Well, it looks like I never finished up my final event training week in my log prior to USS Nationals.

The quick catch up on things is Bruiser died while I was with him. I shooed the kids out after they came to say goodbye and within two minutes of them leaving, he passed. Ugh. It still breaks my heart to think about.

Right from the airport after Kentucky, we went to pick up a new puppy. She is the polar opposite of Bruiser: friendly, social and loves other animals. She is a prison trained puppy and oh man, she is so beautiful in so many ways. There will never be a replacement for Bruiser and his baller status, so having another dog the polar opposite helps ease everyone missing him so dearly.

The other terrible news is The Girl's injury turned out to be a dislocated knee caused during her initial turn on discus. So that takes her out of what was expected to be an exceptionally competitive summer season. Turns out she has an anatomical deformity for lack of a better word that came into play causing this injury so easily. Those genetics certainly weren't from my side of the family. I kid, I kid. I guess that is the one genetic weakness I have passed on. This process with her has got me thinking it's probably time to get back to my Passing The Baton series. So many lessons and wisdom young athletes need to internalize and move forward from.

I moved forward with a final event day because I know my training as of late has been so hit and miss in terms of my strength. My thinking was if I did a lighter event day, my mind would convince me that was my sucky strength week and for the actual competition I would come in strong. This is not a typical approach for me. In the past I would take the final 10-14 days before a competition off and just focus on mobility and conditioning. This time my mind was all over the place as well as my performance so I went with what my instinct was telling me I needed. Plus I wanted to hit some event conditioning.

Final Event Training

13" Rack Pulls - 350 lbs

3x10

Fingal Finger

1 set x 5

Conan's Wheel

250, 2x5 revolutions
340, 1x3 revolutions

Week Prior To Competition

As for my last week prior to the competition I did light walking 3 x's that week for 45 minutes and stretching/mobility afterward. Truly it was a hit and miss effort based on all of the chaos prior to my trip.

If you'd like to catch up on how I did at USS Strongman Nationals, you can catch up here.

https://www.elitefts.com/education/2016-united-states-strongman-nationals-3rd-place-finish/