Well it´s a little after 1 a.m. and I just returned from competing in the Western States Nationals! I picked up my trophy around 9 pm, but had to eat and make a 3 hour drive home! Well here´s the run down (I´ll try to go in somehwat chronological order):

Friday night arrived Mesa, AZ and checked into my hotel around 6pm. Relaxed for a while and then my workout partner picked me up so that we could go weigh-in at 8pm. I weighed in at 178 and Cortney weighed in at 183.5, the weight class limit for this particular competition was 187 lbs. So the stage was set!!! Also, met up with another friend who weighed in at 167 and would be lifting in the 170 lbs class.

After the weigh-ins we went and grabbed a bite to eat and retired to the hotel. Ah, time to rise and shine! Woke up feeling pretty good, arrived the meet site at 0930, lifting was supposed to begin at 1000. Never fear, the contest started late as expected!!! As it turns out my flight didn´t squat until around 1 pm!

This was a pretty big contest, with nearly a 100 lifters competing (20 in my flight), this is the largest turnout I´ve seen in this area in years!

Here are my lifts for those who don´t want to read any further:

Sqt - 485
BP - 309
Dlt - 502 (numbers have been rounded off)

Total 1296 @ 178 bodyweight, this was good enough for 2nd place! Yeah, my workout partner kicked my butt!!!

His lifts were 502 Sqt, 331 BP, and a 551 Deadlift. Most of our flight got off to a rock start in the squats. I opened at 468 as planned, but was a little shaky on my set up. Got it together for a 3 white light success. Ditto on the second attempt! The power is there just a lot of problems getting set up. On my third attempt I pulled a "Howard" (hope you don´t mind me using your name) and dumped 502 off my back, luckily nobody was injured!!! Just couldn´t get set up!

Warmed up for the BP only to realize that we were behind some massive flight (don´t know the number of people) but it took forever!!! So, I got a little cold...but I smoked my opener (309)! Subsequent attempts at 331 proved fruitless, stalled midway!

Prior to deadlifts I got a sudden burst of energy maybe it was knowing that I was behind by 28 lbs and needed to do something in a hurry! Deadlift warm ups went great 225, 315, 405...time to hit the platform! I was opening at 502 and Cortney was opening up at 551 (which I knew was going to be do or die for him)!!! Cortney pulled up the straps on my Inzer Champion and I thought what a nice fit (almost perfect). I smoked 502 like it was 135! Cortney made a nice limit pull at 551! At this point I knew he had nothing left in the tank, but I had a whole lot of ground to make up! Time for a little deadlift strategy! Going back to the weighin, I was the lighter man so all I needed to do was tie him. I called for 546 on my second attempt and then decided to pass. I made up my mind that I came here to win and not to just get a nice total! The weight I needed was 579 lbs!!! After having such a strong pull on my opener, I figured a had a legitimate shot. Well, the time came and 579 was loaded. I readied myself and got to the platform. I began the pull and the weight started to move, the bar came up about 4 inches before coming to a stall, I gave a little more effort but it wasn´t coming! Oh well, I guess the better man one today. But atleast, I pushed him all the weigh! In hindsight, I probably could have pulled 562 legitimately today.

Well, I guess I can chalk this one up to platform rust! This was my first full meet in 2 years. But, I was pretty happy with the effort. By the way I went 4 for 8, just had to throw that in for all you 9 for 9 lifters out there!!!

My friend who lifted in the 170s is now a Masters 1 (40-44 yr) lifter. Well, he managed to post a 1416 total!

All in all this was a pretty good meet as far as quality and quantity of lifters!

Mike