Post meet write-up.. RPS NE Power Challenge TPS Boston 10/17-18/15

Great weekend with the Lakeville Powerlifting team and good friends participating in the 19th Annual RPS Power Challenge.. A ton of great PRs, some great times with friends, and the battle with the iron continuing on for another day. I'll let each lifter tell his own story.. But some highlights were Fred's 600lb squat.. Brian going 9-for-9 in his first meet and totaling over 1500lbs..585-375-575.. Brandon with a big 425 squat, 285 bench, and 475 dl at 165lbs.. I fought a hard battle in the squats chasing depth.. Finally nailing a 640 squat (10lb pr) on my 3rd and final attempt..narrowly escaping a bomb out lol.. Then 505 bench (5lb pr)..and a 555 deadlift (5lb pr) for a 1700lb pr total. Big thank you to Ol Man Fred for working hard all weekend to wrap countless knees for all! And thank you to Dennis for all his wisdom and training assistance over the last 10 weeks... And of course my wife Kellie for putting up with me and my friends training until 10pm in our garage!

This weekend we had Fred lifting on Saturday, and the rest of our team lifting on Sunday so that we could support Fred's coaching needs on Saturday (wrapping knees, etc) and then he could be there for us on Sunday.

Brian and I drove up with Fred on Saturday around 11am to get him ready, as well as for Brian and I to weigh in. We both made weight.. I was pretty close at 274.8 but a win is a win haha.

After Fred was finished, we all drove back home to get some well-needed rest for our day on Sunday.. we got home around 6pm .. we ate like animals then went to bed.

Sunday morning we headed up at 7am, getting to Everett for around 8.. even though Brian and I were in the 3rd flight, I like to get there a bit early so my warmups are not rushed. We camped out in the far corner of the gym and proceeded to loosen up and eat/drink as needed.

Usually what I like to do is get my light warm-ups/mobility work out of the way real early.. about halfway thru 1st flight.. then move into the heavy warmups once 2nd flight gets going.

Squat warmups went smooth, and fast.. a big reason being is our gym equipment is exactly the same as whats on the platform.. we knew what warmups we were going to be taking, and we just followed our plan... but like Mike Tyson said.. "Everyone's got a plan 'til they get punched in the mouth."

Thats where my plan started going sideways.

Brian's squats went smooth, I'll let him do his own write-up, but he went 3-for-3 on the squat, finishing up with 585.

My opener was 605 which was about the lightest I could open up with and still have a shot at depth with my multiply gear.. My first squat was red-lighted high. Not the best way to start out a meet... but if you remember back from an earlier post, I had a plan for that as well.. regardless of what happened with my opener, I was going up. It was champ or chump. I'm not hanging around for a 605 squat (25lbs under my march PR).. originally I was going to go 605-660, but I made a smart decision to go to 640 which was a 10lb PR and a weight I knew I could smoke.. twice if I had to.. and I did...

2nd attempt was fast, but again.. red light for depth.

Now it was shit or get off the pot time. I told Fred, "Don't call me up until either I fall over backwards, or I am definitely deep enough...,.." ... My last squat of 640 again was fast.. and finally.. Good lift!

Now it was time to play it smart.. Obviously an 1800 total was out of reach at this point.. so I made a decision to go for small lift PRs at this time, and at least break 1700 for Total PR.

Bench opener of 480 went smooth.. then 505 went pretty good.. not quite as fast as we've hit in the gym.. but confident. At this point I was going to pass on my third and conserve energy, but I said fuck it, lets go for 520. Everything felt good as I unracked the 520, I just ran out of steam halfway up and just couldn't lock out the last inch or two...

Moving on to deadlifts, my plan is always to get my Total with 2 lifts. The deadlift is a very tiring lift - especially after 3 max effort squats and benches.. and especially after the mental-warfare I went through trying to get my squats passed.. I opened with an easy 520, which gave me a small jump to 555 to lock in the 1700lb total. I felt I quite possibly had 570-580 on this day quite possibly, but it wasn't worth the risk of going for it, then missing it - and being left with a 520 opener, a 1660 total and no PR.

Like Brian Carroll always told me.. Pull for your Total. Pull smart.

In the end, this meet was a huge victory for me in a lot of ways.. first and obviously - it was a 20lb PR total. Not a huge PR to write home about - but a PR is a PR gotta take them when you can... but most importantly this was a HUGE psychological victory.. to be down 0-2 going into your 3rd squat, and needing this lift to just stay in the meet.. after 25 weeks of hard training.. it all came down to one lift.. and to be able to put that lift together, was a big personal triumph.

Then - being a smart and mature enough lifter to make calculated attempts on the next Bench and Deadlifts to be able to lock in individual lift PRs, and still get the 1700... that mental win was more satisfying than you can imagine.

Anyhow.. moving forward, there is a short off-season of about 13 weeks, then we head back into 10 week meet prep for April RPS NE Revolution.. If I put the hard work in, and stay healthy.. hopefully we can take another run at 1800 or better...

Here's my individual lifts: