[niagareven]

Tuesday 8/12 -- west babylon

warm up
+
2 sets of back raises
2 sets of man makers with 95lbs
2 sets of bw reverse hypers
bunch of band stuff

Stones
a few with the 230
a few with the 260
Tacky turned to mush at this point.
a few misses with the 300
a few misses with the 320
6 squats with the 260
-the tacky was making it worse than if I wasn't using tacky because it was so greasy and mushy. after a bunch of tries with the 300 and 320 and my arms just sliding right off, the tacky started coming off, then I wiped more off and didn't apply anymore and then I started pulling the 320 to my knees...just couldn't transition it over.

Tire
650 x 4 very easy sets of 5-6

Prowler
5 sets of 100 feet with 4 plates.


Wish I hadn't even bothered going to use the stones today. I keep forgetting I have to put the tacky in a cooler full of ice and leaving it there in order for it to work. I also realized today that another thing stopping me from loading 300+ stones now is the fact that my gut probably got 2-3 inches bigger. My arms are short as hell as it is, so losing 3 inches of space to grab the stone is another thing. Yes, I am making excuses.

[niagareven]

Friday 8/15

Been stretching a bit the last couple days and used the pvc a couple times, nothing much though. Drove to Jersey today (took us almost 3 hours because of traffic/bad weather. We'll probably get there in under an hour tomorrow morning. ) to get the weigh ins out of the way. Stupid paranoid me always worrying about dumb things like making weight when I weighed in 8lbs under at 192 with shorts and a t-shirt on. Glad we go the weigh ins out of the way though because 1.) the mapquest directions made us turn the wrong way on St. Georges and we were lost for a while, so now we know what to do. and 2.) don't have to worry or be paranoid about what I eat tonight or tomorrow morning.

[Donut62]

Good luck man. Think positive

[fennway4414]

Originally Posted by Donut62

Think positive

That's always hard for him

Rip it up bro, and good luck. Tell Dunk I said good luck, too.

[niagareven]

Thanks guys. I have a pretty good feeling on this one. But then again I said that before Hudson Valley... haha. Oh well, this one is much lighter so hopefully I wont fuck up.

[fennway4414]

Originally Posted by niagareven

hopefully I wont fuck up.

THINK POSITIVE MOTHER FUCKER!

[niagareven]

Saturday 8/16 -- Pyramid Strongman Showdown

Feeling pretty good going into this show. I liked weighing in yesterday and then eating how I normally was so I wouldn't be paranoid leading up to the morning of the contest.

anyway....

First event: Start warming up for the log. Hitting a bunch of reps with 95 and 145. Then they load the second log with what I think is about 175-180. It felt a little heavy to me, but I figured I just wasn't warmed up. Hit for a really easy double. Then do two triples with it really easily. Probably could have hit a lot of reps. Then they start loading the contest weights onto the logs. The log that I think was about 175ish was the log the middle weights used, and their weight was gonna be 230. Then all they added onto the log was a 10 and a 5 on each side, meaning the log weighed 200lbs, which is the weight I had to use for the competition. So after realizing this I was very happy, thinking I was gonna hit around 8 reps. My turn comes up, the log feels like a cadrillion pounds. Hit 3, which weren't easy. Missed the four. Recleaned it two more times and missed it both times. Obviously there is something wrong with me when it comes to competitions, and this time I have proof. My friend actually filmed my first "warmup" double with the log. Maybe I'll post it so everyone can see just how easy it was. Oh well, whatever. I don't know where I placed but a lot of guys got 0-2 reps so I wasn't too far down.

Second event: Car deadlift. I was hoping this was going to be HEAVY. They didn't get a chance to test the car they used out before hand, and it wound up being VERY light. They also put a 2x4 under the handles so it was high. Wait till you see my ROM on this thing.... it's silly. I did like 24-26 reps which is ridiculous. The winners tied with 34 each and a couple of guys got around 30. My straps were also being a pain and kept slipping which was screwing me up. Around rep 20 I realized I should move my feet further up a little more too and after I did that it felt like even less so if I had done that from the beginning I feel like I would have hit a bunch more.

Third event: Medley. 200 farmers (which felt VERY heavy to me which was weird.) 700 tire flip for four flips. Then a 500lbs anchor/chain drag. Flew threw the farmers and tire. The chain just didn't want to move. I think I got around 30ish out of the 50 feet. Maybe a little more, I dunno. Before me I don't think anyone finished it. Then after me the next like five guys all smoked the whole thing.

