American Open 2012

View from the hotel room

It's been more than a week since I traveled to Palm Springs for the American Open 2012. The weekend started off with a 3a.m. alarm clock to pick up a fellow lifter and catch a 6a.m. flight with a brief, like 5-minute, layover in Denver.  The flight from Denver to Palm Springs was about 50% weightlifters and 50% old people.  I'd say at least half of the lifters from the OTC were on that flight.  Not a bad crew to share a flight and a shuttle with!

View on our walk to our third breakfast of day one

The hotel and the venue...yeah pretty damn awesome.  Great rooms, gorgeous views.  Although I swear the hotel hallways were lifted straight out of The Shining for as never-ending as they were and I half expected a little boy to zip by riding his tricycle whispering "redrum redrum."  The convention center was connected to the hotel by more and more hallways and based on that you'd think the venue would be easy to find.  Well let's just say it took three of us about 20 minutes to find it only to be sent back to the hotel for the check-scale.  Haha!  Thursday was mostly about hanging by the pool, waiting for others to get in, and eating.  Palm Springs has some damn good places to eat and the people watching was pretty phenomenal.

Beautiful pool to waste away an afternoon

Friday, day one, saw a pretty busy day. There were so many lifters entered that Friday was a two-platform format with all the B sessions running and often in a combined classes format.  For three of the four lifters that lifted on Friday it was their first appearance on the national level.  Two of our girls competed in the 58kg class and finished 19th & 26th out of 36 lifters, which I actually think was the largest of all the weight classes this year.  I'm very proud of how well they did and I believe they were also able to qualify for Nationals.

Yummmmmy breakfast at Pinnochio's

On the men's side of things I had two guys in the 85kg class going.  The warm up room was a madhouse and I'm absolutely certain there were not enough sets of weights in there, which lead to a whole lot of "borrowing" and a bit of tension between coaches getting their lifters warm.  For one of of my guys it was his first time on the national stage and needless to say he was a bit excited. The other guy was making his second appearance and looking for a little redemption from his first time at the American Open last year.  Both wonderfully and unfortunately we had completely opposite ends of the performance spectrum.  The first-timer unfortunately wasn't able to lock in a clean & jerk and it always breaks my heart to have someone not get a total.  That now makes two lifters I've coached bomb out at the American Open, not a good track record so far.

3 Thumbs Up for Fajitas!

My other 85kg lifter was making his second appearance at the American Open.  Last year he was lifting in the 77kg class and unfortunately his debut didn't end up well.  This year we came back with a vengeance.  After much coaxing he finally moved up the 85kg class and has enjoyed every single part about adding body weight including hitting bigger and bigger lifts.  Not only did he get a total this year but he got a PR clean & jerk AND added 7kg to his best total ever.  He managed to nudge a teammate that lifted in a different session on Saturday who also totaled 280kg out of the 10th place spot based on a difference in body weight of 0.15kg.  Out of 23 lifters we had 2 guys place in the top half of the class.  I call that a great win!

Day two of lifting saw my teammate Gina making her return to the national stage.  While I know if you ask her she's not 100% happy with her performance.  However, I would like to point out that she took home the SILVER medal in the 48kg class.  For those of you that aren't versed in kilograms Gina weighs under 105lbs and between the two lifts throws a total of 268lbs (122kg) over her head. 

Sunday, day 3, final day of competition.  Again one of my teammates took home some hardware.  My teammate Shane crushed the competition taking home the gold in what turned out to be a very slim 105+ kg class with at least two of the top supers not attending this meet.  I also know he was not 100% satisfied with his performance and was disappointed to get red-lighted on his final lift.  However, I think that's the nature of the beast for lifters, we're never satisfied and always want the next level.

