post competition hunger

I'm not nearly as sore today as I usually am the day after a weightlifting meet. But I'm hungrier than lice on a wig. I'm WAY more hungry than I usually am, even post meet. My muscles are really tired, not sore, but definitely tired. Coach Joaquin saw the fatigue and told me he's not going to let me squat the rest of the week so I'm prepared for my powerlifting meet this weekend. That's a fantastic coach right there. He knows my goals and adjusts things right away.

The 2016 High Dessert Spring invite weightlifting report

Today I competed in the 2016 HDAC Spring invite. I wasn't expecting to do well because I've been learning different weightlifting form for 2 weeks at a new weightlifting gym and a new coach. I think the new form is perfect for me, but until I have more time practicing the new form I was afraid there would be a bit of a learning curve. Plus yesterday I helped a friend move his powerlifting gym to a new location so my body was sore and fatigued from moving thousands of pounds of weight and equipment.

Somehow I still pulled off a 95k snatch which is only 1k below my all time best. For the clean and jerk I lifted a 120k on my third attempt, a 4k PR. It was also a New Mexico state record. My total was a 215k, also a New Mexico state record!

my first meet after a new coach and gym

I have a weightlifting meet this weekend. I've only been at my new weightlifting gym, High Dessert Athletic Club learning new and completely different form for a couple weeks. I think learning new form will eventually benifit my weightlifting, but I'm guessing there'll be a learning curve. I suspect I'll get worse for a while before I get better. I have no idea what to expect on Saturday. Best case scenario I reach the HUGE milestone of the 100's in the snatch and the 120's in the clean and jerk. Worst case scenario I don't lift well but I get more experience competing in weightlifting. It's a win win. A bit of a nerve racking experience, but a win win none the less.

6 days after the weightlifting meet I'll be competing in my third powerlifting meet, the New Mexico NASA state powerlifting championships. If all goes as expected I'll set 11 NASA national records, 11 state NASA records, and be the New Mexico state champion. The New Mexico NASA state powerlifting championships will be held on April 30th. Which is the last day I'll be employed by the state. On May 1st I'll be a retired correctional officer. Setting national and state records, what a great way to celebrate!

my new job makes me feel I'm being immoral

I'm being trained for my new job. Its a great paying job with incredible benifits. At first I thought I'd love this job, but as I'm learning more about it I've realized I'm not very comfortable with what I'm being asked to do there. They're telling me I need to confiscate people's personal property if they enter a certain area. Even if there are loop holes in the law that allows me to do it I just don't think it's right. I feel it violates Americans rights against illegal search and seizure. They're also telling me that I can detain people, by hamdcuffing them if necessary, until law enforcement arrives to arrest them. But I know in many areas if i detain someone without the legal right to arrest them I'd be guilty of false arrest and false imprisonment. My new employers aren't telling us what the laws are or if we'd be breaking the law doing what they are asking me to do. And since I'm a contract employee, not an employee of that agency I could be arrested or even sued personally.

Tomorrow after training I'm submitting a job aplication for one of my two dream jobs, ABF. This is the third time in the last year I've applied for this job.

figuring this weightlifting stuff out!

Today was the first time I felt like I knew what I was doing in regards to weightlifting. It's such a complicated sport! Today i even received a bunch of "atta boy Cody!" &"that was great" & "exactly like that"! Felt dang good. I'm thinking I'll hit 100k, 120k, 220k soon.

re-hiring my nutrition coach

The best results I've ever had weightlifting was when I was working with a nutrition coach. Usually when a person loses weight they lose strength too. The crazy thing was I was losing 2-3 pounds every week and STILL making unbelievable speed and strength gains.

I asked my former nutrition coach Barry Schroeder if he'd be willing to work with me again after I'm done training for my new career. He agreed. The major change I'm going to ask for compared to the last time we worked together is I occasionally want to stop losing weight and get onto a diet to maintain my weight. Trying to lose 80 pounds nonstop was just to overwhelming. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. After a couple months I'd lost 19 pounds, which was great. But dieting and being hungry for another 32 weeks just wasn't going to happen. I decided  I'd rather give up than suffer through that. This time i want to diet for a month, then eat a maintenance diet for a week. That would be much easier. That would make for more frequent goals to work for with the reward of being able to eat more at the end of that successful goal. By my estimation if I lose 10 pounds a month with a week of maintaining in between that will get me to my goal of 235 pounds in 10 months.

different form, state records, and national records

My first week training High Dessert Athletic Club I thought my form was bad and needed a lot of corrections. Now I've realized it's not that my form was poor, it's that the club I was at then and the club I'm at now teach different technique of the snatch and clean and jerk. Much different.

