Nine months of strongman preparation all boils down to one weekend. Past wins, PR's, and personal achievements no longer matter. If you can't execute in these six events, you go home feeling like you have been run over by a bus, and start the process all over. For me, it will be three months of strictly training powerlifting (squat, bench, and deadlift), with occasional strongman events thrown in for good measure. The return to event training will coincide with my first contest of 2015.
I went into this year's competition with much higher expectations of myself, after spending most of 2014 gaining strength in my basic lifts, and working on various event fundamentals. But as it turns out, I made several small mistakes that dropped me to the back of the pack early. On the very first event, the press medley, I attempted the light, 125lb, keg clean and press on a slight downhill. I successfully wasted precious time by throwing myself backward three times...finishing the lift on the third attempt, and leaving myself very little time to get reps on the mini-circus dumbell. I was able to lock out two reps, but my judge did not allow the second one at the buzzer. However, one rep still gets points, and keeps you in the game.
Event #2 was a 500lb yoke for sixty feet. This is one event I had drilled myself with in training, and had no doubt that I could post a solid time. Well, that did not happen. I struggled out of the gate, and did not get my shit together until close to the half way point. My struggle to control the yoke took its toll, and my fatigued body decided dropping the yoke prior to the finish line was a good idea. Just for the record...it's not. I finished the event with a less than stellar time, which more than tripled the time of my practice runs. In the coming year, I will continue to increase the weight and my speed on this event, so I do not repeat this performance. However, as a side note, at Nationals last year, I made it about eight feet with the same weight...so, I consider sixty feet quite an improvement.
Event #3 was a nightmare-ish carry medley. Many women were looking forward to this event...I was part of the minority. My hands pay a hefty price with any carry event, so they are definitely not on my top ten list. With a sixty foot keg carry at a reduced 150lbs, a forty foot farmers that was no where near the planned 200lbs per hand, and twenty feet of a 225lb duckwalk, I crossed the finish line by bunny hopping the duck walk implement over the line. Nightmare over. I am planing to practice heavy kettlebell swings for next season, and launch that damn duck walk implement versus having to walk with it. Trust me, if it was legal, I would absolutely do it.
The final event of day one was the car deadlift...and a big fat zero on my score sheet. If I had to pick one event to zero, it would not have been this one. Dumbell, yes...deadlift, no. I don't use straps often, but for this event, it was a given. However, I failed to strap my left hand in tight, and paid the price for it. After such a long day of events, my legs felt solid, but with each attempt, my left strap would slide, and I no longer had a grip on the bar. At the time, I was pretty pissed off with myself; but deep down, I knew it was a simple mistake that could be fixed. But I won't lie...it was not easy going to bed that night knowing my goal of a top five finish was officially over...not that it wasn't prior to this event, but a zero pretty much solidified it.
The twelve hour, four event, competition day had drained almost everything out of my body...mentally, physically, and emotionally; but just as it ended, day two began. As the two-event final day kicked off, I knew climbing out of a hole was not possible against the best of the best at Nationals. What I did not know, is that the first event would be my best of the weekend. The sixty foot, 1150lb wheelbarrow pick-up and push was a bit of an untested event...I mean, how many people have 500lb steel wheelbarrows laying around? I knew the keys would be getting off the starting line quickly, controlling the implement, and not letting go. Grip was not an issue, I could have held on for a trip around the block. I guess spending a few dollars on the Iron Mind expand your hand bands after cracking my thumb was worth every penny. My initial pick up of the weight was a bit slow, but once in motion, I had no control problems, and finished in just over fourteen seconds.
The final event of the competition was throwing, or rather "placing" three kegs of increasing weight over a bar. The weight of the kegs was dropped by 25lbs a piece to 100, 125, and 150, but the bar was raised to 54". I was given a nice little tip before the event to turn the handles to the side, allowing for a quicker pick-up. It definitely saved me a few valuable seconds. The first two kegs went over in about ten seconds, but the final keg and I battled it out for an additional twenty seconds. Those little mistakes cost me yet again.
The long two day event to crown America's Strongest was over. I ended my weekend with two pretty solid performances, going out on a much higher note than the previous day. My final ranking was fifteen out of twenty-six middle-weights. There is always so much to think about after a competition like this...but honestly, I am just happy to be able to be among those twenty-six strongwomen. It was an incredible group of competitors this year. There are not many times where you can find over fifty women in competition with each other, sharing a small competition space, sharing pain, sharing laughs, that have just one single thing in common...but that is strongman...or, should I say, strongwoman.
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