The RKU 1st annual invitational weightlifting meet

On 12/15/18 my son and I completed in the RKU 1st annual weightlifting invitational.

My son is 11 and weighed in at 30.6k. He went 5/6 and lifted a 15/21/36. His clean and jerk was a lifetime best.

I weighed in at 138.8k. I lifted in the 40-44 AG SHW division. I lifted lifetime best lifts of 101/128/229. I took 1st place in my division. My clean and jerk was high enough to break the New Mexico state record if we had lifted in New Mexico instead of Texas.

2018 LWC New Mexico weightlifting state championships report

Saturday June 30th 2018 I lost my first ever weightlifting state championships (state games) to Carlos Wendler (picture below). He had a 104/127/231. I made a 96/126/222. My lifetime best snatch was a 100. I went for a 101 and missed it. But it was close so that made me feel better. I made a lifetime best 126 clean and jerk Even if I made lifetime best at both lifts he'd still have beaten me by 4k. So the better man definitely won. I set a new state record in the clean and jerk. But he followed me and nailed a 127k, so he'll go down in the record books as the record holder.

 It was a great day that was equally heart breaking. My entire year's goal of being the first man in New Mexico to win all 4 state championships, NASA, USPA, USAPL, and weightlifting is over. So I'm ready to get back to training. Huge shout out to my current and former coaches Vernon Smith-Moore, Joaquin Chavez, and nutrition coach Barry Schroeder. I've lost 80lbs, become stronger, faster, more athletic, healthier, happier, and sexier 😅. You guys are more than just coaches. Your a friend, life mentor, and selfless. I couldn't have gotten to where I'm at without you guys. But the adventure isn't over yet. Next year I'll come back better and sexier than ever. #oldmanstrength

The 2018 youth and master's championships report

On Saturday I competed in the Youth and Master's New Mexico state championships. I set a meet best and state record snatch of 100k. I've been chasing 100k since 2013. 5 flipping years! I finally got that son-of-a-gun. Such a wonderful day.

My son set state records in the snatchs clean and jerkj and total. He also qualified for the American Open Series and the youth national championships! After less than a year of training he has qualified for as many national championships as I have in a half decade of training and competing☺ At only ten years of age he's better than me. And I couldn't be happier about it.

 And pictured below are two of my Bear Canyon CrossFit team mates who spent the whole day warming me up and coaching me. I couldn't be more greatfull.

The 2017 New Mexico games weightlifting report

91/117/208k
BW 148.8k

Today I competed in the 2017 New Mexico games. This meet is the state championships for weightlifting. I'd won the last three years in my age group and weight class. This year I wasn't expecting to do very well. I was out for 6 months with a non-weightlifting related back injury. I've only been back to training for three and a half weeks.

When I first got there I was so happy. I saw all my current teammates, teammates from my former gym, and other weightlifting buddies I've made over the last 5 years. I love weightlifting so much. A lot of the reason is the people. The only person I didn't get to see who I was looking forward to seeing was David B from my old gym. He and I lifted at the same time the full 3.5 years I lifted in Santa Fe. I absolutely adore him and his wife. They're great people who I miss seeing and training with.

Pictured below is my former coach Shane Miller and my current coach Joaquin Chaves. I love both these guys so much. They are more than just friends and mentors.

 I also was lucky enough to be able to get a picture with my current coach, former coach, and my former nutrition coach Barry Schroeder. I'm going to have this picture framed and I'm going to hang it in with my families pictures. Barry was the one who was my motivation to get into weightlifting long ago and he took me under his wing and taught me about weightlifting specific nutrition.

The last couple weeks I haven't been able to snatch anything more than 86k. I only made 84k two out of 7 attempts. Coach Joaquin Chaves told me he wanted to start out at 90k. I begged him to let me start at 74k. He told me he wanted me to start out at 84 at least. He said he knew I could get a 90 easy. Long story short, I made 3 good lifts for the snatch. 84/88/91. Even after 6 months away from weightlifting I was able to get within 9k of my lifetime best snatch of 100k. Coach Chavez was right. I made 91k easy. No problem at all. I need to trust him. He knows my ability more than I do. Anytime I ever doubt him I always find out he was right. 

The clean and jerks felt great also. I made a 114k/117k and missed a 121. There was no reason at all for me to have missed the 121. I pulled it high enough. I just had that same pause at the knee that I usually do with my snatches.

