U.S.A.P.L. Powerlifting State Championships 2013

Sunday February 17th was the USAPL California State Championships. This was sort of a big event for me, because the last time i entered this event, I Tanked! So i wanted to come back and redeem myself a bit...

Back Story:
  Last year i entered this event as my first Full Powerlifting Meet, having done 1 deadlift only event a few months before. I ended up doing a fair amount of training with singles leading into the meet, and had a very aggressive plan for my Squat. I opened with a Squat of 485lbs. In Warm-up i did a single with 455lbs and it felt really heavy.... i went out to the platform and failed, and followed it up with 2 more failed attempts... I packed my stuff and headed home- dumbfounded... i ended up driving straight to my gym to try to answer some questions.. I tested out the only theory that i could think of, and i began weighing the 45lb plates i had been training with. Consistently the plates came in at 41-42lbs... at least i had an answer, i had been working with bar loads that were 20-25lbs lighter than i thought... 2 lessons learned: don't trust what the plates say and don't open a meet with too big a weight.

This Year:
So clearly i had something to prove. I am not sure anyone really noticed what had gone down in 2012- but i felt like an idiot, and i wanted to come back and do well... so i signed up for the 198lb class in the M1(masters 40-49yrs).

The Training:
i didn't really change anything up in training from my regular weight program for cycling. I was eating tons and trying to pack on mass and build strength before we slim down for Kilo Season... The packing on mass is easy for me. We changed up my normal 3X5 program about a month out from the meet and switched to the "Texas Method" for Squats and my weakest lift, the Bench Press... training was hard, but i was progressing well and hit PR's on 5-rep sets in all three lifts. I was feeling good going into my meet...

The Cut:
Like i said- putting on mass is easy for me! so 7 days out from the meet it was not a big surprise that i weighed in at 201lbs. I was a little stressed to say the least. I did not want to compete with the 220lb guys! i began a "Water Manipulation Cut", that started with 4 days of consuming 1.5gal of water per day.. this was pretty miserable. I tend to pass water pretty quickly, and the added volume resulted in me being in the restroom a ton. I had to limit my car time to make sure i didn't end up in any uncomfortable situations..

on the 5th day of the cut, 2 days out from the meet i dropped down to 1gal of water. The theory behind this type of cut is, your body is slow to react to the drop in water you are consuming and will continue to pass a high volume and dehydrate you down to a low weight, temporarily. On the 6th day of the Cut, the day before the meet i was limited to a 1/2gal of water. In the afternoon, after i had done openers in the gym and a light roller workout- ridden in a hoodie to help sweat out a bit more, i weighed in at 194.5lbs.. feeling good about where my weight was, i ate 1lb of ground beef and an avocado, and drank an additional quart of water before going to bed...

14hrs before weigh-in at 194.5

The Meet:
The alarm went off at 5:15am. I was quickly on the scale- and showing 195lbs, but remember i have no reason to believe my scale is accurate. I got dressed and hopped in the car, headed to Joe Camachos house. Joe got in the car at 5:45 with a quad espresso for me, and some cooked bacon for after weigh in.. The espresso was the only thing i consumed. We arrived at the Cross Fit Gym at 7am and quickly signed in. Weigh in was at 7:30, so i got my rack heights entered into my card for Squat and Bench Press and waited.

At 7:30am i stripped down naked in a cramped bathroom with the meet director and hopped on the scale. 97.2 kilos or a little over a pound under... the director joked about how close i was..

I headed back to the gym and started drinking a quart of pedialite and eating bacon (replace salt), i also had hard boiled eggs and dates and a few bananas..
I returned to the bathroom around 9:30am, to change, and the scale showed me at 201lbs... mission accomplished.

A fellow 198lb'er named Daniel was stressing about making weight. This was his first meet not competing with the 220's and he was a pound over. He had to drive to a near by 24hr fitness and use their sauna to just make the cut... Daniel is a 20 year vet of Powerlifting, and he quickly began coaching me on warm-up sets and conserving energy before our lifts..

