Battle in the Bay Strongman Show - comp day.
Up at 6am, quick breakfast and feed the dog and then jump in the car. Got to the comp venue (gym) around 7:45. Said hello to a few people before the athlete briefing at 8am.
Briefing done it was time to just relax and start to get ready for event 1 - yoke.
There was a lot of competitors at this show so they had 3 lanes competing at the same time. One was women, two was men’s novice, under 80, under 90 and masters under 105. Lane three was men’s 105, 120 and open (big boys).
Because lane 2 had the most classes and competitors they split it and had a 15 mins break after the novice class. This allowed us to warm up with the equipment. They did this for all events and it worked well.
Before I go through the events I want to talk a little about my mental space before starting this show. For me this show was HEAVY, in fact everyone at the show said the same thing. I knew before I started that some events would not be nice but my headspace was to just give it a “red hot go”.
Event 1:
Yoke - 280KG (616 lbs) - this was definitely the event I was dreading the most.
Warm up 185 - felt ok
Warm up 220 - starting to feel heavy bit still ok.
No more warm ups, save the pain for the actually run.
Athlete ready - got tight, Go - went to pick but wasn’t in the right position. Went again and got it up, fark this is heavy.
Start wobbling forward inch by inch
Dropped and re picked a couple of times. Neck and back are not happy already. Dropped and went to stop, timer was telling me not to stop, took a breath and then went for another pick. Got it up and moved forward a little more. Done. It didn’t go for but it moved and I didn’t zero. Sort of happy that I moved it but at what cost. Whole
Back is starting to tighten up now and it’s only event 1.
Event 2 - Axle 80KG- Log 90KG alternating - 60 secs
I was feeling ok about this one, axle has been ok in training and log is getting better. But after that yoke my confidence was not high
For this you started with axle and then log and then back to axle etc.
Axle moved well, the clean was solid and the press felt good.
Stepped up to the log got into position, took a big breath and picked it up. Ooh this feels heavy. Sat down into the clean and rolled log up. This was ok but it was heavy and I couldn’t get a nice front rack position. Tried to press it but just had no spring in the push and it barely left my shoulders.
Event 3
Sand stone and sandbag steeplechase. 100KG sand stone - 110KG sandbag.
For this one you had to do lighter bag first which was a 100KG sand stone (ball shaped sandbag). Pick and carry 7.5m, load over a 1.2m yoke, re pick the bag and carry it another 7.5m, then repeat with second bag.
I wasn’t worried too much for this one,
I knew it would be hard but I am usually ok with sandbags.
The first pick with the sand ball was
OK, but the bag (ball) is so large that it is harder than a sandbag to get your hands around. The carry to the yoke was fine but the bag was too low on my body and as I tried to lift it over the yoke it got stuck. I stupidly battled with it rather than sot and re grip, this took a heap of energy. I had to drop it and re pick. I managed to get it over the yoke but that was nearly all the energy I had left. I tried to pick it up again to carry it to the end but I was done and just ran out of time.
Event 4 was axle deadlift. Starting weight was 180KG and they added 10KG each rep.
Warm ups for this felt ok, which surprised me given how bad my back was feeling.
180KG moved well, 190KG moved OK too. 200KG felt glued to the floor,
It moved about 1 inch, Tried it a second time and it moved maybe 2 inches. Just wasn’t there today.
Event 5 - Atlas stone to shoulder 100KG
this was one I had done a couple of times in training and it felt OK. But training and comp day, especially when it is the last event.
Warm up - Did one rep with 80KG which was OK but not super snappy.
For this I decided to not use tacky, I didn’t use it in training and usually the stone has loads on it from other competitors anyway. The stone I have at home is a smooth concrete stone. The stones we used today were the dirtiest, roughest old stones I have seen. Add to that all the tacky on the stone and it was ugly.
I picked the stone to my lap with no issues but when I tried to clean it to my shoulder it all went a bit wrong. The stone was so sticky I couldn’t get my arms off it to release the stone. And with my back cooked I just didn’t have enough pop to clean it fast enough. Tried 3 times and just couldn’t get it. My forearms were covered in stone kisses and bloody sore after.
Finished the day in second place but that’s not really a victory when there is only 2 people in your weight class. This definitely wasn’t my best day at the office in terms of results and execution but in term of effort and hard work it was a total win. Happy with my performance and happy to just do what I can. Now I just need to get stronger for the next one.
