Playing Catch Up: John's training & Watching My First PL Meet

My friends!  How are you?  It feels like it's been a long time.  Too long!  We were on vacation in Northern Minnesota last week.  We had a blast but I'm happy to be back to my routine, plus I have lots to tell you about!

Let me catch you up on John's IronMan training.  We are officially through the long hours of training and beginning to taper.  I don't want to say "we made it" just yet but the days of training for 6-7 hours are gone (now just four or five hour at a time).  I'll take it!  Let the countdown being!

John did get a few great opportunities to do close to two mile open water swims while in Minnesota.  His dad trolled beside him in the fishing boat for safety and didn't leave his side even when it was pouring rain!

That's John's dad in the pouring rain and John's out there somewhere next to him. 

He even managed to get in a 20 mile run in which I took my father-in-law to go search for him when he didn't return home at the time I excepted him.  I can't be the only IronMan wife who does this right?  Ya know, freak out when they don't return home when you expect them? I'm ready for the worrying to be over!

And, here's the type of workout I did while on vacay... a lot of body weight moves like lunges, push-ups, squats, dips, etc with a few preschool weighted squats when she would allow. :)

I am starting to prepare for race day so for those of you who have raced or spectated an IronMan please let me hear your best tips on how to 1. support John and 2. survive the long race day with littles.  I'm all ears!

Now, on to me!  Last weekend I attended my first powerlifting meet (just to watch)!  It was the UPA Iron Battle on the Mississippi in Dubuque, Iowa.   I don't even know where to start- I learned so much about rules, technique, picking your numbers, etc.  I'm sure my teammates were sick of me asking so many questions but I really knew nothing before this meet about PL meets.

Some of my take away highlights include...

• Your opener should be a weight you could hit any day in any gym.  FYI an "opener" is the weight for your first attempt at a lift.  i.e. My opener for the squat is 250 lbs.  Don't overshoot.  
• Once you attempt a weight you can not go lower.  For example, if you bomb a bench attempt at 135 lbs you can not go down to 130 lbs on your next attempt.      
• Just because you can put up a weight in the gym does not mean it will translate to the stage. 
• After watching tons and tons of deadlifts it finally clicked that contacting my lats will help keep my deadlift one fluid motion as opposed to my butt popping up and then trying to stiff leg it up from there like I had been.  Probably why I hurt my back but an important lesson learned none the less!  
• There are some strong @$$ women out there.  Oh my word!  I have never seen women that strong in real life before.  We're talking ladies who are 130-140lbs putting up close to 200 lbs on the bench and some of them pulled close to 400 lbs!  Amazing!  My motivation has never been higher after seeing these ladies compete.  They set the bar high but are clear examples of where hard work and determination can take you.  

Here is one of new idols, Pam Bosko.  This woman can move some weight.  Her technique is amazing. She won Women's Raw Best Lifter at this meet.  (Raw means no equipment except for wraps and belt). At 148 lbs she squatted almost 350, pulled almost 400 and benched 176.  Uh.May.Zing.  

And yes, I asked Pam if I could post this pic I took before I published it :)
Close to a 400lb pull here!  

There are other two things I noticed about the powerlifting atmosphere, especially among women.  First, everyone was cheering for everyone.  Seriously.  They were chatting between lifts, encouraging each other and high fivin' after a successful lift.  It was great to see women lifting other women up not secretly hoping others fail.  And I mean that figuratively, not literally....Although, they really could lift each other if they wanted. :)   

The other thing?  It really is a competition against yourself.  I know, I know people have told me that before and I heard them but this weekend I understood it.  From what I could gather there were all levels of women lifting in this competition.  Beginners, veterans, and everything in between were all competing to get a PR not (necessarily) to win the meet.  

If you have the opportunity to ever watch a powerlifting meet I would highly recommend it.  I can't wait to gradually starting add more weight into my workouts as my back gets stronger and one day compete myself!  Iowa State Fair here I come!

Ok you're turn:  Triathletes- give me your spectating tips!  Have you ever been to an IronMan race and/or a powerlifting meet?  What did you think?