A few stories and observations from this one; the executive summary is immediately below.
I was the oldest lifter at the meet.
My most recent meets have been in the USAPL, where only same-day, 2-hour weigh-ins are allowed, and where my weight class tops off at 66 kg (145.6 lb). This USPA meet featured not only the option to weigh-in the evening before, you could also weigh-in the _morning_ before - that's what I did - and they didn't even offer same-day weigh-ins. And my weight class tops off at 67.5 kg (148.7 lb). For a lifter like me, who lives at about 69 kg (152 lb), both the higher allowed weight and the 24-hour weigh-ins are wonderful. Does this make the competition less fair, since I had put back on 3 lbs by the time the next morning rolled around? It does. Do I care all that much? No, I don't. I will continue to work on making weight for the USAPL easier on myself by trying to keep my weight lower away from competition period. To me, competing in the USAPL is competing on the world stage in a way nothing else is, and I do value that.
The timing of this Saturday meet was perfect for me because my wife, who's a school teacher, had no school for the two days before, and with the meet about 2 hours away from where we live by car, I rearranged my schedule so that we could drive there on Thursday evening, I could weigh-in on Friday morning, and then we could have the day Friday to enjoy ourselves before I lifted on Saturday and we then drove home. And Friday was a near-perfect vacation day for us - the meet location was near Saratoga, NY, a lovely town to walk around in, and near Saratoga Lake, which we drove around. The weather was perfect, and we had my wife's car, a Mini Cooper convertible, so we drove around with the top down and had a grand time.
In the USPA, before yesterday, for my age/weight/division, for my state of New Jersey, there were absolutely no records - zero, nada, zilch. So every lift I did set a USPA New Jersey record.
As always for me, no belt, and no worries about what sort of wrist and knee things are allowed because I don't use them. SQ and BP in Chuck Taylors, DL in deadlift slippers.
And now for the lifting:
SQ: I just looked at my training log - I did my first squats less than a month ago, so I decided to take it easy here. I went for 70, 75, and 80 kg and got them all pretty easily.
BP: I decided perhaps 6 months ago that I wanted to return to 3-lift competing, and decided to focus on the bench press first. With a few months of decent BP training under my belt, I managed a recent PR of 85 kg (187 lbs). I've never trained my BP much, and my lifetime best is only 190 lbs, set when I was in my 40's, so at age 65 and with more training to come, I feel confident that I can continue to improve my bench. My attempts were 75, 80, and 85 kg, and the last one took about 8 or 9 seconds complete, from the "press" command with the bar on my chest, to the lockout. It got a big round of applause from the room, but unfortunately the video didn't come out too well so there's not much point in posting it.
DL: The American record situation was a bit odd here. Normally, the single-lift records are heavier than the 3-lift versions because you're less tired if you only have to do a single lift. But in order to have a lift count for both single-lift and 3-lift, you have to register in an extra division, for which there is an extra fee. The 3-lift DL American record was/is 160 kg. The single lift record, when I first looked it up, was only 130 kg, so I planned to open at 135 kg and break the existing American record, take a middling 2nd attempt, and then try for 161 kg on my third attempt.
However, last month, someone set a new single-lift DL record of 145 kg, so my opener of 135 didn't break anything. I decided to do 147.5 kg for my second, to set the single-lift record without tiring myself out too much, and then go for 161 kg for my third. I got 135 kg, I got 147.5 kg (video below) and I failed at 161 kg.
I note that, for the last 10 years or so, I have only taken 2 deadlift attempts at meets - until recently, when I started taking a 3rd attempt. My experience with 3rd DL attempts hasn't been great, but I think this is something of a function of my relatively low-volume training. I'm of the opinion that, if I up my training volume, and in particular if I add some kettlebell ballistics in more than the minimalist amount I've been doing them, I think I can manage a decent 3rd DL in competition. But that, of course, remains to be seen.
All in all, I didn't get the lift I wanted the most, so I'm disappointed, but I went 8 for 9 and gave the kind of effort on my 3rd bench press that I had hoped I'd be able to give on my 3rd DL and it got me a new recent PR, and I had a great couple of days with my wife roaming around Albany, NY, and environs, so we'll consider it a successful outing.
An interesting note, at least in my mind, is that when it comes to my final DL competition lifts, I'm feeling lately like that saying, "The operation was a success but the patient died." I am, in all ways except my final meet DL's, doing great. My problem shoulders are moving better and more strongly than ever, I'm healthy, and my training work capacity is higher in many ways than it's ever been. So we carry on, and hopefully keep improving and return to form with heavy competition deadlifts at some point in the not-too-distant future.
NB: USAPL meets during this time of COVID-19 have been very strict about mask wearing; this one was not, and that's part of the reason we don't have more videos. My wife, after seeing what was going on, decided she really didn't want to be in the room. If you plan on competing in these strange times, keep in mind that while everyone is supposed to adhere to the same rules, the degree of adherence can vary quite a bit.
-S-
- I set a USPA American Record in the Deadlift, Single Lift, in the M65-69, 67.5 kg age/weight class, Raw Division of 147.5 kg.
