Where to start about this meet...


Mark and I left work early on Friday to drive about 4.5 hours down to North Bay, got in our hotel and hit the sack early to get up at about 6am for my weigh in at 7am. This was my first time trying to drop weight last minute, so I was pretty cranky.


Lifting was supposed to start at 9am, but the meet seemed to be organized, making some of the lifters a little anxious(I'm lifting in 20 minutes and they haven't gotten bench heights yet???). I took the extra time to get some more fluids and electrolytes into me.
Squats felt pretty good warming up, no issues there, I'm feeling confident at this point, especially since my squats where pretty conservative for this meet.


I opened with 115.0 kg, easy. Then to 122.5 kg, didn't set my head properly and missed, tried again on my third and had no issue. I'm still getting used to a bunch of new techniques on my squat, so I'm not disappointed in that.


Come time for bench/deadlift, I'm starting to lose energy. I benched 75.0, then 77.5, and took a pass on third because my usual big bench just wasn't in the cards. The bar speed just wasn't there.
Oh deadlifts, my worst enemy. I opened with an easy 125.0 kg. Set up felt fine, then SURPRISE, they use a texas power bar for deadlifts.... What? I had that immediate 'Holy shit' moment when the bar wouldn't break, but luckily the weight was light enough for an easy pull. Going into the second pull, I lost my handler because of his own weigh in, was starting to crash, and couldn't pull anything off the ground, even though it was weight I had done before easily. I was too far in my own head.


Overall, I am very unhappy about my performance in this meet, but I am looking at it as a learning experience. I will come back to provincials with a need to prove what I am REALLY capable of...
My goal for November 29 is a 132.5 kg squat, 87.5 kg bench, and a 145.0 kg deadlift. Now that I know what I need to work on, I know it will happen.

 


Saturday's Training, and a bit of strongman

 

Bench
45x10
95x8
125x5
145x5x5
Deadlift (conventional)
135x5
185x5
225x5x3

Since I haven't been able to perform in a meet setting with my sumo pull, Steve is having me switch to conventional pulls. Which at first had me pretty butthurt since I had really high hopes for a sumo pull. I'm trusting Steve with this one, and hoping for a big 350 pull for nationals.

Our gym's trainers and clients had a little underground outdoor strongman competition on a cold, rainy fall day. You'll see at the last 40 seconds of the video is an uphill car pull in the rain. Most of the guys ended up being pulled by the car instead of pulling it, this is one of two guys big and strong enough to actually pull the car.