By now if you've made it this far and if you're a regular reader of this blog you're probably wondering where I fit into all of this, after all I did commence Operation 180 back in October.  Well to put it simply I had to withdraw from the competition all together.  Starting in about September my performance started to decline.  I attributed much of it to a perfect storm of stress.  My work load increased dramatically, I was still working 4 jobs, and personal stresses all seemed likely culprits especially when added together.  Being the big stubborn ass that I tend to be I continued to push and push and push.  Eventually my body said stop so I took 10 straight days off and stupidly did nothing, not a single athletic movement, not even foam rolling or stretching.  Coming back I thought the "rest" would be enough.  Turns out I should think a little less and listen to my body a little more.  Practice what I preach in essence.  I started experiencing a tight feeling in my low back which I attributed to extremely tight hips, both hip flexors and hip rotators.  It was really more just an annoyance and a slight discomfort than pain.  As time rolled on it started to effect my ability to perform.  I wasn't able to squat much and since lifting involves getting into full ass to grass squats you can see how this can be a detriment to performance.  I could make it through a session of snatching but I could only get in one or two clean & jerks before I had to pull the plug on that training session.  It was still only discomfort and not actual pain.  Over about 5 weeks leading up the competition I had one chiropractic session, two ART sessions, and three 90-minute deep tissue massages. 

Fast forward to competition week.  I knew going into the week there was a possibility I wouldn't be able to compete over the weekend.  On Monday I wanted to hit near my openers just to prove to myself that I could overcome and get it done.  I made it to 60kg on a snatch before my body started working against me so I shut it down.  I decided not to lift again until I got to Palm Springs.  On Friday I started what would be my last training session before competition and I wanted to summon some "old man strength," as my friend refers to it.  Snatches felt okay, snatched up to 50kg for a single.  Decided I would move on to clean & jerks since I hadn't touched those in about a week.  I did 40kg for a couple singles and then jumped to 60kg, a normal jump for me.  I got it to knee level, my body screamed NO so I dropped it.  That was the final straw for my body and I knew I wouldn't even be able to gut it out.  In tears I found my way to my coach to let him know there was no way I would be able to compete.

It was a heart breaking moment having to withdraw from the competition.  Seriously the hurt in my heart actually far exceeded the physical pain.  I've had the most phenomenal year of training adding almost 10kg to each of the two competition lifts and I really felt like I managed to piss it straight down my leg. I've never had to withdraw from a competition because of a physical inability to perform.  I had extremely high hopes and huge goals for this meet.  To many it may seem trivial, completely unimportant, an injury setback but I set high expectations for myself.  I love this sport and all I want to do is lift but I can't right now. 

Since the meet I've seen two different doctors.  One thinks it's a disc problem and I need to get an MRI to be certain.  The other one thinks it's a facet issue and I just need to let it rest and do some rehab to see how it responds.  At the moment I've lifted a grand total of twice since that Friday in Palm Springs.  I won't be doing any lifts from the floor, no lifts into a full squat, and no bilateral squatting for at least 2-3 weeks.   All of my lifting will be from blocks, overhead work, and split squats, all of which my body tolerates well.  I'm also speaking with my physical therapy friends and getting rehab from them.  We'll see how my body responds to my game plan.  It still hurts a little bit when I do something dumb but for the most part its just discomfort and a tight feeling in my low back, sacrum area, and occasionally my glutes feel really fired up and tight. 

I can't say I'm not frustrated but this is a good opportunity to peel everything back to the very basics as well as a great opportunity to re-work my jerk which is something I've been wanting to do lately.  The hopes are to be ready to start getting back to business by January and ready to start tossing up some real weight by the time the Arnolds roll around in March.  Long term goals would include making a huge statement at Nationals in July.  For right now though I have to start slow again and build myself back up both physically and mentally.  If other lifters can comeback from injury, big or small, then so can I.  If I find myself slipping and needing a little motivation then I can just watch this video.....

Overall the American Open was an interesting learning experience.  Humbling to say the least.  I still had a great time, talked to old friends, met some new friends, and had a great time coaching and supporting my teammates.  The whole experience really just leaves me very hungry to get my body right and get back on that platform.  2013 might just be the Year of the Beastess!