U.P.A. Meet, Ithica, NY - 340 PR Bench
This was my first time lifting in a U.P.A. meet and Jim and his wife Linda, the meet directors, were great. The overall feel of the meet was professional but laid back and completely "for the lifter". There were a couple of meets to chose from on the same day but Ross chose this one in particular because they were using a Metal Militia bench, and because Metal Militia New York (Bill Crawford & co.) were lifting there too so there would be some familiar faces and extra handlers to help out.
The day of the meet I woke up feeling great until I got to the meet and then my nerves kicked in to overdrive! I stayed in the back of the gym and hung out with Kuma during the squats trying to keep my nerves in check.
My warm up is long right now because I'm opening with a max so I wanted to get through it as quick as possible to make sure I didn't run out of time and to have enough time to recover before my opener:
bar x reps
95 x 5
135 x 1
185 x hold for 3 secs
shirt on
245 x 1 no touch
280 x 1 no touch
305 x 1 no touch
320 x 1 no touch
I didn't really know what to expect with my opener of 330 (I've only pressed it once before at the BENCH WARS on July 9, at Montreal Barbell) so I was very nervous. I gave it everything I had though and it flew - great! My second attempt was 340 (I've missed it in the gym every time I've attempted it) and I approached it the same way I did the 330 but it stalled on me and didn't go. Ross sat me down and told me to "call up everything and get aggressive" for the next one. I was more determined and stuck with the lift and got 340 on the third attempt, a new meet PR and a 10 lb bench PR. We decided on 350 as a fourth attempt and once I had it in my hands I thought it would go but I lost my line on the way up and missed it. I was beyond happy with the way the day played out, it really couldn't have gone any better.
The rest of our team lifted at the CPA Push/Pull in Magog, QC on the same day and pulled PR's of their own on the bench and deadlift. It was a nice feeling knowing that we were all going through the same range of emotions on the same day only in different places - we all had great lifts this past weekend. Check out their training logs to see how they did.