I've noticed the last few weeks my strength has come back quickly. But it's taking me longer to recover between sets than it used to. I never told coach Chaves I wasn't recovering as quickly. I also never told him during the meet that to do well I'd need more time between lifts. But he knew. And after every set he'd change my weight two or three times to buy me extra recovery time. Thanks in large part to my coach I finished 1st in my age group and weight class. This was the fourth straight year I was state champion. But this time it was just plain luck. I was the only one in my division competing.

Now that I'm back into the weightlifting game my next goal is to qualify for the 2018 masters national weightlifting championships that will be held in Buffalo NY. I'll need a 230k total. That's only 22k more than my total today. That gives me plenty of time.

It's been 6.5 months since my last sports competition. That was the longest I'd gone without competing since 2004. I missed competition. My next sporting event is the New Mexico games track and field on June 24th. Its going to be held at Milne stadium in Albuquerque New Mexico. Thats within walking distance of my house!

USA weightlifting website and my results

I recieved and email from USA Weightlifting telling me my latest weightlifting meet had been entered into thier website. I'd never had that happen before. So I logged on and I found that thier website has been revamped since I was last on there. It seems easier to navigate. I found all my past weightlifting meets results, bodyweight, etc. I thought it might be fun to post all my results here. From here on I'll put all my meets and results at the bottom of every weightlifting meet results that I blog about.

12) Farewell to Ski
10/29/16
Weight: 142.69k
98(PR)/125(PR)/223 (PR)

11) NM Games
5/21/16
Weight: 142.77k
97(PR)/122(PR)/219 (PR)

10) High Dessert Spring Invite
4/24/16
Bodyweight: 142.6k
95(PR)/ 120(PR)/215(PR)

9) HDAC Spring Break Invite
3/12/16
Bodyweight: 143.8k
91/116(PR)/212(PR)

8) John Davis memorial Invitational 2
1/16/16
Bodyweight: 143k
91(PR)/112/203(PR)

7) Lift Outside the box Invitational
10/17/15
Bodyweight: 143k
87/115(PR)/202(PR)

6) NM Games
7/19/15
Bodyweight: 131.57k
87(PR)/108(PR)/195(PR)

5) The Miller Gym Anniversary invite
4/25/15
Bodyweight: 132.76k
86(PR)/105/191(PR)

4) The John Davis memorial invite
1/24/15
Bodyweight: 136.26k
83(PR)/107(PR)/190(PR)

3) The Jodi Invitational
11/9/14
Bodyweight: 140.83k
79(PR)/103(PR)/182(PR)

2) The Miller Gym Inaugural-The Kevin
7/26/14
Bodyweight: 133.83k
76(PR)/100(PR)/176(PR)

1) The NM games
5/17/14
Bodyweight 128
65(PR)/89(PR)/153(PR)

Farewell to Ski weightlifting meet report

Today I lifted in the "Farewell to Ski" weightlifting meet. The meet was comimorated to the life of hall of fame weightlifter Norbert Schemanski who died earlier this year. It was held at High Dessert Athletic Club in Albuquerque New Mexico.

 I weighed in at 143.69k. Thanks to my nutrition coach Barry Schroeder.

My snatches have felt strong, fast, and I've had the best form of my life. Even on warm ups I felt unbelievable!
-My first lift was a 94k. Easy.
-My 2nd lift was a 98k. Easy. It also set a new NM masters 105k+ 40-44ag state record.
-My third attempt was a 101k. It felt so easy I felt I may have over pulled it. So I didn't finish my 2nd pull and I missed the lift. Even though I missed it I was still really happy. It felt so easy! I should have made that lift. Actually, I could have made a heavier lift. I've never missed a lift and been so happy! I'm sure I'm good for a 102-104k. That makes me happy.

Next up was the clean and jerks. I was cleaning great during warm ups. But my jerks were atrocious. I missed a practice 115k jerk. I barely made a 119k clean and jerk on my last practice attempt.
-My first clean and jerk of the tournament was 120k. I cleaned it super easy. I barely made the jerk. Coach asked me if I wanted to go for a 123 or a 125k C&J. I said 123k. He told the volunteers, "put on 125k".
-I cleaned it easy. I missed the jerk. I wasn't even close!! I had one more attempt of 125. The state record  is 122k.
-on my third attempt the weight landed to far forward. It rolled a little down my delts and my back arched forward. Somehow I was able to roll the weight back and straighten my back. At that point i was stuck sitting in the hole. But somehow I was able to stand up with it! Standing up after landing in such a bad position took a lot of effort. If I was going to make the jerk it was going to have to be because of great form, because i blew all my energy with the clean. All I kept thinking was keep my elbows high! Keep my elbows high! And after I dipped and threw the weight up as fast & explosive as i could, it was a good lift!!!! If it would have been 125.1 i wouldn't have been able ti do it. It was that close! That was the absolute most i could have jerked. It was a lifetime PR and a state record by 3k!

