June 29-30, 2012 - Europa Get Fit American Strongman Challenge

So very sore right now. Honestly wasn’t sure if I was going to write this one out because of how bad most of the contest went for me. But I feel writing it out is the best way to deal with it. Extremely frustrating and it took a lot of encouragement to stay in it and keep going. Never attempted to compete at a pro card show before. I’ve tried aiming for one in the last year or so but either due to injury or just not coming close, I abstained. I made up my mind to do this one regardless of the events. Humbling to say the least. I took off work to make it up for the first day. Nice to have employment now that I get leave time now. Hartford is really nice looking city, granted I can only really compare it to Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. I don’t care for cities but Hartford actually looked like a place I wouldn’t mind moving to in the future.

Checked in at 2:30 (weighed in at a light 264lbs) and walked around to explore the city since the contest wasn’t starting until 4:00. I haven’t been at a sports expo in a while either and people were just handing out free stuff. I didn’t want any but my dad accepted everything. He loves free stuff, which is why he usually gets horrible movies at Redbox. But yeah, it had the usual expo feel with added stuff like a couple of moon bounces and some futuristic looking version of Richard Simmons Sweating to the Oldies thing going on. That went on all day both days. It was weird. Our venue was shoved way in the back corner. Took my usual photos and got to meet some new faces. They called everyone out to introduce us to the expo (while playing O’Fortuna) and I felt like I wasn’t supposed to be there. I was the lightest guy there besides the two LW Pros and I was skinny and wearing a do-rag. I was also smiling and laughing because I’m thinking about how I look to the crowd with the music playing. Anyways, on to the contest.

The first event of the day was last man standing log press. Opening weight was 300lbs, going up 20lbs each round. Everyone had to take every attempt. Training overhead leading to this show was bad. I did something to my shoulder after Viking Fest and it took me about a month to find a way to work around it. I felt awful in warm-ups and knew I would be lucky to get the opener. Surprise-surprise, I missed it fantastically. So say I was disappointed would not accurately describe my anger and despair. Really negative thoughts in my head and it took a lot to pull myself out of my self-loathing mind set. I was the only heavy weight to miss the opener, so I had to sit and watch as they kept going and going. No points for me and starting the day off in last place.

Up next was a yoke frame medley. 50’ for each implement with a 60 second time limit. The listed weights for the contest were a 900lbs yoke and a 680lbs frame. The frame was light so I had been focusing on bringing up my yoking. Turns out I wasn’t ready. The yoke was bumped up to 973lbs and the frame to 730lbs. The LW were using I wasn’t looking forward to that yoke because of two reasons. One was that if I didn’t finish the yoke, I’d get a zero for the event. The other reason was that my chiropractor and I had just figured out that the thing that has been bothering my midback was a rib head that was out of place and because of my back muscles; it has been very hard to get it back in to place. Actually had an adjustment just the day before the contest. I was still bummed about the log debacle and then Derek Poundstone walked over and asked me how I was doing as he hadn’t seen me since Jenkins’ wedding. I admit it; I complained a little about the increased weight and not getting any warm-ups (going from 473 to 973 is no fun). He told me this is strongman and that I’ll be plenty warmed up after about five steps with the yoke. That definitely snapped me back into the right mindset and sobered me up. So thanks Mr. Poundstone. I got under the yoke and took baby steps. So far so good. Had my first drop and I took a breath and got back under it. My rib head went and I gasped for air out of pain. Dione was yelling loudly in my ear so I kept on going. Walked a little, drop, walk a little, drop. I kept going and finished with literally seconds to spare. Had not time for the frame. I showed heart and Dione said it was the most impressive performance of the night so I felt some pride at that. My effort was good enough to tie me for seventh out of twelve. End of day one and I was beat.

Took a taxi (I don’t think I’ve ever been in one before) and ate a late dinner at Max’s Downtown. The food was fantastic. Had a 22oz steak and the best swordfish I’ve ever had. Expensive place but well worth it. My thoughts were a mixture of disappointment and happiness with my performance. My hope was to make up points the next day. I knew I had no shot at the top spots but I could at least show that I wasn’t in the wrong sport. Went to bed with the thing being that there was a heat advisory for the next three days and that Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise were getting divorced. Neither news item was a shocker. Woke up, showered, ate waffles and watched Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu, which made absolutely no sense and walked back over to the convention center for day two.

