NorCall Powerlifting 2022 Meet Report Part 2

Finally, meet day. Despite my positive start, I actually did VERY poor by my own standards at this meet, yet still ended up winning 1st place in my weight class as well as a second award of "Best Lifter". For whatever reason, I thought the bluntness of that was funny. There were other titles like "Best Performance In _________" with some qualification at the end, so that was a surprise.

One big mistake was not taking care of the hotel room earlier. Because my last powerlifting meet, and indeed many of my strongman meets, took 12 hours to finish, I greatly overestimated how much time I had. By about 10:00, we still had 2 flights to go before mine was ready, so at this point I started packing my hotel things. Right as I walked back to the meet area I heard my name being announced. I'd had no warm-up and my gear wasn't ready, so I just ripped my shoes off, put on my knee sleeves, put my shoes back on, and walked up to take my opener, an easy 445. Next was 465, and then 501. Everything went up fine but by the time I was finished squatting I noticed my back was bothering me.

In my hurry, I forgot twice to go to the judges and let them know my next attempt. I'd also cut my pinkie somehow and bled on the judge's table. My card was splattered with blood, which made it easy to locate when writing my attempts down. The judge said she was a surgeon and that it didn't bother her. I actually recognized her as the judge who was rude to me last meet, but she was very nice here.

Anyway, some real amateur shit on my behalf, but I had to move on. The bench press was terrible. I hit 315 on my second attempt, which I intended to be extremely conservative given my weight cut, but then failed 350. I know I should have that and more, but it's not like I've ever crushed that while doing a sudden water weight cut, either. I didn't beat myself up over it, but my mind was already racing about getting back to training and bringing my upper-body strength up.

The deadlift phase came by very quick. I could see that this meet was breezing by far more quickly than before. At this point, it was around 1:00 pm; in 2016 we were starting deadlifts around 5:30.

My opener was higher than I remembered choosing, probably because I was thinking about it from a state of being in back pain. I did 515 and then immediately started using my vibrating foam roller and massage gun, which seemed to help quite a bit. I chose a super conservative jump up to 535 after my bench experience and knowing my back was in bad shape. Made a very concerted effort to harden my abs and it flew up faster than 515. Feeling a little good about that, I pondered for awhile before choosing 570 for my third. Not the 600+ I had planned for, but above the 550 I was considering as a safe bet. Well, the bar broke off the floor but I felt a strong twinge in my already painful back so I dropped it. At least I was able to walk away without any hindrance or limp.

As I already went over, I won 1st, but was feeling some imposter syndrome. I felt like I didn't deserve it. I let myself enjoy the moment and my friends being happy about it, but as mentioned before, my mind was racing about the things I need to do for next time. I didn't even bother asking my friend for the footage from the bench and deadlift portions. I wasn't seething over it or anything, I simply didn't care. I would like to see them now, though, but for the time being, I have my squat on video.

I learned a lot going through with this meet and I can at least be satisfied I threw my current best at it. I'm glad I had the know-how and discipline to make weight on advanced notice and max squat without much preparation. I've got a lot to work on and also have to decide where I want my weight to go from here.

NorCall Powerlifting 2022 Meet Report Part 1

Have some time finally to start a write-up of my powerlifting meet experience this past weekend. For once the diet was a major factor in my preparations this time so I'll delve into that.

Because of the short notice (less than a month and a half) and the fact that I was in the middle of a weight gain phase, starting at a bodyweight of 212 lbs, I did a water weight cut for the first time in my life. It went easier than expected. I lost about half of the weight through conventional means, though slightly more aggressively than I would have done had I not been facing a deadline. In the week leading up, I weighed around 206 and knew by that point the water would be coming out. Still, I didn't go too Spartan about it until the final two days. I chose to do as little as possible as late as possible to preserve strength.

On Friday and Saturday, I drank only small sips of water throughout the day and made an attempt to reduce my sodium intake. Again, if I felt more drastic action was needed I would have dialed that effort down even more, but I felt it was sufficient to just make a general effort to eat low salt foods and not bother to make any precise calculations like everyone on YouTube and Reddit were advocating. I even ate some salty poke that a coworker bought for me. By late afternoon, though, the hunger period started getting enforced. Just 3 eggs for my second lunch.

The mini George Foreman grill I ordered for my hotel stay (thanks for the inspiration, Emevas) came that same day and I was able to grill a plain piece of chicken breast in an effort to cut down on sodium and water. I decided I wouldn't need this thing after all because I planned to eat a ton of carby restaurant food after weigh-ins in an effort to replenish myself, but it was still a welcome kitchen addition.

On weigh-in day I woke up weighing 201.6, so I knew I was making a lot of progress. I had some more of my leftover chicken breast for breakfast and a few sips of water. By noon I had another few bites of the chicken. That was all the food and water I allowed myself. I packed and hungout with a sweatshirt, sweatpants, beanie, and wool socks on, slowly and modestly sweating. When I started to feel too lousy I took the hat off for a break. They stayed on except for the beanie during the 1-hour sunny drive to Concord with the windows rolled up. This made me feel the worse, although it was manageable. Felt light-headed but nothing I haven't felt training outdoors in summertime. In fact, my outdoor training prepared me very well for this experience. I was never in uncharted territories of misery. I remember thinking at my lowest that this is uncomfortable but not that hard. Because I was driving, however, I paid due diligence to my state of consciousness and made sure I was alert, ready to pull over if needed.

I got to the gym where the weigh-ins were happening and came in at 197, a pound under what I needed. I was really happy about that. This was something I'd never done before and pooled everything I knew about dieting, metabolism, and intuition about my own body together to make it work, so I finally had validation of all that. I remember having concern at the start of the week about weighing over 205 lbs and a brief pang of despair flashing in my head. I'm not progressing properly at all, I should just do the 220 class. A second later I shook it away and knew I could do it. Anyway, my victory plan was to go straight to Taco Bell afterwards but I was so hot and hungry I immediately had a Gatorade and Kodiak protein granola bar feast out of my trunk before driving to the hotel and continuing the replenishments with canned sardines, more granola bars, and other calorific snacks I had.

That evening I went out to a planned dinner with some friends I wanted to catch-up with. Ate at a Cajun-themed fast food place and ordered the garlic crab fries. They were greasy and glorious.

This ended up being long so part 2 will come soon.