hey, Carl, nice snatch!
may you be far from the landings of your implements at the end of your long drive
Shit your snatch is damn impressive. Thats a ton of weight there.
God, I love this snatch stuff! How motivating to train with the mountains right over your shoulder. I gotta drive outta the mountains into the windowless concrete jungle to train.
Interesting conversation about tapering off/not tapering off leading up to a meet. I have always taken about five days off but may shorten that to three. I think there’s something to what Jumpin’ Jack is saying about keeping the momentum going right up to the competition. There’s always time to rest afterwards.
Thanks mj, scott, snapper.
On the tapering for contest subject, my meet prs lifting have all been set when I used a moderate taper, like what I described a few posts earlier. All my bombouts or <90% performances throwing have also come after some kind of taper. If I continue working normally through the week before the contest I get very good and predictable results. And my prs for shot and discus came after a week of normal volume. So I don’t taper for throwing anymore and taper moderately only for big meets–national level or above.
Training 10-28-2010
Power Cleans: 60x2, 70x2, 80x2, 90x2, (95x2)5 kinda sloppy, but I got them all.
5/3/1 C5 W2 Military
50x3
54x3
57x6
66x1
Dips: BWx8,9,8
Lat Pulls Down: 160lbsx7,7,8
Highland Games this weekend went well. I threw as a Lightweight. There were no other lightweights, so I won everything by default. Beyond that, I had some good throws. Here’s how it went.
WOB: Cleared everything up to 12 feet on my first throw, missed 13 feet 3 times. Every throw at 13’ hit the bar, the second on the way up. Might have cleared the bar with better placement. Ties my PR.
Sheaf: 14 feet and 16 feet cleared on my first throw. 3 misses at 18 feet. They tell me they came close, I wasn’t watching. Its amazing how much more you get on these when you keep your head down. New PR, old one was 14 feet.
Braemer Stone: 28’10". Hadn’t thrown a 22lb stone in a games before, so this was a PR by default. I have done better in training though.
Open Stone: 35’7". Stone was 16lbs. Same story as for the Braemer stone.
HWFD: 28’11". As in training, couldn’t find the balance. This was short of my mark of 29’6" from my last games.
LWFD: Got one really good throw in at 52’2". Games PR by 13’ and beats my previous best in training by almost 3 feet.
Heavy Hammer 51’1" PR by half a foot.
Light Hammer 63’5". Not so good.
No caber, not enough room in Jeff’s backyard for it.
The hammer wind experiment was a failure. It seems that at least for me, more than just tons of hammer winds are needed to improve in hammer, I did get a small pr in heavy hammer, probably due to the winds, but light hammer was way off. Guess I’m going to have to find a way to get more throws in.
Plans for the off-season: Learn the spin on WOB, get better at hammer, find out how to get some power into HWFD, practice the tips I got for sheaf at these games, get stronger.
Looks like you did well, what weight does lightweight represent?
joe, I think lightweight, or as we call it “girls” is under 190. Just kidding Carl!
Those are some great throws, and some great PRs. Congratulations.
I really wish I could have been there.
Thanks Joe. It varies, but at these games lightweight was under 190.
John, with Kate Williams (At least I think she and Dan are married) being there, I did better in Lightweight than I would have done in the Women’s category. Not quite true, I would have beat her at everything except sheaf and hammers. WOB would have been close.
Edit: I looked it up, she’s Kate Burton, #2 ranked womens thrower in the country.
My sister used to be a Master’s ski racer, and at many events she was able to come in third just by showing up. She had one day where she came in second because the third competitor was in her eighties; my sister is in her mid-thirties and apparently didn’t beat her by nearly as much as she would have liked.
Still, I think that showing up at the competition is in fact a major win, as I have yet to go to even a local powerlifting event, let alone something skills-based like the Highland Games.
[quote]ag918w35 wrote:
My sister used to be a Master’s ski racer, and at many events she was able to come in third just by showing up. She had one day where she came in second because the third competitor was in her eighties; my sister is in her mid-thirties and apparently didn’t beat her by nearly as much as she would have liked.
Still, I think that showing up at the competition is in fact a major win, as I have yet to go to even a local powerlifting event, let alone something skills-based like the Highland Games.[/quote]
I have done four powerlifting meets and won first place four times. Sadly, ^^^^ this is largely the reason. But it does take a lot of gumption to “show up” and put yourself on the line for such an event.
The way I look at it is: Great. Less pressure. I can focus on my throws and not worry about what other people are doing.
Quite honestly, I’m only thinking about meeting the goals I have outlined for myself when I compete. It’s really irrelevant to me what others are doing. I can win, but if I don’t hit my numbers, I’m not real happy with myself.
I would like to say the same, but I always find myself sparing some room in my mind for what the competition is doing. In the end, I rarely care what place we all got, but in the middle, I find myself distracted a bit.
Of course. I’d by lying if I said otherwise.
Training 11/2/2010
Power Snatch: 50x2, 60x2, (64x2)2
5/3/1 C5 W3 Squats:
85x5
96x3
106x6
115x1, 122x1
Front Squats: (90x5)3
Back Raises: (BW+11.25kgx10)3
5/3/1 C5 W3 Bench:
64x5
72x3
81x2
86x1, (68x5)3
DB Rows: (75x8)3
Combined two 5/3/1 workouts into one since I had to miss training on Monday due to a meeting. Skipped C&J altogether. Needed a break from those anyway. Went home and took a nap.
Looks like great training Carl!
In my first PL meet, I was the only one in my weight class and took home a gold medal. My boy still wears it around his neck and was/is very proud of it. Of course, he was only two at the time and did not really understand the lack of competition. But I’ve come to the conclusion that Kids don’t care about your PRs, all they care about is the hardware. 
You are right about that. My daughter wears all my medals to school the next day. Its the main reason I even bother picking most of them up after the competition.
Training 11/42010
Snatch: 50x3, 60x2, 70x1, (76x1)5, (81x1)5, (83.5x1)5, (86x1)2, (88.5x1)2, 91x1, 93.5x0,0
5/3/1 C5 W3 Deadlifts
107x5
121x3
135x5
145x1, (114x5)3
Leg Raises: Bwx10,10,12
Sucky deads, but good snatches.
Training 11/5/2010
Power Cleans: 60x2, 70x2, (80x2)2
5/3/1 C5 W3 Military:
47x5
54x3
60x4
67x0
Dips: Bwx9,9,9
Lat Pull Downs: 160x8,8,9