Even though this contest was just yesterday, to appropriate bring the full context, I have to go back to 2016. 2016 had started off as a really good year for me. When strongman is good, I’m good. After having a disappointing 2014 and then one of my best and most competitive years in 2015, it was starting off much the same way. 2015 had been a positive one for me as I had finally bought a house and was finally feeling like stuff that had been stuck for over 4yrs were finally improving. After doing SC Nats that year, I did an offseason training. There was a local show nearby in March that had interesting events and that lead to a short competition peak for that. I placed second beyond a younger and stronger competitor, CJ Shaw and it was enough to get me qualified for SC Nats in 2016. I had about 7 months for SC Nats that year and I decided to do another offseason prep to work on flaws I saw. I was feeling my strongest ever but I was getting beaten by fractions of a second by CJ on the timed events besides one and even that event that event I felt like I was moving too slow. This seemed to be fine for a month or so. Following the coaching programming to the letter but then my back went on me doing something well below what I could handle. So as not to retread this, the summary was essentially the next 7 months of my life being hell. Constant pain just existing with sleep being only escape. I’m very thankful I had a desk job or I’d been completely screwed. It took until November of that year before I was finally able to walk or stand for more than 15 minutes without seizing up in pain and got in touch with Mike Westerling. From November 2016 to November 2017, he got me from doing bodyweight squats and empty barbell rack pulls to competing back to the level I was before.
The world is quite different from 6yrs ago and a lot has happened. After my last show, I had felt I needed to take an offseason break to build back up. Competition in July had gone great for me and that confidence had lead me to sign up for several shows. But I had a mishap and ended up getting an injury that made competing at one show not a safe or good idea. So I withdrew from that but kept the focus on the other one. I expected too much of myself for that one. Put marinas trench levels of pressure on myself. 6 weeks of training without the brace for the one arm. I placed second but wasn’t satisfied with how it went. Things compensate when you work through them. Now with strongman shows, I don’t often do repeats of shows. Granted it isn’t the same show as events change all the time but I tend not to. The number of times I’ve done a show again is small enough to count on one hand and I’ve done 39 contests so far. Reasons I’ve done shows again is because I liked the promoter and had a good time, it’s a big show (pro/am or nationals) or because I have as Rocky Balboa would say “there’s still some stuff in the basement”. Initially, not any of these reasons for this competition. It was local, at the gym I train at and events were announced well in advanced. Had events I need to work on, events I was great at and one I’d wanted to do but never had the opportunity as not contested in a show I was doing. The plan was to do a local show and try and make this year a good one to actually try to do well at higher level shows. Well last part of 2021 some changes happened with SC. My weight class (under 300lbs) was dissolved. The roster for the show was becoming stacked. Quite a depth of field. This wasn’t going to be a walk in the park no more. It was going to be one of the hardest shows I’ve done outside of Nationals. Like I may not make it out of the local level this year. The winner of the amateur Arnold this year was just competing with me last year.
Realizing that this was going to be tough didn’t discourage me. I may not qualify for nationals but it would be equivalent of a big show competition wise. With the classes being consolidated, there were more competitors directly against me. Feelings of imposter syndrome and “paper tiger” for high placings last year and 2018 with weight classes. Despite that, I felt that this training cycle was the best I’ve ever had for a competition. I usually feel underprepared at every show. I try to set goals during training cycles for things I want to hit or expectations. I don’t do my own programming so not always sure where things will go or what will be the focus week to week as things could change up. I was able to hit every single “bare minimum” goal I had told only to myself for this training cycle. I was feeling confident in the last week of training that I could podium and possibly win this one. I don’t usually feel that way about a show. But that made me uneasy because I’ve always been uneasy. I’ve competed in 39 shows and made it through uneasy. Was nervous energy a key to my “success” and this confidence going into my 40th one going to bite me in the end? Well that quandary didn’t have to wait because I did get anxious and nervous leading up to the show the week of. Worrying about aches and pains in my back and knees. My appetite just vanished on Thursday and came back a little for Friday. Despite the nerves, I was able to get my feverish brain to shut up and get restful sleep by going over the events and cues in my head. I planned to wear the contest shirt from 2016 as well as the same head wrap.
