“It was OK. I came in with modest goals, and I met them.”

He's one of the most renowned powerlifting coaches in the world. His IPF World Championship teams are nearly as large as his USAPL Raw Nationals teams, which says something about how deep his international reach has been and how many top athletes he's attracted. He asked how my meet went, and that was my answer. But I could tell from his expression that he wasn't satisfied.

Since that conversation, I've been trying to figure out how I could have answered him better. There's no way to know what he was looking for, but his response made me appreciate that I'm not particularly comfortable with that answer either. It feels like ducking the question.

My development block leading up to Nationals went poorly, but with days left to go, I retained some hope that I might feel fresh by Friday morning. My legs were brutally sore for my final squat session on Monday, and on Tuesday even a greatly reduced load for deadlift moved slowly. Bench had gone better, but it showed no signs of actual improvement. When I hauled myself out of bed on Friday to weigh in, my lower body still ached.

The strategy I chose, which my coach endorsed, was to start very light and make bigger jumps than usual for my second and third attempts. And it was a good thing, because I struggled to focus on my first squat. I let the bar roll me forward a little, and with a more challenging weight I might have failed. My second attempt was far better. My third attempt, 480lbs, was about all I could handle that day.

Bench felt great in comparison. My opener and second attempt moved well, and when my coach suggested trying 331lbs I enthusiastically agreed. It was my only shot at a PR for the day, and bench had gone far better than the other two lifts in training. I missed it (and the live stream did too, so there's no video to share), but with a less strict pause, it might have moved, and the potential reward was worth the risk.

For some reason, my lower back is the area most vulnerable to fatigue. It's also the only muscle group that I've hurt in training, having twice irritated my sacroiliac joints (once on each side). So it wasn't a surprise that overtraining affected my deadlift more than the other two lifts. Again, I opened light, and again, my second attempt was a big jump. This time, I suspected I had less left in the tank, and I asked my coach to make the third attempt only a little heavier. That was a good call, because I struggled with the 557lbs, and the next increment heavier might have resulted in a failed lift.

It would be nice to have a really good day at Nationals some year, but this wasn’t it. I took what my body had to give, went eight for nine on attempts, and finished in fourth place – on the podium for the second year in a row. I also comported myself well. Despair crept in during my last days of training, but when it came time to step onto the platform I kept calm and executed the lifts well. Apart from answering his question wrong, I managed not to dork up my interaction with Famous Powerlifting Coach.

Objectively, that's a successful day. Yes, in Costa Rica my total was nearly 40lbs greater. Yes, this was the first time I've failed to PR in at least one lift since my second meet, which I trained through rather than peaking. Yes, I failed to meet the Nationals qualifying total. I went in knowing that those were possibilities; they had been ever since I decided to compete at the NAPF meet. There's no sense in worrying over what might have resulted from a perfect development block.

And yet, “I came in with modest goals, and I met them” felt like the wrong answer, both for Famous Powerlifting Coach and for myself. 

The week leading up to my competition, I felt burned out and sick of the gym. Even though my last couple workouts were easier than usual, I wanted to camp out in front of the TV instead of training. But talking with Joah about her plans for the months leading up to the IPF Championship gave me a renewed spark. If Chicago hadn't given me a cold, I would have been back to training right away. I'm once again eager to find a meet and begin preparing for it.

Maybe that's the right answer.