It was a long day Saturday, started with a wake up at around 3:30am a great breakfast of steak and eggs (had to get that protein) then on the road to Orlando. The meet started around 9am with the lower weight classes, I was in the second group of the day. They decided to use all the weights in kilograms, which I didn’t understand since it was a national meet you think it would be in pounds but anyway. Squat was the first event up, it’s always good to get that one out of the way. I opened up light to make sure I got at least 1 lift under my belt, about 365lbs, got it easily. Second lift in squat was tougher I decided to go for 402lbs, it was all good. Third attempt I decided to go for it, 412lbs never tried it before and if it wasn’t nationals I wouldn’t have even tried but I figured go hard or go home. I got the weight on my back and went down with it way too far, no chance to get it up after that. So after the first event I had a good hold on second place.

Next up was the bench press, by far my worst event. I opened with 285lbs and proved to be a good thing I went low. I got it but struggled a little bit so I decided to make only small jump for my next attempt. I went for 297lbs I figured it should be easy since in training I was able to hit 305lbs 2 weeks in a row. I started to press the weight and it went up crooked and slow but it was going up. For some reason the judges called a no lift. These judges can be pretty picky when it comes to a national meet, but it must have gotten in my head because I tried the same weight for my final attempt and it looked worse than the first one. So I finished with a horrible total of 285lbs, my chances of winning were pretty much gone and I was now in a battle to finish in second. Good news was deadlift was next by far my best event.

Once again I opened up light, problem was it was too light. 465lbs I got it no problem but since I bounced my feet a little bit the judges gave me a no lift. I wasn’t too worried about it since I smoked the weight I decided to jump up to 501lbs for my second attempt. Got that one no problem as well, third attempt I went bigger 512lbs. I might have gone higher if I was in contention to win but going into the meet my goal was 1200lbs total and that final attempt would give me 1201lbs. so I ended on a high note getting the weight up. My day ended with a second place finish in the 198lbs weight class. The finish made me eligible to compete at the WPC world Championships in November. The event will be held in Latvia but I still haven’t decided if I can afford to make the trip.

I should be able to post the video of my lifts soon.