March in Pennsylvania can be treacherous. This Saturday decided to be that. Ice, snow and freezing rain. It was not good. Honestly, if I wasn’t competing and this was just a training day, I’d have stayed home and potentially waited until the sun came out in the late afternoon to try and do stuff at home. I had planned to drive out alone but thankfully my dad offered to drive. Would give me time to relax and with not having to drive myself home, hopefully not have any knee pain on the way back being able to stretch and lay back. Other family and friends weren’t able to make it due to the weather conditions and I told them to stay home as it was dangerous out. Going 15 miles under the speed limit. There ended up being a 73 car pile up near my house (happened in the early afternoon) that thankfully no one was seriously injured. Showed up to the gym and since the parking lot was full where I usually go in, we went around to the other side which is the loading dock. I open the door and the lights are out. I can here voices and know people are there. But the power is out. I try to feel around and my left shin decided to take the lead as I “hit” something and full forward. My hands land on hard, cold steel. I found the sled. And then the lights come on. So a great start to my day. Hopefully the “break a leg” vibes have been dispelled.
Good crowd of people. With my warm-ups, shoes and having not used the restroom weight I came in at 290.8lbs. So probably under 285lbs really (I was 284lbs 10 days earlier at my physical with my shoes on and with my size 17’s, they don’t weigh nothing). Restrooms were three port-a-potties outside in the elements. Really cold and a little bit hazardous to walk out there. How I imagine ice fishing to be. Just less fishing. There had been several drop outs as to be expected with shows announced many months in advance. There were people I knew about, people I knew nothing about and people I’d directly competed with before. There were 12 of us that showed up. With who was there, I had felt that Zach Stoughton was the man to beat. I was curious to see what kind of shape CJ Shaw would be in. He had a lot change in those 6yrs. Stopped for a bit to start a family and his recent shows seemed to show improvement not sure how much. Power went out again briefly (second time since I was there, 3rd time in total) for the last time. Did some mobility work before rules and group photo. And then it began.
The first event was 12” log clean and press. 285lbs for as many reps as possible in 60 seconds. Clean every rep. As the internet people say in brotosphere of lifting, I was going to be absolutely mogged on this event. There were some absolute pressing beasts coming into this one. Like 8 reps would win kind of thing. I’ve been working on this diligently. In fact, this was my best log press training cycle ever. The weights generally have been so high for log press at shows or it has been for max that most of the time it has been training for a max single essentially. This weight was a weight I’ve never missed in competition, even when feeling worn down so this finally gave me an opportunity to work on trying for reps. I had worked up to 300lbs and got 270lbs for 5 in 75 seconds nine days out as my last heavy press session. Warm-ups were not ideal but with about 80 people, to be expected. Setup was log on bumper plates. Most of my training had been with pads expecting that but found out the week of that it would be bumper plates. Just slight changes. Log seemed similar to my own but it was slicker. Got in a double with 225lbs before they stopped us. I knew that wasn’t sufficient, especially since that log felt heavy and there was going to be a long wait. I wasn’t feeling ideal today for some reason. Maybe just anxiety, being in an enclosed space with a lot of people. Someone recognized me from my online postings and assumed I was in the zone but I tried (awkwardly I feel) to explain that just really anxious. Left side of my back was feeling tight and right knee was chirping. I took the initiative and put 267lbs on another log for a single to at least be close to where I needed. And then kept watch to see what I was up against. I was one of the first to sign up so I was near the end and this promoter sticks to that all day. I knew this was one where I’d lose points and I may just need to do the bare minimum I have to. The judge for our group was being really strict with the down calls. Really having to hold those lockouts. Just great. So when it was my turn the top number was 7 with second 6, a bunch at 5 and one at 4 with a guy with 1 and a few zeros. Best case I could get 4 if things are going my way. 2 was the bare minimum I was willing to accept from myself here. It wouldn’t be a lifetime PR but it would be a post 2016 injury PR. I got set and went to work. First rep did feel heavy on the pick but felt like it should for the lap, clean and press. With how that felt, I was thinking 3-4 was there. But perhaps the lower start height and just how the bumpers go maybe through me off a tad. I did go for it but I felt off balance and stepped backwards to catch my balance. Not quite and went again but went way out in front and I dropped it down to regroup. Calm down, use the time and give another rep another solid shot. I waited until I heard 30 seconds left and went for it. This was the slowest lockout. Had so many slight sticking points. Judge made me work for this one but it was the right call. Two reps and I called it with 10 seconds left. I’m very glad I got my log strict press up to where it was before (and all the other log work) or that second rep wasn’t going to happen. Another rep would’ve netted no new points and 2 would’ve been .5. Didn’t completed crap the bed here but starting the day off in 7th place.
