bonking at the weight room

Yesterday i ran it of energy half way through my workout. I crashed hard. In triathlon we call that bonking. I took a double latte Power Gel which  usually helps me finish my workouts no matter how tired i get. I had ate well before the workout, slept well, etc. i can't think of any reason for it to  happened. The rest of the day i felt sluggish and worn out. Interesting. I'm not sure what happened.

 I'm hoping that I'll qualify for national championships by end if this year. To ensure this happens I'll be working less hours, sleeping more,  and taking creatine.

weightlifting goals and programming

Coach Miller started me on a new training program today. He always places the weights he thinks I'll hit at the bottom of the programs he builds. After he handed the new workout plan to me i dashed to a quiet place in the gym and greedily looked at what the numbers he thinks I'll accomplish. Snatch 92k, clean and jerk 116k, a total of 208k! If i am able to do what my weightlifting coach thinks i can do i will qualify for the 2016 USA masters weightlifting national championships!!!!! My biggest goal when i started weightlifting 19 months ago was to qualify for the masters weightlifting national championships. I thought it would take me many years to get to the national championships. Turns out i may reach that goal sooner than i thought.

After working 80-90 hour work weeks since 2006 I've finally got my families finances to the point where i can slow down a bit on overtime. Barring a vehicle breakdown or some other financial calamity i should only have to work 50-60 hour work weeks from here on out.  Perfect timing with me being so close to qualifying for the national championships. I'll be training extra hard and will need the extra time for rest and recovery. 

The 2015 New Mexico games weightlifting report

On Sunday July 19th 2015 i competed in the New Mexico games weightlifting meet. On Monday night of the 13th i got sick and was sick the rest of week. It wasn't  until the night before the meet that i felt well enough to get off the couch. The good news about being sick all week was i lost a few pounds, the bad news was i lost a bunch of strength. i weighed in at 131k, the third lowest I've ever weighed at a weightlifting meet.

The loss of strength was apparent during my warm up. My form was off too. Coach Shane was concerned enough to lower my openering lifts.

My first lift was a 79k snatch. I over pulled and i almost dropped it, i was able to recover. Barely. Good lift.

My 2nd snatch was 84k,  no problems at all,  good lift.

The third snatch was going to be a state record lift of 87k. i didn't finish the pull so the weight almost fell forward. As i was standing up i had to chase it forward. I was about 2 feet from the end of the platform before i was able to get under the bar and secure the lift. The middle judge raised his hands in fear, afraid the weight and i was going to fall on him. Despite scaring the judge i got three white lights, good lift.

I made the first clean and jerk of 99k, but it felt awkward. My form was crap. I dropped my 2nd clean and jerk of 104k. I don't think it was that i lacked the strength,  i think because of the illness it was taking me longer to recover from the lift before. Coach Miller could tell i was tired and needed some extra recovery time so he changed my next lift to 105 so i could have an extra couple of lifters between me and my next lift. I told coach i'd already totalled and secured 1st place in  my division, i still felt strong, with the extra recovery time i was certain i could successfully lift another state record of 108k. Coach Shane's eyes almost popped out of his head when i asked for 108k, "you missed 104k & want to go up to 108k? That goes against every rule I have.... if you miss this....." he changed my next lift to 108k but he wasn't happy about it. The extra rest helped a ton. I nailed the lift! I was so happy i stood there on the platform and yelled "YEAH!".

I took 1st place in my division  and became state champion for the 2nd year in a row,  i also set three state records.

Last year i lifted a 65/89/154. This year i lifted a 87/108/195. That's an increase of 41k (90lbs)!

The next goal is to qualify for the national championships. I'll need to get a 207k total. Right now I'm 12k short of 207k.

weightlifting, massage and illness

My wife's family bought my wife a couples message for her birthday. She and i had a the massage on Monday. I thought that was perfect timing because I have a weightlifting meet this Sunday. I figured the massage would help me recover and taper. Instead of helping me,  3-4 hours after the massage i became sick. It was the exact same thing that happened last time i got a massage. Same symptoms and time frame. I'm trying to figure out if it's the massage that's making me sick or if I'm over training. The next time I get a massage I'm not going to get it during my taper. I don't know, can a massage cause a person to get sick?

The  week before last my wife and i did our budget,  but we neglected to factor in that our kids are home for summer break so we'd be going through a lot more food. By Thursday the following week we were out of food. That day was my last heavy day to determine what weights I'd be attempting at the New Mexico games weightlifting meet. Even though i hadn't eaten i still lifted a 85/105. After every lift I'd see spots and get light headed. Apparently eating  before lifting is important. Who knew? Haha.

motivation and weightlifting numbers

Out of 5 training cycles I'd become sick at the end of all 5. That was a sure sign of overtraining. This training cycle i've decreased the number of days I'm working out a week. Its worked perfectly. I haven't become sick  once.

On Sunday Barry Schroeder showed up to train at The Miller Gym the same time i did.  That was great motivation! I trained harder and took less recovery between sets that I'm used to. The next day i was so sore! For those of you who haven't read my blog one of my goals in life is to loose enough weight to be in his weight class and beat Barry in a weightlifting meet. When i set this goal I needed to loose 106 pounds. I still need to loose 83. Even if I'm able to loose that much weight, getting strong enough to beat him is another thing. His PR's are 105/125/230.  He knows my goal is to beat him, yet he still is constantly helping me. Sometimes it's weightlifting advise, diet advise, or just moral support. Needless to say, he's one of the nicest and most supportive people I've ever had the pleasure of training with.

