Reactive Training Systems

Result
2nd place Masters HW in a field of four. I was the oldest, and the least experienced by a longshot.

Performance Notes

Log Clean & Press.
Clean was easy; pressing was hard. This leads me to believe that it's not a question of weight, but of the balance / size of the log. Somebody told me the log was 13", which would probably explain a lot - it just felt all wrong, like I couldn't control it. 3 reps.

Not happy with this.

One further thought I had on the log press: it's the first event, and there were no warmup weights available. Given my thoracic mobility issues, and shoulder issues, I wonder if this is a factor. If so, I wonder how to deal with it.

Farmer's Walk.
I was fast until the end. Misjudged, set the implements down, and the left one hadn't crossed the line; by the time I realized that, and dragged it forward, probably lost 3 seconds. As it was, I was something 3/10's of a second slower than the guy who placed above me. Dumb mistake in execution.


Tire Medley.
650 lb tire for 50'; I beat the next closest time by something like 10-12 seconds. All well and good, but then came the lighter "bastard" tire: extremely low to the ground, every time I attempted to drive my hips low and forward, my feet slid out, and I bounced my face off the tire. Since a couple other guys flipped this, obviously I had something wrong in my biomechanics.


Car DL.
I got 22 reps. Unfortunately, I blew the up/down signal on 3 of them, so by the books only 19. Dumb mistake in execution on my part.


Atlas Stones.
Ran through 4 stones (220,240,280,300) in well under 30 seconds. Got to the 330 and couldn't budge it. Errors in planning: I never checked stone distance from the platform, and the 280 required me to take 3 steps in to the platform to load it. This definitely hurt me. Next time, I need to check initial positioning. Second mistake: I grabbed the 330, and immediately got my hands covered with dust / grit from the truck. I should have re-tackied (I even had spare tacky on my sleeves, and just forgot it), not dumbly tried to keep picking up the rock.


Conditioning/work capacity/recovery.
I think I came in better conditioned, etc., then I've ever been. I was able to go all out, and recovered fairly quickly. Hips tightened up several times; the comp itself ran about 6 hours. I did some dynamic lunge stretches with a lateral component before each event, and that took care of that. I was tired, but physically fresh, for the last event (stones), and was able to go balls out with no issue.

Eating/Drinking
Ate my normal breakfast at 5:40A; then had a protein bar at 9:30A. Drank some gatorade/water through the morning. Before each of the last three events, I ate 4 fig newtons, and again more gatorade and water. Plenty of urination, so I was decently hyrdated.

Misc.
The ashphalt surface was problematic; it was raining off and on, and the pavement was wet in places. I saw at least three other competitors fall badly; one dislocated his thumb. I wonder if rock-climbing shoes (approach shoes) would have been more appropriate on that surface.

The Day After
Feeling pretty good. A bruised heel (?), anyway, a lot of pain from the right heel, some general tightness, but nothing else to note. CNS feels fried. Slept decently well last night, that's a good thing. Spent 40 minutes with the percussion massager after dinner last night, that really helped recovery for legs.

All in all, I feel like I'm taking this "in stride"; learning from it, gathering data, and looking to improve.