Fourth event: 250lbs tree carry for max distance with turns at 150 feet. I tried bear hugging it, got to the first 150 feet and turned around and my hands were slipping off becuase I couldn't really reach all the way around. Dropped it to my lap and carried it side ways. My grip was fried from trying to pull on the chain so my hand kept slipping. Reset it in my lap two or three times and finally put it down at the 300 mark. I thought I was doing pretty well in this, but then again after me everyone was hitting the second turn and then taking it like 10-20 feet further. I wish I tried resetting it into my lap and getting a better grip because it would have helped me a lot.

Fifth event: Stones--220, 250, 270, 300 to 52" then 330 to 46"? Smoked the first three. Lapped the 300 and had it to the dam lip of the platform before dropping it. Lapped it again but didn't get close. Would have been huge if I got that because I haven't loaded a 300+ stone in a while and never have in a contest. I also think I did the first three possibly the fastest out of everyone who only loaded three. But I think two guys loaded all five and one got the 4th. Still would have helped my placing a lot and been a big PR for me. Oh well.

I dunno where I finished. There were a lot of competitors in my class though. Maybe 8th out of at least 15 I'd guess. Who knows. If I reset the log and carried it a little further and didn't miss that 300 stone I would have probably moved up a few places though. Damn. Not terribly disappointed in myself even though after the first couple of events I was. I need to get my technique worked out on everything so I don't make silly mistakes like on the car deadlift. Need to realize not to give up like on the log when there are still a few people that have to go after me. Need to train with more stones. Need to get leaner (you'll see how fat I am in the video.) and need to work out my mental bullshit.

Highlight of the day was definitely Dan Ronga screaming after he smoked all five stones and then running a victory lap around the parking lot. Hopefully someone has that on video.

Luke did good for his first contest, and also KILLED every event. He hit a 3 rep PR on the log. Loaded all five stones really easily which was insane. Went REALLY far with the log carry, got I think around 30 reps on the car deadlift and completely smoked the medley. I can't wait to see him get older and gain weight. I can see him being a future light weight pro, easily.

On the car ride home Dunk and I talked about what we need to do to get over this slump we seem to be in and start doing better. We always have these talks but usually nothing seems to come from it. This time we were talking a lot about how fat we are. There is no reason for us to both have as high of a body fat percentage at we do. Especially me. I weighed 192 friggen pounds but I'm probably close to 25% bodyfat. That is absolutely ridiculous. We sort of made the plan to clean up our diets and try to drop a little fat/weight over the next month while trying to work some kinks out in our training. If/when we get through that month. We may do something drastic to kick start us and really test our will power. Something as crazy as the velocity diet. I hope we are serious about this. We'll obviously not train strongman events for the month that we are on this ridiculous thing, but I think it will help us both out a LOT.



Oh, and the video will probably be up in a little while.

[niagareven]

This is that first warmup double with the log--keep in mind it's the same weight I had to use in the contest, and I did it for 2 more triples just as easy YouTube - Greg fake warmups

and here's the video of the competition YouTube - Greg Pyramid Strongman

[fennway4414]

Great job dude. That chain drag looked like a total bitch.

And LOL @ that car deadlift. That was crazy, your ROM was like 3 inches.

[niagareven]

Thanks man


Tuesday 8/18

warm up

monster mini band pull aparts
60 reps

pushups
2 sets of 15

Flat bench
95 x 10
135 x 5
185 x 5
205 x 3
225 x 5 singles
-First time benching with a normal grip in a long time. I was having trouble getting comfortable, so I didn't go too crazy on them. I figured out that using a thumbless grip allows me to bench like this with no shoulder pain. I was also having trouble keeping my upper back tight for some reason. So after the first 2 singles with 225, I lowered the hooks one setting and it helped a bit. Next week should go better.

Close grip incline
135 x 8
175 x 5 (almost dropped it on my face unracking it)
175 x 4... andy grabbed the bar and tried to rack it after i did the fourth, which caused me to fight against him and wound up holding up for like 10 seconds before trying a 5th, which caused me to miss it.
155 x 8

Wide grip chins
8, 6, 6

monster mini band pull aparts
60 reps