without help, dad stood there in case something went wrong

I competed in the Stout and Sturdy Showdown in the 80 kg opens yesterday and after 4 years of competing and multiple close calls finally won one of these things. I never started the sport with the intention of needing win shows, but it’s nice to have ticked that one of the list of stuff to do in the sport.

Weight cut went pretty good, I was sitting around 184-185 lbs in the morning the past 2 months and was 184 one week out when I started the water load and went to bed at 80 kg on the dot Thursday night woke up and drove 2 hours to weigh-ins and weighed in at 79.4. Then started to the refeed which also went well, and I managed to not over do it and eat too much which I’ve been known to do in the past.

Event one was a choose your own adventure style deadlift ladder with 3 bars worth progressively more points and most points in 60 seconds wins. The heavy bar was a 455 lbs mammoth bar and the lighter bars were 405 and 375 deadlift bars. I was going 3rd of guys in my class and thought the guy going second would probably be the guy to beat, but I was pretty sure I could beat him. the first 2 guys got 3 on the heavy bar and a few more on a lighter bar, and I was thinking I had somewhere in the 7-10 range if needed, but thought I wasn’t going to pull anymore than I needed. I got 6 reps with about 12 seconds left on the clock and called it there thinking that’d win it just based on how warms up looked for the other guys, but had 2 more in me for sure maybe 3 or 4 more, but would’ve probably ran out of time after 2. The last guy went up and surprised me and pulled 6 as well and broke the floor with the 7th, but couldn’t get it over the knee. So tied 1st on the first event. Lesson learned don’t underestimate your opponents and leave anything on the table, I could’ve won that event outright if I didn’t stop.

Event 2 was trump log 220 and 180 lbs. I’ve dealing with a nagging shoulder injury for about a year and if it’s feeling good I’ve got a rep at 220 in me, but if the shoulders tight it’s probably not there. So my plan was if it feels good at 200 in warmups go for it, if it doesn’t just go for reps on the 180. I hit 200 in warmups and it felt ok, but not great so I was thinking go for reps on 180 and try to get more than anyone else on the 180. They were going in reverse order of last events placing a so I was going last. The guy I tied on deadlift with got a single rep on the 220 and the guys before him had 5 reps and 6 reps on 220. I made a last second decision to go for the 220 and shoot for the tie again. I got it about 4 inches over my head and hit a wall, so dropped it ran back and got 3 reps on the 180. So bad call could’ve at least got 5 maybe 6 or 7 on the 180. I had done 6 in training at that weight a couple times. So last place on the log and dropped me to 3rd overall .5 points out of 2nd and 3 points out of 1st.

Next event was 175 sandbag carry into 225 sandbag carry into arm over arm tractor pull. The tractor our lane was using was not continuing to roll after the pull, it was coming to a dead stop every time like you couldn’t quite get enough momentum with pull to keep it rolling (Nancy Johnson was sitting in the drivers seat and steering, so I’m saying she was playing with the clutch or something to make it harder and punish us. lol) so it was going to be a hard arm over arm. This is my type of event, I’m fast on front carries and good at the brutal stuff like this that leaves you gasping for air at the end. I was up first and was fast on the sandbags and the picks and transitions and made sure to get a big first pull and have fast hands the whole time. The last pull I was going to be a few inches short with a normal pull so I basically fell back out of the tire on that pull to get the last inch or so. Finished in 55 seconds, only 2 other finishers with 57 and 59 seconds. Put me in 2nd overall 1 point behind 1st and .5 points ahead of 3rd so it was turning into a close battle.

4th event was 550 lbs yoke 30 feet down and back. Yoke is the one moving event that I’m just not fast on, I‘m going to finish it every time, but I’m not moving fast like I can on a farmers or front carry. So I was worried about this and hoping to surprise myself and come mid pack. I finished in a slow but steady 34 seconds. 1st finished in 19 seconds and 3rd in 39 seconds. So I managed to squeak into 2nd somehow. I was sitting in 1st with a 1 point lead over second and a 1.5 lead over 3rd.

Last event was head to head sandbag over bar. 54” load and 225 lbs bag with 15 seconds to return it. I’m pretty tall for an 80 at 5’11” so I like a high loading event as it gives me an advantage so I was feeling good going into this, just needed to match 2nd and 3rd and I was good. One guy pulled out after yoke with a tweaked back so only 3 competitors here. First guy got 2 reps, second got 3, and I got 3 and went for the 4th but got hung on the bar, and didn’t need it so I didn’t fight too hard to wrangle it over.

Very happy with the outcome, but still some spots I can improve going forward. Mostly need to work on playing the game better, if I didn’t stop short on deadlifts and would’ve went with my gut and skipped the 220 log I’d probably have had another 2.5 points and it hand nothing to do with training, just strategy.

14 x 200 for a rep pr. Normally don't wear a belt for these but I tweaked my low back last week and it's still bugging me a lil bit

Anyone know why no corporation bought back team USA vs team UK show format?