Maryland's Strongest Man - 11/16/2013

This year has certainly had some ups and downs for me. I put too many eggs in one basket going for the Pro/Am in Louisiana. Injuring my back/hip doing a local contest a month after pretty much put an end to my competitive season for 2013 and any shot at Nationals. I’ve already discussed the whole recovery issue in my training and won’t revisit it again. On the plus side, I got promoted at work in July and I’m making almost twice as much as I was before. For this show, I was all in and aiming to qualify early for 2014 Nationals and work on my gym strength. While training wasn’t the optimal, I felt like this was the best I’ve prepped for a show on my own.

Training had been going well. Pressing was the best it has ever been, I was moving well on yoke and I invested in a deadlift suit. Hell, my deadlift was back to level it was two years ago when I hit my life-time PR of 645lbs. Then I strained something in my oblique two weeks out. I tried to train though it but knew I had to stop and rest. So my training was just going for walks, watching tv and trying to sleep away the pain. Developed an eye twitch around that time as well and I’m sure it is more related to work stress than anything else, hence trying to get more sleep. Week of the show, I got a deep tissue massage and a chiropractic session in. This was the best I could do.

It was good to do a local show this time as I could sleep in my own bed. I did have to get up at seven so no sleeping in this Saturday. Had to be there early as there were 70 competitors signed up for the show. The drive down was uneventful; just remember hearing “Paradise By The Dashboard Light” by Meatloaf at least once on my dad’s iPod. The parking lot was packed and all the events were outside, so a bit nippy. I weighed in with my shoes and warm-ups on at 283lbs on the dot. They gave me the number 6 and that was my order for the day besides the max events. I think I was the still the second lightest out of the over 265lbs group (Andy Deck was like 235lbs or something). Speaking of Andy Deck, he gave me the typical Maryland greeting of displaying his gooch, and Steve Mattheu asked me where to he could take a pre-contest dump. As I said, typical Maryland greeting. Stacked field with 6 in the under 265lbs class and 8 in the over 265lbs class. We were being scored separately but we were all running together all day.

The first event of the day was the max circus dumbbell. This event went through a few changes leading up to the contest. Initially, it was going to be last man standing style, starting at 125lbs and increasing by 10lbs. This style would suit me as it would give me plenty of warm-ups. However, due to the number of competitors, it was changed to max with three attempts with 20lbs jumps. Opening weight would be 155lbs and we would have 30 seconds for an attempt. Considering we were outside in a slick parking lot on a slant, I wasn’t so sure I could start with my planned opener of 175lbs. I got to do some warm-ups and hit 175lbs pretty easy so I went for that as my opener. I went for it and got it up easy. Loaded it up to 195lbs. A bit more deliberate (had to hold to lockout for a bit) but again I got it. Next weight was 215lbs. With how 195lbs felt, this was going to be a long shot, even if everything was perfect. It would be a 13lbs PR for me. I told myself I would give it just one solid effort since it would take a lot out of me to clean it multiple times and with the 30 seconds limit, which would really be all I could muster. I went with a two part clean and got it up to the shoulder. Had a little issue with getting balanced and then went for the leg drive. It wasn’t going anywhere. No one else got it (though they were close) so the event ended with a 3-way tie for first. So a good start to a comp haha.

Up next was the yoke. This event also had some changes. Initially this was going to be a medley of yoke and frame. The weight was then dropped for the yoke. Come contest day, the frame was removed and the yoke was back up to the original planned weight. So, 50’ course with an 825lbs yoke with a 60 seconds time limit. I didn’t think I could win this event but I thought I would be in the mix for top three placing on this with how my training was going. Not sure what happened here though. My warm-up run with 595lbs just sucked and I actually dropped it. I could say it was the downhill course or my contest shirt being slick but these aren’t good excuses since everyone else had these conditions to deal with (besides some guys doing the course uphill). I lowered my pick height one notch to compensate for the slanted course. I got a good pick and was off to a speedy start. The yoke got too far forward on me and I dropped it. I was kind of freaking out as I hadn’t dropped a yoke in training since I took aim at this show. I repicked and slowed down to keep the forward sway to a minimum. Then I hit a divot and dropped it again. I repicked it again and just held my breath the rest of the course to finish. It was good thing it was just yoke because holding my breath was a bad thing and my left side started spasming and I went to the ground. Never had that happen on yoke. Not sure on my official time but my time from my camera has me doing 19.43 seconds which is a horrible time for me. Until I see the official results, I’m not sure on my placing on this event but I know it wasn’t last and it wasn’t first.

