COMPETITION WRITE-UP: 2022 Testify Strength and Conditioning Summer Strongman Showdown MLW (185) PART 2

 **PART II: THE WRITE-UP FOR THE ACTUAL COMP**

The whole week, I had been consistently weighing in at about 187lbs first thing in the morning, before any bathroom functions, training, etc.  By the time I’d use the bathroom, eat a light breakfast, train and shower, I would clock in at 181-183.  For some reason, 2 days before the comp I gained 3lbs and it wasn’t going away.  I woke up the morning of the comp post bathroom at 185.5, so I wasn’t in a bad spot.  I put on my winter gear (thermal base layers, sweats and a beanie), did 23 of Dan John’s “Armor Building Complexes” with 24kg kettlebells in 5 minutes and then paced in the garage for 30 minutes to get down to 184.5.  I pre-made breakfast, drove to the comp site and weighed in at exactly 185.0 with clothes on.  I have legit made weight at the exact ounce for the majority of my competitions: It’s become a talent.

On the subject of pre-making breakfast, this competition marked a while departure from my previous nutritional approaches and, ultimately, a sign I’ve grown up.  I cooked up 2 whole eggs, 1 egg white, 2oz of lean meat (combination of chicken and pork), some sauteed peppers and onions and 50g of avocado on a low carb tortilla wrap with some fat free cheese and sour cream into a baller breakfast burrito that I eat pretty much every morning, sticking with the whole “don’t eat differently on comp day compared to normal days” approach.  I also had a slice of keto bread with some sunflower butter on it…and, of course, an energy drink, because you can’t take that out of me.  Back in the day, this would have been pop-tarts or mini-donuts or some other sugary junk.  Through out the competition, I was eating celery with Nuts n More or sunflower butter on it, occasional bites of just plain Sunflower butter, and I made my way through 1 Biotest Finibar, eaten bits and pieces at a time.  I HAD junk food packed: a whole box of girlscout peanut butter patties and a 2-pack of cherry pop-tarts, but just never felt the need to eat them.  I used to eat an entire box of Pop-tarts at a competition: 2 in between each event.  I though I “needed” it.  The things we tell ourselves. I DID drink like a gallon of sugar free Gatorade, so there’s that.

**WARM UP**

To warm-up for the competition, I did 3 reps of an unloaded axle for clean and press, then 1 rep with 95lbs before the first event, and then, before the deadlift event at the end, I did 1 rep of 225lbs.

**EVENT 1: Axle clean and press away (205lbs for Lightweight men)**

How I felt in my mind

This was one of several events I was cautious about.  At the start of my 7 week intensification block that led into this comp, I brought up my 250+lb Ironmind sandbag to practice some loading.  I hadn’t touched this thing in about a year, and of course I just gripped and ripped it and borked something in my elbow tendon.  I kept doing that weekly and the elbow kept not getting better, until one day when I’m fairly certain I tore something inside of it.  That was about a month before the competition.  At that point, I dealt with pain outside of the sandbag, and continentaling and pressing the axle really drove it crazy.  The last few training days saw the elbow getting better and better each time, but I also knew that a bad day was possible.

Whistle blew and I gingerly got the axle into place. Wasted a fair bit of energy in doing so, but my elbow felt good, and that’s what mattered.  Went double overhand because I still refuse to use mixed grip on a continental.  After that, I pressed out 6 of the ugliest reps I’d ever done in my life.  Watching the video, these weren’t even close to push presses.  It’s not too shocking: Push pressing was making my elbow hurt, because I was effectively “catching” the weight on my tricep, so a slower/smoother press suited me better.  The dude I beat in the other lane (who would eventually be the dude to chase the whole comp) was hitting some beautiful split-snatches, which made for an entertaining “style vs style” head to head: the brute vs the technician.  He managed 4.  I thought he got 5, so I got the 6th to seal it, then dumped the 7th.

Walked away feeling good and healthy, so that boded well.  Next was the one I was most concerned about: loading.

**EVENT 2: LOADING MEDLEY: 140lb stone, 200lb stone (both natural), 150lb sandbag, 200lb sandbag**

How I WANTED it to go...went more like WSM '08

All events were a mystery leading up to this, and I was training primarily for heavy loading at first and then light loading afterwards to let the elbow heal.  However, what I wasn’t training was transitions, and that came to bite me, as watching the video I was clumsy and slow between implements.  I also bobbled the second stone and wasted a bunch of energy recovering it.  In general, I was sleep-walking through the event, just trying to play nice with the elbow.

I was a little miffed by an admin error: I should have gone last, since I won the first event.  Instead, I went second.  In turn, I had no appreciation for just how technical and fast the dude that followed me was.  He blew away my time by 4 seconds.  Part of me thinks I woulda tried harder knowing the thread he was, but it is what it is.

At this point, of the 3 of us, me and one dude are tied for first, with 1 win each.

**EVENT 3: 50lb Bag over Bar**

Well put

The only prep I did for this was kettlebell swings and snatches.  I hate throwing events, and part of my deal for this comp was to not train things I didn’t like.  It was rising bar, last man standing, take whatever attempts you want, starting at 8’.  I took every attempt, because I knew it was going to just be luck at this point.

