I've never written a blog BEFORE a meet-I usually always write a meet recap, but I figured circumstances change and this would be a good opportunity to reflect on how far I've come in the past few months.
I'm competing in my 5th full power meet this Saturday, April 26 in Ithaca, NY. It's an Ultimate IPA Powerlifting meet, which are my absolute favorite meets to go to. The energy is insane, there are SO many strong people, and everyone is so supportive of each other. And it's very loud-everyone cheers for everyone else, unlike USA Powerlifting meets I've been to where cheering is actually not ok. This will be the 3rd time I've been to this meet.
This meet is special to me because it's the first one I've trained for completely on my own. 2014 has been a year of change for me. At the end of December, I moved back home to Boston after a rough break-up from my former training partner/coach/person who got me into powerlifting. I touched on this topic a little in one of my very first posts....A lot of people thought that he was the only reason I was lifting, when the reality was I fell in love with the sport. There was no way I was giving it up. However, I don't have anyone to train with at home, I don't have a coach, and I don't have a powerlifting gym anywhere near me. The first few weeks I was home I was having a really hard time. I couldn't find a gym I liked, I was scared to lift alone, and I was eating really really badly. I felt like shit all the time and I was so tired from working and commuting super early. After the holidays, I just decided to get my shit together. Not really sure why, I just did. I knew I wanted to compete in April, and I knew I had a lot of work to do. Since my last meet in October, I had been running a rehab program that meant I wasn't deadlifting, benching, or back squatting (front squats only). I pretty much started back up from the beginning. My first day back to squats I could only work up to 115. I felt like I had taken massive steps backwards, and I remember crying the entire way home after that first day back in the gym.
I'm proud to say I've stuck with my training and made serious strides. I was hitting rep PRs after just a few weeks back, and then hit a massive squat PR in Cortland. I attended seminars, something I would have been way too intimidated to do a year ago. I changed up my training after hearing what Caitlyn Trout had to say. In January I started doing the IIFYM diet and it's the only thing that's worked for me. I hit my competition weight when I was 10 weeks out and have been training at it ever since. This will be the first meet that I haven't had to actively cut weight for. And I know that training at my competition weight has made me a lot stronger. I did decide that I want to work with a coach after this meet. Before I do that, I'm probably going to do a hypertrophy phase to add some base muscle. I've never done that before, and God knows I didn't have any muscle when I started lifting (thank you ballet). Once I move into Boston (hopefully September), I'm going to look into training at TPS. Environment makes a big difference, especially for me since lifting is so mental for me. It will be great to be around other strong people.
I'm going into this meet with an open mind. I know the numbers I want to hit, and if I do, great. If I don't, I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I know my training was sporadic. I know I didn't exactly do the right things. I definitely didn't train as hard as I could have. This meet is for me. I need to prove to myself that I can do this, and I that can do it on my own. It definitely wasn't easy, and I thought about giving up more than once. Training alone sucks A LOT. But it just makes me work against my own worst enemy-myself. And I'm grateful to the community I've found in Cortland who have been so supportive and helpful to me from afar. I can't wait to lift with them and kill it as a team this weekend! (relax IC people....this changes nothing. I'm an Ithaca girl and always will be).
"I've worked too hard and too long to let anything stand in the way of my goals. I will not let my teammates down, and I will not let myself down." -Mia Hamm
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