It's about a week out from my first contest up in Pittsburgh. Simply put, I had a great time. I exceeded my expectations on some events, and didn't quite get there on others. A quick breakdown of how things went:
Log - Scratched as planned. Not enough experience, not enough strength.
Stone/Keg Medly: 2nd place here (out of 9). I was quick on the pick, and got good speed on the stone. No complaints here.
Axle DL: Only 5 reps. What gives? 7th place here. I though the rack jerks would have been enough to help me out, but I still was missing the lockout. Could have been 7 or 8 if I has a little stronger. Thought this would have gone better.
Tire Flip: 4th Place here. Took me a minute to get into my groove, but ti felt good once I did. Slightly chipped a tooth after the tire bounced and I already had setup on it.
Stones: Best event. 2nd place (only 2 people finished them). All five stones went up, the 5th was the only troublesome one, but that was a huge PR (310 stone)
That puts me at 5th overall.
I realized my strength level isn't what it needs to be. I already knew this, but it was soundly confirmed. First goal is to work on pressing strength and jerk technique, neither of which is good. At River City there's an axle clean and press at 220, I would be extremely happy to get a rep there. I thought my deadlift was a little better than it really is, but I've been working that pretty hard. Time to ease off on it, and maybe hit a ME lift every other week.
I will however be working back in some squats. I'm taking a shot at a little 7 week periodized program I picked up. So far it's been tough getting back into squats. I'm going off numbers that are a couple of months old. There's some technique flaws, and it just doesn't seem to sit on my back right. i'd rather be front squatting!
Other than that, I'll be working the O-Lifts in preparation for an August 10th meet. I'm hoping to hit 70kg for the snatch at 100kg for the C&J. I've hit 70 before, but my snatches aren't too consistent. My jerk is holding me back on the C&J, but I hit 210, a 3 lbs PR just yesterday.
Of course, I'll be training the events for River City Strongman, mostly the stones, farmer's, and the axle clean. Should be an ok contest for me, I'll be moving up to the 200's, but I'm sure I won't weigh close to that!
