationals. That is where the priority is, so should my focus be.
I had Mattie in the gym to help me on the Circus DB and time some events for me. The last time he helped me with the DB things got heated hearing how I am not coachable and none of his athletes disregard his instruction and argue like I do. Oh boy, we hadn't butted heads like that in a long time about my training.
So that reinforced how frustrated I am in the learning curve on the DB and that communication was breaking down. I reminded him that I am not one of his athletes, I am an advanced lifter with lots of years under my belt and my judgment has merit. It was fun to see him hear that, stop and both of us regroup and get back to making improvements with my technique.
Circus DB
30, 2x3
50, 2x3
70, 2x1
90, 1x0 oh man this is so frustrating!
70, 1x1
70, 1x4
70, 1x3
The big improvement is that my right arm is now my stronger one. This is also my stronger grip arm so it is nice to see it catching back up to the other side. I still need to get a handle on this event.
Grippers
COC T - 3x10
Farmer Medley, 180 lbs
This is a nationals event. Carry farmers 30 feet, DL it x4 (really x5 for last pick up to carry), carry 30 more feet and DL four times. OMG! This event is sooo brutal it's AWESOME!!! This one def needs to be repeated for others to enjoy the beauty of it.
The maiden voyage I ran it in 36.66 seconds. The second run I made some good improvements and dropped my time down to 30.57 seconds. I have LOTS of room to shave time off this and cannot wait to bust this baby out QUICKLY. Did I mention I LOVE this event variation? Super taxing and just awesome.
Frame Hold - 390 lbs
I opted to only do one set of this, my hands were showing signs of splitting open and I cannot handle torn callouses with the Reno comp coming up quickly. I was able to hold for 33.85 seconds. This is a great starting point and was not to grip failure. Aside from the ability to hang on to the weight, part of the process is toughening up the hands and mind to take a long term beating. I need to work on that part more.
All in all, I feel super about two of the five events at nationals. Odd, they are the grip events! The remainder of this week I am going to gather a baseline of my performance on each event so I can monitor my progress and adjust as appropriate.