As far as my lifting went, this was not one of my better years.
I'm not setting up for some pathetic, "oh, woe is me" type of post here by the way, the occasional bad year is part of the sport. And while I've certainly had worse, 2015 wasn't great, and part of growing as an athlete is figuring out why things don't go the way you want them to.
So for a quick recap, I did one full meet in June, where I lifted ok, then two embarrassing bomb outs in bench only meets. I also got really fat, much to the amusement of my elitists teammates, hitting an all-time pr bodyweight of 237 at a height of 5'5".
So here's the plan for 2016
First off, I need to lose weight, and so far things are moving well in that direction. Since early December, I've lost about 13 lbs, and have drastically cleaned up my diet. I'm not trying to drop a ton of weight quickly, just gradually take it off while preserving as much muscle as possible. The one good part of gaining so much weight this year is that I've clearly put on a lot of muscle. Even now, at 224, I'm leaner than I was at 214 last year at Bench Worlds.
Ultimately, I want to compete at 198 again, but be much leaner than the last time I competed there. The 220 class is stacked with talent, and I suck something awful at that weight. at 242, I'm practically a novice. Not to mention the fact that I'm a father now, and I can't afford to take stupid risks with my health for very much longer. I lost my Dad 14 years ago, and am rapidly losing my Mom. It sucks, and I don't want my kid to go through it any earlier than he has to.
I also want to compete in this year's APF Seniors, followed byWorlds in November. I'm still bothered by my performance at both of these meets in 2014, where I jumped into Seniors last minute and squeaked by in third place, followed by bombing at Worlds in bench.
As far as training goes, I'm gonna keep doing what you've seen in my logs, changing gears around Feb/March when I start incorporating more gear/overload work. I'm also gonna give the new Metal Canvas a shot. I spent about 10 years in Canvas and I'm looking forward to getting back to one. I'm gonna wait to order it for a while because I'm not sure where my size will be once I get to my target weight (about 208).
So I guess that's it. Thanks for everyone who's kept up on my log this year (not always easy to do, I'll admit). But if I have one resolution, it's to keep up on it more.
I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year!