West Coast Strength Coach

Nutrition/Hydration/Recovery

This weekend, I was very happy with how I was able to recovery from each workout, and feel good and ready for the next bit. The nutrition plan I worked out with my Nutrition Coach Mike Kesthely from Dynamic Nutrition worked out perfectly. My hydration was on point the entire weekend. And all that made me much more recovered than I ever did last year. Even right now, the day after the competition I feel pretty damn good and not very sore or tired. Last year, after only two days of competition I felt pretty wrecked. Going forward now all I have to do is use the same strategy with only some minor tweaking here and there.

Mobility/SMR

Only ok for this weekend. Next time, I need to put some more focus in this aspect to help my tissues recovery and get me moving well for each workout. I mobilized a bit prior to each workout but I feel I could have done more to really set me up in optimal positions.

Programming

The program design laid out to me by James Fitzgerald prior to the competition really worked well for me this time. 5 days of training a week with only 1 double a week for the 5 weeks leading up to competition seems like the sweet spot. I think doing the workouts beforehand really helped me as well and next year I would like to have the same sort of program prior to Regionals.

Support

I had a great group of people there supporting me. That made a big difference in some of the workouts. We have a great community at WCSC and I am super motivated to represent them even better next year.

Training starts back up on Friday…

Regional Workout #6
For time:
3X:
7 Deadlifts @ 345lbs
7 Muscle-ups
+
3X:
21 Wall Balls
21 Toes to Bar
+
100ft Farmer’s Carry @ 100lbs/hand
28 Burpee Box Jumps @ 24″
100ft Farmer’s Carry @ 100lbs/hand
3 Muscle-ups

Time – 17:12 (12 reps left at time cap)
Place – 15th

 This workout was hot! In the 80′s, but no wind made it really tough. It was hot enough that all of us with reebok shoes on had the U-Form bottom go Red.

I was worried about my back on the deadlifts so I decided to do them in singles the entire time to avoid the descent. That ended up working perfectly and my back was able to handle the loads fine. The Muscle-ups I broke into 3-2-2 the entire time. The muscle-ups felt much better than I expected they would at this point. The strategy worked well as I was with the top guys in my heat going into the wall balls.

The Wall Balls and Toes to Bar is where I started to mentally just slow down. The heat got to me and I was taking too long of breaks between my sets. I would do 11-10 on the wall balls and 7-7-7 for the most part until the last set of the toes to Bar. Once I got to the Farmers Carry I sprinted with them to the other side pretty quickly.

The burpees box jumps on the blacktop was really bad. The heat really got to me mentally at this point and I was cycling through the burpees really really slowly. I would jump over the entire box each time, but I just didn’t want to get my chest down for the next rep.

I wish I had finished stronger on this last one. I think I would have had I been in the final heat with the fast guys moving around me. But that heat threw me off mentally and I couldn’t regain my focus. This one should have been done easily under the time cap.

Looking back, I do wish I had done this one in practice during training leading up to regionals. I think if I knew how fast I should have been going between sets, I could have more easily focused on what I needed to do to get a good time instead of just surviving the workout.

Regional Workout 12.5
Snatch Ladder with 20 Double Under Buy-In

Score – 245lbs + 5 Double Unders
Place – 4th

Came into this one with a bit of a chip on my shoulder from the day before. I wanted to prove that I belonged in the top 3 and that I would be back next year to get a podium spot. My back took quite a while to loosen up, but once it did, I start to feel good again. Nothing felt to banged up or taxed, and I felt like I was good for a PR attempt on the ladder.

The double unders went perfectly. They were efficient and I had no missed reps. I had a good judge but I was doing around 22-24 double unders each set because his count was a little slow. I didn’t mind at all though since the double unders took so little out of me.

I started out by squat snatching each rep. I figured the only way to get a good PR would be with a squat snatch and I needed to dial in the form right from the get-go. All the reps came up smooth and I moved very easily through the reps.

As I got heavier, I started to squat less. I think it is because I’m still not very comfortable in the bottom position with a lot of weight. The 245lbs came up fairly easily, but I think I almost power snatched it given my depth underneath it.