The Squat:
I was feeling good about my Squat, and I had set my opening weight at 452lbs, which was my last 5-rep set. 452lbs also happened to be more than 30lbs over the current State Record for men 40-44. I started warming up, and Daniel was keeping me posted on how long we had. I noticed I had a slight weird feeling in the tops of my thighs. Maybe a symptom of dehydrating myself- not sure. I headed out to the platform for my opening squat, with a lot of nerves. I executed what felt like a fairly easy lift and was happy to get credit from the judges, although it was only 2 white lights, so a judge felt it was high. But it was low enough to pass- and that made it officially a state record.

On my second squat, at 474lbs- things didn't go so great. I hit the bottom, felt a little off, and couldn't get out of the hole.
3rd attempt I felt like I sort of busted out of the fog, I dug a little deeper and pulled off the squat- but quickly heard the squat was not good. The judges called me high.

The Bench
I suck at the bench! My short legs and long arms, that make me a great dead lifter, conspire against me on the bench.. Too much bar travel, weird mechanics... I have never been good at it.

That said, I had improved my bench a lot. I decided to open at my last 5-rep set, 240lbs. That weight went off well, as did my second lift of 252lbs. I was very pleased. My 3rd attempt was at 264lbs. It was heavy, and I felt myself start to ratchet, or push unevenly. I fought it and gave it all I had, I completed the lift, but was not surprised the judges did not pass the lift.

The Dead Lift
I am a strong Dead Lifter. Long arms, short legs, the mechanics work, and its a slow lift and I'm good at grinding it out. The questions of depth in the squat are not an issue.. Typically if I can break the bar off the floor- I will successfully complete the lift.
I opened with 495lbs, which is just over my last 5-rep. It was about the easiest lift of the day. Fast and painless. Also that 495lbs pushed me into the State Record for Powerlifting Combined Total... The second dead lift was a little harder, at 533lbs. It still went off easy, and made me the State Champion in that discipline. So easy I almost went for a new PR, of 565, but decided to attempt my previous PR of 551lbs. I am very glad I did, because it ended up being everything I had to complete the lift.
The lift was a grinder! The bar broke from the floor ok, then I just dragged it slowly up my legs. At some point my stomach was burning in pain from pushing against my weight belt, but I pushed on, locked out my knees and leaned back to show I was fully extended.
The lift was good, and I had exceeded the previous State Record by over 20lbs, I had also raised the PowerLifting Total record by over 60lbs
Immediately after the lift I was in extreme pain. Joe ran back to check on me, he could tell I was hurt after the lift... I was hurt! But it passed, and a few minutes later I was ok.

Results
My coach for the day Daniel, was having a good day as well in his new weight class. He is 46yrs old, so we were not competing for records, but we were competing for the win in the State Championship in the M1 Masters division... In the end Daniels total was slightly higher. I had out Squatted him, he had out benched me and we finished with the same deadlift.
My Total of 1255lbs would have scored me the win in the typically more competitive "198lb Open" category- but today the real battle ended up being between two old guys!

Huge Thanks to JoeCamacho- Camera Man, Go-Fer, Cheerleader, and good friend!

Best lifts:
Squat: 452lb
Bench: 252lb
Dead: 551lb
Total: 1255
State Masters Records:
198lb 40-44 yr old
Squat/ Dead/ Total

Missed Lifts:

Elite Nationals

This was a bit of a weird year for me. After the disappointment of traveling to Pennsylvania for masters nationals last year and totally tanking, switching coaches mid-year, and then riding almost a second slower than my PR at Elite Nats..  i made a promise to myself that i wouldn't get caught up in the wins and set myself up for that kind of disapointment again. I love the training- I love the weight lifting i even love the endless tire glueing and greasing and adjusting. So this year i was in it for the love of the process. The time at the track with friends, the weight room with joe Camacho. I was not going to get caught up in the results, i was just going to do what i was good at- following coaches orders, training hard and riding fast.
     Its a good thing i made that promise to myself! My wife and i ended up opening our new restaurant a week or two before Masters Nationals, and i knew from early spring that the trip was not in the cards this year. The new restaurant needed a great Chef De Cuisine, so i sacrificed my longtime right hand man from Hatfield's to go handle the kitchen for me at The Sycamore Kitchen. That move left my flagship slightly short handed and put the nails in the coffin that was the final resting place for my dreams of Masters Worlds as well... I was working 7 nights a week and i had to sacrifice the trip.

