I think the city of Philadelphia is my kryptonite. Just being near there seems to make me reconsider what I am doing. Think about it; first show near Philly I got last place and bombed the first two events, drove through Philly for one in Jersey and had one of my worst performances and I did one this year near Philly and felt like a zombie and passed out on the conan’s wheel. I actually spent the day before this show in Philadelphia watching another strongman contest. That wasn’t a pleasant day with the long hours in traffic, watching a show in what looked like a deleted scene from The Wrestler and being threatened by a local while looking for a parking spot to get cheese steaks. So I woke up the next day and thought, crap, I got to do stuff today.
My dad and I arrived and unpacked. We actually drove past it since it was nestled back in a plaza. We probably also missed it because from what I had read, I was expecting quite a crowd with a supposed 200 kids signed up and ten heavyweights. I went a signed in. I didn’t get weighed in but I did check after the first four events and I was under 260lbs so definitely a light bodyweight. Three times I was confused for a teen competitor. I warmed up inside the facility, which was nice, since it was so blazing hot outside. We were told the event would start at 12:00 but we didn’t get to start until 1:30. Draining. First event was the log press.
This was an event I was nervous about. I’m actually not even sure what the final weight ended up being. I heard it was 300lbs and then 305lbs and finally 310lbs. Turns out it was either 308lbs or 313lbs. If the former, I’ve never did that much with a clean. If the later, that’s new to me. 60 seconds for as many reps as you can with a clean every rep. Hell, I was going to be over the moon if I got one with the increased weight. As I was getting ready to warm up, I noticed I had misplaced my hard belt. I wouldn’t need it for log but I won’t have a snowflakes chance in hell with the next event without one. Luckily Lou’s friend Eric had brought his wide one and lent it to me. I was too bulky for the log press on the clean so I went with just the rehband. I was the last one to go since they drew the names out of a hat for the order. I put my wrist wraps on, hoping that it would improve stability and put on Thunderstruck by AC/DC and went at it. I got a little off balanced after the clean and couldn’t get it above my head. It came back down hard and I felt my back crunch and I had to bail. I waved off to signal I was done but the judge must have missed it because he told me I had 30 seconds left. I figured, fine, I could try again. I got it up again but could barely get it off my chest. A disappointing zero reps for me. Seventh out of seven.
Up next was the hummer tire deadlift. It looks cool but it is a tough event for me. The bar is 16”but 18” when the bar flex is gone, essentially midshin so I might as well pull from the floor. The weight was a monstrous 780lbs for as many reps as possible in 60 seconds. For a frame of reference, last year when I did a show with this exact implement, I couldn’t budge the 640lbs weight. Since I got last on the first event, I was going to be up first on this one. I tried out different stances to try and make this doable. 550lbs felt really heavy for two. Great. I got into an awkward stance for my last warm-up with 640lbs. Knees were inside my hands but my legs were splayed out past them. I was able to get it up. So that’s improvement. Unfortunately it was still 140lbs under the show weight. At least it did give me something to compare my banded rack pulls to. I’d say that 640lbs feels like 420lbs plus bands so it can help me keep progress of my partial pulls. I was asked if I was ready and said no to give the other competitors who had actually done work to get a five minute rest. After that, I strapped in and got into my goofy stance and tugged. Nothing. Changed my stance. Zip. Moved my hands in and tried once more. Nada. Walked away, disgusted with my weakness. I tied with another guy who zeroed for Sixth out of seven.
