Now that not everything hurts…
Had an absolutely shithouse sleep Saturday night. Couldn’t switch my brain off and even considered pulling out because I felt completely off kilter. Sunday morning wasn’t much better, but my fiancee managed to talk some sense and balls back into me.
Got to the venue and no-one seemed to be sure about flights at first because they were still setting up. In all fairness, the gym had only opened a week prior. It’s still Burley, just a bigger space. Looks good, actually. By around 10 we knew there were three flights, and I was in B which was good news. There were six or seven guys in the 220s, two of which I knew would post higher totals than I. The rest I wasn’t sure, so I decided not to worry about placing and focus on managing some kind of PR total.
Sherro made a big deal about running everything fast, so flight A got maybe 40 minutes to warm up at most. My mate Justin was in A, so we got to work and as he was finishing his warm up I started mine. I started sipping on Plazma around this time.
The first flight ran VERY fast, and it also was obvious the judging was inconsistent. Justin got robbed of his opener on depth, which set the tone for his day. Because the first flight ran so fast, I ran out of warm-up time and only by luck heard my name when I was two lifters out from my first attempt, but still had my last warm-up to go. I decided to hell with it and took my first attempt as planned despite this meaning I took a 110 lbs jump from my penultimate 363 lbs warm-up to my 473 lbs opener, and also had to use my training wraps instead of my once-used-only competition pair.
My 473 lbs opener came up fine despite the rush and larger than ideal jump, but instead of sticking with the plan to take 506 lbs for my second I asked for 517 lbs. I couldn’t exactly explain why I did this but it felt right. I now had time to get my competition wraps. Wrapping my knees for my second didn’t run particularly smoothly. I started too early and stopped one knee in, then unwrapped it and re-rolled the wrap. Then I had a few issues tying off my left leg, and then the wrap unravelled as I was wrapping my right leg. Managed to get the squat command on time and the 517 lbs came up with a bit of work. I asked for 539 lbs for my third because I wasn’t confident I’d hit 550 lbs. By the time I’d rolled my wraps my hands were cramping, but I wrapped for third on time without any problems. I was nervous coming onto the platform, and probably rushed my setup because the bar felt very unbalanced when I unracked - my initial reaction was that it was misloaded with an extra 10-20 lbs on the right side. But, it was do or die time so I got my squat command and ground out the lift for three white lights. Not pretty, but not for the first time my back picked up the slack.
Pretty predictably for me I felt a gazillion times better once squats were over. Tried to eat, but the appetite wasn’t there and since I had the Plazma I wasn’t worried about energy levels. Justin was pretty burned up about his squats, and it doesn’t help that he’s naturally emotional. To his credit, he managed to keep it in check and got through his bench warm-up OK, but missed his first attempt for bouncing off the chest. A fair call, but harsh in that he wasn’t given time between touching and the press call to control the bar. A half second later and he’d have gotten whites I think. Plenty of other lifters missed because many press calls were very slow to come. I checked in with Simon, one of the multiply lifters from Elite and he was happy having hit a squat PR.
Given that I hadn’t trained bench in almost three weeks I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Everything felt really good, and this time I had ample time to warm up. I took 253 lbs for an easy opener, and asked for 280 lbs for my second. I messed up the descent on that one, but still got it with relative ease so I asked for 302 lbs for my third. I actually grooved it fine, but I’m almost certain I missed the press command. Not that it mattered, because I stopped dead short of halfway. I fought for it, but called the spotters in once I knew it was a lost cause. Disappointing, but I’ll live. I’m also going to skip 302 lbs next meet and go straight for 308 lbs. Knowing I can hit 302 lbs when I’m actually training bench helps. I’ll make sure I make a few 302 lbs singles between now and the next meet.
Went and chatted to Justin whose mood hadn’t improved. Deadlift is his strong lift, though, so he was feeling OK. Angry, but OK. It is a measure of his character that put all that aside and handled me for bench. Then I checked the flight list with the subtotals and saw I was sitting on 819 lbs. I got a boost out of that because it meant as long as I hit my second deadlift I would get a PR total; and because I had a realistic chance of placing third. Had an appetite by now, so ate some broccoli, chicken thighs and rice washed down with a mix of dextrose and BCAAs and hoped it would settle before I needed to warm up for deadlifts. Simon was still going well, with an equal bench PR on his second. He passed his third. Checked on Dan, one of the raw guys from Elite who’d bombed out on his squats. He was in a pretty sour mood, but my sympathy for him evaporated pretty fast when he made some snide comments about Justin. Dan doesn’t really mix with the other PLers at Elite. He’s strong, but cocky, and doesn’t always back it up on the platform. It was interesting to see how pretty much no-one from Elite gave a crap he’d bombed.
Warming up for deadlifts was pretty standard and everything felt reasonably good. I was getting confused about where to put my hands though, which normally never happens to me. Mostly I think that was because with shin guards I scrape the crap out of my thumb if I’m not careful. I was starting to fade by the time my flight rolled around. Opened at 484 lbs and it came up fine. Took 528 lbs for my second and got my grip wrong so it felt heavier than I’d have liked and felt rather unpleasant in my left forearm. To play it safe I asked for 566 lbs for my third. Justin did a great job revving me up for it: when he slapped me in felt like a surge of energy ran into my legs and I switched right on. Managed to keep all that energy internal and was calm but very focused at the bar. It was heavy but came up fine.
Pretty much once my third hit the floor EVERYTHING started hurting and didn’t stop until I got up this morning.
That got me 8/9, a 55 lbs PR total of 1386 lbs and third place - and today I found out it got me a GPC class 2 total which means I’m in the mix for 2017 nationals plus I’m now 14th in the 220s in GPC Australia. Rankings get reset after every nationals, so I’m 14th so far but more realistically somewhere in the top 40 or 50. The battle for first came down to the final deadlift, and I think first place totalled around 1474 lbs with second maybe 5 lbs behind. Fourth place was below 1320 lbs.
This was probably my most complete performance to date. Pretty stark reminder that my bench is what lets me down, but I’ll keep plugging away as I have been. I’m confident 308 lbs is under six months away and my bicep is feeling good. I may even not need to resort to DB bench for cycle eight.
