My first Powerlifting Competition!!!
Excitement was high, so consequently I had a terrible night's sleep on Friday night, and was up super early Saturday morning. We left the house around 8:30 for the meet. When we got there we had a "rules" meeting, and then warm-ups started for the first "flight." Flights are by weight, all the meets I've been to have the lighter weights first, heavier second. This was the opposite, so I was in Flight B, 148 weight class.
The meet started with Squats, and since I wasn't squatting, I had a loooong weight. All of Flight A needed to squat (about 20 lifters) x 3 each, then all of Flight B (about 10 or 12 lifters x 3 each), then all of Flight A had to BENCH (same deal, x 3 each)! Gah! By the time it was time for me to start warming up for bench, I was sooo amped up I felt a little wired...weird feeling and hard to describe! My warm-up felt really frenetic.
Myles (my training partner/friend) set a PR on his squat, 235, 270 then 280.
He set a PR on bench, 195, 210, 210 (missed 210 on 2nd attempt, KILLED IT on 3rd attempt)
He bombed out on deadlift - he got 405 for his opener but it was clearly heavy and it was a real grinder. He missed his 2nd at 455 (former PR in october being 451), and his 3rd (repeat at 455). Here's his 405 lift.
So yeah...tough day for deadlifting, but...all in all though he set a PR in 2 of 3 lifts, not a bad day!!
Bench for me...I hit 95 easy!
105 - easy!
Went for 115, totally missed it. Not even CLOSE. For a while, I second guessed that decision, "shouldda gone with 110" but Myles pointed out that I would have put that up easily, then second guessed whether I should have pushed for the 115..so it really didn't matter. He's right :)
Since he was lifting off for me, we had to have someone in the audience try to record them.
They messed up the 105, so there's no video.
And I didn't post the 115 because I missed it but if you wanna see it just hang out on my chest, I'll gladly share ;)
My flight was SMALL and went really fast, it felt really frenetic and crazy, and I felt a little wired and out of control, it was weird. I felt like I hadn't settled...maybe because it was first meet amped-upness, I dunno..but I needed to settle.
They had the lighter lifters lifting 2nd, so I had a good deal of time before I deadlifted, since all of flight A had to lift first. I spent a lot of that time trying to settle down and get a grip ;) It helped, I think. Warm-up for deadlift did not go smoothly. My last warmup lift was 185 and it felt HEAVY. Shook my confidence a bit, and after that 115 thing I ALMOST changed my opener to 200, but at the last minute I was like "just stick with the plan Cathy, you can do this!"
So, here they are :)
225: a PR on 2nd attempt, since I maxed at 215 in training!
And the big one...240!
Form got a little shaky on 240, that arch could have been stronger! And what a grinder huh?!! But OMG what a freaking rush I got! That was TOTALLY a maximal lift and I got it and I felt CRRRRAAAZZZZY incredible when I put that bar down! Absolutely have never felt anything like that, it was amazing :)
And now I'm a record holder, thank you :) In bench too! It's a National record for both bench and deadlift in THIS particular federation (there are a few powerlifting organizations, and you get the record with the organization you lift with), which is RAW United. That said, I also nailed the National Record in the USAPowerlifting federation for my weight class, which is 225.75 :) HAH! Holy crap!! :)
It was a simply incredible day :) I won't forget it anytime soon and I am totally pumped for whatever's next!
This week I'll be hitting the cardio and getting some sweat on, as I sort of miss it, that was toned down quite a bit through training. Will also be doing only light and bodyweight training 2 x this week to help recover from the meet. I'll be using this time to reformulate goals and figure "what's next," then hit it again hard, in one way or another, next week.