Nathan : 8/22 Meet Report

▼ 1. 8/22/09 - Sat - MEET DAY (IPA CT STATES)

Decent day. I'll take it, but I still feel like I came up a little short of my potential for a stupid reason. I needed a 9/9 day to have a PR total, which is a crappy place to be regardless. That's what doing 95% second attempts gives you.

• General

Didn't have much sleep on Friday trying to change my schedule for the meet. We had to wake up at 7am on Sat to make it to weigh-in in time. So I was not nearly as well rested as I would like on Saturday. Other than that, no major hiccups.

  I decided to lift "equipped" so that I could wear my knee sleeves. My knees didn't feel good without them on my test day earlier, so I think this was a good decision.

  It turns out that even though this was an IPA meet, almost everyone was a raw lifter.

  I was also rushed on all of my warm-ups because everyone was organized into once huge flight of 20+ lifters, so the weights were constantly having to be changed.

• Weigh-in : 214

I think their scale was light, but mine is also probably a little heavy.

• Squats warm-ups, 405 (90), 425 (95), 460 (102)

These went very well.

Warm-ups : Nothing particularly to say about these. Felt good overall, which is a relief since warm-ups don't always go well for me.

1st : Always nervous for first attempts. My muscles feel funny and I think there is no way I can lift anything. But this flew up, so no worries.

2nd : Also easy.

3rd : Fairly easy. I had more left in the tank. I was nervous about the 460 since squats had felt difficult this training cycle. I've hit 460 before, but in the knee-wrap-material knee sleeves that give a lot more poundages than the APT sleeves I have now (which I think give nothing, especially since I have a loose fit). So I definitely count this as a PR. I think I had 470 in me.

  The other thing to note is that after my squat one of the spotters said, "That's an olympic squat right there." Murph has also told me that I am falling forward on my squats. I am finally convinced that I need to rework my squat form. If I do, I should be able to get to 500. I could tell from looking at the other lifters that the squat form was generally much closer to Danny's than to mine.

• Bench warm-ups, 275 (90), 290 (95), 305 (102)

Went well. Nothing to say about warm-ups really.

1st : Easy. On the re-rack, the spotters pulled my hand into the rack and tore all the skin off the outside of my right hand. I have a huge flap of skin there now, and I had to wear a band aid. More on this later.

2nd : Easy.

3rd : Slower, but I still had room to spare. PR +5.

• Deadlift warm-ups, 495 (90), 525 (95), 560 - miss (102)

I was very tired by the time deadlifts started.

Warm-ups : They had the deadlift bars at this meet again. Didn't give me nearly as much trouble as my last meet, but I still don't like them. You have to pull very hard off the bottom and it doesn't feel like its ever going to move. Makes everything feel hard.

1st : Felt hard, apparently looked fast.

2nd : Felt hard, apparently looked slightly less fast.

3rd : I knew this was a stretch. My last deadlift at 550 was quite difficult. I was considering dropping to 555, but I decided to go for it. I needed this lift to PR. Especially after a very long day, I wasn't sure I had it in me.

  I got myself pretty psyched up and started the pull. I got stuck at my sticking point, but them got it moving again and was on my way to lockout. I was pretty confident I was going to get the lift, and then my right grip gave out. What the fuck?! I *never* lose my grip. The only explanation I have for this is that it was too heavy and I was dragging it up my legs and undoing my grip, or, more likely, that the band aid on my right hand hurt my grip. I am happy that I had the strength to get it as far as I did, but really frustrated that I lost it in the easy part.

• Total / recap 1290 @ 214 (360 wilks)

A good meet. Not the best venue I've ever been at -- we were kinda in the middle of hickville. But it was a fun experience and good to do my first raw meet. I got a second place trophy in the 220 raw division. The 1st place guy totalled 1305. I should have gotten first with my last pull. Fuck me. Actually, I technically should have been "equipped", so I should have gotten a first place trophy anyway.

  Other highlights from the day: 

  - 308 goes 1875 raw.

  - Vinnie Dinzenzo benches 605.

  - Some guy squats 665 @ 226 raw (belt only).

  - 65 year-old guy squats 550+ single ply.