Road to the Arnold!
After last year's performance at nationals and coming up short of my goal, I knew that I needed to change a lot to be able to become the strongman that I want to be. I went into 2015 with one goal on my mind, qualify for the Arnold Classic at nationals!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X0u6njs2O0 - Video from nationals.
I went back to square one by completely changing my diet and training. I covered most of this in my write-up from the Chicago Fit Expo. After I finished competing at TPS Massachusetts State Championships, it was time to concentrate on nationals. 8 weeks of dedicated training to get me to where I needed to be.
I was a little unsure of where I was going to complete at nationals, 300 of SHW. Just over a month out, I was sitting at 325lbs and felt very strong but felt like crap each day because there was a decent amount of fat that I bulked up, definitely a lot of muscle but fat was added. I decided on August 23rd that I would make the cut and compete at 300. That's where I competed last year and I knew that this was the right class for me.
Going into Wednesday, the day before weigh-ins, I was still 3lbs over weight. I limited what I ate and when I woke up on Thursday morning, I was 300.0. I still went to the local YMCA to sit in the sauna and drop a few more lbs to make sure I was clear. I was the 2nd person in line for weigh-ins, I showed up 2.5hrs early and weighed in at 295lbs, 5lbs under! I immediately began to rehydrate and eat food all day long.
Now it was Friday morning, day 1 of nationals. We started with the Beast Metals 300lb log clean and press for reps. This was an event that I felt amazing with in training. I actually enjoyed using that log so I assumed I would just kill it. I got my first two reps almost effortlessly. Rep number 3 went up so quick that I lost my balance. When I took a step back, I stepped on the slick floor and fell backwards while throwing the log forward. No usually, they would DQ me on dropping the item but since they saw me slip on the floor, they let it go. I tried to get my composure and go for one for rep but it wasn't happening. 2 reps was nowhere near what I knew I was capable of. This put me behind in a tie for 4th but due to the ties, I was 10pts behind the leader.
I immediately felt deflated and began questioning what I was even doing there. I called down and began talking to myself (I did that a lot over the course of the 2 days). I kept saying the quote from Rocky Balboa "it doesn't matter how hard you hit but how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward". I decided to forget about the log and just move forward on to the next event.
Now it was time for the conans yoke carry. I rarely trained this event, every time I did, I felt like death and my bad knee would kill me. Due to the number of competitors and how there was no real order to warm up, I was not able to warm up with the yoke. The only time I picked it up was Thursday morning at weigh-ins. When my heat was up, I picked it and had a slow start. All of a sudden, I started picking it up. On the last few steps, I began to lose my breath and felt like I wanted to black out but just gritted it and threw the yoke over the line. I let out a roar in joy because I won the heat and knew that I was moving forward in the right direction. I finished the course in 11.81sec, good enough for 6th in the class.
The 3rd and final event on day 1 was the 350lb farmers carry with smooth powder coated handles. Again, I did not get a chance to warm up prior to this event. When it was my heat, I just picked them up and booked it. I was trying to run faster but I could feel the farmers slipping and knew that I could not drop them no matter what. I crossed the line in 10.78sec which was .1sec behind another person in my heat. I finished the farmers in 6th place again.
At the end of day 1, I was 6th out of 16 in the 300s and 17/49 overall. I left on a high note and knew I just had to keep moving forward, especially because we did not know exactly how many people were going to qualify for the Arnold so every point mattered.
Day 2 began with the item that killed me last year. My biggest failure in the 2014 nationals was zeroing the dumbbell in the press medley. I made a promise to myself that I would never permit that to happen again. I trained circus DB religiously in my nationals 2015 training.
It was now time for my heat, I will admit, I was anxious and scared because I knew that I couldn't screw up. When the just said go, I took off! I pressed the 200lb circus DB and pulled the 300lb 1 arm deadlift for 4 reps each! I might have been able to pull off one more DB rep but I did not manage my time as well as I should have. Those reps were good enough to get me in a tie for 3rd place in that event and in 5th in the 300lb class by 0.5pts.
The 5th and final event was the sandbag medley. I knew that I needed to not screw up, that's what it came down to. In the prior heat, I saw the 2 guys in 6th and 7th place both have slow times, 1 dropped the sandbag and the other just moved slow. I know I needed a really good run. The first 240lb sandbag was easy, I cruised and threw it on the trailer, my only issue was I slipped on the initial start of the race. My second sandbag, the 260lb sandbag gave me stupid trouble, I fumbled it a little on my lap but did not drop it. Then on the final 275lb sandbag, I was slow, but knew I had to finish and like I mentioned, not screw up. Once I was completed, I was deflated about my time but once I found out the guys in 6th and 7th were slower than me, I celebrated in my head about it.
