After all the jitters were gone, I had a GREAT time. I’ve gotta tell ya fellas that was a lot of fun. I regret I didn’t do a little better, I made a couple small mistakes. The first one was stopping my bench press too soon, I got the call to press and wasn’t ready. I didn’t have the bar buried where I wanted to start the press from. And the second was not trusting my instincts and going for the gusto on my last dead lift.
Here let’s start from the beginning. We were running kinda late because we were waiting for one of the lifters back in Allegan before we left town. So, when we got there we got checked in right away, weighed in and changed. There were about 35 or 40 lifters, so they divided us into two flights. I ended up in the 100kg weight class. Since this is an international federation everything was measured in kilos.
First flight in the squat, I was the 8th lifter, opening 142.5kg, 314.2lb. I was only the second lifter to get their first lift. People weren’t getting deep enough or not waiting for the rack command. Second attempt was 150kg, 330.7lb, nailed it. And the third squat was 160kg, 352.7lb. I was happy with that, probably could have gotten a bigger lift, but I didn’t want to miss the lift, so I went conservative.
Bench went well till the third attempt. I opened with 102.5 kg, 226lb. One red light but good lift, a little quick to rack. Second was 112.5kg, 248lb.
nailed it. Third attempt was 117.5kg, 259lb, I lowered it slowly and when it touched my chest I heard the press call, and I hadn’t let the bar settle into my sternum, so I was afraid I would red light if the bar sagged into my chest further, so I pressed. It was an awkward movement for me from the git go, and I missed the lift.
I was dissapointed in that, but I was having such a good time I didn’t let it bother me. Opened with 150kg, 330.7lb, on my dead lift, super easy. Second lift was 160kg, 352.7, also super easy. SO, I’m feeling really good, and I’m thinking maybe I should go for it, a new PR. But at the same time I was paranoid about missing a lift, so I went for 175kg for my third lift 385.8lb, and nailed it super easy.
I was so pissed at myself, I really think I had another 20 or 30 lbs on that lift, but I’ll chalk it up as a learning experience. A lot of people were missing lifts, so, while I think I coulda done better, I only missed one lift, and that was because I messed it up. SO, overall I think I did pretty well. I was suprised, at how good I felt once the lifting began, no more pain, lifts I was struggling with in the gym were flying up. I think it was Colin, or QT that said my lifts will be bigger in the meet, you guys were right.
I can’t wait to do that again! Took some vids and posted them on my profile. My wife spent hours trying to clear them up, and brighten them, but we couldn’t figure out how.
