thanks so much for the support and kind words!
what a journey
heres my comp report:
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UKs strongest man 105 write up
What a brutal brutal competition - 9 events in total, must be the most ever in a single day strongman comp in UK? That alone made it a real challenge to be cherished.
My goals were to survive the comp and come out in the other end thinking I could have not done any more. I did.
14 competetors in the start, but the day started taking its toll with guys dropping out due injuries.
1. Arm over arm 4x4 pull
The rope used was really thick, probably more than double the normal thickness of the ropes. The pull itself didnt feel heavy, but after few pulls forearms started running out of juice and it was hard to transfer power to the pulls. I went out 4th and i may or may not have finished the course, I dont know I was too knackered to be able to say what happened. 7th place
2. max axle floor to overhead
100 easy, 110 easy, 120 easy, 130 clean easyish, but then couldnt power it up, disappointing, but 120 was a realistic target for the day, 130 would have been a pb. 145 by mike was a joy to watch! 8th place
3. 150kg farmers walk for 20m
Crazy heavy farmers for 105kg guys - and they were giant farmers, big block types. My glute injury came back with a vengeance from the first pickup, but didnt hurt when walking. Grip just not strong enough and they gave up at about 8m. Picked the farmers up again but only got few more metres. Maybe about 10 metres in total? Anyway, as luck would have it I had the longest distance of the guys who didnt finish the course and placed ok - 5th place
4. keg toss - 8 kegs over 4.5m bar
Awesome event! I want to do this again! Training it would have helped as every time I threw the keg i used a different tech. I was all over the place, missing more tosses than I nailed. 4 kegs in total and shared 8th place.
5. Deadlift medley
Very worried about this as the glute was painful every time I needed to pick anything off the floor. 250kg normal deadlift came up ok but was painful, 275 15inch axle deadlift felt light but painful, and the 300 18 inch was just too much. Joint 8th place.
6. Loading medley
Loadede the two monster 130kg barrels, but was cramping all over the place, especially my forearms and that made me slow - no chance with the fingals finger. 8th place
7. 70kg dumbell for reps
Awkward long dumbell like in worlds strongest man. Went all out all or nothing for the first rep and managed to lock it out after a battle which felt like an eternity. Left obliques cramped, and left hamstring too, auch. Subsequent attempts were poor, but worth taking as I did have a chance. 7th place.
8. 400kg tyre flip
Tyre has no thread to grip on so we were allowed to use tacky. My biceps and forearms were sore before this, and since this tyre has been dubbed the bicep killer I took it quite safe. The tyre actually didnt feel that heavy once you got some kind of grip of it. Managed three flips, shared 5th place and probably my best performance of the day.
9. stones
With all the cramps and everything this was looking hard, but as the last event you just go nuts and leave it all in there. Very enjoyable to hit the stones after such a long gruelling day. 110 and the two stones after which weights i cant remember went up easy, managed to lap the 160 but with everything in pain and cramping, i couldnt even think about what i was doing and messed it up by having it too low on my torso. Bullshit loading attempt, but that was all I could give. 7th place
8th overall with 60.5 points!
I was consistantly average/bad, depending on the point of view which is why i placed 8th even though i placed 8th or above in every event (4 8th places, 3 7th places and two 5th places). I did not have any great events to collect points, and where I did, i beat guys who were top dogs in most of the other events. Such is strongman scoring - for guys like me without any really strong events i struggle to place higher.
Any comps I will do now will be "low stress" comps, almost like training sessions. Main aim is to bring up all areas of strength by a notch in preparation of next years finlands strongest man in May, and regional UK qualifiers before that.
by Mellos » Sun Aug 21, 2011 9:24 pm 
