Plagiarized from my log:

I’ll cover everything related to this weekend as succinctly as I can; for those that don’t know, I decided about a month ago that I’d go compete in the SPF Rick Hussey Tribute meet at Shawn Frankl’s new Big Iron gym in Sioux City, IA. The short of it is that I had a so-so meet but came away from it much better schooled in how I need to train in the future.

I worked most of meet week, so water-loading was a bit of a tricky exercise, but ultimately I made weight without any issues. I only had to cut nine or ten pounds for this meet, as my bodyweight was typically in the high 150s for training leading up to the competition. That involved just a 24-hour fast, plus a couple sessions in the sauna. I weighed in at 9am at 147.5; despite overshooting the class slightly, I handled the cut well, and the recomp was also pretty easy. I had a better appetite from the get-go when compared with RUM, and though I didn’t bring my weight up as high—I got to around 161 lbs. before bed—I felt pretty good and didn’t really have much in the way of post-weigh in fatigue. My stomach was a little upset the next day, and so I hardly ate anything on meet day, but otherwise I felt fine and recovered well.

The meet itself was held in a bar next to the gym, and it was a pretty cool, pretty relaxed affair. The competition consisted mostly of Big Iron lifters, and there must have been 30-40 competing total. For once, I was one of the few raw lifters, which was a new experience.

We actually didn’t have our flight start until noon, so we spent plenty of time just hanging around and getting comfortable. When I did start warming up for squats, I felt good and was producing good bar-speed. I worked up to 325 for a triple without wraps, then threw on a light wrap for 415. That moved well, and I felt very good about my squats for the day.

The planned opener was 457, and I wasn’t going to be able to squat with their safety cables—I know from experience that I’d end up hitting them—so I opted to just walk my squats out and clear them out. 457 went OK; it was a smooth lift, but I dipped a bit on one side and was surprised it wasn’t easier. I knew I couldn’t afford to miss a second, so I went conservative with 490, the second I took at RUM.

For the second, we focused on wrapping my knees tighter—I was having someone else do it, which saved me a ton of energy, but it was also a new experience, so I was trying to adjust to it on the fly. I held position much better on 490 but got hung up right at my sticking point. My speed out of the hole and through lockout was excellent, but I was worried about that pronounced point of slowdown—after that, I went conservative again, calling for a 507 third. With that lift, I knew I’d have a good total under my belt.

For 507, we got our tightest wrap, and I felt the most confident about this one—I really committed myself to getting it. I got under the bar and unracked it strong, but the walkout was shaky and rushed. I had my feet set forward and couldn’t angle them out, and I took my squat down too slow—that’s the story of my lifting life. I got stuck at my sticking point and really didn’t have a chance. I felt much, much stronger than when I did this in training, so there’s really no excuse here, except that a.) my squat training needs to be better going into meets and b.) I need to execute better on third attempts. For whatever reason, “b” would become a running theme for the day.

After the squats, I felt happy just to have survived with a very mediocre 490—at least I could finish with a respectable total. I felt more confident about my bench and deadlift anyway, and my pec was feeling close to 100%. My bench warm-ups went fine—my bar-speed wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t CLEARLY better than it had been in training. I felt fresh and pretty strong, but I also felt like I was two weeks removed from my bench training, and I could tell my strength was starting to atrophy. I figured I’d be in line for a good bench, but not a fantastic one.

My opener at 308 moved with pretty good speed—I think I hit it faster than 305 moved in training, and so that was encouraging. I stuck with my plan and went with 325 for the second for a small meet PR, and that ended up being my best lift of the meet; after I got it moving off my chest, it flew up pretty well, and I at least had that little meet PR in the bag. Thinking I’d be conservative, I went 330 for the third, especially since my pec was starting to talk to me. Everything went fine on the lift, but I touched a bit high and got buried by it just off my chest. Once again, I just didn’t perform on a third attempt, and it was again a case of mediocre training leading to mediocre results. While at RUM I felt great, here I felt good-but-not-great and it was making the difference.