255lb Attempt

At 255lbs, I almost made it. It was easily high enough and I got underneath it. But my third turn-over wasn’t aggressive enough and my left arm bent just a tiny bit. Slowly the bar started coming down. I went back, chalked my hands for another attempt, and looked at the clock. It said I had 8 seconds left. I didn’t think I could get a good set-up and attempt in that time so I decided to grab the rope and got in a quick 5 double unders before time was called.

Again, very happy with my effort and focus on this ladder. I do think given my pulling strength at this point, I am capable of a 265-275lb snatch if I can get comfortable pulling myself under the bar and receiving in the bottom of the squat.

Regional Workout 12.4
For time:
50 Back Squats @ 135lbs
40 Pull-ups
30 Shoulder-to-Overhead @ 135lbs
50 Front Squats @ 85lbs
40 Pull-ups
30 Shoulder-to-Overhead @ 85lbs
50 Overhead Squats @ 65lbs
40 Pull-ups
30 Shoulder-to-Overhead @ 65lbs

Time – 24:00 (120 reps left at 22 minutes)
 Place – 42nd

I try to take 100% responsibility for all of my results in training and competition, but there are a handful of times I really just cannot take responsibility for. This is one of them.

I came into this competition feeling really good, and just wanted to have some fun with it. It was hot (a few athletes even had minor heat strokes), but not completely unbearable. I brought out water to take with me to sip from every time I got back to the pull-ups. I never got a chance to drink any of that water.

The women judge that I had absolutely no idea what she was doing there. She had screwed up judging for athletes prior to my heat but no one had done anything about her, and I didn’t know that at the time. Every time I would squat to full depth with knees out, she would not count the rep. So not only did I have to do 15 extra Back Squats, but the 50 that I did that counted were without any active hips and ass to grass.

I tried to keep a good attitude, but when I got to the front squats, by back was completely seized up from what I had just done to it. I could hardly deadlift the 85lb bar, let alone squat it. I had to complete those squats in sets of 2-5 reps. And again, about 15-20 of them were no repped. By the end I had to sumo reverse curl the bar just to get it to my shoulders because of my back being so thrashed.

I finally finished the front squats, then finished the pull-ups which didn’t seem to bother my back. And them went unbroken on the shoulder-to-overheads @ 85lbs before to time cut off, shoulder pressing the majority of the reps.

The Regional staff knew it was fucked situation and the judge was removed from her volunteering judging position. They contacted HQ about the situation, but obviously that wasn’t going to solve anything as there is no real solution to when that type of thing happens. At the end of the day, the final word was that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to rule out the judges decision for my reps, and that to keep it up and get back to that spot again next year.

If I did the workout again, I wouldn’t have changed a thing and would have done the squats to the same depth with the same technique. Any other judge would count it. In fact, reviewing what some of the other athletes did, many of the judges were counting reps for some well known athletes that were not even close to legit…but what can you do.

Regardless, I do need to solve another issue with my high rep squatting. I need to work out any over-extension faults that I am having so that my back doesn’t seize up on me during workouts like that…even IF I do have to do extra reps. And possibly improve my back endurance as well so I have a little more wiggle room.

Regional Workout 12.3
4 rounds for time:
10 DB Snatch @ 100lbs
Sprint

Time – 4:22
Place – 9th

Was very calm and collected going into this one. I was sandwiched between 1st and 3rd (Grundler & Pera), which I knew was going to help out a lot. I had only finished this one in 5:35 during training and knew I was going to have to push the pace if I wanted to remain competitive in this field. My goal was to go pretty much as hard as I could the entire time.

I finished the first 10 reps faster than anyone in the heat and then went for the run. During the second set, I finished in the lead again, this time tied with Lipson. I finished the second set in 1:45. Then I slowed down a bit.

The Final Rep

The biggest issue was my left side. I felt like I could have gone all day on my right, but my grip strength and dexterity on my left is not as good. This slowed me quite a bit in sets 3 and 4. But I lost more time than I should have. Because I was taking a short rest before going on the left side, I started taking the same rest before doing the right side again. I needed to do the right-handed rep as soon as I finished the left hand and I would have saved quite a bit of time, maybe enough to go sub 4 minutes.