At that moment, I knew that I had 5th overall. The only thing I didn't know was if 5th was good enough for the Arnold. Prior to going to the banquet, I started celebrating with people and drink. Even if I didn't qualify, I knew that I was going to celebrate for how well I did. When they began to announce the group winners, they mentioned that top 6 in my class qualified and in 6th place was the guy who was behind me in the sandbag. I knew what this meant. Then my name was called for 5th place and Arnold qualification.
My 2015 goal was achieved! I came to Quad Cities and gave it my all and walked away with 5th in the 300lb weight class and 15th overall in the HW class. Up 6 and 11 spots from 2014. I kept getting hit but I got up and kept moving forward. I persevered and achieved. Every night, I went to bed picturing me with the qualification and I did it.
So now this is the end of the 2015 strongman season. I completed more than I wanted to but I think that extra competition gave me more drive to achieve my goal. Now, I plan on taking a few weeks off from training. I will still be in the gym working on some light cardio and get that blood pumping with recovery and training people, but strongman training will wait until 10/19. Hopefully by then, Dione will email all of the Arnold qualifiers what the events are at the Arnold. If not, I will begin to train for the Lightning Fitness Couples Challenge. I will be competing with Elise, a MWW from JPF and together, we will win that show and qualify for 2016 nationals so I don't have to worry about that.
I want to thank all of my sponsors for their continued support. Without their backing, I would be behind the 8 ball and not perform to the best of my abilities. Play Again, HYLETE, and The Protein Bakery, that you all for your support and get ready for even bigger things to be happening in 2016. To Rehband, you don't sponsor me, but I absolutely love your equipment and it is my go to gear to wear during training and competition.
To all my friends and fellow competitors at nationals, thank you all for your support, your kind words, and energy to help me keep pushing. There are a lot of fellow competitors that I followed on social media but never met before, you guys are all great and it was so nice to finally meet you all in person and support one another throughout the 2 days.
To my family and friends back home, thank you for all of your calls and texts while I was away. It was great to know the support I had even though you all could not be there.
And most importantly, great thanks goes out to my wife Olivia for her continued support through all of the training and nutrition that I have had to go through. Thank you so much for your support. I know it's not easy, but knowing that you support me and are proud of me and back me, gives me that drive to not give in and to achieve my goals.
I know I did not call everyone out by name but by doing so would only disrespect any not mentioned. Just thank you all for your support and encouragement. Now it is time to enjoy and celebrate this big win for myself and get ready for the next challenge that awaits, the Arnold Amateur World Championships in Columbus, OH the first weekend in March!
Please feel free to follow the link below to check out the video for yourself on my YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X0u6njs2O0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X0u6njs2O0 - Video from nationals.
I went back to square one by completely changing my diet and training. I covered most of this in my write-up from the Chicago Fit Expo. After I finished competing at TPS Massachusetts State Championships, it was time to concentrate on nationals. 8 weeks of dedicated training to get me to where I needed to be.
I was a little unsure of where I was going to complete at nationals, 300 of SHW. Just over a month out, I was sitting at 325lbs and felt very strong but felt like crap each day because there was a decent amount of fat that I bulked up, definitely a lot of muscle but fat was added. I decided on August 23rd that I would make the cut and compete at 300. That's where I competed last year and I knew that this was the right class for me.
Going into Wednesday, the day before weigh-ins, I was still 3lbs over weight. I limited what I ate and when I woke up on Thursday morning, I was 300.0. I still went to the local YMCA to sit in the sauna and drop a few more lbs to make sure I was clear. I was the 2nd person in line for weigh-ins, I showed up 2.5hrs early and weighed in at 295lbs, 5lbs under! I immediately began to rehydrate and eat food all day long.
Now it was Friday morning, day 1 of nationals. We started with the Beast Metals 300lb log clean and press for reps. This was an event that I felt amazing with in training. I actually enjoyed using that log so I assumed I would just kill it. I got my first two reps almost effortlessly. Rep number 3 went up so quick that I lost my balance. When I took a step back, I stepped on the slick floor and fell backwards while throwing the log forward. No usually, they would DQ me on dropping the item but since they saw me slip on the floor, they let it go. I tried to get my composure and go for one for rep but it wasn't happening. 2 reps was nowhere near what I knew I was capable of. This put me behind in a tie for 4th but due to the ties, I was 10pts behind the leader.
I immediately felt deflated and began questioning what I was even doing there. I called down and began talking to myself (I did that a lot over the course of the 2 days). I kept saying the quote from Rocky Balboa "it doesn't matter how hard you hit but how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward". I decided to forget about the log and just move forward on to the next event.
Now it was time for the conans yoke carry. I rarely trained this event, every time I did, I felt like death and my bad knee would kill me. Due to the number of competitors and how there was no real order to warm up, I was not able to warm up with the yoke. The only time I picked it up was Thursday morning at weigh-ins. When my heat was up, I picked it and had a slow start. All of a sudden, I started picking it up. On the last few steps, I began to lose my breath and felt like I wanted to black out but just gritted it and threw the yoke over the line. I let out a roar in joy because I won the heat and knew that I was moving forward in the right direction. I finished the course in 11.81sec, good enough for 6th in the class.