Coach Steve decided we would target Masters States for our first peak, with only a slight taper. My coach is a pretty solid judge of fitness even through the phone from Hollywood to Atlanta- so he recommended a bit of floating on the 3rd lap to help finish the effort strong. He was right, i finished strong and with a win and a new PR of 1:08.69, nearly a full second faster than my best time, ridden 2 seasons previous...

After states i didn't really have a clear goal. I wasn't getting to do the local races due to work- so i just decided to hit it really hard on the bike and really-really-really hard in the gym, and i would ride Elite Nats and try to set a PR. Training weights at Joe Camachos house was a really special thing. It ended up being a really great environment to push it hard on the weights. During this time i put on 6lbs of body weight and upped my squat over 40lbs for my 5-rep set. this was along with my standard tuesday and thursday track sessions and a gut wrenching 90-minute ergo session on saturdays.
    after this brutal block of training I was weighing in at 190lbs, i had a body-fat percentage of 8.9%, single squats at 455lbs, deadlifts over 500lbs and times were looking great! I was Big, I was Strong, I was Lean and everything pointed to me being fast!
  during my really long 3+ week taper things at the track were a little off. My single motor paced efforts were very fast and i could tell it was taking a toll on my driver- he was honestly scared to drive the efforts. During one effort in the three week out area i snapped a seat post bolt 2-laps in, as i limped around the track with my saddle balanced on the post i hit the broken bolt and popped a tire. The next week i was itching to ride hard, and when my driver mis-counted laps and pulled off early i lost focus and went over the handlebars at 30mph popping another tire and giving myself a big patch of road rash.
   the last week of training leading into Nats we came to the realization that i could ride faster through the turns at encino than the motorcycle could. So the amazing effects of overspeed training you get from chasing a motor were reduced. I actually did 500m efforts solo that were faster than ones led by the motor.
  all through these last few weeks i was getting little signs that we were right on course- the totally weird feeling during the first week of the taper left and i just felt great all the time... i was ready for Elite Nationals, and was hopeful that i would ride faster than my time at States, and hopeful to crack the top 10.
   There isn't too much to say about the actual effort of riding a kilo. You can either handle that kind of Lactic Shit Storm or you cant. If you can learn to lean into the pain you might be a kilo rider. The only interesting thing about the race was i met the guy who was starting opposite me, and he told me he was going to ride a very slow time- I knew i would have something to chase, and in the end i think that was a benefit if only mentally.
  On the starting block i had all the normal feelings- jitters, doubt, Im too old for this level of competition... then the countdown starts and the effort is just a blur. I caught sight the other rider, chased him down, and passed him as i exited the last turn on my last lap...
i knew it was a good ride- but was shocked to see 1:07.60 on the Jumbo-Tron!
   I barely got off my bike, barely made it down the stairs and as i laid on the floor the paramedics raced over to see if i was ok and didn't really want to take my word for it when i said it was Normal!

as I sat in the infield ecstatic with my ride a funny thing happened- I sat in first place for a long time... Like 15 of the 20 riders went off before i got bumped down to 2nd. By the time the last ride went off i knew i had sealed a 5th place and a podium.

It was a huge moment for me- i seriously warned TJ, who won silver that i might cry on the podium. for sure my proudest moment in sport! Thank You so much to everyone who helped me this year and everyone who trained with me and helped this old man ride fast!

DUNK TANK- hydrostatic body fat test

Joe and I heard that the local Mobile Body Fat Test Truck was going to be at a Cross Fit Gym near his house- so we made reservations to get our body fat test done. It was a pretty simple procedure that only required we strip down to trunks, check our height and weight, then climb into the tank. once in the tank you placed a weighted strap over your knees, clamped your nose shut with your hand and laid back into the water while blowing every bit of air out of your lungs. The dude running the test said that air reads as fat- so you wanted to force it all out. it was mentally a little weird, leaning back into water without filling your lungs... you had to repeat the test until you got a couple of consistent reads.. that took about 3-4 times for me, and a few more than that for Joe...
I was pretty Happy with my results! I weighed in at 190.5lbs- According to the wall chart that weight and my height of 69.25 inches puts me well into the obese category..  but clearly my diet and training have paid off and i registered a Body Fat Percentage of 8.9%. According to the literature that came with the results that puts me in the 99 percentile for men 40-49 years old..