During the 3rd set I got passed up by Grundler and Pera, but tried to keep up as best as I could. When I got back to the 4th set, I heard Grundler get no-repped several times which gave me a mental boost to push ahead, and ended up finishing 5 seconds faster than him. My runs were very slow after the first round, I tried to get my legs moving, but they weren’t moving at much more than a jog.

I was very shocked and happy to see my time. Again, I think there was potential to do better, but I am more pleased about this performance than any of the others the entire weekend.

Regional Workout 12.2
For time:
2K Row
50 Pistols
30 Hang Cleans @ 225lbs

Time – 13:42
Place – 5th

I felt really good going into this one. I was having a fun time warming up in the back, felt relaxed and had a great cheering section to look up at the entire 2K Row. It was pretty damn hot during this workout being in low 80′s on a blacktop parking lot. My mouth was dry, but luckily there was some breeze that came by to help out.

My goal was to finish the Row in 7:35 – 7:40, and I ended up feeling a little bit more taxed in the legs than I thought I would so I went a little slower finishing the row in 7:42. I figured a loss of 2 seconds on the row would be insignificant in the entire workout and would ensure I would feel good to rep out the pistols.

That ended up being the case, as the 50 unbroken pistols were faster than I had ever done them. That got me to the Cleans before anyone else in my heat. The only note, is that my left knee was still not feeling as good as my right (from the injury in september from a split jerk at OPTathlon), but 50 reps with weightlifting shoes really wasn’t enough to make that an issue.

I did the cleans exactly as planned. 10 sets of 3 unbroken reps. I believe that was the best strategy for me on this workout in terms of my current grip strength. However, my rests between sets was long and I think I should have gone faster. It would have been easier to go faster if I was in the 4th heat with the fastest athletes, instead of the 2nd heat as the fastest person in my heat was 2 minutes slower.

I am happy with my performance on this. But I think there was much more potential for me to go faster, which makes me excited. I was hoping for top 3, but other athletes in the top heat stepped up, and passed me.

At the end of Day 1, I sat in 2nd place overall. The same place I sat after Day 1 in the 2011 Regionals. This time however, I felt much more relaxed and comfortable being in that position, and I think that helped a lot going into day 2.

Regional Workout 12.1
“Diane”
21-15-9
Deadlifts @ 225lbs
Handstand Push-ups

Time – 2:15
Place – 2nd

With a time of 1:56 on “Diane” last week I was looking forward to doing this one unbroken under 2 minutes again in competition. I knew my hand placement had to be spot on though in order to be efficient enough to do it again. The hand placement is tough, not only because of the worry about hands sliding to touch the line, but because the wall doesn’t come near the ground, it is harder to accurately put your hands in the same place every time. To help with this, before the workout started I chalked a line where I wanted my hands to be.

I tried to be as relaxed and calm as possible going into this one, but that wasn’t relaxed as I needed to be. The other workouts I was more relaxed and did much better, so next time on the first workout in competition I really need to just mellow out and have some fun with it…even more than I think is reasonable.

The sets of 21 felt great and hand placenta was right one. During the set of 15 however, my hands were slightly father away from the wall than what is ideal. I knew this and choose to go unbroken anyway during this round, and break up the set of 9 as needed. When I got to the set of 9, I stopped after 4 reps because I could feel fatigue was coming and knew that if it did it would be a catastrophe. I would much rather lose some seconds and a point or 2 than lose a minute. I took another break after rep 8 for the same reason.

I’m happy I made this choice as I saw a LOT of guys who have fast “Dianes” not listen to their body and screw this up for themselves adding minutes to their time. The loss of 1 point was acceptable to me in this case. I ended up getting first in my heat by 2 seconds.

Moving forward, I need to practice the kipping HSPU. I am not efficient with it and would not have been able to utilize it if I had gone to failure. I see higher rep/ deeper depth HSPU regional workouts in the future and know I can’t solely rely on being able to press them out. Getting that kipping HSPU down will give me more options and more outs when I get into trouble.