Deadlift test day at Bear Canyon CrossFit

On Saturday I competed in a powerlifting competition. My top deadlift at the meet was a lifetime best of 479lbs. On Tuesday my CrossFit gym was having a deadlift test day. If I finished in the top 5 of the entire gym then my name would be put on a board that hangs in the gym for an entire year. It had only been three days since my Powerlifting meet so I was sore and felt beat up. But somehow I set another lifetime best deadlift of 495lbs. And the craziest thing, I did this after having lost 43lbs, and I felt like I could have gone higher! Usually people loose streangth when they loose weight. But I've been loosing weight by using a website called Avatar Nutrition and flexible dieting. It's awesome. I love it. I especially love the price, $9.99 a month.

Bear Canyon CrossFit test day

One of the gyms I train at has two boards hanging on the wall. Each board has the top 5 athletes of each lift, benchmark workout, or hero WOD. They only test for these boards once a year. If you make top five athlete in that event then your name's up there for a full 12 months. Since starting to go to this gym I've been staring at these boards everyday in envy. I want my name up on one of those boards! Yesterday was squat testing. Squats are one of the things I'm best at. I assumed I'd squat in the high 300's. Some how I did a 440lb squat! I tied a lifetime PR! That amazed me. I've only been back to training for 6 weeks! That bodes well for me and the USPA New Mexico state powerlifting  championships. The video is below.

We also did the benchmark workout Isabel. Which is 30 snatches of 135lbs for time. I finished all 30 in 4 minutes 1 second. That was huge for me. I wasn't fast. But it was the first WOD I was able to do at RX. So it meant a lot to me.

Christmas and dieting

I did everything I needed to prepare to eat well on Christmas eve and Christmas. I made and logged all my food. I brought all my prepared food with me to my in-laws house. But once I saw all the amazing food I fell off the diet wagon somethin' horrible! This morning I was frustrated. I was close to giving upon dieting and just staying obese the rest of my life. For breakfast I ate exactly what I wasn't supposed to, cinnamon toast with butter. Eating like that is exactly what got me to 318 pounds. Then I went to the gym and set a lifetime personal best snatch of 100k! In the last 3 months I've put 12k onto my snatch. The most I'd put on in the same period before this was 5k. I realize the gains I've made is because the diet my sports nutrition coach put me on and that I almost gave up on. Talk about motivation! Once I got home I ate a healthy and moderate servings of baked sweet potato and chicken breast.

a full weekend!

This Saturday I'll be competing in my first powerlifting meet put on by NASA. I'm right on the line between two weight classes, the 275-307lb division and the 307lb+ division. I've decided I'm going to lift in the 308lb division. My walking around weight is around 305 so I'll need to eat a decent meal and drink a few glasses of water before weigh ins. I needed to know what numbers to go for at the meet so I maxed out on bench press. I hit 305.5 lbs! Earlier this year my max was  240 lbs. I'm pretty excited about my strength gains and I'm even more excited about competing in my 1st powerlifting meet.

The prison was short the week of Thanksgiving so I had to work 10 out of 11 days. 7 of those were twelve hour shifts, 3 were 16 hours shifts. During that grueling time I didn't miss a single workout and I didn't overeat once,  not even on Thanksgiving. By the time that long stretch of work ended i missed my kids so much! To do something special I took them to the dollar movies to see The Minions. On the way there the battery light came on in my vehicle. After the movies and on our way home the alternator in my old 90's model Chevy Suburban went out. Of course my phone's battery was dead so I couldn't call friends for help. I took out my battery and alternator and hitch hiked to the nearest auto parts store. Got them tested, purchased a new alternator, then had to hitch hiked back to my truck to install it. Bad news is i wasn't prepared for such a long outing so i missed my nutrition goals of the day,  but the good news is I broke down in front of Chucky Cheese in Albuquerque so the kids had a blast while I was fixing the Suburban.

my son and weightlifting

Some wives give socks or ties for presents. Not my wife. She knows exactly what will make me happy. Weightlifting suplaments baby! I got this in the mail today for my 40th birthday. I'm a happy man. 

Today at my son's weightlifting practice coach Miller gave my son a Miller gym t-shirt for an early Christmas present. My son was was so happy about the shirt he refused to take it off last night. He slept in it. He really loves weightlifting, and he's pretty darn good at it. I'd really like it if I could watch him practice just one time without my eyes filling with tears. It's funny how love and and being proud of seeing my children exell  makes me cry.

