training without coaches

I pulled a muscle in my back last week. Then today I woke up with a kink in my neck and my shoulder that's so bad I can barely move. I'm relatively certain it's because I had put on a tremendous amount of strength when I was working with my former nutrition coach Barry Schroeder. Now that I'm no longer having him help me with my nutrition I've been losing strength and explosiveness and I'm more injury prone. I flippin' miss working with him! He always got the best out of me.

I'll be moving to Albuquerque next month and I'm needing to find a place I can train at for the times I'm not able to drive all the way to Santa Fe to train with my team. 

On Sunday the family and I spent the night at my inlaws in Albuquerque NM and I had to find a place to train while I was there. I was also gym shopping. I called everywhere trying to find a gym that had drop plates, a bar that spinds, and is open on Sundays. There were none. But the owner of Iron Soul Gym told me he'd be willing to meet me at his gym on his day off to make sure I got my workout in. How cool was that?

It was so much different training without a coach and by myself. I'm used to training with a bunch of athlete's who also also love olympic style weightlifting. I missed the comeradery of the Miller Gym but the Iron Soul Gym was pretty awesome. It has 24 hour access, weights and bars that can be used for olympic style weightlifting, the membership is supet cheap, and the owner was super cool. I've found where I'm training at when I'm not able to drive to Santa Fe. The Iron Soul Gym.

my next weightlifting competition

Looks like I have a couple different options for my next weightlifting meet. I could compete on March 12th at the High Dessert Athletic Club in Albuquerque or i could compete on April 23rd at The Miller Gym in Santa Fe. Since my training may be inconsistent for awhile after we close on our new home in Albuquerque and we move I'm thinking I should do the earlier weightlifting meet in March.

It's no secret I've done piss poor at all my weightlifting meets the last 18 months. I've become more and more frustrated. I've hit a 100k snatch and a 120k clean and jerk for a 220k total in practice, but my best lifts at a meet has only been a 92k & a 116k.

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.

communicating with coaches and money

The last few days I weighed 308. I weighed 303 this morning. My weight is like powerball numbers, you have no clue what theyre going to be.

I've been horrible in the gym the last week. It's because I peaked a few weeks ago. Most people lose some strength and speed after they peak. But I don't lose a little,  I crash and burn. I straight up fall apart! This isn't surprising at all. I've known my body does this since I first started triathlon training way back in 2004. Timing my peak is the most important thing for me and my athletics endeavors. My weightlifting coach didn't know this. You know why he didn't know? Because I didn't tell him that's why. I've wanted to tell him, but i wasn't sure how. What was mostly on my mind was not making waves. I love my gym. It's one of the few pure weightlifting gyms in the nation. And the Miller Gym is the most awesome place I've ever trained. All of the coaches are incredible. Coach Shane is one of the best program builders in the nation. The other members who train there are more than just like minded athletes who also love olympic style weightlifting. We're a team. A really close team. I haven't felt a team spirit like this since my days of playing football.  I guess deep down I was just worried I'd accidentally ruffled some feathers and be asked to leave. It was an absurd fear. Coach Shane approached me today & asked me a long list of questions, trying to diagnose what was up with me and my crap performance recently. I finally broke down and told him what was up. He seemed relieved, "oh, ok. That's an easy fix. I can adjust your program for that." Seriously?  It was that easy? Dang it!

Shane's always been very approachable. Always willing to listen and work with people. I don't know why the heck I was so anxious talking to him. Once I finally bared my soul to him everything was fixed. Bam, that easy. I feel really stupid.

I got paid on Friday. It was a check with almost no overtime. We still had enough money to pay all our bills and also enough left to save some for a down payment for a home. I know that doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but we struggled something horrible for a long time. There was one Chistmas, in 2011, we didn't have enough money to buy our kids presents. Imagine how hard it would be to tell your kids Santa Claus isn't coming this year. I've had a lot of time at home with the family recently. I'm playing catch up with all the time I missed with the family when I was working 80-90 hours a week. I've taught my kids how to ride a skate board, play the game go fish, and I've been shopping for a guitar so we can all learn to play music together.  It's amazing to me how much more appreciative I am now for the good times after we struggled so much for so long. I am so grateful to be through the rough patch and enjoying  the good times now. The last few months may have been the best 3 months of my life. 

support and weightlifting

Since I hit a lifetime PR on the snatch yesterday I've been on cloud 9. I never believed I'd get to a 100k snatch at all, much less this quickly.  Especially since I didn't start weightlifting until I was 38 years old. When I was attempting to max yesterday I ran out of energy half way through. One of my training partners had a particularly long and grueling training day, yet he still gave me his Cliff bar even though he obviously was going to need it to get through his workout. Coach Erik saw me miss a few of my lighter attempts so he watched the rest my lifts and helped me with my form. All that help made me think of how much support it takes to be an olympic weightlifter. For me, in addition to the obvious, like my wife adjusting her schedule to watch my three young children anytime I'm wanting to train. There's also the half dozen coaches and athletes who help me with form and advice every single time I'm in The Miller Gym. And of course my nutrition coach who has made the adjustments I needed to make the biggest gains I've ever made in a two month period. Weightlifting is the most amazing sport I've ever competed in. But it takes more support than any sport I've ever done too. I'm blessed enough to have such an amazing support system around me. I'm a lucky man.

