Wednesday 2 November 2011

Strongman Competition

Since I am not running for a while due to tarsal tunnel syndrome, I've been getting into some other training.

Yesterday was Melbourne's Strongest Man Comp and there were 4 of us girls entered. I have only been to 2 strongman training sessions so being a newbie I was good at the stuff I already know and crap at everything else! I came equal 3rd/last.

First up was the farmers walk and tyre flip. The farmers walk was 59.5kg in each hand - heavier than I had done in training and the tyre was 220kg - a bit heavier than the 150kg they originally said the girls would flip! I dropped the farmers walks 3 times in the 20 metres so I think technically I was out then. George told me to keep going anyway but I just could not flip that tyre. I have not even been able to flip it in training so I knew this event would suck. After watching the rest of the guys do this event, it was clear that short people have a disadvantage in this one!

The second event was the overhead medley. I've been adding more clean and jerks into my training with the olympic barbell, and in the two strongman training sessions I've been to, managed to nail the technique for the log and keg so I knew this would be a good event for me. We had 60 seconds to press a 45lb dumbbell, 40kg keg, 40kg log and 45kg axle. I think I did it in around 45 seconds and came third in this.

Next was the 50kg tyre drag for 20 metres. I am ok at this, although not fast. This is the only event that irritates my ankle. I'm pretty slow at this, which is strange since my leg strength should be good enough to go faster. I think I came last in this one.


The fourth event was the one I was most confident in. Deadlift for reps in 75 seconds with olympic bar + a 44kg tyre each side for a total of 108kg. I got 14 reps in. It was really easy at first but I wanted to pace myself. By the end it was getting heavy! I came second in this.


The last event was the atlas stone. Originally the girls were supposed to use a 50kg stone but I don't think they had one. The lightest was 63kg! After the shock of seeing it being weighed, I then saw the bar it was supposed to be dropped over. It was so high it was at shoulder height for me! But not to worry, only one of the girls could even lift the stone and she did 3 reps. She's been strongman training for quite a while and none of us other girls had even lifted a stone before so I wasn't bothered by this.

It was a really long day as there were many weight classes for the guys so I was there for 6 hours all up! They were still continuing into the evening with the deadlift and bench comp and the open section of the strongman for the super strong truck pulling types.

This is all really good training for running so when my stupid ankle is better I should be able to get back into things fairly quickly. On Saturdays I'll be alternating strongman and kettlebell training, and keep it up even when I can run again.

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