Here's a video of my son doing power cleans. If he continues progressing as well as he is coach Miller will let him lift in the 2nd annual John Henry Davis meet in January. My dad even said he'd come to watch my sons first weightlifting meet. Even though my Dad only lives a few hours away he only visits once every couple years. So that would make it a particularly special day for my son. He and I would be lifting in the same meet together. Now that's what I call father/son bonding! 

trying to qualify for the masters national weightlifting championships

On Monday i set PR's of a 90k snatch and a 113k clean and jerk. My weightlifting coach, Shane Miller told me I could attempt a 92k snatch and a 115k clean and jerk today. If i made both lifts that would give me a total of 207k, which is the amount needed to qualify for the Masters national weightlifting championships. So today i tried, and I successfully lifted a 91k snatch, but missed the 92k. I lifted a 114k clean and jerk easily which put me at a 205k total. I desperately wanted the 207k, so i jumped from 114k to 116k and nailed it! I made the 207k total I'd been training the last 21 months for!  As long as I'm able to lift that amount on October 17th in the sanctioned weightlifting meet i'm scheduled  to compete at I'll have qualified for the 2016 masters national Championships in Savannah Georgia!

Earlier this year i sold all my triathlon gear to be able to afford for my wife and i to travel to Savannah Georgia if i was actually able to meet the minimum total. Looks like that might happen.

80k snatch

Today I set a new PR of a 80k snatch.

"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!

my son Cody's 1st triathlon and 1st day of kindergarten

On Sunday 8-19-12 my son Cody completed his 1st triathlon in Los Alamos NM. He was in the 5-6 AG which consisted of a 1/4 Mile Bike / 100 Yard Run / and 25 Yard Swim. He was fearless, acted like he'd done dozens of triathlons before! Even though he was the youngest in his division he was the fastest on his bike, see video below.

On 8-20-12 Cody had his 1st day of kindergarten. Again, he was fearless. Without any prompting from my wife or I he dropped off his back pack,

                                            signed himself in, spelling his name perfectly!

                                           and found his seat with his name on it. No tears what so ever from my son, that's not the case with my wife though! My wife cried all the way to school. She cried on our way home. And she cried for another 20 minutes once we got home. She loves her boy, she's an amazing and very worried mother.

vasectomy for triathlon races

My wife has been trying to convince me to get a vasectomy for a couple years now. I've been stead fast in my refusal. Early in the 2012 triathlon season my wife told me that if I got a vasectomy she'd agree to let me race all the sprint and Oly triathlons I wanted and they'd be paid for with family money. My response...."DONE!!!" Monday is the consultation. 

My wife recorded the conversation when I broke the news that my babies wont be having anymore brothers or sisters. They seemed to handle it well.

Cody's 1st ride w/out training wheels

I've been trying to convince my son Cody, age 4, to let me take the training wheels off his bicycle for months, but he's refused. Last night Cody saw a video on Facebook of his favorite cousin riding his bike without training wheels. Aparently seeing Nathan riding without training wheels was all the motivation he needed. Today he had me take his training wheels off, this video is of his 1st attempt.

In the aero position on rollers

Awhile back I had promised I'd post a video of me riding my rollers in the aero position. Here I am doing part of a 45 minute recovery workout where I keep my RPM's 100+. I usually watch Netflix when I'm on the rollers, & my wife dared me to record myself use a remote control like I normally would while in the aero's & to publish it on my blog if I fall- which I do occasionally! I was a little wobbly, but I didn't fall & make an idiot out of myself!

Strength training

After the Sully Super Sprint triathlon I was sore, much more than I should have been. I realized I need to implement some strength training. Today was my 1st day & my boy decided to join in also. Here's a video of him lifting with me.

Essential life skills

Tonight my children & I were practicing some skills essential to a successful life, push ups & pull ups.

Teaching the manly fist pump

Today I was teaching my son how to be manly & do a fist pump with a grunt. He loved it & did it all day long. Very cute.

Traveling trooper

My 14 month son is an amazing trooper. He's constantly in his car seat while we drive all over the nation for triathlons or back & forth 2 hours a day for Isabella's pre-k. He rarely gets grouchy about it.

hula hoop girl

My daughter trying to learn how to hula hoop. Very funny stuff.

ballet practice

I work the nights my daughter has ballet practice. Tonight I didn't go to work so I could watch her. She's 5 & is my pride & joy. I recorded this using my phone which is only able to record 20 seconds per video, it can't zoom, & the quality is poor, but you can still see how cute she is! On the other videos I recorded she was dancing in & out of clusters of girls so I wasn't able to get a very good video of her. This one was the best. She's so adorable!
I got the family van stuck in a snow drift on the side of road the other day. My daughter started panicking & said, "we're never going to get out!" I reassured her that we were going to get out & we'd be home in no time.
A bit later when we were still stuck she started crying & announced to everyone in the car, "We're never going to get out! I'll never be able to go to Disney World! And I'm never going to be able to do ballet again!" She started crying thinking of the things in her life she wanted to do & now wouldn't.
I wasn't able to help her through the situation like I should have. I tried to reassure her & tell her everything was fine, but I couldn't stop laughing. When she thought we were all goners her 1st thought was she'd never be able to go to Disney World. How sweet.

Rion drinking from water fountain

Today at my daughters ballet practice my son Rion drank from a water fountain. He's at the stage that it's hilarious watch.

Cody's dramatic results from a car crash

My son & I were playing cars today, & when the car hit my hand I held my hand up with my index finger pulled down to make it look like I had a finger missing. He tried to do the same thing as me. The results were hilarious!