I'm learning the new technique quickly, but I'm pretty sure there will be a learning curve for me. I'll get worse for awhile before I get better.

My next competition will be at High Dessert Athletic Club on April 24th. I'm hoping to break the three state records I set in March of 96k, 116k, 212k.

 Then on April 30th, 6 days later, I'll be competing in the NASA New Mexico state championships powerlifting meet. If I compete well I'll set or break 11 national and state records in the following divisions for the SHW 40-44 ag:
1) power press- police
2) power press- open
3) power press- pure
4) power sports- pure
5) power sports- police
6) power sports- master 1
7) Unequiped push/pull- pure
8) Unequiped push/pull- police
9) Unequiped powerlifting- police
10) Unequiped bench- police
11) equipped powerlifting- open

working two jobs

May 1st will be my last day working at the prison, then i retire. Saturday was my first day of training for my new job. I'm attending training for my new career on my days off and in between shift of the prison. Between the penitentiary and my new job I'll be working 68 hours from Monday to Friday, plus 7 1/2 hours of drive time. Busy and exciting times.

My new career I'll be security for the federal buildings. I'll be spending the majority of my day walking or standing. It hurts being on my feet that many hours a day being as heavy as I am now. I need to lose some weight.

hardcore weightlifting at High Dessert Athletic Club in Albuquerque

Today I was still sore after two days of rest and recovery. My new coach is kicking my butt! It's pretty awesome. I've never been this sore from olympic style weightlifting before. I think this is what it would be like training with the Russians national weightlifting team.

Since I've started training at High Dessert Athletic Club with Juaquin in Albuquerque I've learned one very valuable lesson. Do the form right. Seriously. Because if I don't get it right I'll be doing that one rep over and over again until I do get it right. My first heavy set of 5 reps today turned into a set of 11 reps. By the end of the set I was drenched in sweat, my legs felt like they were on fire, and my arms were shaking. Apparently it's a good way to teach because I'll never forget how to do snatcg deadlifts again. It's BURNED into my brain, my legs, and arms. Seared into my muscle memory by lactic acid, sweat, and tears!

The training at HDAC has been so intense I started taking creatine monohydrate again to speed up my recovery. Seriously,  this is flippin' unbelievable. I've never trained like this before. It's awesome. Unbelievably awesome. 

form corrections

Recently I completed my 2nd day of training at High Dessert Athletic Club  (HDAC). Juaquin broke down and corrected my form in almost every exercise I did: snatch deadlifts, snatch pulls from the knees, cleans, jerks, and even back squats which I thought was great at. Oympic style weightlifting is mostly form, so I'm motivated and excited to fix my form deficiencies. Fixing my form will benifit my weightlifting quicker than speed or strength increases. But I'm also being pushed hard at HDAC. Really hard! So I'll also be putting on a tremendous amount of speed and strength while creating great form. The combination of those three will be exciting to experience. I was worried when I moved away from Santa Fe that I'd have to give up weightlifting. But so far I'm a happy weightlifter! I do have one big regret though. The best weightlifting increases I've ever made was late 2015 through February of this year when I had hired a nutrition coach. I can't help thinking, what kind of massive increases would I be making if I was still working with him? 

a new weightlifting gym

Now that I've moved away from Santa Fe I had to find a new weightlifting gym. There's not many weightlifting gyms in the U.S. There's even fewer with decent coaching. Moving to another city is usually weightlifting suicide. But thankfully New Mexico is a weightlifting meca. There's two great weightlifting coaches in this state. Only two you might ask? That's two more than most states have. Weightlifting is a fringe sport in America. It's growing in popularity, but there's still not a ton of interest, and even fewer decent coaches. In New Mexico the two great coaches I know of are my former coach Shane Miller of Miller weightlifting in Santa Fe and my new coach Juaquin Chaves of High Dessert Athletic Club (HDAC) in Albuquerque.

I'm going to miss my old coach like heck. He's a great man and  great coach. I was worried when I told him I wasn't going to be able to train with him and that I wanted to train at another weightlifting gym. His response was so supportive.

crazy busy

The last two weeks have been the busiest two weeks of my life.
- We purchased a new home in Albuquerque New Mexico and we moved.
-We sold our mobile home on penitentiary grounds.
- i filled out the paperwork to retire on April 30th 2016 after 21 years of service!
- I applied for a job in Albuquerque and was hired. As soon as i get approved for top secret clearance I'll go through 120 hours of training. Then I'll start my my new job.