New Mexico weightlifting state records, diet, aand sleep

I just received an updated list of the New Mexico state weightlifting records. It was wonderful seeing my name on the list as a New Mexico weightlifting state record holder in the 105k+ 40-44 age group. 

I noticed that a couple of 105k state records in the 40-44 age group was broken late last year. The new clean and jerk state record is 135k & the new total is now 228k both set by Jeremy Hale. I had set a goal to lose weight and get down to the 105k 40-44 ag division and break those three records. I'm still hoping to do that, but it's going to take a little longer and a lot more work now. Those numbers are even bigger than what Barry Schroeder puts up!

Speaking of losing weight, I'm still doing well with my diet and weight loss. 25 days back on the diet wagon. Increasing the amount of calories i was eating while attempting to drop weight was the key. I'm not struggling with excessive hunger or extreme cravings anymore. I've lost 11 pound.

I've been eating healthy each and every meal & keeping my protein up. Unfortunately I've been working a lot of hours and not sleeping as much as an athlete should. My wife and i received her first student loan bill of $16,000. The same week my Chevy Suburban broke down costing just shy of $2,000 to fix. Most weeks I'm working 5 twelve hour and 1 sixteen hour shift a week. I'm tired. I've been the only income for our family of five since 2007.  I've been sleep deprived for a long time. It sucks. I'm really tired of being tired all the dang time. 8 years of this is to long.

cycling creatine monohydrate for olympic weightlifting

I've heard people are supposed to cycle creatine monohydrate rather than staying on it for long periods of time. I've been taking creatine for the last three months and have had amazing results. I'm going to cycle off of creatine for the next four weeks. I'm disappointed to have to stop taking it even if only temporarily. I just stopped taking it this weekend and am already looking forward to starting again.

next Olympic weightlifting goals/records

Now that the big weightlifting meet is over & i broke all three 105k+ 40-44 age group New Mexico state records it's time for me to set my eyes on my next big goal. I'm going to attempt to drop to the 105k weight class and break the 40-44 age group 105k state records. After the weights i lifted this weekend I've realized those records are well within my reach as long as i can lose 67 pounds. 67 pounds is a lot, but with coach Shane Miller's guidance I'm sure i can get there. 

Starting yesterday I plan on losing 1.5 pounds a week for 4 weeks, then 1 pound a week until the next weightlifting meet.

The 2015 John Davis memorial weightlifting meet report

Yesterday, January 24th 2015, I competed in the John Davis memorial weightlifting meet at The Miller gym in Santa Fe NM. I'd been training for this meet exclusively for over 13 months. I was on track to break the New Mexico weightlifting 40-44 age group super heavyweight division (105k+) state records held by Scott Carpenter since 2004. I took 2 days vacation from work before the meet to make sure I was fully rested.

I found out just before the meet started that Rise Miller wasn't going to be there at the meet to coach me. He'd been the guy who had ran me through warm ups and coached me at all three of my previous meets. I wasn't expecting that & I had a bit of a panic attack finding out that he wasn't going to be there to coach me as I had become accustomed. Another very knowledgeable and accomplished lifter, Dominic Farris, took Rise's spot and did so perfectly. Once I started warm ups I got really freakin nervous. This was the first meet I'd lifted for something other than just for fun. This meet meant something. I thought I'd be better about handling the pressure, but I was wrong. I was so anxious my hands were shaking.

As I was walking out for my opening lift I was so scared! I've walked into prison riots at work where I was less nervous than that. Somehow even through the massive adrenaline rush I still managed to make a good lift of a 75k snatch. That was NM state weightlufting record #1. The 2nd snatch was also successful and was NMW record #2 for the day. My third lift of 83k was going to be an all time personal best by over 4 kilos. It was also a good lift and was NMW record #3. My last snatch broke the old state record by 23 kilos!