The next event for the day was an axle deadlift. Max lift with three attempts. Suits and straps allowed. It had been listed as 15” pull and that was it was going to be. But the gym only had one pair of wheels to that would make it 15” and they wanted things to be like log and go two at a time. I had suggested we use the 18” wheels and have people standing on a 3” platform. And that was what was going to happen but it appears that the one judge felt the platform didn’t look sturdy enough and they crapped it and had it become an 18” pull for the open class. I was annoyed by this as been working a lower height that lets me use my legs more vs 18” that is like all lower back. This was already an event that I knew would be like log potentially. I knew people that could do over 900lbs on the 15” setup. To add to said irritation, warm-ups were rushed and only got a chance to do 245lbs for a double. That was not going to do. No sir. I have not been doing this since 2008 to be stupid with warm ups. My plan before the changes had been to open just under 700lbs. Scoring was based on attempt so if I did my max in two (save energy) and others got it on their third I’d beat them and if they also did on their second but missed third, I’d tie with them. Weights jumps were 50-60 since using 25lbs and 25kgs jumps. So 686lbs had been my planned opener and then 736lbs for a pretty big PR (with the hope I got more out of my suit with the straps down tight as hell). I decided to stick to that with the change just because I didn’t know how my lower back would be feeling with this. Had to find a secluded area to get into the suit. And the 3 additional pairs of spandex briefs. I’m still very surprised that that seems to work with keeping the suit tightness in the legs. I again took the initiative to control my destiny and took that platform that was deemed unworthy and got a solid axle and put in the rack to do some singles with roughly plate jumps. Worked up to just about 600lbs before I felt I was ready. Heard a few people grumbling about it taking too long with the deadlifts. One of the hold ups was that a novice competitor had jumped in and did attempts and was told they weren’t to use this setup. It was time to get the suit straps tight. I wasn’t sure who to ask as none of my competitors were using them so couldn’t be sure they knew what to do. George Pearson was there and he’d just recently got a suit and I had been helping him so he got me set. A little trickier with my hair this long haha. My abs cramped up immediately and I thought it would pass and I’d tough it out. Nope so had to get the straps off and wait until my stomach stopped seizing. Tried again with two people and this worked. Got set and pulled. It felt heavy but apparently looked really easy. Probably from the wait. My left strap had started to come loose too so I made a mental note to really crank them down and chalked up both sides of my straps. George had to leave so Sam and I think his name was Taylor helped me for the next one. They have powerlifting background and they got that suit down good. Still not feeling like it did the very first time I used it in competition (groin pain and hunched over) but it was getting there. Little slower but it “felt” lighter. So I decided to deviate from the plan and go for my third attempt. This would be 796lbs. My best ever 18” pull is 765lbs in the gym on a barbell in the rack and 755lbs in competition on a barbell. I’ve attempted more in competition but not been successful. Never done it with 18” axle heavier than 500lbs. I realized if I bent my legs as they cranked the straps and hunched over that they could go even tighter. I felt like I was some sort of spindly goblin with no mobility. Everything felt right. This would be crazy. It went up, I did the Big Z look around set it down and shouted. I was awake now. This effort actually tied me for 3rd and bumped me up to 4th place.
