3rd annual Brute Strength Open

Aug 9th, 2009:

Snatch: 65, 70, 73
C&J: 85, 90, 94

Total: 167kg

This was, as a whole, better than expected. Though my PR would have put my total at 180, I had only been expecting 160 due to my training schedule. Rather than view this as another competition, I saw this as a competition from a de-conditioned state: the training period leading up to this event had me working 80 hours per week with an average of 5 hours of sleep per night. Food intake varied, but in the last week it averaged close to 1000 calories per day, and on lift day I weighed in at approximately 72 kilos (my normal competition weight is 77kg, and my normal walking weight is closer to 80). In essence, my body had been wasting away for the previous month, so being able to perform at all can be considered satisfactory.

I trained about 6 or 7 times before the meet, and my diet played fast and loose (on the one hand Stephan brings up the fact that a carbohydrate-rich diet doesn't seem to wreak that much havoc on the body if caloric intake as a whole is already restricted, and at the same time the issue of food-as-emotional-relief vs food-for-physical-health came into constant play; I sided with emotional relief from stress) and it seems that my body was still able to more or less perform. It is difficult to say whether or not this was independent or simply a wind-down from the leftovers of bjj training.

An Aug 22nd o-lifting meet is up next (if scheduling permits). Otherwise the bjj pan-ams and worlds are upcoming (again if scheduling permits) followed by the Baltimore Open (0-lifting) in January 2010.