At this point, I was thinking about possibly shutting it down after my deadlift opener, but then I started warming up and was shocked—SHOCKED—at how strong and fast my deadlift felt. Surprise, surprise—the one lift of the three that I did a semi-adequate job of training for the last few weeks felt properly peaked. My deadlift training decisions also left a lot to be desired, but I clearly felt the best on this lift. All my warm-ups, from 315 to 365 to 405 to 455 to 495, moved amazingly well. I hadn’t felt this bar-speed in a long time.

My planned opener was 540, something I had done for a triple a month ago, but my confidence on deadlifting had since then been shattered by overreaching and bad training sessions. I crushed the opener, to my own surprise. Figuring I’d secure a decent total before I attempted to tie or break my RUM total, I called for 573 on my second. I figured I took 562 for my deadlift at RUM, and this would represent a modest improvement from that event. 573 also moved great, but my grip was starting to be an issue, and I was worried the grip would hold my back for my third. 590 had to be the call—it would have been a 1405 total—and so I committed myself to getting it. This was the most “into” the meet I had been the entire day, and I thought for sure I was going to make it happen, but I got forward on it just past my knees and was thisclose but couldn’t seal the deal. Even though I missed 590, I knew I was more than capable of hitting it, but I need to a.) finally make the lockout an emphasis in my performance of this lift and b.) make sure my grip’s on point. My grip felt fine for 590, but I also spent so much time and attention setting my hands right that I got lazy pulling back as I got past my knees and gave up positioning in the process.

So, for the day I went six-for-nine for a 1388-lb. total; that was definitely not what I wanted, and so I’d classify it as a very so-so day. Not awful, but not great. I felt a bit better than 1388 but just didn’t hit any of my tough lifts. The results weren’t surprising: my squat definitely needs work, my bench is steadily improving (but aggressive training coupled with a bit of bad luck had my benching at an inopportune time), and my deadlift is definitely back on track. In all my training, I just need to be more intelligent and more disciplined. I learned this a few weeks ago, and the meet reinforced it. Had I gotten my thirds—which I was capable of—and finished with 1427 or whatever, I might not have had that hammered home, so in some way the mediocre meet was the best thing for me. I know that if I just do the right things in preparation, I can come in much stronger, but those choices, for RUM, will have to begin right now.

Coming off of the meet, here are the takeaways:

I need to be held accountable for sticking to a longer-term plan. That means that when I say I’m training using undulating phases, my training needs to reflect that. Training can be intuitive, but it can’t be ad libbed. I’m planning on running one long block for all of my lifts for RUM—it’s worked well for my deadlift and I think my squat and bench both would benefit from a longer, lighter-intensity accumulation phase (especially my squat). No more impromptu intense phases without a prep phase—I need to be disciplined!

Going off of that, accountability is going to be pursued using a few different fronts. First, I’m going to be producing weekly training outlines at the start of each week—these outlines give a baseline for all the training particulars, as well as the goals for the week. They’re clearly outlined and easy to follow. I will do these in advance, to ensure that I have to stick to them.

Second, I’m putting these outlines in the hands of training partners who will strongly encourage me to adhere to them. I’m going to allow others to help keep me on track. And if I do have to deviate from these plans, it’ll be for a legitimate reason, i.e. injury. But I’m hoping that appropriate training will cut down on those, too.

I’m going to get back to eating a more performance-conscious diet. I’ve been “dieting” for a while now and I’ve inadvertently killed off my appetite. This means a return to (gasp!) vegetables, and less frequent fasting and indulging.

I’m also going to make more of an effort to film more, make more videos, and log more regularly. I think accountability will also be determined through keeping a public profile, so that’s what I want to commit myself to.

As far as training-related changes go, I don’t have too much to add. The answers to my problems are pretty straightforward and I feel confident in my approach moving forward. Simple progression, quality reps, staying healthy, keeping disciplined, and training in appropriate phases are the key concerns. At this point, I feel like the answers are clear, and my performance at RUM will directly reflect whether or not I actually apply them. At the end of the day, the numbers won’t lie.

TL;DR did a meet, did so-so, learned a lot, will do better next time.