Sometimes you make rash decisions in the heat of the moment because you think your ready when your not. This would be that time....
I knew there was a small PL meet here in NC coming up. It was about 2 hours down the road and I got to thinking.... When we got back from Vegas my competitive juices were flowing and I was yearning to get on the platform. Well yearning is an understatement.
My training cycle was nowhere near complete and sometimes sporadic at most but enough to where I thought I would be good to jump out of my cycle and jump into a meet and do my 1st multiply bench only meet in two years with no issues. Last minute decisions....
Today is late Thursday evening. The meet would be Saturday. I thought about it and told everyone at the gym the next day (Friday) I was going to do this meet. Everyone was very excited and was ready to see me compete. I was excited too. Actually nervous and excited. Actually nervous, excited and very nervous lol....
Friday night I bet I did not sleep an hour. We all drove down to the meet venue (about 25 of us) and I got weighed in and paid up. The meet was being held in a strip shop mall with very minimal equipment. At first I did not think we were in the right location. One monolift (the one being used for the meet and one bench-press, same deal). All the warm-up equipment was 3 power racks (to warm-up squats and benches on) and two small accessory benches. I thought man this is going to be interesting. This was an SPF sanctioned meet but none like I have ever been to. Jesse was not at this one and neither was his equipment but hey everyone was going to have to deal with this so lets do it....
It took us a little bit to understand what was going on in terms of lineups. No flights were posted at all during the meet, so no one really knew who was up or who was lifting or when. Everyone was going back and forth to the scores table to find out the order of things which made things very confusing and aggravating. Again everyone was having to deal with it so no biggie.
Once we got a bead on the last flight of squatters and when I may be benching, I started warming up. I like to take my time getting ready. I like to get stretched, get rolled, do some mobility stuff, get the old hips loose then start setting up on the bench and going through my warm-ups. As I have gotten older I cant go plate, plate, plate, plate, plate raw anymore. My age and my torn labrum will not allow it. So I do plate, quarter to a 2board hitting singles then shirt up.
After getting my shirt on and hitting a couple sets in it (I like to hit at least 3 sets minimum in my shirt) I take a quick break and then we realized there was a miscalculation on when I was going to be on deck and we had to wrap this warm-up thing up. I was irritated because I had one more warm-up set which was going to be 675 (I just hit 585 and I was opening up at 730). I now felt rushed and not ready. Last minute decisions....
I started to feel overwhelmed and not ready but that feeling had to subside and quick. By the time we got out to the platform area I was 2 out! Damn. What just happened? Here we go....
Opener - 730 pounds - missed - double pumped
Second Att - 730 pounds - missed - double pumped it again!
Third Att - 730 pounds - missed - did not hold at lockout long enough
Bomb
I have done 47 meets in my life now. 40 of these meets have been bench only. I have only bombed in 3 of those 46 now 47 meets and both have bench meets. I now have 37 finished meets with a good lift/s of 40 bench only meets.
This was not what I had in mind after a 2 year layoff and my first bench only meet back but then again no one wants to get in a car accident when they start their morning either. These misses were all my fault and my fault alone. I rushed myself. I was not prepared like I thought I was. I put too much pressure on myself to hit a lift and too soon to do so. Yes I am frustrated. I am mad at myself but this is how we learn. Sometimes you may think your ready when your not ready. That was me today. I don't take this as a failure, I take this as another step of getting back to where I was. You cant take the easy rode and expect the results you want. Its a marathon and for me at my age, a marathon for me is not even jogging, its a brisk walk now. I will be back soon. I will continue to get better. I will always keep learning. And, no more last minute stupid decisions like this again....
