top of page

WOMEN’S PRO AM MEET WRITE UP

On April 16th, I competed in the Women’s Pro Am in Cincinnati, OH. This meet is hosted by Laura Phelps, who runs a wonderful well run event. I had a blast and I am so glad that I did it this year. I was originally planning on competing at the Arnold in March, but because of an injury to my hand, I was unable to properly prepare for it.

We left on Thursday afternoon to head down to Cincinnati. It is about 7 hours of drive time to go straight though, but we had to stop in Columbus on the way there to pick up my coach Todd. Liz, Cory and I were riding together and I was driving. I figured this would be the best because I already had a headache from being dehydrated and was testy to say the least. This kept my mind clear, and also kept me from getting car sick on the way there. Once we finally got to the hotel it was pretty late, and I was a few pounds away from where I needed to be for weigh ins.

Friday morning weigh ins started at 8:00 am. I woke up early just to make sure that I was at 198. I of course was not, I was at 200. So, at 6:00 am I was downstairs on the treadmill with sweats overtop of garbage bags and the heat cranked up in the exercise room. Felt like a hot yoga studio in there, but walking at 3 mph wasn’t bad. 1 hour later, I was down 1.5 lbs and I was close enough to where I wanted to be since there was a .5 lb leniency. I got to the Sweat Shop just a bit after 8:00 and got weighed in at 198.0 on the nose. I always do that, so no real surprise there.

I always use the Cutting Weight book no matter if I have to drop 6 lbs or 16 lbs. I just add the extras like diuretics or sauna time when needed. This time it was a no carb week with a water load and 20 hours without food or water to get 5 pesky lbs off. After weigh ins, time to eat. Basically all I did that day, other than some pool time. Everyone that came to cheer me on got into town by dinner time and we had about 18 people.

Saturday was meet morning and I got there in time for the rules meeting after breakfast. I wasn’t in much of a rush though because I was lifting in the 4th flight. Kind of nice to be there, I usually am in the first flight considering I am a girl, and I lift raw.

SQUAT

I did the same things that I normally do to warm up. This included the big 3, some goblet squats (though I didn’t use weight, I just did free squats), and took the bar for about 20 reps.

65×20, 155×5, 205×3, 245×1, 295×1, 335×1, 385×1 OPENER: 410 Good lift! 435- Bad pick up, no lift, 435 again- same mistake as the first time, no lift.

I was not very happy with this. There were some things that I noticed about my hand placement that I was not able to overcome on the day of the meet. Every time that I stood up with the bar, my wrist was hitting the rack. If I was smart and figured it out then, I would have been able to change some things and probably would have had a smoother start. But, I didn’t, and therefore had a less-than-my best squat.

There were really long breaks in-between events. I chilled for a while, ate a little, talked to some friends a little, but mostly just relaxed. I needed to get warmed up again before bench, so I did a little mobility work with bands for my shoulders just to get some blood flow again. I was feeling pretty good though, so I was glad it was time to finally bench. One of the issues that I have always had with my bench is keeping my booty grounded. While we were warming up, I put my feet forward a little bit, to see what would happen, and that would make it worse, so I tucked them back further, and it didn’t seem to be a problem whatsoever.

BENCH

50×15, 140×5, 170×1, 190×1, 200×1, OPENER: 220 – Good lift 240 – Good lift, and fast! 260- Nope, stapled.

It’s funny, as fast as 240 went, we were sure that 260 was in the tank. But no I guess not. Time for deadlifts. Needed to make up a lot to get anything worth writing home about.

DEADLIFT

135×3, 185×3, 225×1, 275×1, 315×1, 365×1, 405×1 OPENER: 435 – Good lift, 475 – Good lift, 505 – Not today.

Not happy with this, as it was the only lift that I did not PR in. My best was 500 and today 505 was not going to budge. 475 gave me a PR total though, and though it wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for, it was still 3 PRs on the day, and Todd told me, “DON’T BE GREEDY!” He was right.

The day finished decent and with a few PR’s to be proud of:

410 Squat – 25 lb PR

240 Bench – 15 lb PR

475 Deadlift – 25 lbs under my best

1125 Total – 15 lb PR

There are a few people that I want to give huge a thank you to:

Brian Carroll– You have given me the opportunity to be part of the best team in powerlifting! I am forever grateful for whatever it was that you saw in me about a year a half ago. It’s so fun to be part of something bigger than myself and I look forward to what the future with Team PRS has in store!

Todd Brock – You are the best coach that anyone could ever ask for. Not only do you write my programming, but you also keep track of me on a constant basis. You know your stuff and have the best history and knowledge in the sport that I know. You know my potential better than I do, and remind me all the time that my limits are as far as I’m willing to push them. Thank you for all that you do, Todd, and thank you for travelling to be with me and helping handle me as well.

Cory Schutter– You are my rock, the one that can keep me the most level headed, and the one that I know will stand by my side through everything. You are the best handler I could ever ask for, and this includes far more than what is seen on meet day. You handle my stress, my emotions, and bull-headedness and have yet to kill me, so I am very fortunate for that!

Rachel Zipsie – You travel regularly to train at Catalyst because you have so much confidence in me. Little do you know, you also bring so much confidence TO me! I appreciate you not only as a training partner and handler, but also as a wonderful friend. I am proud of you for your lifting and having you with me on meet day was more important to me than you will ever know.

I also want to make a huge shout out to my amazing friends, the CTC crew, and my dear family for coming to Cincinnati. I know I had the biggest and best cheering section there and without you guys, none of this would even be worth the hard work put into it. I love you all so much and you mean the world to me. Thank you a million times over for always supporting me and helping keep CTC the best place to train in the world!

Featured Posts
Recent Posts
Search By Tags
Follow Us

© 2017 Catalyst Training Center

 

bottom of page