At this point in the show, one competitor in the group of 12 withdrew due to injury to hamstring on the deadlift. I made it a point to make sure I had some calories in me at this point with a protein shake. I wasn’t hungry but I knew I needed it. No longer were group 1 (novice classes and open women) and group 2 (open and masters men) doing the same events at the same time on separate platforms. Group 1 went to the wind tunnel area for the arm-over-arm while group 2 was to do frame carry. Event was to be 750lbs for 40’. Straps allowed. Now rules for this hadn’t been really made clear until 3 weeks out. It was at that point that we would be starting with hands off the frame and strap in own time. Now straps were allowed on this event because the plan was for the arm-over-arm pull to be grip challenging and exhausting and that the handles on this massive frame (used to be Mike Jenkins) were 1.5” thick handles with no grip of any kind. Most I think he did on this was 800lbs no straps or so but seen him run with over 1000lbs with straps. I had access to this frame at the gym so I used it. It was still a 40-minute drive out here and it was open for anyone to come and use. I’ve driven 5hrs one way in the past to try out equipment for a big show in the past so the ethics of having access to the competition gear isn’t weighing heavily on me. I’m not the only one that trains at the gym competing and everyone is within 2hrs or has a similar frame to use. The strap issue only became a concern with that little additional nugget. Efficiency of strapping in to the frame was now a consideration. I messaged the promoter to clarify and I was told it would be a run up and strap in. So I had spent a good bit a of time the last two weeks practicing that and changing my straps from my reliable ones to Versa Gripps that I never used before. Training for this had been amazing. Very aggressive and worked up to 800lbs for a decent run. My goal had been sub 10 seconds for the contest (before the strap in your own time situation). If we had known that it was going to be like that for frame, more emphasis would’ve been made to work without straps as this would be doable for me but felt it would take away from other training to specialize so much. I was advised by my coach to watch the lighter weight classes to see if there were any tricks. But that before they dropped the run up to the frame nonsense. I think after the promoter saw the freaking tank of a frame that there would be accidents from people trying to hop in. I certainly couldn’t Dukes of Hazard my way into it and I’m 6’7”. I still watched. Fastest times were the two who didn’t use straps. Consistency on what constituted “hands off” was really pushed with some and I think just hard to keep watch over that many people. Weight was misloaded by 20lbs so it was 768lbs (frame 568lbs but listed as 570lbs). I knew that I had to get more than just the empty frame to warm up as once things started, no more warm-ups. After the last run with the MW class, I helped reset the course to get a pick and 5’ walk. I knew that since I’d have to be fast that I couldn’t set my grip and brace and that my breathing would be off so doing a 200lbs jump wouldn’t be good. Only one person hadn’t finished the course and two times were under 10 seconds (Zach and CJ). I got set and was off. Very efficient with my straps getting on. They were just faster. I got 9.87 seconds for third here. Moving me up to 3rd place overall. 1st was ahead of me by 9 points and 2nd by 5.5 points. Seemed like a lot clearance.