I've decided that if I qualify for the 2016 master's national weightlifting championships I'm going. I'll have to sell my triathlon bike, road bike, race wheels,  And wet suits to be able to afford it. But if I qualify,  I'm going!

wrist problem fixed

The last couple weeks my right wrist had been hurting when I do snatches. On Saturday i told Erik, one of the coaches at The Miller Gym. After watching me lift only one time he figured out my problem. I allow my wrists to bend backwards when the weight reaches the top of the snatch. Normally that wouldn't be much of a problem, but my wrists are super flexible. They end up bending to far. See picture below:

The picture below is how I'm trying to have the weight land. This feels so much better. The only down side is changing my form on the snatch is harder than I thought it would be. It's caused a lot of missed lifts and frustration. Since the very first day i started doing the snatch I've ALWAYS done it that way. Changing it has thrown off my balance,  and to some extent even my confidence. With hard work, focus, and determination I'll get it. Like my Mom used to tell me, "this to shall pass."

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! 

weightlifting, retirement, and Santa Fe New Mexico

I find great joy from training olympic style weightlifting. The dedication and focus it takes to train in this sport fits my personality perfectly. I have a perfect weightlifting specific gym and like minded athletes to train with. I have two top notch coaches, one weightlifting coach and one nutrition coach. I'm completely content where I'm at. And now that I'm able to slow down on overtime my family life is the best it's ever been. 

I spent my entire career counting down the days to be able to retire and move, and now that I'm eligible to retire from the prison I've found complete satisfaction where I'm at. My wife and I have been house shopping here in Santa Fe, the houses are unbelievably expensive, there's no way we could afford to buy a house here. So after years of wanting to retire, I've found  that now I don't want to, and I sure as heck don't want to move away from my weightlifting gym here in Santa Fe.

I started taking creatine again. I'm always amazed how quickly my body gets strength gains and how much more quickly my body recovers when I take creatine. The only down side to creatine is the weight gain. I've gained three pounds in less than a week. All the weight gain is water weight, and since i don't have to worry about making weight at a lower weight class i don't mind. My next weightlifting meet is in January. The meet in January will be my last chance to qualify for the Masters Weightlifting National Championships.

a great Olympic weightlifting coach

My middle child has significantly less confidence than my other children. His lack of self-esteem has caused him to learn more slowly in school, causes him to give up at things very quickly, have emotional outbursts, he's incredibly hard on himself,  etc. A few months ago I started having him trained in olympic style weightlifting by coach Shane Miller. My son has a real talent for weightlifting. He stays intensely focused at every training session, which he usually isn't willing to do with anything else. This new found talent of his has totally changed him in the last few months. He always leaves in a better mood than when he started, which has has taught him to stay focused and positive when attempting other things. Since he's becoming so good at weightlifting so quickly its made him feel significantly better about himself. He's more patient, focused, confident, and much happier. Only a few months weightlifting has had a profound and positive effect on my sons life.

Awhile back there were 5 men at The Miller gym who were competing to successfully lift a 91k  (200lb) snatch. i was the first one. One of the guys at the gym, I'll call him Jack Ass, was a sore loser and told me the only reason i was the  one who lifted a 91k first was because of how overweight i was. Earlier this week a 2nd athlete successfully lifted a 91k snatch. As soon as Jack Ass heard he immediately said loudly,  "yeah, but your a 105k+ and-" before Jack Ass could finish his statement coach Shane Miller shut him up and pulled him aside. Apparently Coach Miller had a come to Jesus moment with Jack Ass because Jack Ass came back to me and apologized. I love my gym.  I love the other members of my gym- most of the time. And i love my coach. He's a great teacher,  a great person, a great motivator, he does an amazing job at stopping or minimizing gym gossip or politics, and I'm mostly grateful because he's making a huge difference in my son's  life.

when to retire?