Overall I set 3 new state records of 98k/125k/223k. I missed qualifying for the masters national championships by 7k. But I don't mind at all. This was the best weightlifting meet of my life. Not only by the amount of weight lifted, and state records, b

ut also by how great I felt in the snatches, and how great my effort was in the clean and jerks.

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!

The 2016 HDAC Spring Break Invitational Weightlifting meet report

On March 12th 2016 I competed in the HDAC Spring Break Invitational Weightlifting meet. I decided to do this meet last minute,  so I didn't taper. Even without a taper I knew I was much stronger than I was at my last weightlifting meet thanks to having worked with a nutrition coach from Oct-Feb. But during the last 18 months or so I haven't been able to conect any of my strength or speed increases to any decent lifts at meets. As a matter of a fact, I missed qualifying for the masters national weightlifting championships 8 times in the last 27 months.

I took my youngest son to his basketball tournament before my weightlifting meet. The game ran longer than I expected so I didn't have time to grab any food. I was worried about running out of energy after my snatches from not having food.

I felt great during warm ups. That was the first time in almost 18 months that I'd felt good and had decent form warming up for a weightlifting meet.

Coach Shane Miller set my first snatch at 86k. I made it easy. 2nd lift was a 91k. Shane told me if i made that lift i could attempt anything i wanted on my third. 2nd attempt was successful. On the third attempt I couldn't decide to go 96k or 98k. Shane said if I hit a 96 today I could shoot for a 100k at the next meet. I nailed the 96k no problem. Now that i nailed the 96k snatch I only had to lift a 111k clean and jerk to qualify for the ever elusive masters national weightlifting championships!

After the three snatches I started to warm up for the clean and jerk. I was running out of energy without anything to eat. A team mate of mine offered me a bagel. Man did that taste so good! My energy returned. He and his bagel probably saved my meet!

I was successful at my 1st and 2nd clean and jerks of 108k and 111k. The 111k qualified me for the masters national weightlifting championships!!!!!

Coach gave me the green light to attempt a 116k clean and jerk. A 116k would be a meet PR and tie a lifetime PR. I was successful! This was the first 6 for 6 meet I'd had in over a year and a half. It felt great to finally leave a meet feeling like I lifted to my full potential. I ended up breaking all 3 of the masters New Mexico state records, and of course qualifying for the master national weightlifting championships!

I'm going to see if coach Miller will let me lift again here in Santa Fe on April 23rd. I'd really like to attempt a 100k snatch and a 120k clean and jerk! Then after the April 23rd weightlifting meet I'm going to compete in the April 30th NASA N

The 2nd annual John Davis memorial weightlifting meet report, January 16th 2016

Yesterday, January 16th 2016, I competed in The 2nd annual John Davis memorial weightlifting meet. I was needing a successful meet to qualify for the 2016 master's national weightlifting championships. I failed. Again. It's been my ultimate goal for the last 19 months to qualify. And no matter how amazing training has been, no matter how much more weight I've been lifting in practice, my meets have been dismal, and the master's national weightlifting championships have eluded me.

I hit a 100k snatch in training a few weeks ago. I BARELY lifted a 91k snatch at today's meet. Since I only lifted a 91k snatch I HAD to successfully lift a 116k clean and jerk on my last attempt. I missed it. I missed it badly. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't broken hearted. I know, there's very little worse than a sore loser, so I'm trying like hell to not make this a pity party. But crap. This sucks. I could hit a 230k total in practice, but can't hit a 207k in a meet? Seriously!?! I'm pissed about how crappy i lifted, that i missed qualifying for the national championships for the 6th time, that my peak was three weeks before my meet, that my third lifts were 91 & 116 so i had to go 6 for 6 to qualify, and also that I was the heaviest person competing there today. I was the heaviest by more than 70 pounds! That would be understandable if I was one of the strongest or most muscular lifters there, but I'm not even close.

My top lifts of the day was:
91k snatch
112k clean and jerk
203 total

On a positive note, I love weightlifting more than any other sport I've ever tried. I'd be happy training the rest of my life in weightlifting. A successful meet is just icing on the cake. But its been a long time since I've had a successful meet. A very long time.