The fourth event was an arm-over-arm pull. 700lbs for 50’ with a thick rope. Sled with weight on turf slightly uphill and a thick heavy rope. Of all the events, this was the only one I said out loud I was winning. I felt bad saying that, like I was braggadocious but it felt true to me. I’ve only done the event twice in competition. First show when I never did strongman and I managed second to someone that would eventually become a MW pro (when I was a MW lol) and my other time I crushed everyone with second place being someone that turned HW pro in 2015. The event is exhausting, no fun to setup or tear down. This event was undecided until the last minute as far as setup and weight. Myself and a fellow gym member and competing gave numbers we were hitting for this in training. I had suggested it be with the thinner rope as the thick rope is exceedingly tough and I felt it would see more people finish but no dice. I also had suggested it be the last event as it was going to take a long time to reset it each time and also no dice. My suggestions to have the open class do this after frame (due to the grip) were at least heard and to use human weight if doing the sled to speed up the reset time. Idea had been to have people or kids but appears that WSM competitor Evan Singleton was guest judging and he ended up being the weight for most of the day. We are friends but he doesn’t really live in the area so I had some playful antagonism with him. He can handle it and so can I haha. The gym owners had me test this out the week before the show because they were worried it was too heavy and no one would budge it. I sat down after 40 minute drive and no warming up and moved it for a tug easy and they were satisfied. But seeing everyone struggling with it had me second guessing. It was looking really heavy. Maybe the different tire was making the angle of the pull hard? Most of my training leading up had been with the exer-genie and then some sessions with sled on turf with the different ropes because didn’t know what to expect. But I did have one session with a different tire and it made things different on how I pulled. This was the time suck with how long it took to reset and everyone pretty using the whole minute. I was trying to keep from cooling off too much and letting the other events add up. Like keeping a shoe on when you drop something on your foot. Compartmentalize that until later when nothing left and then take off the shoe. Being a gamble laying down if your back will seize up on you. I went and found one of those battle ropes and did some motions and isometrics of positions to feel that everything was firing fine and then I went out back to the others and I watched. The man in the overall lead suffered an abdominal cramp and kept going and I twinged every time he grabbed his side as I was still feeling my abs from when they cramped on deadlift getting my suit straps on. He wasn’t able to finish so that put him near the bottom. With just myself and another person to go, the winning time was just over 52 seconds. I got into the tire while they were resetting the course to see what worked best. Having my feet up on the lip or inside the tire. This tire was big enough that I could use my body if I went up top. The sled was a little too off to the right side so I had them adjust it. Not playing around here. Evan called me princess for requesting that. I’d know what I was in for after that first pull. Go! It moved just like in training and I felt relief. I started shouting out loud to myself. Things like “oh yeah”, “all day” and “this is nothing”. My hubris was rewarded as I thought I had calculated the distance left and made a short and then a super long pull that had me fall out of the tire. It took me a few seconds to realize I had been off by less than an inch and hurried to get enough tension built to pull the sled from a very awkward position. Just have to laugh at that. I ended up with 37.25 seconds which was 15 seconds faster than second place. Even with the tumble. Evan said I’m probably used to being in that position (legs splayed overhead) I said yep but not with this many people watching. I feel I have good grasp of understanding humor or what certain people find funny and I do try to craft my responses to that. To show I care. I gained points and was still in 3rd overall. Or I should’ve been.
“Strongman is stupid” as the late great Mike Jenkins so eloquently put. And exact numbers with strongman is like water and oil with one of those dippy birds trying to get them to meet occasionally with its pecking. Always an “ish” and sometimes that is fine. But not with scoring. My dad brought it to my attention that stuff didn’t add up. How did I only shorten the gap three points from the leader if I got twelve points and he got four points. Looking at the stuff it had some people’s distances as time. I was annoyed but I also don’t like doing this. Because like a bonus event. I’m the kind of person that won’t send a dish back and just eat as long as it is edible. Just won’t come back. But I know I have be firm, especially when it was also effecting other peoples placing. This wasn’t opportune timing as since the arm-over-arm pull went long, open men classes were pretty going right away into the last event. First I went to the promoter and explained what the issue was. This is very difficult to make it not seem like I’m saying someone was an idiot and it’s wrong. Apparently, the scoring software is finicky for times vs distance in that putting a “.” instead of “:” will change placings. Mine was that situation and did more me up but not to the right place. Other things were still wrong but nothing more he could do without the actual score cards in person. This was just data entry. So round two resulted in trying to track down the people that I saw working the arm-over-arm pull. I didn’t recall what person writing down the scores looked like but I remember the one owner was doing time. I explained the issue to her and she was able to get the physical copies of the scores. This managed to resolve all but one of the scoring issues as the person given credit for second on arm-over-arm didn’t finish and that was his distance not time. But it was written as time so it’s stuck that way. Can only argue so much. It’s an error but it’s not the promoter’s fault or the competitors’ fault. Back to the action.
