A Great End To The Competitive Year

Saturday 15th December saw my last competitive outing of the year, the BDFPA Qualifier in Bradford. You need to pre-qualify for the BDFPA British Championships, even if you are British and World Champion and World Record Holder! Good thing too. It ensures that the big names support the "smaller" events and it allows new lifters to meet and mix with the better known names.

I've got a hectic schedule for the first half of 2008, so decided to get the qualifier out of the way at the first opportunity so that I didn't have to panic about fitting it in between "bigger" events in the spring.

What a start to the day! One car had a flat battery; the other had what I assumed to be frozen clutch fluid but turned out to be a broken clutch cable. To cut a long story short, I finally got there late in the wonky clutch car and was allowed to weigh-in late (I had called before I left to warn them I might be late - it always helps!). On the way back, I started off in third gear, drove through Bradford until I got onto the M606 in third, tried to move up but only found neutral - in the outside lane! I was probably only in neutral for about ten seconds, but at the time it seemed more like ten minutes!

I finally got it into fourth, kept it there until the slip road for the M62, then tried for sixth and thankfully I eventually got it. I didn't change gear again until I got home, including a stop at the lights by the Frodsham swingbridge! Slight hill start in top gear - that's what I call a driver!

After all the stress of getting there, you'd think my lifting might have suffered, but no! My opener was 145 (20 kilos over the qualifying requirement) and that flew up. "Put some weight on the bloody bar next time," said MC Jabba (great job by the way, John!). I went for a new British Over 50s raw record with my second lift of 160, which I have to say went up rather easier than I expected it to. That was my first raw 160 in competition and meant that I had broken through the magic 350 pounds bench barrier. Quite a feat for a little guy who used to struggle with 80 pounds when he started going to the gym. And 10 kilos heavier than the weight that I failed to lift in a shirt the first time I used a shirt in competition - and that was less than three years ago, in February 2005. Sometimes you need to look back and reflect on your journey to realise how far you have come, and, importantly, to appreciate how much further you can go if you apply the same levels of dedication in the future. Getting to the top is more about application and tenacity than "talent" or "genetics".

I went for 162.5 with my third lift and didn't get it. A classic example of the role that the mind plays in athletic performance. I was switched on for the 160. I had trained for the 160. I got the 160 and, subconsciously, I obviously switched off. How else do you explain doing 160 easily, then failing miserably with another 2.5 kilos on the bar?

Three years ago, if you'd have said to me that I would raw bench 160 one day, but that would be my absolute limit, I'd have snatched your arm off. Now, it's just another rung on the ladder. After a while you learn that a number is just a number, not an insurmountable barrier. Who's to say that this time next year I won't have hit a raw 170?

By the wonders of technology, here's my 160... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoeUyodvczs

And on the plus side, it makes training for and achieving a new record at the next raw competition more achievable! I suppose two in one day would have been a waste! Maybe that was my subconscious thought process!

The picture with this blog features, from left to right, me, Marc Giles and Tom O'Connor. Tom was lifting for the first time ever in competition and comfortably achieved the British qualifying standard. He's an inspiration to any aspiring lifter. He trains alone in his spare room, has no one to even spot him with the bar, started off in the sport earlier this year after twenty years of fags, pints and zero fitness training, really committed 100% to the sport and got his just reward on Saturday. A classic example of if you want something badly enough and apply yourself, you'll get it. I'm sure Tom will have learned a bucketload from the competitive experience and will go on developing. Hopefully enough to lift for England in the 2009 World Single Lift Championships, which will be held in Bradford. There's a target for you, Tom...