At this point, I’m thinking why am I here? I can’t hang with these guys. Perhaps I should call it a day and cheer Lou on. I know this is a defeatist attitude but damn it if it isn’t tough to mentally get over bombing two events back to back while your competitors get it for reps easy. It doesn’t help that heavy log pressing seems to be the name of the game with the platinum plus shows and Nationals. The third event changed over the day. Originally it was supposed to be a 650lbs Conan’s Wheel. The guy who had it didn’t bring it. I’m not going to name names but his initials were Gene Rychlak. So plan B was going to be 800lbs yoke for 60’ into 350lbs farmers for 60’ with one drop allowed. Now 800lbs yoke isn’t horrendous for that distance but only one drop would have made it a short run for me. By a stroke of luck, there weren’t enough plates to load up both implements. So it evolved once more to a 910lbs yoke for 60’ in 60 seconds. So you mean I’ve been busting my hump on Conan’s Wheel when I should have been working on yoke? I haven’t gone over 660lbs on yoke since March and the most I’ve done has been 880lbs. Busted out the chalk for my upper back and I know people were getting annoyed with me finding my yoke pick height. Too bad. Finally settled on the bottom of the crossbar at 60”. I’m going to have to adjust mine at home to this height because it was perfect. I was going first again (starting to see a pattern) and set up and picked it. I walked a few steps and dropped it. Heavy but not impossible. Picked it again and took short steps thinking one more, one more. I stumbled and again I dropped it. I knew I could do more and got it once again and this time got further than the previous two drops combined. I didn’t have much time left at this point and I got few feet farther before I was too fatigued and then time was called. I got 37’ with it. Then everyone else but one guy finished (he hurt his back and still beat me by 2’). A pleasant surprise but only good enough for sixth out of seven (the one guy that had bombed the hummer tire deadlift with me dropped out at this point but they still counted it as out of seven).
I was feeling a little better after the yoke mood wise. Now was time for the tire flip and sled drag medley. The original plan was 60’ with both but after seeing everyone struggling with the tire, the course for the tire was shortened to 40’. Honestly one of the toughest tires I’ve ever attempted to flip besides the two +1000lbs ones I’ve tried. Listed as 900lbs but probably closer to 950lbs. The sled was going to be 1200lbs but I guess it was changed to a different sled and it was only 450lbs. Time limit for this one was extended to 90 seconds and boy did we need it. Up first is me, number one with a bullet. The tire started up and I had to hold it to keep it from rolling down the parking lot. Every flip was tough and took a lot of hip pops to get it high enough to push over. It took five flips to cover 40’ and then I just walked over to the sled. My legs were dead. I started out find but then I started going sideways and it came to pretty much a dead stop. My legs couldn’t move it so I tried rowing it. After three or so tugs it got over whatever was there and I started moving fast again. Then I heard the awful word “TIME!” and I dropped backwards and laid sprawled on my back. Exhausting. I got only 26’ with the sled. Didn’t finish last for once and got fifth out of seven.
Then the rain came. I was tired at this point and I honestly didn’t care if we even did stones. I heard that it might be changed to one stone over a bar inside. So I got ready, taped up, changed into my tacky shorts, and got a good look in the mirror at the tire marks on my shoulders (always the shoulders) and the red welt on my traps from the yoke. I get back outside and the rain has stopped so I guess the stones were still on. This series had potential as the platforms weren’t low. 250lbs to 64”, 255lbs to 60”, 340lbs to 56”, 345lbs to 52” and 407lbs to 48”. I was hoping that it would be the 420lbs stone that was listed but this was fine. I put on a thin layer of PR Tacky Champion Blend and I set up and attacked the stones. I one motioned the first two stones and had to slightly lap the next two stones. They were easy. The 407lbs stone was a bit tougher, hard to get a good grip but when I found it I got it lapped easy. I waddled over to the platform and got it up and the stone bobbled a little and it wasn’t high enough. Not again. I leaned back more and more and muscled it up on to the platform. I was a bit red in the face but gave a little “woot” and walked off. No one else was able to load the 407lbs stone after me until the final competitor Scott Weech, ASC Pro, came up and loaded them all. A few guys were making excuses for why they couldn’t load it but when the shortest guy at the competition with the stubbiest arms wins the stone event, there really are no excuses but to get better at stones. Hell, he beat me by less than a second. Second place on the final event.
I was nowhere close to being in contention. I got sixth out of seven due to one guy dropping out after two events. Certainly put things into perspective. Log press needs to improve a lot if I’m to get anywhere in this sport. Same with deadlifts. I feel confident that with a few more weeks of hard training, I could get decent at the heavy yoke. Stones are at a Pro level, that’s a given but it needs to be fine tuned for +400lbs stones. Can’t always muscle them up like that. Glad that Lou got second and hit a lot of PR’s. Thus ends my little experiment with seeing how hard I could push it with contests. It is doable with this many contests this close but training for them is not fun. I seem to like doing one or two close and then that’s good. Need to see if I can get my log pressing up a bit if I’m going to have a chance at the CT Platinum Plus show. I’m unsure what my next move will be.
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