I'm currently eligible to retire from the state of New Mexico. I've been struggling to figure out when I should retire. I could retire anytime between now and July 2019. After years of deliberation my wife and I have decided for me to wait until 2019 to retire from the prison. The reason is simple. I've fallen in love with weightlifting. I've never enjoyed another sport or hobby as much as i enjoy weightlifting, and Santa Fe has one of the best weightlifting coaches in the nation, Shane Miller from who Coaches out of the Miller Gym. There's no way I'm ready to leave the quality of coaching here, there's way to much I still want to accomplish in this sport.

family at weightlifting meets and emotional roller coasters

My wife is a very attractive lady and I'm still very in love. I still work hard at impressing her anytime I can. By doing the housework before she gets home from work or by doing great at sporting events to impress her, etc. Most of the time that works out great for me. But I've realized its causes problems with my weightlifting meets. Anytime she and my kids are in the audience I end up doing poorly at weightlifting. I end up putting to much of my concentration on doing well to look good for them them rather than on my form. Apparently still being madly in love after 13 years of marriage has an occasional down side.

On Saturday I failed at qualifying for the Masters National Weightlifting Championships at the "Lift Outside The Box" weightlifting meet held here in Santa Fe NM at The Miller Gym. After a poor sporting performance my emotions are all over the place. I've learned to never make any decisions soon after I do something I consider disappointing athletically. After the meet I was going to go on a low carb diet. Now that I've recovered from my emotional roller coaster I realized I'm a decent weightlifter. I'm fine at my current weight class. Yes I need to drop 30-40 pounds. But I need to do it in a healthy and moderate way. I also need work on my snatch form. My snatches in the last couple meets were down right ugly, but I don't need to do anything drastic with my weight that'll cause me to lose strength and speed that I've worked so hard to build. On the upside my clean and jerk exploded during my last training plan. I increased 7k in only 3 months. The next meet I'll be competing in will be The 2nd Annual John Davis weightlifting meet. Hopefully I'll qualify for the Masters National Weightlifting Championships then.

race to the 200 pound snatch club

There were 4 men in my weightlifting club who were having a competition on who would be the first one to lift a 200lb snatch. Last week i was the first one to make that lift.  To celebrate i bought this shirt to workout in. 

One of the guys in the competition told me that I only made that lift first because i weigh so much. Notice that they wanted to focus purely on the fact that i outweigh them but not on the fact that I'm twice their age? Those two little pipsqueaks pissed me off. From now on I'm lifting with a purpose. And every time I hit another big weightlifting milestone  I'm gonna rub it in his flippin condescending faces. Next stop is a 120k clean and jerk. I'm only 4k away.

One of my weightlifting partners, Katie Plant, approached me later and told me, "screw him Cody, at least you never bombed out of a weightlifting meet like he did". That meant a lot to me. It feels good knowing there's people who have my back and that i wasn't the only who thought their comments were uncalled for.

my home, my gym

The gym i train at is an Olympic style weightlifting gym. It's the most supportive environment I've ever been in. We're all there with the same goal, Olympic style weightlifting. Next to the prison (i work there, I'm not an inmate) I've never felt such comradery.

Last week our gym had two people compete in the masters weightlifting world championships in Finland. One took first, the other 2nd place. This week we have 5 athletes going to compete in the university national championships in Utah. The joy we have for each others accomplishments and struggles is 2nd to none. I'm getting close to the qualifying totals for the 2016 masters weightlifting national championships. Almost everyday someone asks me how my weightlifting is going. They all know  I'm close to my goal and everyone seems as excited about it as i am.

 I've fallen head over heels in love with Olympic style weightlifting. This is such a beautiful sport! It takes speed, strength, balance, form, and incredible mental focus. The Snatch and the Clean and Jerk are the most complicated and rewarding exercises I've ever done.

starting to commute by bicycle again

My wife and i have had only one vehicle all week and my wife's been taking it to work. I've been riding my old, beat up, 90's model Raleigh mountain bike everyday to The Miller Gym and work. At first i was afraid the cycling would hurt my weightlifting. But i think the cycling is actually helping it. I used to struggle getting my legs warmed up and ready to lift heavy. This week, by the time i bike the 11 miles to the gym, my legs feel great and are ready to lift right away. So it looks like I'm picking up commuting to work and gym on my bicycle again.

new PR's close to qualifying

Today i was scheduled to lift heavy. It's not often my programming has me go heavy, so it wasn't a day i was willing to miss. My wife's van broke down and she needed my vehicle for both her work and school. So i rode my old commuter mountain bike to the gym.

 It was only about 11 miles from my house to The Miller gym, not that far really,  but i was  still worried riding that far on an old dilapidated bike would fatigue my legs. It turns out it didn't. I lifted a lifetime PR of a 90k snatch and a clean and jerk of 113k for a total of 203k. That's only 4 kilos from qualifying for the masters weightlifting national championships.

