Competition Day 12

We met at one of the buildings we stayed in at 0830 to walk over to the gym for our weigh-in. This was great and not normal for competitions. Normally you don’t get time for a full breakfast and three hours until start time. I weighed in at 78.5 kilograms. Most morning sessions I hovered around 79 kg, but that was having ate breakfast. I made absolutely not effort to lose any weight for this meet. I actually drank more water throughout the night to be better hydrated for the day. At the gym, we also declared our opening weights. I hadn’t given them much thought as I believe everyone forgot to think about it the night before and came up with something on the spot.

Got back to the gym after breakfast about 1100 to start warming up. D. Klokov walked around explaining they need to be fired up. They are in a competition, and it is war. To go along with this, I tell my buddy Rob best of luck. We both wanted to test the lesson of putting friends aside and all emotional energy focused on “war.” From there it went like a meet would go, except we had a single judge, Dmitry Lapikov. No complaints there! Every attempt Dmitry Klokov watched and gave some personal advisement to each of us. For me, it was being more explosive, “Mooore Explooosion Paul.”

I missed my first attempt forward. Probably bumped my hips forward instead of straight up. I went up to 80 kgs for my second attempt which felt nearly perfect. In the catch, it started to fall behind me, and I pushed away. This has never happened, because I’m so tight in the shoulders. Unfortunately, I heard and felt some terrible tearing sounds. I pray it was only scar tissue from my labrum repair in 2010. Now I was stuck with having to take another attempt at 80 kg feeling very unconfident if I could even hold anything overhead in that position. I went anyway and made good contact with the bar but my body wasn’t confident enough to keep close for a good catch.

Until the clean and jerks, I was trying to slowly assess what was going on with my shoulder. Ranges of motion were all there. I was sore in a couple areas, and sore all over as well. I managed through my warm up weights fine, but I was a little slow in catching cleans which was due to the lack of confidence due to the shoulder issue. No problem with a jerk, which was good. First attempt at 96 went well. Then took 100 which was a little slower to stand up. Walking back from that attempt, D. Klokov asked if I wanted 103. I declined and told him I wanted 106. His response was that was leaning on the “too much” end of the spectrum. For me 106 was a new 1 kg PR. Definitely ambitious to think I or anyone could set a new PR after so much hard work the last two weeks. I knew that I had learned enough in the positions to make a very strong attempt. My first pull was solid. I wasn’t jumping forward anymore. Receiving the bar was more solid as well. I had developed a stronger back from the GHDs and was also more confident with driving up where I always would get stuck for new weights in the clean and jerk.

Things worked out even more for my last attempt. There may have been four or five other attempts at 100 and 105 by the other guys, allowing a lot of time to recover before I went back out. This made me feel even more confident. Once 106 was loaded, I was called out and the last coaching I received from D. Klokov was, “Ok Paul, you asked for 106, go lift 106 man.” Challenge accepted. I give my last bow to D. Lapikov at the judges table and set up. Controlled and balanced off the floor, I feel the burden of the new weight. I give up grunt to work through the toughest part of the pull and boom. Caught the weight just right with no over pull. Hit the bounce and now the hardest part for me. Standing up, I yell through a slow grind. Usually a slow grind is tale-tell for spending too much energy to complete the jerk. Fortunately, too many push ups in the military built me so that I can jerk anything I stand up without fear of lack of strength. But I feel light headed for the grind and feel the urgency to finish this attempt. I take a breath and drop the butt back just enough the way we trained and jerk. I felt a stable catch with a little wobble to finishing standing up.

After watching the video back, I looked like a ’87 honda civic struggling uphill with uneven tire pressure. Fully excited and happy to make the attempt, I yell again in celebration and give the double Tiger Woods fist pump. Happy with the clean and jerk, I put a shirt on and grab a seat to watch the rest of the guys lift. Also since the lifts (the war!) for us was out of the way, Rob and I caught up with each other on how it went for each of us. We both had our struggles and achievements. Separating yourself in a competition though does help you focus your mind and energy. In the past, I have always been happy to be competing and speaking with friends.

After everyone finished, we came out for the rankings. We were also presented with our training certificates. The beginning of the camp D. Klokov told us he would give us these, which I thought was great. Turns out, he provided them in the form of beautiful plaques, signed and dated. With those, we all took a group picture together. I thought this was a fantastic way finish up the competition.

Later we had lunch, followed by our last Banya a couple hours later. D. Lapikov joined us for this last sauna session, which was great. (This part sounds silly as I type it, but you can handle it) I believed everyone got the branch beating from him that night which is a large task to do it that many times. Jason and I returned the favor to D. Lapikov by taking turns with the branches. Lapikov had to cool off twice before we finished.

That night we had lecture with D. Klokov. At the gym, he went through all the exercises one more time. Described the how and why for each of them. He also talked about programming for the nine training session week. Throughout the lecture, training philosophy was explained as well.

