Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 02:21:01 -0800 From: Jason Burnell Subject: Re: What happened in Oregon? Noble Cozine wrote: > > What happened in Oregon? I knew it was the battle of the new millennium > but man is there any survivors? Just got home. It's 2 am so I'll be brief....more details when I'm less fuzzy. TSO took third out of 6 teams....we only had 5 people on the team and the first and second place teams were full teams. Pretty good considering we had 3 firsts, a second and a fourth and would up with the Best Open Lifter, Best Master Lifter and Champion of Champions! I'll let Dean and Garth tell you about the Battle Of Oregon as I'm sure they will be more colorful in their reports. All I will say is that Garth really needs some help wrapping his knees! Dean looks exactly like me with an inflator stuck up my butt. We were wearing the exact same squat outfits from head to toe; even matching shaved heads and goatees...eeery. Mike Musto, my mentor, took first in the M2 220s to give TSO a much needed 7 points! Doug Dienelt, one of the best master lifters I've seen took first in the M4 220s to add another 7: more on Doug in a moment. I had a pretty good day. Went 7 for 9 and joined the "almost 700" club. Hit a 699.75 squat for a new PR. Also took a 413 bench. No PR but for those that were following my training log, a definite upswing over the last month. Thank goodness for Board presses and chains! LOL. Pulled 660 and missed 699 at the knees. I was probably good for 683 but after getting the squat, I just had to try the matching pull. I'm stoked for this and am hatching the plan to destroy this and more by June. Wound up with 1st in the 220s and Best lifter in the Open. That put me in the running for Champion of Champions.......against Doug. Doug Smoked me like a cheap cigar. On 4 lifts no less; Doug only took openers in the squat and dead! It was close but Doug is 56 years old and by formula spanked my like a stepchild! LOL. If he would have seriously lifted it would have been even worse. Did I mention that Doug and I drove up together..6 hours in a car with the guy that beat me....my training partner and Doug were practically singing songs about it. I don't think I'll hear the end of this for a while. Seriously, Doug is an awesome lifter at 207 and 56 years old he is a 600 squatter and a deadlifter and very close to 400 in the bench when he actually totals. This was a warmup for him for a couple of other meets. However, Doug, keep in mind that when I'm 56, I'm going to go to this meet, destroy your total and then drive to whatever rest home you're in, put the horn up to your ear and let you know that I just kicked your senile old butt! Jason W. Burnell STRENGTH ONLINE: http://www.deepsquatter.com/strength/ Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 11:11:58 -0800 From: "Dean Reece" Subject: THE SMOKE CLEARS - ITS OVER. Well the Battle for the Soul of Oregon is in the bag. I really had no idea of what to expect, as this was my first meet, but I was as ready as I would ever be. The LONG weekend began on Thursday when I picked Garth up at the airport. I knew immediately that his claims of being a solid 240 were quite a large fib. Garth had 10 lbs on me easy. To commemorate the legendary meeting of the warriors, we ate Bar B Q and then took in a 1st grade square dancing program (my daughter's). Garth was a real sport and actually seemed to enjoy the intricate maneuvers, it seems they reminded him of the Killer TaeBo workouts he performs at home. As Garth comes from a land where it is impossible to get Basketball tickets, we took in a Blazer game. Garth is convinced this was all a part of my secret strategy to wear him out prior to the meet, as his back was killing him by the end of the evening. Next AM, me and my lovely wife Gina picked up Garth after dropping the kids at Grandma's house and drove to Medford. Gina informed Garth that his seats were heated and he should turn them on to help his back. Garth did not do this. That evening his back was hamburger. He once again accused me of trying to sabotage his meet. I laughed heartily at this. MEET DAY I had weighed in the night before at a respectable 256 and I was stone cold ready. Nothing would rattle me. I had icewater in my veins. Then during the rules briefing I see all the refs have these little "IPF" badges on their coats and lots of pins. I quietly recite from memory Larry Maille's article "Convincingly Deep" over and over in my mind. By the time the meet begins, I am officially a head case. For my squat opener (611), I of course misjudged everything and ended up running to the platform with like 10 seconds left to get the "squat" command. I missed the lift on depth, got out of the groove and screwed up just about everything. 