I just watched soldog bench live on ustream. cool.
so, my birthday was yesterday, turned 47. it was an excellent birthday, except for the very last part, of which we shall not speak.
started by meeting up with a bunch of rascals called “the Sons of Scotland Throwing Club”. The day’s event was actually 2 events, the first ever utah state kettlebell championships, and the first ever utah state Basque Power Championships. I won my class in both competitions, mostly because I was the only “old guy over 290” which is what I named my class. There were only 5 guys and one gal competing.
The kettlebell comp had only 1 event, which was snatch for 1 minute. I used the “masters” kettlebell, which was lighter than the “open”, and heavier than the “girls”, but I don’t remember the weight or the number I got. I think it was pretty close to what the other folks got, which I thought was pretty good since it was the first time i ever touched a kettlebell.
On to the “basque power championship”. Unlike highland games, there was no throwing, these were all lifting type events. sort of. There was a standing broad jump (i sucked), a standing high jump (my vertical leap was only 11", which is so sad i can hardly stand it). that is a sorry state of athleticism from your old lardass. Next was the weight pull. there was a weight, that weighed something, and we used a rope to pull it up to a tree branch, judged on the number of times it hits the branch in 1 minute. I can’t remember how many I got, but I remember my grip failed on the last one so I was a pussy.
next event was called “the anvil” but the implement didn’t look anything like an anvil. It was about 20" long, 2" in circumference with a heavy thing on the end. what you have to do is take it from the ground and sort of snatch/swing it up until it hits the branch over your head, then back to the ground, number of branch hits in one minute. you can’t swing it between your legs. I got a decent number, which I cant remember, and was not embarassed.
last event was the rock clean. we used a 130 lb rock, clean and shoulder it, drop it, do it again. I think I got 8, I was not embarassed, I think Doc won with 11. Doc is a stud.
I have not done a “feats of strength” game like this since I was a kid, and I had a great time. If I was just working out by myself, I probably would have only gotten 20 on the kbell, instead of almost 40. its just more fun pushing yourself with other folks.
Next comp is called “the gauntlet”. there is a bench press comp, a deadlift comp, and the guantlet. the gauntlet is a series of 5 lifts that I cant remember that you have to do in a certain order. everybody uses the same weights. each time through the gauntlet, for each lift you must do a least 1 rep and no more than 5 reps. The judging is on total poundage lifted in 10 minutes. this is so going to kick my ass, and I am so excited to do it! its on 7/31. I won’t have to get the whole day off, so I should be able to do it. This time we started at 9 and were done by 10, but there were only 6 of us. I usually work 9am-530pm on fridays, but it will be alot easier to find someone to work the first few hours of the shift than for the whole day. Doc says he deadlifted 750 the other day, and I will be happy if I can just pull 450+ and bench maybe 320. should be fun.
so, i’ll see what it takes in order for me to join this club. i hope its not too expensive, because I feel like this is exactly what I need at this point in my life to inject a little fun. They practice
I was home by 1130am, and did all sorts of stuff with the family, “this is the place” state park, the zoo, went out to dinner, came home and had cake and ice cream. Up to this point, this had been my best birthday ever, and remember this is the 47th time I’ve had one. then the even that will not be discussed, and I left, went to the movies and slept in my fucking car. Now I have the office to myself, I am posting my whininess on T-Nation, and the deadlifts at SolDog’s competition are about to begin.
Be Doomed Harder,
old lardass.