After about two hours, it became quiet. I looked up from writing in my notebook, and Dmitry had his head in his hands. Everyone could feel the weight in the air. He was trying to hold himself together. Long moments later, he described how he works 100% in every thing he does and tried to apologize for any of the times that didn’t go smoothly. Everyone spoke up about how unforgettable the experience was. Some described this as the best thing they have ever been a part of. We got up to bring it in, a “don’t feel bad, this was incredible” way. One by one we all gave him a man hand shake, a bro hug and some words of appreciation.

After the gym, we walked back together. A few of us wanted to have some beers together before leaving early the next day. We met in one of the pool rooms for drinks. D. Klokov broke out his laptop and pulled up the Youtube video he had been working on for us. Almost all the clips were in order with the music. With some beers we watched it and enjoyed looking back at our two weeks together.

What is training camp video

The resuts

The camp “after party”

Training Day 11

Both sessions today were intended to use light weights to help recovery for the competition the following day. In the first session, we were paired up together and assessed on fixing the problems with each other. I was paired up with Rob from Ireland. This wasn’t new for us since we were both already helping each other along like this during the last two weeks lifting next to each other. There was a really funny moment when I was set up for my first snatch, and Rob was watching. Dmitry Klokov stands next to Rob. I make my snatch which felt pretty good. Right after Dmitry turns to look at Rob, waiting for a correction. Rob stands there scratching his head and had nothing. Dmitry laughs and slaps him on the back because he had no correction either. I laughed because I made the little 40 kilos look good. Just need to make big weights move like that.

That evening Dmitry Berestov talked with us for lecture. He shared his weightlifting journey and the road to his Olympic Gold Medal. One of the first things he said was sharing that story brings pleasure to remember it all, because he hasn’t talked about it for a long time. He started weightlifting at the age of 10. Before that, he was more interested in Karate and thought he was more athletic than is friends because he could punch and kick. Many times he thought weightlifting might not be for him but was convinced to stick with it by his coaches. Once he was lifting as a Senior (over the age of 22) he struggled to find a place on the national team. He was kilos shy of earning the title International Masters of Sport, and this motivated him to work just a little bit harder and longer in the sport. Long story short and a few big competitions later, he was selected for the Olympics. This was very inspiring for us and our competition the following day. He told us about how he was very prepared for the Olympics and would make whatever weight successfully no matter what he needed for the win. After the Olympics, he would still wake up in shock asking himself, “Is that for real?” and looking at his medal. An amazing story.

By this time, every plate is at least half carbs.

Told him to puff up with me for one of them.

Training Day 10

Took my time warming up extra long. We got into the deadlifts though, and being fully warmed up, I was feeling much better. Actually went on to do some solid dead lifts. Once we got into the front squat + jerk, Dmitry Klokov wanted me to use less weight. Actually he humbled everyone by walking behind each of us and making us pause deep in the jerk deep for five seconds. For some of us, he was requiring to do two jerks. The back squats were feeling better. The form he taught us really pushes the butt back and then has a little lean forward to keep the weight on the whole foot. The tough effort for me on all of his squats is not letting the knees travel too far forward. Knees forward squatting was exactly what I have been trying to do in training the last year. You can imagine how tough it is to work against your newly trained habits.

Dmitry Lapikov was training at the center with us since the day prior and put up some big lifts. He gave us the lecture that night on his weight lifting career, and it was so interesting and emotional. Spent an hour listening to Dmitry Lapikov speak about how he got into weightlifting and then went into some amazing and emotional stories about his relationships with Klokov, preparations, and competitions. One of the most interesting stories he told us about his time in the +105 category (he competed in -105 in a very competitive time as well) was showing up to training camp and qualifiers on his own dime during his suspension (His suspension was from a pre-workout that was legal, made illegal, and lastly made legal again. At first he was given two years, then a four suspension which is really high. Steroid suspensions are that long.) The World’s committee sat on their ruling and his appeal took forever (he wanted to appeal the four years and get it reduced so he could attend the Olympics). He continued to train on his own budget while suspended, to show the Russian Federation and everyone that he will be prepared for the Olympics and to send him. He showed up to a Russian qualifier very prepared to lift. He told us how everyone thought he was crazy walking into the warm up room with his bag and getting ready to compete. They wouldn’t let him onto the platform, so he competed anyway from the warm up room! He out snatched the guys on platform (opened 205kg, wouldn’t be surprised if the 215k snatch video is from this same event) and would have taken second due to suffering a quad strain during the C&J (he opened successfully 240kg). He mentioned this was very tough for him to clean big weights in the warm up area since there was no crowd that provides the added excitement. He sincerely wants to help the sport. He is the director of weightlifting in his region, a major on the police force, and regularly visits schools to mentor children on setting goals and meeting them. He brought his medal with him that night and let everyone hold it. Very cool!

Here in 2009 is where he first suffered his leg injury. You can see him during the CJ scream in the first attempt. He passes on his 2nd attempt trying to convince his coach to do something so he couldn’t feel the pain. The coach wouldn’t do that for him so he still went out for his third attempt. There you can see his leg buckle on the jerk.

Here, years later he still felt his injury. In 2011 you see him competing the in the video and out performing everyone, but his results were later removed because the suspension was still in effect.

I never did try this even though almost everyone else did.

Dmitry Lapikov’s bronze Olympic medal. Wow!