Day 1 Of the Odd Haugen Strength Classic
Friday was a marathon day. After teaching for the day, I ran to the airport to catch my flight to LAX. Flying was the easy part but arriving at midnight my time made for a brutal day. Waking up this morning I knew I was in for a rough grip day. I couldn't open a stinking Frappuccino bottle and had to use a towel! Nothing like starting your day off with a massive mind bleep.
Regardless, I arrived at the competition today and had so much fun catching up with some faces I haven't seen in a long time.
The goals for my day were supposed to be pretty simple: Rolling Thunder, Double Overhand Axle Deadlift, work a booth and maybe re-attempt certification on a COC 2.5. My participation was on grip events and was able to decide my openers and attempts since they were me trying to break my records.
The quick and dirty...
Rolling Thunder - Ended with success at 143 lbs. This is for sure not even close to my best event performance on this but my goal for the day was to beat my last competition PR of 138. OK, I did that but it's chump change. That's like being the queen at the ugly prom.
Double Overhand Axle Deadlift - Disaster! My training just hasn't been sufficient and it was obvious. It was a brand new axle right from the package so I tried to get a handle on my mind freaking out how smooth that bar was going to be. Really, the bar wasn't the issue. I was the issue.
I got my opener of about 265-ish lbs (dang kilos), moved on to 275-ish. I got a quick lock out and in true form, I dropped the bar like a doof. In grip, you have to lock out and lower the bar under control. When I set my record at 290-ish, I did the same thing but was able to come back on a second lift and lock it out and lower the bar under control. Today, 275 wasn't happening a second time for it to count as a good lift. Rookie move.
All week my mind and confidence has not been there, ready and in the zone. I can't say today was a surprise but failure doesn't go down easy.
The Highlight
If you're as fond of this scene from Over The Top as I am, I'm pretty sure you can appreciate how awesome my day ended.
I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Bruce Way today. You know, John Grizzly from over the top. Frances Brebner and I took turns getting in some faux arm wrestling and I got to hear some pretty cool stories. That was the biggest win of my day!
As for tomorrow...
Tomorrow will be my attempt to break my record on the Silver Bullet. If things come together and my grip feels super strong, I may re-attempt my certification on the COC 2.5. If not, I will live to fight another day.
Not every competition comes together like you want it to. Waking up this morning I knew it was going to be a tough day. Those are the times you gotta suck it up and put your game face on. These days provide learning opportunities to make the next competition even better. If you're around the FitExpo on Sunday, pop by the Odd Haugen Strength Challenge. There's lots of freaky strong people doing some amazing stuff. And make sure to say hi!