 

Qualifying for the master's national championships would mean a ton to me. I used to be a pretty finominal triathlete, i had qualified for 6 national championships and one world championship. I assumed the cycling accident that ended my triathlon career marked the end of me competing in athletics at a national level. But here i am getting close to being able to compete at another national championship sporting event. I'm so excited and I'm incredibly grateful to everyone who's helped me get to where I'm at, particularly my weightlifting coaches Shane Miller,  Kim Alderwick, and Jodi Stumbo.

a new bench press PR

8 weeks ago i asked Shane Miller from the Miller Gym to help me get my bench press stronger. Since i was 8 years old one of my biggest goals was to beat my natural fathers lifetime bench press max of 275 pounds. 8 weeks ago my max bench press was 240 pounds. On Friday i maxed out and to my amazement in 8 weeks i put 45 pounds on my bench & accomplished my life long goal of maxing more on bench press than my dad ever had, setting a lifetime PR of 285 pounds.

I asked Shane to build me another bench press program to get my max above 300 pounds before my 40th birthday in late November. My first day ofthe program was today.

injured weightlifters, a new weightlifting program, and a bench press program

There's a woman I train with named Chris Galvin. She's in the Olympic weightlifting hall of fame. After winning numerous national weightlifting championships (I'm talking 11 or 12!!!!) she had to have major shoulder surgery. For must people a surgery of that type would be a career ending surgery. But she's rehabbing her shoulder and slowly increasing the amount she lifts. Yesterday  i watched her doing some heavy snatches.  During every repetition I'd see her her grit her teeth or grunt in pain. I'm amazed at her determination to fight through the pain and do whatever it takes to get back to a high level of competition. I wish i was half as tough as she is. It's people like her that make it so motivating to train at The Miller Gym.

I'm one week into my new weightlifting program. It's hard. Awesome, but very hard.  I promised a couple of my buddies from church I'd compete in a N.A.S.A. powerlifting competition this December in Roswell New Mexico with them. So after each weightlifting training session I've been trying to do a bench program Coach Shane Miller built for me. The bench program is amazing,  I was getting great results from it, but by the end of my Olympic weightlifting session I'm too tired to bench. I'm not sure if i can follow through with the powerlifting meet. i desperately want to, but I just don't know if I'll have the energy to get through both. One of my life long dreams was to beat my natural fathers max bench press PR of 275lbs. Last year i did the program Coach Miller built for me and i got up to a 272lb max. So close! But just like now the Olympic weightlifting got intense and exhausted me so i just couldn't keep doing both. I'm hoping i can push through it, but it's not looking very promising.

balancing weightlifting, work, and eating

Today i had a break through on my snatch form. My strength is still low from the 7 weeks off from training. But thanks to the breakthrough on my form i hit an 84k snatch. That's less than i was lifting in April, but I'll get back to my old numbers eventually.

I've been working 12-16 hours every day since June 6th. My first day off will be July 6th. That's over a month of 92 hour work weeks. Obviously exhaustion has a lot to do with my strength returning so slowly. My wife is pushing for me to work a lot of overtime so we can get enough of a down payment for a new home so that we can move. At first i was willing, but now I'm having 2nd thoughts. I've been working 80-90 hour work weeks non-stop since 2006. I'm tired. I'd like to have a normal life, more time with the kids, and more sleep. I know my wife wants to move off prison grounds and move back to Albuquerque so she can be closer to her parents, but I'm happy where we're at. I really enjoy my career, i like living on prison grounds, i enjoy living in Santa Fe more than I've ever enjoyed living anywhere else, i love the church we go to, and I love weightlifting at the Miller Gym. If we moved to Albuquerque all that would change. I'm not sure i want to change things. With the exception of the amount of hours I've been asked to work I've never been this happy. Where I'm at now is where I'm happiest, why kill myself to leave?

I have two workout buddies, Kevin Y. and Heather,  who were incuraging me to start logging my food on My Fitness pal. Logging my food is helping my diet a lot. I've gone 27 days without binge eating. That's getting pretty close to the longest I've gone without destructive eating since i fell off the wagon back in 2012.  I've lost a little weight, 10 pounds or so. But this time my goal isn't to lose weight.  It's just to eat relatively healthy and avoid binge eating. Losing some weight this month is probably another reason my strength is rebounding so slowly. Haha, that's a tough one: lose weight and look better and be healthier or be strong?

an amazing gift, weightlifting continues

Last week i posted on my blog that because of financial problems we had to pull my daughter out of gymnastics. I also posted i wouldn't be able to weightlift anymore because of the same reason. My post was overly emotion, full of self pity, and had some inappropriate  words in it so the next day i erased it. Apparently someone read it before i erased it. A couple days later i got a call from my weightlifting coach, Shane Miller. He asked if we could meet in person. When we met he told me there was an anonymous member at The Miller Gym who wanted to pay for my membership. My love and passion of weightlifting continues. Whoever you are, I'm speechless and touched beyond words. thank you so very much.

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.