- This meet marked my return to 3-lift powerlifting (except for one miserable attempt 3 years ago), and I went 8 for 9, missing my last DL attempt which would have broken a different USPA national DL record. (More on that below.) My last real 3-lift meets were perhaps 10 or 15 years ago, long enough ago that I don't remember the dates.
I was the oldest lifter at the meet.
My most recent meets have been in the USAPL, where only same-day, 2-hour weigh-ins are allowed, and where my weight class tops off at 66 kg (145.6 lb). This USPA meet featured not only the option to weigh-in the evening before, you could also weigh-in the _morning_ before - that's what I did - and they didn't even offer same-day weigh-ins. And my weight class tops off at 67.5 kg (148.7 lb). For a lifter like me, who lives at about 69 kg (152 lb), both the higher allowed weight and the 24-hour weigh-ins are wonderful. Does this make the competition less fair, since I had put back on 3 lbs by the time the next morning rolled around? It does. Do I care all that much? No, I don't. I will continue to work on making weight for the USAPL easier on myself by trying to keep my weight lower away from competition period. To me, competing in the USAPL is competing on the world stage in a way nothing else is, and I do value that.
The timing of this Saturday meet was perfect for me because my wife, who's a school teacher, had no school for the two days before, and with the meet about 2 hours away from where we live by car, I rearranged my schedule so that we could drive there on Thursday evening, I could weigh-in on Friday morning, and then we could have the day Friday to enjoy ourselves before I lifted on Saturday and we then drove home. And Friday was a near-perfect vacation day for us - the meet location was near Saratoga, NY, a lovely town to walk around in, and near Saratoga Lake, which we drove around. The weather was perfect, and we had my wife's car, a Mini Cooper convertible, so we drove around with the top down and had a grand time.
In the USPA, before yesterday, for my age/weight/division, for my state of New Jersey, there were absolutely no records - zero, nada, zilch. So every lift I did set a USPA New Jersey record.
As always for me, no belt, and no worries about what sort of wrist and knee things are allowed because I don't use them. SQ and BP in Chuck Taylors, DL in deadlift slippers.
And now for the lifting:
SQ: I just looked at my training log - I did my first squats less than a month ago, so I decided to take it easy here. I went for 70, 75, and 80 kg and got them all pretty easily.
BP: I decided perhaps 6 months ago that I wanted to return to 3-lift competing, and decided to focus on the bench press first. With a few months of decent BP training under my belt, I managed a recent PR of 85 kg (187 lbs). I've never trained my BP much, and my lifetime best is only 190 lbs, set when I was in my 40's, so at age 65 and with more training to come, I feel confident that I can continue to improve my bench. My attempts were 75, 80, and 85 kg, and the last one took about 8 or 9 seconds complete, from the "press" command with the bar on my chest, to the lockout. It got a big round of applause from the room, but unfortunately the video didn't come out too well so there's not much point in posting it.
DL: The American record situation was a bit odd here. Normally, the single-lift records are heavier than the 3-lift versions because you're less tired if you only have to do a single lift. But in order to have a lift count for both single-lift and 3-lift, you have to register in an extra division, for which there is an extra fee. The 3-lift DL American record was/is 160 kg. The single lift record, when I first looked it up, was only 130 kg, so I planned to open at 135 kg and break the existing American record, take a middling 2nd attempt, and then try for 161 kg on my third attempt.
However, last month, someone set a new single-lift DL record of 145 kg, so my opener of 135 didn't break anything. I decided to do 147.5 kg for my second, to set the single-lift record without tiring myself out too much, and then go for 161 kg for my third. I got 135 kg, I got 147.5 kg (video below) and I failed at 161 kg.
I note that, for the last 10 years or so, I have only taken 2 deadlift attempts at meets - until recently, when I started taking a 3rd attempt. My experience with 3rd DL attempts hasn't been great, but I think this is something of a function of my relatively low-volume training. I'm of the opinion that, if I up my training volume, and in particular if I add some kettlebell ballistics in more than the minimalist amount I've been doing them, I think I can manage a decent 3rd DL in competition. But that, of course, remains to be seen.
All in all, I didn't get the lift I wanted the most, so I'm disappointed, but I went 8 for 9 and gave the kind of effort on my 3rd bench press that I had hoped I'd be able to give on my 3rd DL and it got me a new recent PR, and I had a great couple of days with my wife roaming around Albany, NY, and environs, so we'll consider it a successful outing.
An interesting note, at least in my mind, is that when it comes to my final DL competition lifts, I'm feeling lately like that saying, "The operation was a success but the patient died." I am, in all ways except my final meet DL's, doing great. My problem shoulders are moving better and more strongly than ever, I'm healthy, and my training work capacity is higher in many ways than it's ever been. So we carry on, and hopefully keep improving and return to form with heavy competition deadlifts at some point in the not-too-distant future.
NB: USAPL meets during this time of COVID-19 have been very strict about mask wearing; this one was not, and that's part of the reason we don't have more videos. My wife, after seeing what was going on, decided she really didn't want to be in the room. If you plan on competing in these strange times, keep in mind that while everyone is supposed to adhere to the same rules, the degree of adherence can vary quite a bit.
-S-
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