Results

That was a humbling experience.

I competed yesterday. I did not make my goal of one point in each event. I was totally unable to clean the axle. Then on the second event (farmer’s walk) I failed to get the weight off the mat. I don’t know why. I have walked with that weight before. I haven’t worked that event in a month and half or so. I’m thinking I wasn’t doing enough in my gym workouts to support that exercise. After that things got a little better. Got 7 flips on tire. The most I have ever done consecutivly is 6, so light PR there. The hardest thing there is that you don’t have time to catchyour breath in between. I also, still, maintain that it is easier to flip the tire on grass, but people kept telling me I was flipping it uphill (the parking lot had a slant to it).
On the atlas stones I got the 245 stone loaded onto a very high platform, 50 inches or so. I got the 270 up and so incredibly close but was unable to force that last little bit. I got it up two more time. I think if I had been loading a 48 inch platform I would have completed it but I missed it three times. Still a PR to chest a 270 stone. Some guys were so good at these, they loaded them from gound to the 50″ platform in on motion, that is impressive. Very few people were able to load all 6 stones but a few did. A 338 stone, some day, will be an awesome load.
The final event was the keg carry. This is the one event where I feel like I finally earned my keep. I have trained this once before and didn’t really train it as hard as I should have. In this event I grabbed the first keg which was like 210 or something. The thing that I loved about his event was that I hit that point where my mind was telling me it was too hard and to put it down. I was able to focus on the cone I was driving for. As I turned the cone, I had the same feeling, that I need to set it down. Then I saw the tire and just started grinding for it. Normally, I say the crowd doesn’t help but I could actually hear a few voices cutting through. I could hear, I think it was Dan, saying that my grip was strong and not to set it down. I thought he was right and kept on chugging. I got the barrel to the tire and dropped it. I felt like that was plenty and wanted to walk away. Instead I went on to the 240 barrel. I barely managed to lift it. I did get a few feet out of it though. My forearms are really hurting from this today.
I took 2nd of 2. The only other guy in my weight class was a real cool guy from New Jersey. He blew me away in the events and would have placed well even if he would have had someone to compete against. I’m fairly happy with the way the day went. I moved some big weights and missed some big weights. I set some new PRs and learned a ton.
In the end, my mediocore performance doesn not put me off of strongman events but does tell me some areas I could really improve my training. I will compete in August in the Marylands Strongest man and go from there.

on to greener pastures for the short term

EDIT: Of my entire body, my forearms hurt the most. Ironic since I am posting aon grip board, guess I need to spend more time on grip.