3 reds, BUT....the butterflies were gone and I was just pissed. I retook my opener and sunk it, 3 whites, and got halfway up with 633, close but no salami. My bench shirt actually felt good, I think maybe I finally killed off all the nerve endings under my arms just in the nick of time. I pushed up 360 and the crowd actually laughed at me and told me to put some weight on the bar. Got 380 next and missed 396 (lockout) on the third. 390 would have gone. Going into the DL, I was ahead of Garth, but 7.5 kilos behind the leader. I forget his last name but his first name was WADE (I should have known as those Wades are strong. I am officially changing my name to WADE) and he was the Nevada State Champ. He looked like a deadlifter. He was. I got my paltry 475 and he opened with some ridiculous 661 or something. I ended up with second place and a 1466. Could have broke 1500 if I had chosen my attempts a little better. Oh well, live and learn. At least Oregon is safe from the "Road Warrior", so I've done my part. THINGS I LEARNED My wife REALLY likes powerlifting meets. She is a statistician by nature and she tracked everyone's score. She had never seen me lift before, not even in the gym, so I had no idea how she would react. She absolutely loved it! Even she was giving me deadlift advice. In fact when we got home, she was reading one of my old PLUSA's and said "Honey here's a guy that has your leverages, and he's deadlifting a lot". When I looked at the picture it was STANAZECK (sp)! I looked at her and she was dead serious. I kissed her and thanked her for her interest in my deadlift. I quit pulling 2 months ago as my shoulder is really fried and the DL aggravates it. I will now focus on rehabbing my shoulder and learning to sumo. I DL'ed in a z-suit for the first time at the meet. This was stupid. I probably would have gotten the 506 pull without it. Jason, Mike, Doug, Garth, Tim, Shawn...all a bunch of real great guys. Overall I felt proud to lift as a part of a team, and I had a great great coach (Wayne) who did most of my thinking for me. This helped a lot! When he gave me choices I invariable picked the wrong one. I must eat now. I'm beat. Dean (WADE) Reese "Get in the pit and try to love someone" - Kid Rock Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 02:20:27 GMT From: "Garth Landers" Subject: The best man won.... Let me say that Dean was the better lifter and beat me fair and square on March 18, 2000. Dean was the better lifter and I was just plain horrible. Dean totaled 1465 (2nd place) and I took 4th (they actually gave me a little medal) with 1405. I missed 3rd place by 5 freaking kilos! If I had known I was that close I wouldnt have gone all out on my final deadlift which I missed. Dean was a great ambassador to the PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF OREGON. He did all the driving, fed me well, took me to a Blazers game and even let me play with his children. I am not making excuses but here is what went wrong- like a idiot I tried a never used squat suit (size 37) which was waaaaaaaay too tight. I just couldnt get down low enough and missed my first two attempts! If it werent for Jason(a genuinely nice guy) who told me to put on my loose suit I would have bombed out. Thanks Jason!!! Apparently, I dont know how to wrap my knees correctly and Dean showed me how after the meet. Wont happen again.I was wiped out after squats and I have never started that poorly. I made my bench opener but missed my second and third attempts. Again, I was using a new bench shirt that I had never used. I need to find some training partners! Anyway I was having SUICIDAL thoughts and my back was fried but Dean gave me some Tiger balm on my back and I felt great. The deadlift went really well because I didnt use any equipment other than a belt! It was a tough meet and probably my worst performance but I had a lot of fun and learned a lot. I am going back to Westside too- there wasn't enough heavy work in my routine to condition me for the meet. I have never felt so beaten down. With WBC, I have always felt fresh after a meet and ready to go back to the gym. Not so today but maybe travel was a factor? Dean was kind enough to supply me with that excuse...... Garth