Nearly two weeks ago, I competed at Round One of the 2015 Victorian Strongman Grand Prix at StrongMelbourne. I did a write-up of the events and how I went on my strongman-focused tumblr account. tl;dr I came 3rd in the heavyweight division, video below:
Hindsight is a wonderful and terrible thing. And that's what this blog post is going to be; a list of all the things I did right and wrong, the things I'd changed and the things I wouldn't change in the lead up to what was my fourth strongman competition. Hopefully these lessons can be carried forward.
Practice the Events
This is a pretty obvious one. The big problem I had when trying to train the events was that my regular strongman gym, Definition Fitness Centre, didn't have a lot of the equipment to practice with, and some of the equipment wasn't even built when the competition was announced, so there wasn't a lot that I could do about that.
A week before the competition, I only got one practice session in at StrongMelbourne with the actual implements, and I probably should've gotten in at least one or two more training days in there in the earlier weeks.
Why is this so crucial: if I hadn't have practiced the sandbag loading race, figuring out what the best way to setup and pick up the sandbags was for me, I would've screwed the event up entirely. Also, a 260kg frame carry is very different to a 130kg per hand farmer's walk.
Dig Deeper
This is a recurring problem for me, and it's obvious when rewatching myself on video; I don't have a sense of urgency during an event. I look too casual. I'm not aggressive. I'm not angry. I don't look like I actually realise that I'm in a competition trying to beat other people. This is in stark contrast to when I play basketball - something I've done for 20 years now - where I'm very aggressive.
During the sandbag loading event, the first two sandbags were carried and loaded pretty easily, and I was happy with my performance up to that point. But on the last sandbag, I hesitated before picking it up, and again after lapping the sandbag before finally walking with it and loading it. Those couple of seconds cost me second place in that event, and, all else being equal, second place overall on count-backs. This is a mistake I need to stop making.
Overhead Strength Was Great
The overhead strength training I did for this competition was fantastic. I've never felt so strong overhead before, and I credit the lesson I learned again earlier this year for the progress I've made.
I didn't practice the overhead medley at all - just the individual implements separately - and if I had practiced the full medley (or something similar to it), I probably would've figured out that my belt was going to cause breathing problems by the time I got to the axle. So my mistake with this event more so reiterates the first point: Practice the Events.
Sometimes just being strong enough isn't enough.
Conditioning Was Great, But Not Excellent
Conditioning is something I've put a lot of time into in the past year, and it has improved by leaps and bounds. Having said that, it needs to be better. Or more accurately: it needs to be more specific. I can push a prowler for 15-20 minutes, snatch a kettlebell for 5 straight minutes and clean+press an axle every minute on the minute for 15 minutes with the best of them, but nothing gets you better conditioned for sandbag carries like actually carrying sandbags.
I don't know when my next competition will be, but I've got plenty to work on before then.
