MEET REPORT
I competed in the Camp Pendleton Powerlifting Championships on January 12, 2013. It was open to both military & civilians, and was a great location & awesome environment for a meet.
Results first:
I competed in both the Masters (40-45) 220-lb division and the Open 220-lb division. Totaled 1223 (430,297,496), which was good enough to finish first in both divisions, since its a pretty small meet. There were only 8 competitors in the Open 220 class, and only 2 in the 220 Masters.
I was extremely pleased with my results! I hit PRs in Squat, Bench & Deadlift, went 9 for 9, and got 3 whites on all 9 attempts!
I didn't cut weight, and weighed in at 215.4 Saturday morning. It has been unseasonably cold for Southern California lately and Saturday was no different. It was about 39 degrees when I weighed in, with a high expected around 59. Of course there was no heater in the gym. It was cold all day, but I kept my sweats on between lifts & it wasn't too bad.
SQUATS
I was in the 3rd flight all day, and the 1st 2 flights were moving extremely fast for squats. As a result, I didn't get fully warmed up before my planned opener at 175 kg (386 lb). I did a single at 315 and then snuck in a quick one at 335 & it was time to go. I guess that's why its good to set your openers low - it didn't feel great, but I hit it without too much difficulty.
For my 2nd lift, I was planning on 192.5, which would have tied my PR, but since the 1st attempt didn't feel great, I went conservative & decided on 190 kg (419 lb). I hit that fairly easily, but things were still feeling heavy. I really wanted to go for 200 kg (440 lb), but squats weren't feeling great, so I decided to go for 195 kg (430 lb) for my final squat. It was still a 5 lb PR.
When I started my decent at 430, for whatever reason I forgot to sit back. I started descending straight down - I was like "CRAP - I can't start over!", but still managed to grind the lift out. So a small PR in squats & moving on to bench.
BENCH
My bench opener was at 120 kg (264 lb) & it felt ok. The pause seemed long, but after I looked at the video, it wasn't long at all. At any rate, I went conservative on my 2nd attempt again & went for 127.5 kg (280 lb) which was pretty conservative considering I benched 130kg at my last meet & I know my bench has gotten stronger. The 127.5 felt great though, so I was aggressive with my choice for my last attempt - 135 kg (298 lb). This was 8 lbs more than I had even done in training.
It was a real grinder, but I got it! Big PR!
DEADLIFT
Deadlift was next, again I chose a conservative opener at 200 kg (441 lb). It went up easy, so I decided to try to tie my current PR (set only about a week ago) at 217.5 kg (480 lb). I lifted it nice & clean. At this point, I was 8 for 8 on the day & decided to really go for it on the last lift. 225 kg (496 lb) - this was a 16 lb PR. I hit it nice & clean, good speed. Really stoked after this lift - couldn't believe it! In training about a week ago I started really pulling my shoulder blades together on deadlift & it helped a ton.
Here's the video from the meet:
