I competed at the Summerfest Open yesterday. The competition has a clean and jerk event and a deadlift event. I was able to train in the clean and jerk for two weeks prior to the meet, before that I hadn't lifted for two months due to a sprained back and broken rib. The meet was a ton of fun and there were some impressive lifters there.
In the clean and jerk I was successful at 110kg and 120kg, I just missed at 127.5kg. If I had been given a fourth the 127.5kg would have gone easily as I had goofed on my form during the clean and lost the bar. I ended up fourth in my weight class. The top two finishers in my weight class were successful at 152.5kg and 170kg, they are both on full ride scholarships for weightlifting and are olympic hopefuls. There was a 70 year old man in my weight class that was successful at lifting 110kg, most impressive. My form sucks in this event, I have no technique at all and just brute the bar around.
In the deadlift I wasn't sure what I'd be able to lift since I hadn't deadlifted since the competition I was in a few months ago on one day of notice. I figured I should still be able to hit 500 pounds so I listed that as my opener. Before this competition started I began to get a bit dizzy from being in the sweltering heat and sun for 4.5 hours already with nothing consumed but beer (yes I drank beer during the competition). This made me a bit concerned but then I was called out to give my opener a go. Half of the people in my weight class were already out by the time my lifting started (all finished below 500), so I just had to beat out 2 more guys to get a top three spot. One of the guys I knew could beat me from chatting with earlier, so the best I could hope for was 2nd. The 500 ended up pulling smooth and easy, the announcer picked on me for not using enough weight. So I jumped to 530 for my second attempt, which would guarantee me a third place finish if I got it. I went up to make my pull but my mind was a bit off and I failed at the knees. I was pretty annoyed with myself for allowing that to happen, and then I had to follow myself for my third attempt at the same weight. Some of the older guys (the 60 and over lifters) told me to take off my boots since it made me lift from a 2 inch deficit. I followed there advice and nailed the 530 and made sure to hold for about 10 seconds and shout to the crowd (there were a few hundred people watching). So I managed to walk away with a fine third place finish.
All in all a great time. I look forward to giving this meet a go again next year. One of the heavyweight deadlifters opened with 730 and just passed after that because nobody else was close to him. I guess he can hit over 800 but he had recently had surgery on a ruptured bicep tendon so he just wanted to "take it easy". Wow.
Regards,
Sensless
It would have been fun to see you pull the 530 lbs with the big shout at the end 
. Uh, I don't suppose someone was there taking pictures or something?