This is a bit of a confidence boost heading into nationals just a couple weeks from now. I have been feeling a little weird since we started the taper, and not really sure if i was in top form. realizing how lean i have gotten in this last block makes me think i have raised my fitness since States and hopefully I am on track for a PR Kilo at Elite Nationals...

age-40
height-69.25
Body Fat Weight-16.95
Body Fat Percentage-8.9%
Lean Mass Weight-173.45
Lean Mass Percentage-91.1%
Resting Metabolic Rate-2205 calories per day

Music

JAPANDROIDS!!!

Anybody who has lifted with me at Joe-Gym has already had an earful of the Japandroids.. you may have even noticed that my last two form check videos had them playing in the background. Not surprising since they are playing pretty much the whole time we lift..

Anyway- Best Canadian band ever? Best Two-Piece ever? probably.. they are my current favorite..

here is their new Video-

Gym Log pt. 2 the Deadlift @455

my Deadlift day this week was wednesday. So after adding another 2.5# to my Squat (427.5#) it was time for warm up sets and a work set of 5-Reps.
Not much to say about DeadLifts- i am pretty good at them thanks to my long arms and SHORT legs (Shrimp!! thx +Tim M) and i typically pull about 30# more than where my squat is. That was true today, as i threw on an extra 5# for the cameras- for a set of pulls at 455#

also focussing today on my breath control during squats. I already burst a blood vessel in my eye and getting headaches after squatting!!! it seams that being mindful of where the pressure is and releasing at the end helps..

Gym Log: Squat Video @425#

Gym Log 8/13:
I've been back in the gym for about 6 weeks since we dropped weight work for Masters States.
Leading into states i got lazy on the squats and just rep'd out on 4-plates at my gym..
after Joe and i got his Garage Gym set i really started turning the screws on the weight work, and the post lift rollers (more on rollers in another post). Its amazing how much more motivating it is to train at Joes! I dropped my work weight down below 375# for my 3-sets of 5-reps, and began to methodically add weight each lift day (3 times a week). I started out with gains of 5# until i hit 405#, then dropped down to 2.5# increases per day.

It was interesting that on any given day after i hit about 410#, I felt like the current weight was about all i could handle- but i would add weight the next lift day and still manage to hit all my reps. my previous PR for a 5-Rep was probably about 410#, mostly from being lazy, or hitting that weight right before we dropped the lifting pre-competition.
Today i added another 2.5# for a total bar weight of 425#. To be entirely honest i was not feeling amazing today- and suffered through the 2nd and 3rd set- but still managed all 15 reps.

One more week of adding weight- then we go into maintenance mode leading into Elite Nationals... Deadlifts wednesday and another video update..

Joe Gym- and focusing in on the second half of the year

This has been a good year on the bike for me. I have hit PR's in every event I run. There was some solid competition at Masters States this year in the kilo and I managed to drop 7/10ths of a second off my personal record- and that time was from 2 seasons previous- I have made a lot of progress in the last year.
   The juggling act that is my life did not allow me to go to Colorado Springs this year for Masters Track Nationals... It wasn't in the cards. To be honest I was not interested in going and not winning so maybe it is better I didn't go... so now i take all the frustration, all the thoughts of how things could of gone and grind them up in the mill that is my obsessive brain... turning it all in to fuel to finish the season out strong!


JOE-GYM
joe and i hocked some old bikes on e-bay and started putting together equipment for our gym. I would of loved to have this set up at my house, but my un-sealed garage wasn't working out, so it ended up in Joe's garage in Culver City.
  This gym has allowed a huge amount of progress in a short period of time. Not only is it set up perfectly for the weight program i follow, we avoid the pit-falls of commercial gym douche bag tolerance, and we get to hop on our rollers immediately following out lifting...
both weights and roller workouts have gone up quality wise!

So now with about 6-weeks until my Kilo at Elite Nats, i am really putting the weight on the bar. More updates on the lifts this week.