The 2015 State Games is only 12 days away. My strength still hasn't returned to what it was in April of this year, but I'm still much stronger than i was at last years State Games. At the state games last year i only did a 65k snatch, 88k clean and jerk, a 154k total. This year i think I'll get a 84/104, 188.

powerlifting weekend excursion for the boys

Last year my buddy and i were planning on going to an out of town NASA powerlifting competition  but i wasn't able to get time off from work. I requested the time off from work this year for a meet on December 5th 2015 in Roswell New Mexico and was approved. I looked up the New Mexico NASA records for my age and weight and it was crazy how many different categories there were! The weight classes are in pounds, the records are in kilos.i know,  very confusing. But here they are in all its baffling glory:

On December I'll be 40, so i can compete in the
1)Masters 1 division
2)masters pure division
3):and if they let correctional officers compete in the police/firefighter division i could also compete in that.

Plus I'm teetering between the
1) 242 pound division (242-274lb)
2) and the 275 pound division  (275-308lbs).

In each of those divisions i could compete in the following divisions:
1) power sports & power press/clean
-unequppied records
2) unequiped division and retro
3) eq'd & uneq'd push/pull

Since it was so complicated and time consuming looking up all the divisions i decided to record the records for all the divisions i can compete in here so that i dont have to go through the headache of figuring it all out again.

Masters 1
Power sports
242lb
Curl 77.5
Bench 182.5
Deadlift 240
Total 500

Police/firefighter
Power sports
242lb
Curl none
Bench- none
Deadlift- none

Masters pure
Power sports
242lb
Curl 70
Bench 147.5
Deadlift 140
Total 347.5

Masters 1
Power sports
275lb
Curl 87.5
Bench 205
Deadlift 260
Total 497.5

Police/firefighter division
Power sports
275
Curl 70
Bench- none
Deadlift- none
Total- none

Masters pure
Power sports
275lb
Curl 82.5
Bench 172.5
Deadlift 272.5
Total 505

Masters 1
power press
242lb
Ttl 227.5

Police/firefighter
power press
242
total None

Masters pure
Power pres
242
total none

Masters 1
power press
275
Total none

Police/firefighters
Power press
275
Total none

Masters pure
power press
275
Total none

Masters 1
Power clean
242
None

Police /firefighters
power clean
242
None

Masters pure
power clean
242
None

masters 1
Power clean
275
None

Police /firefighters
Power clean
275
None

Masters pure
power clean
275
None

Masters1
Unequiped bench
242
Bench 150

Police/firefighter division
unequiped bench
242
Bench- none

Masters pure
unequiped bench
242
Bench 150

Masters 1
Unequiped bench
275
Bench 185

Police/firefighter
unequiped bench
275
Bench-none

Masters pure
unequiped bench
275lb
Bench- none

Masters 1
Unequiped records
242lb
Squat- 192
Bench 147.5
Deadlift 220
Total 547.5

Police/firefighter
Unequiped records
242
Squat- none
Bench- none
Deadlift- none
Total- none

Masters pure
unequiped records
242
Squat 210
Bench 122.5
Deadlift 127.5
Total 580

Masters 1
Unequiped records
275
Squat 205
Bench 170
Deadlift 232.5
Total 602.5

Police/firefighters
Unequiped records
275
Squat 227.5
Bench 125
Deadlift 227.5
Total 580

Masters pure
Unequiped records
275
Squat 275
Bench 172.5
Deadlift 260
Total 707.5

Masters 1
Push/pull
242
none

Police/firefighter
Push/pull
242
327.5

Masters pure
Push/pull
242
327.5

Masters 1
Push/pull
275
None

Police/firefighters
Push/pull
275
None

Masters pure
Push/pull
275
320

Masters 1
retro
242
none

Police/firefighter
retro
242
None

Masters pure
Retro
242
None

Masters 1
Retro
275
None

Police/firefighter
Retro
275
None

Masters pure
Retro
275
None

balancing weightlifting, work, and eating

Today i had a break through on my snatch form. My strength is still low from the 7 weeks off from training. But thanks to the breakthrough on my form i hit an 84k snatch. That's less than i was lifting in April, but I'll get back to my old numbers eventually.

I've been working 12-16 hours every day since June 6th. My first day off will be July 6th. That's over a month of 92 hour work weeks. Obviously exhaustion has a lot to do with my strength returning so slowly. My wife is pushing for me to work a lot of overtime so we can get enough of a down payment for a new home so that we can move. At first i was willing, but now I'm having 2nd thoughts. I've been working 80-90 hour work weeks non-stop since 2006. I'm tired. I'd like to have a normal life, more time with the kids, and more sleep. I know my wife wants to move off prison grounds and move back to Albuquerque so she can be closer to her parents, but I'm happy where we're at. I really enjoy my career, i like living on prison grounds, i enjoy living in Santa Fe more than I've ever enjoyed living anywhere else, i love the church we go to, and I love weightlifting at the Miller Gym. If we moved to Albuquerque all that would change. I'm not sure i want to change things. With the exception of the amount of hours I've been asked to work I've never been this happy. Where I'm at now is where I'm happiest, why kill myself to leave?

I have two workout buddies, Kevin Y. and Heather,  who were incuraging me to start logging my food on My Fitness pal. Logging my food is helping my diet a lot. I've gone 27 days without binge eating. That's getting pretty close to the longest I've gone without destructive eating since i fell off the wagon back in 2012.  I've lost a little weight, 10 pounds or so. But this time my goal isn't to lose weight.  It's just to eat relatively healthy and avoid binge eating. Losing some weight this month is probably another reason my strength is rebounding so slowly. Haha, that's a tough one: lose weight and look better and be healthier or be strong?