Meet Results

It's been almost a week since my most recent powerlifting meet and I thought I'd update on how it went.

The goal was to not use any water and salt loading tricks to drop weight.  Instead, simply cut out water the day before weigh ins around mid-day drinking around a liter of water and eating a decent bit of protein.  Target weight 181.6 or less.

Thursday things were going so well with my weight that I was able to get in about 200 grams of protein and some decent fluids.

The results?  1180.6 friday morning at weigh in.

Let's back track a bit, about 3 weeks out from the meet I was feeling confident after hitting a 405 squat and a 445 deadlift.  I set my opening attempts and that was that.  I was ready for the meet and even bigger 3rd attempts!

Around 2 weeks out my lower back was bothering me and I missed a 370 squat, my planned opener.  Based on the few previous weeks this should of been easily doable.  I threw this up as "I'm tired and beat up, time to recover".

Sadly from here things got worse, mentally at least.

Doubt had entered my head and I let it grow out of control.  Come the morning of the meet I was a giant ball of nerves.  I hit the warm ups on squats and just felt like crap.  315 felt heavier than that 405.  I thought to myself "maybe I should lower my opener to make sure I get in".  However my stupidity kicked in "don't be a bitch, get out there and squat this".

I knew better,

First attempt - no good, got pinned.

Second attempt - no good, got pinned.

By this point i'm freaking out of my mind that i'm about to bomb out of this meet.  Not only did I feel like an idiot, I was embarrassed at myself.  I felt ashamed.  I felt like I just let all my training partners down.  I decided to attempt 385 for my Third attempt, just to try and trick myself into hitting it.

NO FREAKING DICE.  Pinned.

I made a lot of technical mistakes but most were mental mistakes that kept me from being able to bench and deadlift.

After a bit of internal freak out and my nerves settled I was able to cheer on my teammates to watch them hit some great PRs and have a great meet.

I have another meet scheduled November 23rd and I will not make the same mistakes.  I will get my attempts in and I will have a great meet.