May 2015 got sick the week of the meet
July 2015 sick again!
Oct 2015 missed a snatch I've hit in practice dozens of times
Jan 2016 missed an easy jerk

My last decent meet was 12 months ago. The good news is I get to train on Monday. Did I mention how much I love to workout when it's weightlifting?

the 2015 Lift Outside The Box weightlifting meet report

Today i competed in the 2015 Lift Outside The Box weightlifting meet at The Miller gym in Santa Fe New Mexico. The day started off horrible,  i weighed in at 143k. I knew i was gaining weight,  but dang. I've put on 15k in the last three months.

Today I had one goal and one goal only, to qualify for the Masters weightlifting national championships. To do that i needed to successfully lift a 91k snatch, 116k clean and jerk, for a 207 total.

The first two lifts of an 82k and an 87k snatch were successful, but i knew i was in trouble. On every attempt i was doing power snatches. I didn't drop below the bar once. When i went for the 91k snatch same thing, i didn't squat. 91k was just too much weight for me to lift successfully without decent form. I did a push out, no lift.

On the clean and jerks i lifted a 106, 110, 115. The 115k broke the New Mexico state record by 7k. I also set a clean and jerk and total PR, but i missed qualifying for the Masters weightlifting national championships again. I got closer this time,  but i was still 5k from qualifying. i have one more shot in January to qualify for the national championships.

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.

The Miller Gym's 1st Anniversary Invitational Weightlifting Meet report

I haven't felt much like blogging recently. But I don't want to leave my last meet unblogged, so it'll be short and to the point.

Last week I competed in The Miller Gym's 1st Anniversary Invitational Weightlifting Meet. Before the meet I'd been on vacation and then I got sick. I missed a total of three weeks of training. Getting sick was my fault, my stupidity. It takes a long time to build up the ability to withstand a lot of training volume, especially when your 39 years old. I was pushing it, training to frequently. 

I went 5 for 6. I lifted an 80/84/86 in the snatch and a 100/106/ and missed my last attempt at 110k clean and jerk. The 86 snatch was a PR and a state record, I also set a state record with a 192k total. In the 15 months I've been weightlifting I've set 9 state records. 

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.

"the Jody" invitational weightlifting meet Santa Fe NM November 9, 2014

Today I competed in "the Jody" weightlifting competition at The Miller gym in Santa Fe NM. This was my third weightlifting competition. My previous one was in July. Since the weightlifting tournament in July I've been struggling. My technical lifts hadn't gone up at all. Today I felt sure I wasn't going to be able to lift as much as I had at the last meet, which was a 76k snatch, 100k clean and jerk, a 176k total. My coach Shane Miller gave me a great motivational talk before my third and final snatch attempt. He told me to attempt a 79k snatch. 79k was higher than anything I'd accomplished in training, and MUCH greater than I felt I could make today. But if there's one thing I've learned in almost a year of Olympic weightlifting is ALWAYS trust Shane Miller. Shane is ALWAYS right. I nailed the 79k snatch which was a PR! After that I felt strong and confident and went 3 for 3 on my clean and jerks setting a lifetime personal best of 103k!

My next competition will be in January. If all continues to progress as it has been under Shane's tutelage I'll break the105k+ 40-44 age group New Mexico state record by over 100lbs.

"The Kevin" weightlifting competition July 26th 2014 (with video)

On July 26th 2014 I competed in "The Kevin" olympic weightlifting competition at Miller weightlifting in Santa Fe New Mexico. I took Friday night off from work to be sure I'd be well rested and ready to lift. I'd already blogged about the morning of my competition, if your interested read the post before this one.

I was broken hearted at the weigh in. I weighed in at 133k, which is 294 pounds. I had been losing weight for about a week, but that went to crap, obviously. As of this morning I weighed more than I ever have in my life. I'm not ok with that.

I didn't feel nervous at all before this event, which was progress. At my 1st weightlifting competition 8 weeks ago I was a nervous wreck. Rise Miller worked with another athlete by the name of  Danny and myself. He put us through all our warm ups and corrected any bad form we had. He did an amazing job, especially considering he's only 15 years old.

I made all 6 of my lifts. For the snatch I started at 66k, which is amazing because my opening lift was higher than my best lift at the New Mexico games 8 weeks ago. I ended up getting to a competition best snatch of 76 k, which was only 2k away from my lifetime best.

For the clean and jerk my opening lift was 90k, which was higher than my best lift at the New Mexico games. After my 2nd lift my coach, Shane Miller of Miller weightlifting knew I was having a great day of lifting. Coming into this competition my lifetime best clean and jerk was 98k, which I did a couple weeks ago, and it took me 6 tries to get it. So you could imagine how surprised I was when Shane asked if I wanted to try 100k for my final lift of the competition. I felt there was no way I could make that lift, but I didn't want to seem like a sissy to my coach so when he asked I said ok. It must have been all force of will, but I made the lift setting a new lifetime PR!!!

