Life in Albuquerque

I'm finding myself blogging almost daily. Occasionally I'll post twice a day. It's been a long time since I've been so excited about something that I've done that. I'm getting stronger, I'm loosing weight, getting faster, building endurance, and having so much fun doing it all. I've found a great niche here in Albuquerque. I have a great powerlifting coach who is understanding about me wanting to supplement Powerlifting with CrossFit for health and weight loss reasons. I really love my CrossFit gym, the coaches, and members there. The support and encouragement I'm getting from both the Powerlifting and CrossFit community is awesome. And most importantly I'm not killing myself working overtime anymore. I have time to spend with my kids, working out, and time for myself. I think the word I'm looking for here is content. I'm content. I'm perfectly happy just the way things are. I still want to loose some more weight, get faster, stronger, and build more endurance. But I'm enjoying the journey instead of just obsessing about the end goal.

UFC 207 and retirement from the prison

Last night was UFC 207. Rousey's return. My wife and I hosted a fight party at our house. A few of my wife's high school friends and her brother showed up. Not one person I invited showed. I really love my new job here. I have a great nutrition coach who lives in the city. Most importantly I have one of the top weightlifting coaches in the nation. But I worked at the prison since I got out of high school. I lived on prison grounds. All my friends were fellow prison guards. My entire life was there. Albuquerque has a lot of potential. But I'm home sick. I miss the camaraderie of the prison. I miss feeling needed. I miss the feeling of belonging. But mostly I miss my friends. So far I think retirement from the prison kind of sucks.

the 2016 US Powerlifting Association New Mexico state championships report

190/120/185/495k
Wilks 275.814

Today I competed in the US Powerlifting Association (USPA) New Mexico state championships in Albuquerque New Mexico . I entered in the masters Super Heavy Weight  (SHW) division and the Open SHW division. I weighed in at 142.8k.

First up was the squat. I love the squat. It's my best powerlifting event. I assumed I was stronger than the last time I competed in a powerlifting meet in April because I've been training really hard the last 6 months for olympic style weightlifting. And usually weightlifting transfers over well to powerlifting. Oh boy was I wrong! In warm ups everything felt heavy. When I tried 396 pounds for warm ups I barely got it up. My opening squat for the meet as 418 pounds. It was highly likely that I'd bomb out in the first event! On my first attempt I was able to lift the 418 pounds (190k), but it was close. I went up a few kilos and missed my 2nd and 3rd attempts. But that's ok, with one good lift i was still in the game. And my one squat was actually a state record!!!! I was pretty disappointed to find out my squat has gotten weaker in the last 6 months. I've been training so hard!

The 2nd event was bench press. I hadn't trained bench at all since April, and I was afraid pushing out a max on my first time bench pressing in 6 months would cause an injury, so I successfully lifted a 265lb (120k) bench on my first attempt and stopped there. And amazingly that was a state record! Ha! It's good to be a 40-44 age group SHW. There aren't that many of us left! Victory through attrition!

In olympic style weightlifting I never deadlift heavy. The most i deadlift is a 130k to warm up for clean and jerks. So I started light, 407 (185k). I had a birthday party that I invited a dozen people I've met since moving to Albuquerque so I had to leave after my first deadlift or I'd be late to my party. And believe it or not my one light deadlift was a state record!!

My total of 190/185/120/495 was a state record. I took first place in the 40-44 age group SHW raw division and the open SHW division. That makes me the New Mexico state champion in both of those divisions! It was a good day.

Once I got to the house I was pretty disappointed to see only one of the twelve people I invited showed up to the party. I'm finding it difficult to build a group of friends here in Albuquerque.

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.

post and shift bidding

Today I bid on the shift and post I'll be working the next 5 months. The bidding is based on senority amd I've only been working this job for 4 months. My only real goal was to stay off swing shift. My wife and kids are only home in the evennings so swings would have been horrible for my family life. All in all i think i lucked out. The good news is I'll be working during days and I'll be able to train with Joaquin Chavez of High Dessert Athletic Club 3 days a week. The bad news is I'll be off of work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I think it'll take me awhile to get weekends off. But that's ok. I'll get there eventually. Until then I'll be happy as long as I can train at High Dessert Athletic Club.

The horrible post I blogged about a couple days ago was taken by a senior officer who wanted nights, weekends, and Holidays off.

crime in Albuquerque and it's time to move!

When i retired from the prison i tried to convince my wife to move to Lubbock TX, anywhere in New Hampshire, or Savanna Gorrgia. She desperately wanted to move back to her home town of Albuquerque. Albuquerque is #3 in the nation in auto-thefts, #5 in violent crime, and the sexual assault and rape is %300 higher than the national average. But ultimately I put my wife's wants above my own, like husbands should do. A couple weeks ago my cherished 1996 Chevrolet Suburban was stolen from our driveway. Anyone who knows me knows I love my Suburban. I plan on driving it the rest of my life. I was just going to continue to repair it over and over again. A few days later I found it in an apartment complex. It had $1250 woth of damage to it. It was loaded up with a bunch of home invasion tools. The police said the thieves were probably going to use my vehicle in a few home break ins and then dump it or strip it for parts. Thankfully my wife has realized how dangerous this city is. She's ready to sell the house we bought just 5 short months ago and move. She hasn't decided where she wants to move yet. She said she'd like to see Savanna Georgia. She's never been to that part of the country. It's BEAUTIFUL there! I'm sure she'd move there in a heart beat if she saw it there. So I'm hoping like hell I'm able to qualify for the masters national weightlifting championships which is held in Savanna Georgia. And in the meantime I'm working on our house getting it prepped to sell. There's a lot we're needing to do. I've been working my butt off the last week.