The final event was sandbag shouldering medley. 3 bags (250lbs, 275lbs, 300lbs) in 60 seconds. This was a new event for me before this training cycle. It was also a new motion for me so it was a learning experience. With how tall I am, I’ve never really had to shoulder any objects to load them. Log clean for log clean and press would be kind of like that and kind of did that with circus dumbbell and kegs for pressing. So kind of a very untrained movement for me and I spent a lot of time getting this down. I was excited with improvement on this and was more than happy to share tips with anyone that was training for the show as well (several people at the gym across the different classes). The sandbags I had been using for training had been changed up a bit. Only one that hadn’t was the 275lbs bag and I felt that one was harder than the 300lbs bag to shoulder and carry. It was lopsided and lumpy. The 250lbs bag was replaced with a more compact bag and the old 300lbs (my 306lbs) was a brand new 300lbs bag that was larger. I knew I could do it. I must add at this point that I gained a new appreciation for my fellow competitors after this. The three weeks out I did my last 90% session for this and I changed up the event order as usually I’d do the sandbag shouldering before arm-over-arm. I switched them up and good lord did that make sandbag stuff harder. I was struggling with stuff I was tossing up easy before and I had to awaken competition mode to get through a run of the medley. I took a lot less time to do arm-over-arm event as these guys all essentially were working the whole minute and saw so many people staring at their hands as their fingers seemed locked like talons. So I was not expecting the displays I saw. Now three didn’t get a successful lift (maybe, I swear one of them got one bag) and another got two but everyone else was making short work of the bags. Slowest time being under just under 40 seconds but fastest just over 18 seconds. Two groups with a cluster around 40-30 range and the other 22-18 range. Just hefting these things up like sacks of flour. 1st and 2nd had put up great times so feeling the pressure. Went for that first bag and I could kind of tell that I’d have to be perfect to try and catch them. I’ve not done this in competition and I’ve done enough of the other stuff to know what I need to do for the minimum to be ready as far as “warm-ups”. I know in training that singles for this that I felt better after getting a weight and then being ready to do working sets and weights. A lot of pressure on the chest and feelings light headed like if I hold my breath on overhead and don’t correct breathing. It turns out it was that kind of scenario. My hope I think was that I keep moving and outrun that sensation as I was feeling lightheaded with the 250lbs sandbag up there. I’m rushing because I need to catch those guys. And then a misstep. Rushed the 275lbs and it wasn’t secure and lost it over the back of my shoulder. Something that made moving to next one easy but high risk if I missed as having to turn around to do it. Panicking now. If I don’t get this, I surely lose the podium spot. Body wouldn’t cooperate initially. Thrashing against the coils of the iron snake. Kaz always talks about bites with the iron snake but I feel that is limiting for the metaphor. I got control of the panicky reptile brain and told myself to breathe and regroup. Got it back under control and got it up there easy. Moved on to the 300lbs bag and got that up with no problem either. I was frustrated with that misstep and did a 180 with it before tossing back to the ground and flipping it off with both barrels. Time was 29.90 seconds with was enough for 6th and enough to still keep my placing for 3rd overall by a good margin.
So dust settles and I got on the podium with this stacked class. This definitely felt like a higher end level show equivalent to a plat plus/pro am type thing. CJ managed to win overall with Zach second. I was glad it was done as this was a long prep. Of course it would’ve been nice to get at Nats bid here today but they were clearly the better guys today. Overhead continues to be something that needs work to keep up with these guys. If I’m understanding things, my placing here means I can directly go to a regional show (which are replacing plat plus shows) with the 2023 season. This year the regionals are open to anyone so my next show is the northeast regional show “Battle At The Bridge” in three months. A few of the guys competing today here are also competing there so it will be another round with them again on different events.
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