My first two clean and jerks were 98k and 103k. Both were NMW records. State records #4 &5. By the time I was ready to take my third and final C&J I was so very fatigued! Not because of the lifting, but because of the extreme amounts of adrenaline my body had been dumping into my system all day. As coach Shane Miller was talking to me about my last lift I was feeling so fatigued I was wondering if I'd have the energy to walk up to the platform, much less lift another PR. Somehow I pulled off a successful 107k clean and jerk. The last C & J broke the old state record by 27 kilos, state record #6. Plus the the totals were all records, they were records 7, 8, & 9.

My ending total was 190 kilos, breaking the old state record by 50 kilos, 110 lbs.

Tomorrow is the big day

Tomorrow is the big day. Tomorrow is the John Davis memorial weightlifting meet. I've been training for this meet exclusively for the last 13 months.  If all goes as is expected I'll break all 3 of the New Mexico weightlifting state records for the 105k+ forty- fourty four age group division. I've taken a couple days of vacation time from work to taper & stay off my feet, and I've been eating extremely healthy the last couple weeks. Virtually no junk food or anything at all unhealthy. I've invited all of my friends, family, and co-workers to be there. I'll post how the meet goes. Wish me luck.

Lubbock Texas and Olympic weightlifting

While in Lubbock this weekend I attempted to find a gym with drop plates which are used for olympic style weightlifting. None of the normal gyms did. I know CrossFit gyms use drop plates. I called each and every CrossFit gym in Lubbock and left messages. Compass CrossFit and Flatland CrossFit were the only ones who called me back. Compass CrossFit doesn't allow anyone to use their gym unless they are doing the Workout Of the Day (WOD). Flatland CrossFit called me back on Monday after my family and I were already on our way home, but they said they'd allow me to use their facility anytime as long as I wasn't a distraction to their athletes performing the gym's WOD. Next time I'm visiting Lubbock TX I'm going to use the Flatland CF facilities to see if I like it there. I'm eligible to retire from the NM state penitentiary this May. Lubbock is one of the 4 places I'm thinking of moving after I retire. Where ever I go has GOT to have some sort of facilities available for me to weightlift olympic style. It's surprising how few cities has olympic style weightlifting gyms.
The cities I'm interested in moving to after i retire in order of favorites:
1) Santa  Fe New Mexico
2) Concord Metro New Hampshire
3) Lubbock Texas
4) Albuquerque New Mexico

traveling, illness, a dying family member, and Compass Crossfit

I still haven't healed up from my flue yet, and my big weightlifting meet is in 7 days. I'm starting to get nervous. I've never been sick this close to a meet before.  By the end of my workout on Thursday i was so fatigued from being ill i couldn't complete any of the repetitions of my three heaviest sets of jerks from the rack. 

In the morning my family and i will be leaving for Lubbock Texas to say goodbye to my favorite aunt. She has cancer and is in heart failure. The stress & emotions of traveling out of state & having a loved one leaving this life won't be good for my taper or help me heal up from my illness. 

My Aunt who we'll be visiting used to have me stay the summers with her and her husband. Those summers meant the world to me. It was one of the few times in my childhood i felt safe. She took care of me and loved me like one of her own children.  I've never had anyone who i love this much die. This is going to hurt. But i sure am glad for the time i had with her. She has been such an angel, and a source of hope and strength for me  my entire life. 

On Monday while in Lubbock I'm supposed to hit a small workout building up to the weight of my opening lifts of 78k & 98k. The last time i was in Lubbock Texas i trained at Compass CF. They were awesome about letting me use their facility. The trainer and the athletes were really friendly. I'm hoping they'll let me use their gym again while I'm there.

weight loss and olympic weightlifting part two: metabolism and olympic weightlifting

I've been trying unsuccessfully for over a year to lose weight while training olympic weightlifting. I was using the MyFitnessPal phone app. MyFitnessPal is great. It's easy to use and can be used anywhere. When using that app I assumed my metabolic rate was around 3000 calories a day. It was 3300 back when i was training triathlon 20+ hours a week. I assumed it would be slightly lower now that I was olympic weightlifting 4 times a week. I was wrong, and my assumption caused massive problems. I'd start dieting, I'd plan on losing 2 pounds a week. If my metabolic rate was 3000 calories a day and there's 3500 calories in a pound of fat, I'd have to cut out 7000 calories a week, which is 1000 calories a day. So I'd eat 2000 calories a day plus any calories I burned from workouts.