 We're going to knock out this old fashion light box thingy and put recessed lighting in the kitchen, family room, dining room, and both bathrooms.

 As you can see there's no lights in the family room other than lamps. So recessed lighting is desperately needed. We're also going to remove all the carpet and linoleum and put down new tile in the whole house.

We're going to knock out this wall and put in a breakfast bar. We're also going to put in new  kitchen counters so that the breakfast bar and kitchen counters will match. After that I believe we can sell it for a profit so we can have a decent down payment on a new home in a safer city. The housing at all three of the places I'd like to move is significantly cheaper than here in Falujah- er- I mean Albuquerque New Mexico. Plus:

There's no income tax in Texas.

And there's no income tax or sales tax in New Hampshire. 

Savanna Georgia is just about the most beautiful place on earth. Plus they have beaches and an ocean there!

The only thing I'll miss here in Albuquerque is my coach Joaquin Chavez of High Dessert Athletic Club. I love that guy. I don't think I'll ever find another coach as fantastic as he is.

a new protein supplament

On my days off of work I've been doing yard work. I'm taking %100 of the money and putting it in my kids college fund. While working on a ladies yard  a few weeks ago she came out and said she works for a company that makes protein supplaments and she gave me a bag full of samples and a shaker cup. The protein is called Garden of life. It's probably the best tasting protein I've ever tasted in my life. I've been taking it as a post workout supplament. I have no clue if it works or if it's a decent product for weightlifters, but it sure tastes good, and it was FREE!

https://www.gardenoflife.com/content/product/why-choose-raw-protein-and-greens/

I really didn't want to move to Albuquerque adter I retired from the prison. The crime here is unbelievable. Friday night someone stole my 1996 Chevrolet Suburban from my driveway. Thankfully I found it Sunday evening. It cost $850 to repair the damage the thieves caused.

I'm the newest employee at my new job. So consequently I'm always the first one to get called in for the worst duties and posts. My schedule has been chaotic. I'm constantly getting called by my Captain and told, "you need to report to duty at- fill in the blank- in two hours." Because of that I'm having to text or call my weightlifting coach and cancel my training with him and request him to text me a workout on short notice. I think it's starting to piss him off. I'm getting worried he's going to drop me as a client.

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.

moving, retiring, and change

I really hate change. I'm like an old person in that way. That's probably my best and worst personal trait. It makes me loyal, but it also makes me a huge pain in the butt. There's a massive amount of change coming in my near future. We're buying a new home. We'll be selling a place I love and have lived happily for the last 13 years. We'll be moving to a city I don't like much, Albuquerque NM. I'll be retiring from the prison I've worked at and loved for 21 years. I'll be getting another job with potentially better pay, but still it's.... change..... I'm a wreck right now.

I've been struggling with weightlifting for a couple months. I should be lifting a lot more than I am. My speed and strength have increased a ton, but the weights I'm lifting haven't increased. The problem is my form. I've been frustrated enough that I've been contemplating switching to powerlifting. The only things that had stopped me from changing sports was that olympic weightlifting has one of the lowest injury rates of all sports, powerlifting's injury rate is pretty high; I felt I was on the verge of getting some pretty big numbers before getting in my slump; I recently lifted a 100k snatch. That's a pretty good lift for someone in their 40's. I'm like %75 certain I'll stick with weightlifting., try to work my way out of this slump.

Once i move to Albuquerque it'll be a two hour round trip drive to the Miller Gym. Add a two hour long workout, that's 4 hours, four times a week to train. The Miller Gym is worth it. Coach Shane Miller is one of the best programmers in the nation. And I love the people I lift with. I feel a tremendous amount of camaraderie with them. It's rare to find such a close knit team. I'm going to try like hell to continue to train there. I'm hoping I'll be able to adjust my schedule to fit 4 hours of training and driving everyother day after work, but with 3 kids involved in sports after school, and my wife working full time while taking 14 credit hours of college classes in the evenings, I'm not sure how I'll be able to. Change sucks.

a world class weightlifting gym, weight loss, and weightlifting progress

Yesterday another athlete, Stephan, joined the Miller gym and is commuting to Santa Fe all the way from Albuquerque, 120 miles round trip to train with us. There's a half dozen athletes who are making that commute to be coached by Shane Miller. He's one of the best Olympic style  weightlifting coaches in the nation. When Shane introduced me to Stephan he introduced me as "...Cody, who owns all three of the 40-44 age group super heavy weight state records". That was the first time I'd been introduced as the state record holder. I must say, it felt awesome! It's addicting! I desperately want to get to the 105k weight class & break those records too. I know, I'm a glory hound. Nothing new there. 


One of the weight lifters, Katie, who commutes from Albuquerque set a personal best snatch today of 62k. One more kilo and she'll be doing a body weight snatch. A body weight snatch is what most amateur weightlifters aspire for, very few achieve it. i cant wait to see that. Talk about inspiring! 


 I've been eating perfectly for 31 days. Lots of meat, fruit, vegetables, nuts, and salads. I've had no sugar and virtually no processed foods. This is the 2nd longest steak I've been on since i stopped training and racing triathlon in 2011. I'm currently 298 pounds, I've lost 13 since mid December.  66 more pounds to lose until i get to my ultimate goal of lifting in the 105k weight class and hopefully breaking the 105k state records of 95k snatch, 135k clean and jerk, and a 228k total too.