8’ barely cleared, as did 9 and 10.  I did a throwing event in 2018 where I launched stuff, but I trained for it.  Amazing x-factor.  The other dude missed 11’ the first time but barely cleared it on his second go, so he took this event.

**EVENT 4: 100’ Pick-up Truck Harness Pull**

Was trying to channel this dude, succeeded only in part

I never cared for truck pulls, but this event was at least moving quick. I had my “secret weapon” of rock climbing shoes, which I think only 1 other athlete had.  They helped: I had a good grip on the floor for this, but I struggled to break the inertia of the truck at the start.  I tried a technique I had been using in training of pulling on the harness to start and get low, but, in retrospect, a better approach would be have a 4 point stance/bear crawl.  I threw my arms forward, which, again, was something I was using in my training to get my bodyweight moving froward and hips down.  I finished around 25 seconds and some change.  Guy I needed to beat was 1.5 seconds faster.  Heart break that one.  But I at least enjoyed this more than any other truck pull.  Not having the pull rope helps, and training for it showed me how awesome pulling a prowler with a harness is.  My conditioning also shined through: I was winded at the end and recovered by the time I walked back to my family.  Great to be in such awesome shape.

**EVENT 5: 515lb tire deadlift for 1, 395lb (combined) farmer’s handles deadlift for 2, AMRAP axle deadlift of 335lbs (no straps for any lift)**

Sorry not sorry to keep spamming the Poundstone

More admin frustration in times never being announced for any competitors that, at this point, I had no idea if I had won the truck pull or not, but I also didn’t care about winning: I was there to be more trouble than I was worth.  This was absolutely my event for that, because I was going to pull deadlifts until the other dude caught rhabado.  I used an old trick of wrist wraps.  When you can’t use straps, wraps can help, because they’ll force your hands to naturally close.  Every little trick you can use.

Pulling without straps always sucks, but I managed to get 515 moving with a little effort.  Once that was done, I used a trick I had employed before and jumped into the farmers handles to save some time, which put me slightly ahead of the other dude.  From there, got to the axle and use a thumbless grip.  It seems counter-intuitive, but taking the thumb out REMOVES a weakpoint.  Now you only have your 4 fingers to fail vs 1 thumb.  We were told touch and go was good AND I saw the judges were allowing bouncing, so I went full tilt and just banged out rep after rep.

I got called on “soft knees” on a few reps.  Ever since my ACL reconstruction, I can’t fully extend my left knee.  I may need to let judges know about that in the future.

The way they scored reps on this was by total, so we got 1 rep for the tire, 2 for the farmer’s, and however many after that.  I was credited with 16 reps total, the other dude got 14.  I still pulled the 17th rep, despite being told many times the event was over, because f**k you: I’m getting that rep.  

This event went great, and was really the one that re-lit the fire in me.  Being able to just go out and give it my all like that was a blast, and the challenge was exactly where it needed to be.  My conditioning held up real well, and despite no real grip training, I had zero issues on the axle.

**RESULTS AND WAY FORWARD**

As you’ve been following along, this was a second place showing.  Could I have done things differently and gotten first?  Yeah.  Do I regret that?  Not at all: I met my goal of training the way I wanted to train and just treating this like another workout.  I trained the morning of, and I trained the next day (5 minutes of ABCs for 23 total, straight into 5 minutes of burpee chins, and then the “Gut Check” WOD later).  I ate the way I wanted to eat, made weight the way I wanted to make it, and, through all that, found out I do still enjoy this sport and can still have fun with it.  Trying to “be a strongman” just wasn’t fun: “doing strongman” is much more enjoyable.  I don’t care about winning or nationals or anything; I want fun shows that push me hard and are a blast, and I’m gonna keep training and eating “my way” for them.  

And in that regard: I’ve never felt better the day after a competition.  Still able to train hard and move well. 

Reference my previous manifesto: I got to live being more trouble than I was worth that day.  I showed up, I set the pace for the first event, I kept on the heels the whole time, I made the last event suck for the guy ahead, and I was absolutely positively yoked out of my absolute mind, having achieved that physique with no counting of calories or macros or martyrdom to speak of.  If I can walk into a strongman competition without training for it, having trained twice+ a day up until the morning of the competition, put up a good showing, and do it all again the next morning, I am absolutely more trouble than I’m worth.

And that’s the plan moving forward.  This timed out perfectly with a deload week after my intensification block.  I’m traveling right now, doing a few nights in a hotel before coming home for a day and then heading to San Diego to visit family.  I’m going to make due with dumbbells and kettlebells, keep up my daily ABCs, and then come back and get back to gaining with 5/3/1 BBB Beefcake.  I plan to do another long gaining block with diet breaks: Beefcake into 5/3/1 for Hardgainers into a 7 week diet break/intensification block, then Beefcake into Monolith into 7 week intensification, then Deep Water Beginner and Deep Water intermediate.  Should be pretty nuts.

Game on.