Traveling and Meet Prep; Dealing With Suffering Numbers

Two weeks ago I completed a move from my hometown in Fairbanks, Alaska to Fort Collins, Colorado. This consisted of 67 hours in a car during a 6 day period; staying in hotels, with family members, and several days of 11 or 12 hour drives in a row. I could only train twice the entire trip. Constant stress of hauling an overloaded trailer through mountains, parking it in cramped parking lots, and filling up every 150 miles due to poor fuel mileage was the primary stress, no longer training.

Two weeks later I have adjusted decently well, and now I am 6 weeks out of one of the biggest meets of my life, Boss of Bosses 6. In a new fantastic training environment at Elevate Barbell, I feel right at home in the gym, but the effects of the move are lasting longer than I would have liked. I have felt like I was 2 days after a meet every day these last two weeks, only feeling myself recently and hitting numbers that I have hit 2 meet preps ago. Numbers are moving up, but I am also not moving like I did before. Lowering a weight class has changed my leverages, and I am still trying to regain mobility in my thoracic spine that tightened up during the drive.

6 weeks is not a long time to prepare for a meet, but while things may seem negative right now, I am optimistic. Not because I know I will go 9 for 9 with PRs in every lift and my total, but because I know that I have the ability to make it happen. I know that if I follow my program from my coach, Tony Montgomery, eat right, and take care of business both inside and outside of the gym, it will put me in the best possible position on meet day. Going up against a stacked 308 class at BOBVI, all I can really hope for is to be competitive. Squat and deadlifts are feeling great recently, bench has struggled but that is pretty typical for me prepping for a meet. I am excited to see what I can do when I focus, especially when adversity strikes before a meet.

Knowing that everything falls to me is both scary and freeing, and I like to challenge people to think the same way. There are many excuses that someone can use to relieve that responsibility from themselves and shuffle it to other parts or people in their lives, but this is negative thinking. Dealing with adversity and struggling with something requires positive thinking, taking things as they are and making them better piece by piece. Things like lifting weights are easy to fix compared to larger issues. Usually better sleep, nutrition, stress management, or adding a little volume will bring you toward your goals. If you improve this every day, you get much better over a relatively short period of time.

This is what the best in the world do every day, improve their weakest link. This thinking is what everyone should strive for.