The New Mexico Games and The State Games of America

I've competed in The New Mexico games in the sport of weightlifiting the last 4 years in a row. The New Mexico games were considered the weightlifiting state championships here in New Mexico. I knew The New Mexico games had numerous sports in the games. Everything from Archery, arm wrestling, badminton, baseball, BMX, pickleball, weightlifting, track and field, basketball, beach volleyball, indoor volleyball, Beach wrestling, bowling, Bocce, Judo, & more. I never took the time to find out what the state games are. While investigating my next powerlifting competition I found more state games in Colorado. I found out that there is something called the State Games of America. It's an Olympic style competition of many sports that happens every other year. And the cities that host the State Games of America Changes each time also. In 2017 over 200,000 athletes over 50+ sports competed in the state games. I'm thinking of trying to qualify for the State Games of America at the Rocky Mountain State Games on July 21st in Colorado Springs CO. If I qualify the next State Games of America will be in Lynchburg Virginia July31st- Aug 4, 2019.

Starting training again

A few days ago I bid for my shift/days off/post for the next 7 months at my new career. I'm going to start training for sports again after my new post starts. Depending on what my hours were going to be would determine if I was going to train for weightlifting or powerlifting. My new schedule works really well for powerlifting, and doesn't fit the hours for weightlifting at all. I called up powerlifting coach Rich Kahle out of Las Cruces New Mexico and asked him to start coaching me again. He agreed. We start on March 29th. I will also be training for track and field too. Between powerlifting and track I'll be training 7 days a week. I haven't trained 7 days a week since 2011 when I was a hard core triathlete. It looks like my tentative schedule will be:

Powerlifting on Monday's, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays. 

Track on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The New Mexico Track and Field state championships will be held on June 24th and the NASA New Mexico state powerlifting championships will be held on April 29th. That doesn't give me much time to train for either of these. But even if I do poorly I can use those performances as a starting point. 

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.

last heavy weightlifting day before the NM games

I work nights and sleep during the day. Yesterday I wasn't able to sleep because my neighbors were blasting music. This morning I was forced to work a 16 hour shift at the prison. After my shift I slept for 2 1/2 hours, then woke up and went to the gym. I was exhausted, but I didn't want to miss the last heavy training session before my first olympic weightlifting competition, The NM games, which will be held this Saturday. I'll wear my old NM outlaws triathlon bib for the competition. I trained in it today, it was tight, but it worked. Next time I post I'll let you know how my competition went. Thanks for tuning in.

a new weightlifting phase and wifes blood pressure

Yesterday my weightlifting coach placed me into a new phase. This phase rotates 3 days. Each focuses on something different from form, volume, or maximum lifts. I'm very excited. Every week I'm getting stronger. 20 days left until the New Mexico games!

Today I did a Metcon workout called death by meters. It was brutal. Here's how its done: Two cones/medicine balls will be set up 10 meters apart from one another- the 1st min. you will run 1 apart from one another- the 1st min. you will run 1 10 meter, the 2nd min. you will run 2 10 meters, (from 1st cone/medicine ball to 2nd cone/medicine). The 3rd minute you will run 3 10 meter (from 1st cone/medicine ball to 2nd cone/medicine ball and back) and so forth until you cannot ball and back) and so forth until you cannot complete the appropriate 10 meters in the allotted complete the appropriate 10 meters in the allotted time.

The last week my wife has had debilitating migraines. Last night we checked her blood pressure and it was 157 over 121. The diastolic number was high enough she was in danger of a stroke. She spent last night at the emergency room. Thankfully our new Warden is a good man. Warden Franco approved me to be off from work all week in case I need to take my wife back to the emergency room.

week 4 of Olympic weightlifting and weight loss

Today I start my 4th week of Olympic weightlifting. The last 3 weeks I've mostly been training to learn correct form, yet my strength is still gaining quickly. The first 3 weeks my coach Shane Miller, had me doing power snatches and power cleans from the knee, dead lifts, presses, squats, etc. This week my coach is going to have me start doing power snatches and power cleans from the ground. I'm excited about progressing to this next phase of Olympic weightlifting.

So far my weight loss has been progressing quickly and effortlessly. During the 7 years of hard core dieting and triathlon training I learned my body responded much better to weight loss if I dieted for a few weeks, then spent a week maintaining my weight. In the first 2 weeks I'd been averaging 2,500 calories a day and I lost 12 pounds. For the 3rd week of Olympic weightlifting I raised my calories to 3,400 and maintained my weight of 268.8 for the entire week. This week I'll be returning to a calorie restricted, high protein and fat, moderate carbohydrate diet. I'm going to try and keep my weight loss at about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pounds a week. If I stay consistent with this schedule I should hit my goal of being in the masters 105k class by May, just in time for the New Mexico state games.