3000 (metabolic rate)
-1000 (calories per day for 2 pounds weight loss a week)
---------------------------
2000 (calories consumed per day)

Using this formula I'd get hungrier and hungrier everyday until I couldn't handle it anymore and I'd binge eat gaining more weight than I had lost. I decided to stop using MyFitnessPal and go back to using Dietpower. Dietpower is a program similar to MyFitnessPal, but the biggest differences is that Dietpower will figure out my metabolic rate, MyFitnessPal doesn't.

Now that I've been using DietPower, it's shown me my metabolic rate is much higher than 3000 calories a day. It's 4130 calories a day to be exact. That makes a lot sense as to why I was overly hungry and why I need more calories now. Muscle burns calories. I'm burning more calories now that I'm a weightlifter and have more muscle then I did as a triathlete.

Since starting to use dietpower I've dropped from 311 pounds to 299 pounds without being very hungry at all. So the good news is I'll be able to be more loyal to this diet because I'll be more comfortable. The bad news is I've decided to limit my weightloss to 1 pound a week and at that rate it will take me 68 weeks (May 2016) to get to my first goal of getting into the 105k weightclass. And it will take me 93 weeks (Oct 2016) to get to my 2nd goal of getting into the 94k weight class.

illness and an 81k /105k lifelong Olympic style weightlifting PR

A couple weeks ago i felt i was gaining strength in Olympic style weightlifting so quickly that the training program i was on wasn't keeping up with my gains. I wanted to do more but couldn't add more weight to the bar because my weightlifting coach watched everyone lift and he'd see if i veered from the training plan. So instead i threw in an extra day of training. I did 5 workouts in a week i was only supposed to do 4. By the end of the week my body was beat up, i felt unbelievably fatigued and i ended up showing the beginning stages of being sick. This was the 2nd time I've doubted my coach's programming, each time i did more than he prescribed, both times I've gotten sick. I've learned my lesson. My coach is extremely good at what he does. One of the best in the nation.  I need to learn to trust him. 

This morning i woke up feeling horrible.  I had a horrible cough, body aches, and the shivers. This morning was also the morning i was supposed to meet with coach Miller to do some heavy clean and jerks. It was also my last heavy day before starting to taper. I decided to gut check it, ignore the illness and lift. i felt like death warmed over. Even though i was slow, felt sluggish, and was getting fatigued very quickly i still lifted a life long clean and jerk PR of 105k. Last week i lifted a lifelong snatch PR of 81k. So at the John Davis memorial meet, the meet I've been training for the last 12 months, i should be able lift a minimum of an 81k /105k /186k, which will break the New Mexico weightlifting 105k+ 40-44ag state record by a hundred pounds!

weightlifting with a hangover

Today i learned two things:

1) new years day is really bad for weightlifting. I don't party much any more, so i was surprised by how much i was affected. I've had more than 24 hours to recover and i was still weak and felt incredibly sluggish. 

2) even though i had an off day lifting i was strong and made every lift. As long as my form and speed is half as good as my strength has become I'm going to crush the John Davis memorial weightlifting meet on January 24th, 2015. If my speed and form is half way decent i think i'll be able to put up an 81/107/188!!!! My old PR was set just 2 months ago,  in November 2014, it was a 79/103/182. The old New Mexico state record is a 60/80/140!!!!! I'm looking forward to crushing both my PR and the state record!!!!!