MEET REPORT

Today was a lesson in meet preparation.

• Making weight Success. Weight: 198.

...Or 190? I was a few lbs under but the scale was heavy, so I came in at 198.2-ish. But the meet director misread the scale and put me down as 190, so that was my official weight. Go figure.

• Gaining it back

This went fairly well. I drank a gallon of water and a gatorade immediately after weigh in, then proceeded to eat/drink myself through the rest of the day. Went to all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ for dinner, which was awesome. I felt pretty good, although maybe not 100%.

• Day of the meet

Hot and sunny, as expected. This was a little draining but I felt decent in terms of tiredness through warm ups. My left hip had been bothering me all week long, so it was a little distracting, but I don't think it was a significant factor.

  The suit fit tight, but I wasn't feeling the blood pressure rush to my head. So I'm not sure what that says about my hydration/body weight.

  My flight was 18 lifters, which wasn't optimal, but I don't think it was a big factor.

• Warm ups 135x5, 225x4, 315x3, 385x2, add suit, 425x2, 475x2, 520x1

These felt great. Some coach that we were warming up with was using me as an example of good form for his lifter.  :)  Jake said that my upper back was rounding on the first rep for 425 and 475, but I corrected this on 520 and smoked it. I was feeling really good.

• First attempt 562 (255 kg) x miss

...And then we switched to a real deadlift bar on the platform. After this miss, I knew I was in a lot of trouble. The deadlift bar is much longer and I think a little thinner, and this means that it flexes a TON. You first pull for a little while and then it finally comes off the floor. If you aren't prepared for the rebound, it then proceeds to wobble around a lot and eventually you drop it.

• Second attempt 562 (255 kg) x 1

Managed to change technique to account for the flex in the bar, but there was still a point where the bar whiplashed and it messed me up. Spectators said it looked easy, but through the mid point it felt quite difficult. Basically, I had to pull very slowly off the ground until it came up and use the rebound to explode. I only half did this, but it wasn't how I'd been training so it felt pretty bad.

• Third attempt 603 (273.5 kg) x miss

Wasn't much hope for this. I got it off the ground but not much more than that. Changing to a slow pull off the floor totally killed my set up for the rest of the lift, and I wasn't even close to locking it out. I'd say I got it just a few inches off the ground. I also was only half mentally engaged for the lift --- missing the opener and feeling awkward with the second really messed with my head.

• Recap

I need to find some way to train with the equipment that will be there on meet day. Or at least account for it in my attempts (lower them). Does the Gold's at Fenway have a deadlift bar?

  Today was my first 2 misses (where I was actually mentally engaged and prepared) in a very long time (since I started Sheiko). It wasn't a pleasant experience, but it was clear immediately that I was ill-prepared for the meet and there wasn't much I could do about it.

  Based on warm ups, I think if I had been able to stick with a stiff bar like I'm used to, I would have got this weight. But it wasn't in the cards today. This is pretty clear to me considering I made 570 my bitch a few weeks ago in training, but failed 562 today.

  Thanks to Brent, Jake, and Dean for helping me warm up and helping with the attempts. And thanks to Dee, Ita, Alex, etc. for coming out to watch.