My best lift total so far had been 154k. At this competition, just 8 weeks later I crushed my old best putting up a 176k, 22k more! My total is now only 31k away from qualifying for the masters PanAm championships!!!

Thanks for sending me this video of my 1st ever 100k clean and jerk Kim!

the 2014 New Mexico games: weightlifting

The 2014 New Mexico games weightlifting competition was an all around awesome experience and a perfect event for someone who is lifting in their first competition. There was so much going on, so many people involved in the experience, and so many emotions involved that I seriously doubt I'll be able to explain in one post how wonderful the event truly was. I was a nervous wreck the night before the meet. I realized this was going to be nothing at all like any of the 86 triathlons and duathlons I'd competed in before. This was all new and somewhat overwhelming territory I was in. I ended up contacting the best female American super heavy weight Sarah Robles and top female 69k lifter Jenny Lyvette Arthur on twitter. Both of them were quick to respond with support and suggestions. I was kind of in awe. In no other sport in America outside of weightlifting could an athlete get an almost immediate response from a top level pro to give support to a newbie in their sport. Think Tom Brady, Michael Phelps, Kobe Bryant, or George St Pierre would have responded to a stranger claiming to be competing in their first game in the morning and asking for advise? Nope. 

A very experienced lifter, Dominick Ferris, decided to drive up with me the morning of the competition. I was so very grateful for the company. He was great at keeping the conversation going and keeping my mind off of being nervous. (Dominick ended up being the top lifter of the day).

Thanks to a detour on the interstate we got to UNM with only 10 minutes to spare until weigh in. And then of course finding parking was difficult, so by the time I walked into the UNM weight room I was freaked out that I was going to miss weigh ins. Turns out the 1st group of lifting ran late so i had plenty of time to wait.

All the other lifters I met were awesome. I'm a chatty guy before races, tournaments, and meets. Part of it is nervous energy, some of it is that I love the life style of competition, but mostly I just really love people. So there I was bouncing around from person to person starting small conversations with people I'd never met before but would be doing something with them that is, in my mind, special. As i was talking to the other lifters I found out that there were only 3 athletes lifting in the 105+. Each of the three 105+  were in a different age group, so as long as each of us got a single snatch and clean and jerk we'd all get a gold medal. I was the 2nd lifter to lift in the 2nd session which comprised of the 94k, 105k, and the 105k+. When i walked out onto the lifting platform I just about had a heart attack. Every judge, spectator, athlete, and coach was looking right at me. That was COMPLETELY different than I was used to at a triathlon. It rattled me. I got so nervous it was ridiculous! I actually froze half way to the platform and stared out at the audience. Coach Shane Miller actually had to tell me from the side lines, "It's ok Cody, go on, you got this."

Even though coach Miller had me start out with an opening lift that was ridiculously easy, 60k, i was still amazed I made the first snatch with how nervous I was. My form was horrendous. My shoulders didn't stay over the bar long enough, the bar swung out away from my body, I didn't pull long enough to get the weight up high enough, and I started to drop into the squat position too soon. After the 1st lift was successful I calmed down a bunch.

By the 2nd snatch of 65k I'd calmed enough to be better at concentration of form. But I wasn't expecting the adrenaline to make me so strong! I pulled that weight up so high and back so much farther than I ever have before that I ended up not able to catch the bar, the weight went flying one way, and I fell the opposite direction landing right on my butt!

On the 3rd snatch I repeated 65k. I was expecting the adrenaline and was able to make a good lift. It felt easy.

Clean and jerks are my weakest event so I was nervous again and doubting myself. On my 1st clean and jerk I tried to force myself to stay calm, but I made the mistake of putting all of my focus on ignoring the crowd and trying to stay in the moment. I totally forgot to think about the lift at all. Thanks to muscle memory I made my 1st attempt which was 80k. It was an ugly lift, but it was ruled good by the 3 judges.

The 2nd clean and jerk was 84k, which was only 3k below my lifetime PR. I made the lift relatively easy.

On my 3rd clean and jerk i attempted 89k, which was 2k above my lifetime PR. I'll tell you now I love adrenaline in regards to weightlifting! I lifted that bar up like it was nothing!!!!

I ended up succeeding at 5 of my 6 lifts and taking 1st place in my division of 35-39 age group in the 105+ weight class and setting a clean and jerk lifetime personal best lift!!!! It was a good day.