GBPF South-West Championships

Weight was an issue in the few days prior to the south-west, so had to resort to water manipulation on Friday and Saturday to try and get my weight down. This consisted of drinking 8-10 litres on Friday and around 6 litres before 5pm on Saturday (which was a mission since I was at work and the loo is out on the street and up some stairs!). Friday to Saturday I dropped just over a kilo down to 52.4, then Saturday to Sunday morning I dropped down to 51.8, only to get to the competition (after not eating or drinking anything between weigh-ins) and weigh 52.4 on their scales. Tired and dehydrated I tried to go for a walk in lots of hoodies and chew gum and spit but this only got me down to 52.3, so on a sugar low and desperate to eat I made the decision to move up to the 57kg class and compete as a guest. Figured I would just use the competition for experience and get down to 52 for the Welsh in two weeks.

Stressful weigh-in over, I started warming up for squats. My suit went on super easy, probably due to my dehydration and slight weight loss so I probably should have washed it before the competition to tighten it. Warmed up to 100kg not quite to depth so I was slightly nervous for my opener of 105kg. I was very nervous before my first squat, not knowing when to start wrapping and having general pre-comp nerves. Had to wrap myself so my wraps probably weren’t as tight as I would have liked, so my first squat was a little tougher than I would have liked. Got 2:1 white lights so it probably wasn’t as deep as it could have been but it was a good lift so job done!

My next lift didn’t go quite as well. Or well at all for that matter… After my first lift a nice man offered to help and roll my wraps up but he rolled them up really loosely, so when I came to wrap myself I wasn’t able to do it nearly as tightly as I would have liked. I got onto the platform knowing I wasn’t wrapped tight enough and knowing full well I wouldn’t make the lift. I unracked the weight (110kg), something in my right knee twanged and my left knee felt like it was swathed in fabric rather than wrapped in powerlifting wraps, so I re-racked it and looked imploringly at my coach. Think I even said ‘my knees aren’t wrapped tight enough’. I then unracked it again, became overwhelmed with the stress of it all and re-racked it. No lift.

Third lift; calmed down a little and went to attempt 110kg again. The same nice man offered to wrap me, and for some reason I accepted. He had an interesting technique, but again nowhere near tight enough. Managed to get on the platform, unrack the weight and attempt the squat again. Stalled at the bottom; no lift.

I don’t like to attribute my squat failure to the lack of people there to wrap me, but it had a large influence on the sequence of events. Hopefully there will be someone there to wrap me at the Welsh, but in the meantime I will learn to wrap myself tighter! And I’m pleased I atleast got my opener. Double bodyweight ain’t bad…

Bench went a lot better by comparison. I had calmed down immeasurably and was actually quite looking forward to it. With my opener planned at 60kg, a stalling 55kg during the warm-up worried my coach, but I tried it again and proved to him that 60 was the right decision. And it was, although on the platform it wobbled a little on the way up, but it was a good lift. My second lift of 65kg was a no lift, I didn’t quite time the hit right and lost my line. Went on to attempt 65kg again for my third lift and it sailed up without a problem, so I was happy with my bench.

Deadlifts went well in terms of white lights, but my suit was far far too loose and I don’t think it really gave me any ‘bang’ off the floor like it did when it was tighter. Opened with an easy 105kg, then went to a slightly challenging but do-able 110kg. Next was 115kg, an equal gym PB. It was honestly the slowest lift I have ever done. It took its sweet, sweet time coming off the floor and then I dragged it up for what felt like about 5 minutes. The room went blurry, my organs threatened eruption, but the bar came up and I got the lift. Not bad considering how loose the suit was! The sense of relief after finishing my deadlift was once again immense.

I learned a lot at the competition, and learned of all the various factors that can go wrong with kit lifting. I had a good day overall despite some quite major setbacks, and really got to know a couple of my teammates who I hadn’t really spoken to before. I finished with a total of 285kg and somehow managed to come 2nd in the 57kg class. It was an open competition so my equipment really helped my total, but I was still really shocked when they called my name for 2nd! Got myself the shiny little plaque that you can see in the picture above, my 4th award for my 4th competition 🙂

Now the next two weeks will be spent fine-tuning my kit lifting and cutting down to sub 52kg again for the Welsh. I’ve got a couple of recipes and updates to post in the next few days, so watch this space.