So, strongman-competition day came. I came in last place. 6th place, or weirdly I came 5th because 3rd place was tied.
My girlfriend also came last at 3rd place.
I've been thinking about how to log this but all just sounds like excuses, complaining or "
could've, would've, should've". So please, if you read this don't read it like I'm whinging and finding excuses, it's more my thoughts about what I can do better for next time and work at more in training.
Let the complaining begin.
I had focused hard on the only event I could train for at home, Tire Flips. I had done 435 tire flips since I got it and my best time was 5 flips in 20 seconds. And they cancelled the tire flips because it was going to rain!
But they replaced it with Farmers Walk, thank god. Still, I'd rather flip a rubber tire in pouring rain than run with heavy metal on gravely concrete but... Maybe it was a logistics issue.
First event,
Quad-bike deadlift 1min:
After some halos, squats with a 15kg plate and a few light deadlifts at 60kg it was time for deadlifting a quadbike, for the mens section they moved the bike forward and put an extra 100kg on it. One of the competitors said if felt like 200kg in the handles.
I manged 6 reps, finished last. Had time for more but was gassed out.
Second event,
Yoke Press 1min:
They said the yoke weighed 76kg. The referee was very strict and said before hand he would only give a rep count when we had it pressed and balanced under control. The first guy pressing lost 2 presses because the referee didn't say "REP!". I was up next. Having gassed myself out in the deadlift I decided to go nice and steady. I don't know how many reps I did, but I lost one because I sat it down before I got the signal, completely my fault, I just lost my mind. After that I made sure to hold it really steady and wait for the down-signal.
Third event,
Loading Medley, 1min:
It was said it was going to be 4 items you should run and load onto a platform.
1 keg 80kg
1 natural stone 70kg
1 sandbag 80kg
1 metal husafell 90kg
Having never held a heavy sandbag before I used my short time before the whole thing started to test it. I managed on my second try to lift it high (properly) to my chest so I could run and just drop it on the platform.
I was out first and it started raining while they were preparing so they trimmed it down to three items, taking away .. the sandbag.
So in the pouring rain, chalked up like Tony Montana I ran with the keg onto the platform, no worries. Then came the natural stone. It was a sausage-shaped stone, oblong shaped. Having only lifted round heavier stones I couldn't get a proper overhand/hugging grip on it and it was so wet and filled with gravel my grip slipped, I tried again, no chalk on my hands left, only gravel and dirt I got an lousy grip on it and wobbled as fast as I could and loaded it to the platform. Quite wet from the rain I ran to the metal-husafell just as they called out "
10 seconds left!", I bent down and lifted it up, it was so slippery from all the rain... "
5 seconds!"... I couldn't make it to the platform in time even if I had a proper grip so I dropped it, out of time.
After that the rain stopped and the others used gloves, I was the only one not finishing the event.
Forth event,
Farmers Walk
They'd set the weight to 83kg. I picked them up and ran to the finish line, just like at home.
Fifth event,
Atlas Stone, 1m
No tacky allowed, in the rain. I was first. They'd rolled the stone over to the platform on the wet cement tiles. The stone was 78kg, I'd only lifted a 60kg atlas stone once before, on my 4th attempt. The stone was dirty, wet and gravely. Couldn't find a grip, really stressful. They said to bring chalk with me to the platform "one try and you need to chalk up again" one of the organizers told me. I got it onto the platform only once by mostly will power. Afterwards my forearms were covered in gravel and dirt, like I've slipped in a gravel pit.
I finished last, all others got the stone up at least 5 times.
After this the two competitors with most points went onto the finale.
The event was well organized, it was stressful with the warm ups and so on, but from what I've read and heard it's the same even at the Arnold's. And it's the same for everyone.
We all got a t-shirt, a baseball cap, an energy drink, a energy bar and participation medal. The winners got a nice little pink trophy with a cute mini-atlas stone on it.
The equipment we used, as the trophies, were pink because the strongwoman organizing the event has it as her thing. Strong women like pink, "
fight like a girl!", "
dare to be strong!" that sort of thing.
Me with ear protection and arm around my girl. (I have tinnitus and it got quite loud so I had put the earmuffs on before. I used ear plugs in the events.)
Could've, Would've, Should've:
So what could I've done differently? Should I've trained more..?
Well, I don't think I would've gotten stronger by training even more than I did. I trained the whole summer to the best of my ability and got stronger, faster (at tire flips) and lost body fat and had fun doing it.
I would've liked a few more months of training. One of the other guys told me his PB was a 260kg frame lift he'd done last year in another competition, while I just broke 200kg the week before.
Everyone else wore a belt. I don't own one. Maybe that would've helped a little, at least in the deadlift. But got no delusions I wouldn't got last place even with a belt...
I need to do more deadlifts for reps, not just lift once and run away. And my back is killing me today, I think I lifted to much with my back instead of legs.
I should've trained more with a timer set for 60sec. I don't really do 12-15 heavy reps per set. I just press in sets of 5 and then go up in weight until I can't do 5 and then do ladders, never going to failure. Lactic acid, stress, proper form, speed, energy management are all things I can learn to deal with better. Just seem stupid to say, "
lets se how fast I can press the 40kg 20 times!".
At home, I just picked up my natural stones slow and safe and ran with them. Didn't practice picking up the stones as fast as possible, mostly because it always drew blood. Or stone of different shapes, I just trained with the ones mostly resembling atlasstones. Maybe I used to heavy stones also. Smaller stones requires more speed, a big stone dictates its own.
The Atlas stones... The stone wasn't heavy, I just need 10-20 sessions with an actual atlasstone I can learn to lift it.
I can shave of a few seconds on my farmers walk by training the start. Instead of rising and then start running you can start with the feet one in front of the other and already gain a step while you lift.
I don't know the specific results for each events, It's going to be posted on facebook at a later time. Curious how I did in Farmers, if I was last in that event as well.