Russia was an interesting place. I can’t decide what my favorite part was. I think it is a big tie between the pterodactyl sized mosquitos, the complete and total lack of traffic laws that led to a horrific car accident every twenty feet, the serial killer like warmth and compassion of the Russian people as a whole, losing 10lbs during my week due to gushing night sweats from the 1000% humidity and the near 90 temperatures with no AC all week/eating half cooked bacon for every meal, and looking at Rob Trettins face for a week.
All of that aside, the actual town the competition was in is absolutely beautiful. There were a bunch of old walled in towns and monasteries. The food in the local restaurants was pretty good but you had to order at least 3 entree’s because of the portion sizes. Since everything in Russia costs under $2, that wasn’t a big deal ordering a bunch of food.
After a week of watching the most ridiculous display of strength sporting I have ever seen and slogging my way through a haze of jet lag and, what I suspect, was a case of west Nile virus, I woke up on meet day feeling pretty good.
Weight: 116.something KG or 256 in American. Everyone seemed to have dropped some pounds since arrival. I was the lightest in the 120 class.
Squats:
All three lifts looked like my last warm-ups. Took it very easy because my quad was still tight and I wasn’t sure if it could handle an actual max attempt. Went 515, 545, 575 for dead last place in the class.
Bench:
Smoked my 385 opener. 408 then felt like 50 billion pounds and then no lifted on 412. I attribute this debacle to a combination of not knowing how to bench press and the weight loss while I was in Russia. Again, dead last in the group.
Deadlift:
Blew up my 711 opener. It was seriously one of the best deadlifts I’ve ever done. 755 was easy as well but it got a little forward and caused some wiggles on the way up. The weight felt pretty light in my hands though. After talking to Matt Gary, who was doing an awesome job calling my numbers and helping with warm-ups all meet, he suggested 777 would be good for at least a silver. I wanted to go heavier but since I sucked ass the rest of the meet, I did not want to miss something crazy and then leave empty handed. I smoked the 777. It looked like an opener.
Then, for some weird and uncharacteristic reason, Mike T’s first attempt at 804 got turned down. The judges said he unlocked his knees after lockout. From my angle, it looked like he pulled it so fast that his hips pushed the bar forward when he snapped into his lockout position. It looked a little funny but still should have been a good lift. His grip gave on his second try. It took me a couple minutes after his second miss to realize that I won the gold.
Totalled 1759… which was less than I did at nationals… which was less than I qualified for nationals with. Even though I finished dead last in squat and bench, I still got 8th overall in the class.
I seriously can’t thank all of the Team USA coaches enough. They did and outstanding job all week and were dead tired by the time the whole thing was over.
After a 30 hour trip home, I got in around 5pm Monday evening, went immediately to bed, woke up at 6am and:
5 weeks till Raw Nationals:
Tuesday- 6/18/13- ME Bench
Tons of traction and soft tissue stuff
Close Grip-
135x10
185x5
225x5
275x5
315x5
350x5
Medium Grip- 235x5x6
Hedlesky Rows (the name was too long… so, now I have a row)- 135x5x12
Yates Rows- supinated 4 inch cambered bar- 135x3x15
OH Tri Extensions/High STR Curls- Green band- 4x20/3x20
On the Super Highway to Great Guns.