The third event was the hummer tire deadlift. This event and I are not friends, especially since this is the thing that did me in back in June. Initially last man standing but changed to rising bar 3 lifts and you are done. 50lbs jumps just like last time as well. This was the entire reason why I bought a deadlift suit. I didn’t matter if it would only give me 50lbs, I needed every pound I could get to keep from being in last place. Using a suit was weird but my training with it lead me to believe that 700lbs was a possible lift for me. I maxed at 650lbs raw in June and I was trying to think of the best strategy for this to get the most points. I knew I could do 650lbs but not sure with 700lbs considering the circumstances and if I tied with someone else and I took less attempts to get there, I’d get more points. I went with 650lbs as my opener and got suited up and it went up okay but it wasn’t making me confident in 700lbs. My ego couldn’t take a miss at 700lbs and I don’t know if getting 700lbs helped my placing. I had my friend Pat crank the straps as hard as he could. I had thought I had had the suit tight before but this was ridiculous. The suit was crushing my balls. I needed to lift now. As soon as the guys opening with 700lbs went I just strapped in and pulled. I had to hitch to lock it out but I got it and immediately begged for someone to take the straps off. Painful but I got the lift. Even with that, I believe I ended up in 6th.

The next event was the car deadlift hold. I was not looking forward to this after the deadlift. Initially, straps were not allowed but then they were because of the handles being so thin and having no knurling. I had been training this with no straps as I had access to the same apparatus. I had also done the apparatus plus my car and 300lbs on the handles for a decent time. But I was dreading it all the same. The car on the thing alone was stupid heavy without added weight. Luckily, the weight on the handles was dropped from 270lbs to 200lbs. I knew it would be a max effort to lock this thing out. The winning time had been just over 51 seconds with second being like 24.5 seconds. I got set and pulled. It felt like forever but the frame broke the ground and I locked it out. The weight in hand was soul crushing, definitely over 800lbs at the top and I knew going after first wasn’t happening. I started to taste numbers by 10 seconds and my vision started to go black around 20 seconds. My time from my camera was 25.69 seconds but official time was closer to 24.5 seconds. I beat Andy by .10 seconds and beat another competitor by .30 seconds so it was very close cluster of times. Howard Battle went after me and crushed it with over a minute to win. So a pleasant surprise of 3rd for me here.

The final event was stone over bar and I wasn’t looking forward to it. That’s right, I wasn’t looking forward to a stone event. Stone over bar can be boring if it is a light stone. Weight was 350lbs over 52” bar in 60 seconds.  I was tired and beat by this point and was jokingly asking if anyone else just wanted to do 440lbs for reps instead. No other than Andy haha. But honestly, I knew I wasn’t in my best stone for reps shape. I think the most reps I did this whole cycle was a triple with 415lbs and I only hit stones three times total. It was somewhat cold too so not the best conditions for Spider Tack either. I was hoping for it to be low reps but then Chad Dunn and Andy had to make the number to beat five. So I guess I have to work for the win. I felt off but just kept at it. I just loaded the stones from the hip drive, didn’t bother to work extension. I noticed the guy rolling back the stones lost a glove on the stone so my second rep had some added weight. When I got five, I knew I had six so I showboated a little, doing the Hulk Hogan and got that rep no problem. I had like 10 seconds left so I went for seventh but went for it halfhearted and got it stuck on the bar. My abs were cramping so I stopped there. There were two guys left to go but I didn’t think either of them would get six. My number held up and I won the final event.

I generally prefer waiting until I know the official scores before posting these but I didn’t get a chance to this time. I was announced as getting 3rd in the super heavyweight class. My best showing this year. However, it isn’t first and with the new contest levels, it’s not good enough to qualify for Nationals. In the words of Ricky Bobby, “if you’re not first, you’re last” is the case. I did get to hang out with old friends and meet some new friends. A 175lbs athlete did a 210lbs circus dumbbell and local guy did 910lbs on the hummer tire deadlift without a suit. For me, this is my last show for this year and probably won’t compete again until May of next year. Most likely going to be training under Mike Jenkins for the foreseeable future so my log may not be as detailed or frequently updated as it currently is. Plan right now is to continue to get stronger and make use of my added bulk.

Edit: It seems that I actually got 2nd place after closer look at the scores. Still don't qualify for Nationals though.