First event of the day was the axle deadlift for reps. 600lbs with a 60 second time limit. Leading up to the contest, I had been training the event from boxes as it was supposed to be on tires at roughly 17” and without straps. Turns out it was made to being from the floor and with straps. I hadn’t done any pulls from the floor since like January I think so I was SOOL with this. All advantages for this event were gone for me. They allowed straps because axles were too slick. I felt fine in warm-ups and decided to go without straps as I can get better leg drive doing a grip and rip style. I get set and pull and barely get it past mid shin. I yell and try again with no success and call it there. So angry and embarrassed. Guess my back was too dead from the yoke beating. I was back in my dark place after that. Unlike the log, I’ve hit that weight before in the gym. The thought I’d bomb it never occurred to me. Another zero for me and I’m back in last place.

The next event was the circus dumbbell for reps. 200lbs with a 60 second time limit. I was not looking forward to this as I have been having issues with it. Injured my right thumb back in April and it hurts to hold a thick handle so I had to stick with just my left arm for pressing and that side always has issues with stabilizing the lockout. Add to that in training, I was always either on a slanted drive way or small raised platform and this was the shoulder that had been bothering me since Viking Fest, I didn’t try to hold the lockouts. Leg drive felt good but I couldn’t hold the lockouts on my warm-ups without feeling my rib. First two attempts, I can’t get my arm locked out. I then punched my right wrist to dull the pain and managed to clean it to that side. Unfortunately, since I haven’t trained that side, I got nothing. Time is running out so I got for the left side once more. This time get my arm locked out but can’t bring my legs together so it doesn’t count. Time expires and I once again bomb an event. The negative thoughs are beating me down at this point. Seriously thinking about calling it here so I can go home. More than half the field bombed this event and if I had gotten a single rep, I would have picked up six points. Another zero for me and I’m back in last place.

My two best events to come, I’m feeling down and I’m in last place with only five and a half points after four events. Pathetic. Next was the husafell stone carry. 400lbs with turns at 50’. The field dropped to eleven at this point as someone withdrew due to injury so I had to go solo, which is never fun when going for max distance. Being the first to go, I set the pace.Unlike everything else this contest, this felt good. I was aiming for 200’ but fell a bit short of that with 175’1”. This was a PR for me, as I never got this far in training. Surprisingly, this distance held up. Good enough for second. Finally, an event goes well for me. The points I had gained from the husafell put me into tenth place (which is deceptive as another person had withdrawn due to injury, so I was ahead of two guys no longer competing) and just one point behind the guys tied for eighth.

The final event was the event I’ve been looking forward to all this time; the wheelbarrow medley. 60 seconds to load three objects in the wheelbarrow and finish the 50’ course. I’m good at this kind of thing and only had the chance to train it once. The setup was load a 235lbs dumbbell, carry the wheelbarrow 10’, load a 300lbs sandbag, carry the wheelbarrow 10’, load a 300lbs husafell stone and then finish the remaining 30’. The wheelbarrow was loaded up with 675lbs of plates right at the handles to start. I did a pick and it felt light. I threw the dumbbell in and went to work. The sandbag folded over in the middle so it was like carrying a really large and lazy dog and plopped it over into the barrow. The husafell stone was easy but it fell towards the front so the last 30’ was a bit tough but I finished with a good time and held the handles at the end rather than dropping/sliding it. I didn’t want any sliding penalties as the floor was slick. That was the most fun I had this weekend. My time of 37.82 seconds was enough for fourth place, behind the eventual top three.

Despite bombing half the events, I did well enough in the other three to get seventh place out of twelve competitors. Picked up my dumbbell I bought from Johnny and went home. A two day contest is brutal. I really have a lot of things that need work, particularly deadlift and overhead. I don’t want to be embarrassed next time. Going to rest this week and see how I feel. Probably going to wait until Nationals for me next competition.