The Gift of Gold.

It has been a while since I made a blog post, but with the new year rolling in I figured now would be as good a time as any. I haven’t been away for any particular reason, just the usual; work, life, training.

Anyway, I figured I would write this post as a sort of update on what I've been doing. As you probably know already, I spend a large portion of 2019 focusing on work and competitions. My goal for the year was to qualify for the 2020 North West Powerlifting Championships that will be held in November of this year.

What you might not know, is that I actually managed to get the QT (qualifying total) for the 2019 NW Powerlifting Championships earlier in the year, but had missed the cut off date. Unfortunately for me, after I’d managed to get said QT, they added an extra 50kg to the QT for 2020, and that meant putting in a hell of a lot of work to make sure that not only could I qualify, but also that I wouldn’t be just scraping in.

This led to an idea. Why don‘t I compete in 2 weight classes, and qualify in both? I competed at Powerpalooza III in my usual weight class (84kg +) on November 2nd and despite a terrible day, I managed to lock in that QT. I believe I placed 8th in that competition, not my best performance. I then went on to drop a weight class (to the -84kg’s) for the Fighting Fit Christmas Spectacular on December 8th. As I was sitting around 88kg for Powerpalooza, this meant I needed to drop A minimum of 4kg before the day of competition, without losing strength or jeopardising my chances of setting that total.

I will write another blog post at some point about how I achieved the weight loss and the impacts it had on my mental state as well as my physical performance, but that is a story for another time.

Anyway, as I was saying, Christmas Spectacular rolls around, and I had actually managed to drop just shy of 7kg in under a month. I was doing quite well in regards to energy levels, but was a little apprehensive about my performance.

As it turns out, I had little to worry about. I managed to total a respectable amount above the minimum to qualify, as well as leaving the day with 1st place in my weight class. This means I had actually managed to qualify for the 2020 NW Champs in 2 weight classes, and ended the year with my very first (hopefully not my last!) gold medal!

I am very excited about what the future holds, and have decided not to compete until the Championships. I am still training consistently and working hard to be as strong as possible, butt now the goal is to achieve as much as I can and to try and set a 400kg total at NW Champs.

So, that’s what I’m up to these days.

Happy New Year.