The 3rd and final event on day 1 was the 350lb farmers carry with smooth powder coated handles. Again, I did not get a chance to warm up prior to this event. When it was my heat, I just picked them up and booked it. I was trying to run faster but I could feel the farmers slipping and knew that I could not drop them no matter what. I crossed the line in 10.78sec which was .1sec behind another person in my heat. I finished the farmers in 6th place again.
At the end of day 1, I was 6th out of 16 in the 300s and 17/49 overall. I left on a high note and knew I just had to keep moving forward, especially because we did not know exactly how many people were going to qualify for the Arnold so every point mattered.
Day 2 began with the item that killed me last year. My biggest failure in the 2014 nationals was zeroing the dumbbell in the press medley. I made a promise to myself that I would never permit that to happen again. I trained circus DB religiously in my nationals 2015 training.
It was now time for my heat, I will admit, I was anxious and scared because I knew that I couldn't screw up. When the just said go, I took off! I pressed the 200lb circus DB and pulled the 300lb 1 arm deadlift for 4 reps each! I might have been able to pull off one more DB rep but I did not manage my time as well as I should have. Those reps were good enough to get me in a tie for 3rd place in that event and in 5th in the 300lb class by 0.5pts.
The 5th and final event was the sandbag medley. I knew that I needed to not screw up, that's what it came down to. In the prior heat, I saw the 2 guys in 6th and 7th place both have slow times, 1 dropped the sandbag and the other just moved slow. I know I needed a really good run. The first 240lb sandbag was easy, I cruised and threw it on the trailer, my only issue was I slipped on the initial start of the race. My second sandbag, the 260lb sandbag gave me stupid trouble, I fumbled it a little on my lap but did not drop it. Then on the final 275lb sandbag, I was slow, but knew I had to finish and like I mentioned, not screw up. Once I was completed, I was deflated about my time but once I found out the guys in 6th and 7th were slower than me, I celebrated in my head about it.
At that moment, I knew that I had 5th overall. The only thing I didn't know was if 5th was good enough for the Arnold. Prior to going to the banquet, I started celebrating with people and drink. Even if I didn't qualify, I knew that I was going to celebrate for how well I did. When they began to announce the group winners, they mentioned that top 6 in my class qualified and in 6th place was the guy who was behind me in the sandbag. I knew what this meant. Then my name was called for 5th place and Arnold qualification.
My 2015 goal was achieved! I came to Quad Cities and gave it my all and walked away with 5th in the 300lb weight class and 15th overall in the HW class. Up 6 and 11 spots from 2014. I kept getting hit but I got up and kept moving forward. I persevered and achieved. Every night, I went to bed picturing me with the qualification and I did it.
So now this is the end of the 2015 strongman season. I completed more than I wanted to but I think that extra competition gave me more drive to achieve my goal. Now, I plan on taking a few weeks off from training. I will still be in the gym working on some light cardio and get that blood pumping with recovery and training people, but strongman training will wait until 10/19. Hopefully by then, Dione will email all of the Arnold qualifiers what the events are at the Arnold. If not, I will begin to train for the Lightning Fitness Couples Challenge. I will be competing with Elise, a MWW from JPF and together, we will win that show and qualify for 2016 nationals so I don't have to worry about that.
I want to thank all of my sponsors for their continued support. Without their backing, I would be behind the 8 ball and not perform to the best of my abilities. Play Again, HYLETE, and The Protein Bakery, that you all for your support and get ready for even bigger things to be happening in 2016. To Rehband, you don't sponsor me, but I absolutely love your equipment and it is my go to gear to wear during training and competition.
To all my friends and fellow competitors at nationals, thank you all for your support, your kind words, and energy to help me keep pushing. There are a lot of fellow competitors that I followed on social media but never met before, you guys are all great and it was so nice to finally meet you all in person and support one another throughout the 2 days.
To my family and friends back home, thank you for all of your calls and texts while I was away. It was great to know the support I had even though you all could not be there.
And most importantly, great thanks goes out to my wife Olivia for her continued support through all of the training and nutrition that I have had to go through. Thank you so much for your support. I know it's not easy, but knowing that you support me and are proud of me and back me, gives me that drive to not give in and to achieve my goals.
I know I did not call everyone out by name but by doing so would only disrespect any not mentioned. Just thank you all for your support and encouragement. Now it is time to enjoy and celebrate this big win for myself and get ready for the next challenge that awaits, the Arnold Amateur World Championships in Columbus, OH the first weekend in March!
Please feel free to follow the link below to check out the video for yourself on my YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X0u6njs2O0
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