RUM5 recap
What an insane weekend. I water loaded the first 3 days of the week, then cut down on Thurs and completely dropped food and water 24hrs out from weigh ins. Checked myself around midnight and I was weighing in just under 210 on my scale. At this point I figured the water cut would be relatively easy. I was wrong.
I got up at 6 and started running the shower in the hotel as hot as possible and threw on my sauna suit. Started with 15mins sitting in the tub and 15mins just standing in the room. At this point I realize sitting in the tub is possibly the worst feeling in the world. I take a break and do another round. This time I can only manage 10 minutes in the tub and spend the rest just sitting there. I’m sweating like crazy but I’m already starting to feel light headed. I check my weight, 205.
Over the next couple hours I rotate 5 minutes in the tub and 5-10 in the sauna. I also find that by taking off the sauna suit when I step out I stop feeling so much like I’m gonna pass out. I check my scale again and it says 206; which seems impossible. Then it stops working. I assume due to the moisture that’s collected on it.
There’s another scale downstairs in the hotel “gym”. At around 10:30 I check it and it says 202. I’m 4 pounds away and feel like crap. As I walk back to the elevator I meet a guy who tells me they’re already doing weigh ins so I figure I might as well check myself on the official scale and see where I’m at. I weigh in at 93.1kg, so about 205. I asked the meet director what happens if I don’t make weight and he says he’ll move me up into the 220s.
At this point I meet Sam Byrd who tells me to take a shuttle to the local YMCA and use their sauna for rounds of 10mins on 10mins off. He claims he dropped 5 lbs in three rounds that way. Also he tells me he’s dropped down from close to 250 and I can believe him, the dude is so thick it’s ridiculous.
I weigh my options, I’m getting light headed just sitting down and standing up and my mouth is starting to go pasty but I figure I can still come back at this point. I’ve spent the last 4 hours dropping 5-8 pounds and I’m not sure, even if I can cut the last 6 if I could compete at all. So I decided to just bite the bullet and go as a 220. I still get to compete.
I start drinking Pedialyte and order an omelet, after eating and drinking a little I start to feel better. I also find out Pedialyte kinda tastes like crap so I alternate it with Gatorade mixed 50/50 with water. For the next few hours I nap and consume a couple liters of Pedialyte and Gatorade and a few nutrigrain bars. After a big plate of nachos for lunch I feel great but force myself to keep drinking and eating. At around 3 I weigh in on the hotel scale at 213. Good but still a ways to go. The rest of the day I relax and by midnight I weigh slightly over 220.
The meet was scheduled to start at noon but I get up at 10 and go down to check it out. At this point I see everyone warming up. I ask if the meet is starting early and am told they want to get going by 10:30. Also I’m 3rd up on the squat. Apparently some of the bigger name lifters were told about this but I hadn’t heard a thing.
I sprint back to my room, throw my singlet on and rush down to warm up. Unfortunately I’m the tallest middleweight by a huge margin so every unrack is basically a half squat. Squats feel a little off but I don’t have time to worry.
I get my opener of 215kg (474) but it doesn’t feel as good as I would like so I take a conservative jump to 227.5 (501). I then watch Sam Byrd break the all time world record on his opener. With 501 I get a little forward but nothing too bad, I drive back into the bar and my legs have nothing. No lift. I take it again, this time it’s technically perfect but half way up my quads can’t drive any harder and I can’t stand up. Guess that’s the weight cut.
Byrd goes on to break his record again, Nera squats a huge 727 and Jeremy Hamilton smashes 683 on a second and misses 705 on his third. Byrd goes for 804 and as he’s coming up it looks like on of the spotters grabs it early so they give him another attempt. As he hits the hole he screams, dives forward and dumps and grips his right IT band. Not sure what’s up but it doesn’t look like his quad is torn.
On the bench I opened at 286 to be conservative. I hold it over my face for a good 5secs until I realize there’s no start command despite it being in the RUM rulebook. Guess they covered that at the rules meeting I wasn’t invited to. It’s easy so I take 309 (140kg) and smash it. I then take 145kg (319) to essentially tie a meet PR and while it’s not fast it feels strong. 3 for 3 on bench and I’m feeling pretty good. I’m not sure about the rest of the field; I know Jeremy Hamilton finishes with a 500 lbs press.
On the deads I opened light at 250 (551) and it was fast. Jeremy Hamilton who is in the driver’s seat has his hands cramp up bad in the warmup room. On his first attempt at 727 he tears his bicep slightly at the top and has to withdraw. I’m feeling confident so I take 280kg (617) for a PR and a 3xBW pull. It moves smoothly although my camera decides to crap out and not film it. Awesome. I call for 285 for a third. Mentally I was a little out of it and I get it to just below the knees.
I finished the day with 474, 319, 617 for a 1411 total @ 205 and my first 400+ wilks, 401.856 to be exact. If only my squat had come along for the ride I would have broken my total PR too. Although 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.
Things I learned:
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Sam Byrd is fucking humongous. How this dude makes 220 I don’t know he was twice as thick as anyone else in the class.
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I’ll have to experiment with a dry sauna, I think part of the reason I couldn’t lose the last few pounds was that the room was so humid from all the water that my body started to absorb moisture through my skin.
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My rehydration plan worked great, I got back up over 220 within the day
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The only lift that seemed affected was my squat. The fact that I was rushed my have had something to do with it but I really felt like I just didn’t have my normal strength there. A smaller cut may go a long way to alleviating this
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The reverse grip bench seems to work well for me. The technique felt solid and I matched my meet PR while being (officially) 20 pounds lighter
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I’m way too tall for a middle weight. I haven’t felt this tall and skinny since highschool. I was almost a head taller than anyone else, and I’m not that tall of a guy. Guess I need to gain weight.