Meet report: Iowa Games Strongman

[gzt]

TL; DR version: I tied for second out of 5 in the 232-265 division, lost the tiebreak. Am terribly sore. Met bustermonkey2, he did okay in his class. Weather wasn't too bad.

Longer version:

Apparently twice as many people showed up this year as last year. Lots of CrossFitters, a few powerlifters, and I think a handful of people who actually do strongman. Lots of women, which is very good.

The first event was a farmer's walk, 80' each way. I have never really done one, not even in training. Not quite sure just how much was on there. I heard somebody say something about 230, but that's an awkward weight to get to. The bars themselves weighed 103# each. I want to say they added more than 100# to each for the heavyweights. Convenient weights would be +120 or +140, and I know they didn't do +140. Anyway. I used hook grip, picked them up, and was off. I debated whether to put them down and repick or do a turn. I did a turn. I got a little wobbly after the turn and had to drop and pick up again twice at about halfway back. Still managed to get second with 50.29 seconds. I was kind of surprised to get second on that, the others seemed to be trucking along.

Next event was the tire flip. I had never flipped a tire before today. It was a ~650# tire. People went to town on it. I managed only 10, which was only good enough for 4th. With a few seconds left, I kind of fumbled the flip I was working on, which left me with just enough time not to bother with another flip. That cost me dearly. There was now a 3-way tie for 2nd.

After that was a loading relay. Run around putting a couple sandbags on platforms and then drag a heavy sled. The sled wasn't moving much for anybody. I got it 30', which was good enough for 3rd. Maybe if I stayed lower, that would have worked better. I think only one guy pulled it the full course in all the groups. I'd been running out of gas in the previous events pretty early, but in this one I was really having trouble. My legs didn't want to work in the ways I wanted them to. Oh well, c'est la vie.

The last event was a truck pull. It was some kind of armored humvee or something, several tons. I had a great run and managed to do it in 38.53 seconds, which was good enough for 2nd in our section and probably about 5th overall. The timekeeper remarked that it was a very good time, especially for somebody not in rock climbing shoes (I was in Chucks).

This left me tied for second with somebody who had the exact same placements. My forearms and calves were shot and my right biceps was sore. Anyway, they had a Rolling Thunder tiebreak. I couldn't do it with 125#, the other guy could. My grip was utterly shot.

I had been worried about the heat, but it didn't get too bad and there was plenty of shade. It didn't heat up until the afternoon and it remained manageable.

Now I'll just cramp up in a corner somewhere. I'm sure bustermonkey2 will pipe up with his report.

[bustermonkey2]

My Iowa Games 2013 Strongman Report-

I met gzt there- very nice guy. I am starting to think we have enough Iowa area lifters on this forum that we could put together a team for powerlifting. Like gzt, this was my 1st strongman comp. I was surprised by the number of women competitors as the ratio was probably 60/40 men to women. It was very hot 90+ degrees and although there was lots of shaded areas, it still made for a long day as the meet went from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. I would have been exhausted just from sitting in the heat all day. Also I had planned for meet to be done by about 2 pm, and didn't bring any real food and was running on fumes by the last event. They cancelled the press event about a month before the comp. which was frustrating as I'd focused a lot of effort on learning to push press and clean expressly for this meet. I weighed in at 220 lbs in the 201-232 lbs weight class and there were 9 competitors in the class. Of the nine in the weight class three guys including myself were over 40, and not surprisingly all three made up the last 3 positions in the rankings. I either ended up 7th or 8th at the end. I was ranked 7th before the last event but I left before final results. Maybe next year they can add a Master's class. One of the consistent issues, possibly age related, was I didn't have as much initial quickness and that I ran out of steam about 45 seconds into each event where most of the events were about 75 seconds. Although my results were near the bottom, I never felt embarrassed as I was able to move the implements enough so it wasn't a terrible showing.

Farmers Walk- At my weight class they had 203 lbs per hand. I had worked up to 205 lbs in training. Unfortunately, the bars here had slightly thicker handles then my training bars and I had a hard time holding a grip. I dropped it once on the way out, then put them down and spun around for trip back. On trip back I dropped them about 3-4 times before time ran out with about 1/2 of the distance to go on return trip. It seemed most successful people used a hook grip, but I've got short fingers so I can't even use hook grip on a conventional bar. I also managed to rip off a callous of one hand which bled a little but I wrapped part of my hand with medical tape and I don't think it affected later results although it did hurt pretty good.

Tire flip- I had really no training on this prior to doing it. The tire was 630 lbs and I managed 6 flips- almost 7. I was not nearly as quick as some competitors at this and I need more practice getting under the tire quickly after the initial lift. I kept lifting it up to above waist just fine then struggling to use knees, etc. to get it fully upright.

Sandbag/ Sled Pull- The sandbags were 160 lbs- about the same weight I used in training. But, I had planned on carrying them just above waist and at the meet the drop-offs were around mid chest for me. I knew I couldn't get them onto my shoulders consistently so both times I still carried them around waist height but spent a lot of time and energy struggling to lift them onto drop-offs. I had very little time left by the sled and only dragged it around 10 feet.

Vehicle pull- the mens pull was a 9000 lb armored humvee. They said at one point that with the driver and gear inside that it was close to 10,000 lbs. This was also a first for me. I pulled it 96 feet- just 4 feet short of a finish. There was a slight upgrade near the end and I just ran out of steam.

Gzt did great- I wished I stayed to see his quick run with the humvee. The crowd was very supportive. Although I'm glad I did it, I am not really sure I'll do it again as it was pretty clear to me that the older guys were having a tougher time on most of these events. If they add a master's class I'd be more likely to try another one.

[gzt]

A couple other notes:

The guy who won my section dominated, he got first in every event, but he has a severe case of DYEL-itis. Srsly, put him in a long-sleeve button-down shirt and you'd think he's a runner. This is not a criticism, since he won every event.

Looking at the pictures of the event, I definitely have a case of DYEL-itis, too, but nobody would mistake me for a runner.

Forearms and calves still terribly sore. Traps fairly sore. That's about it.

[veryhrm]

Nice job and nice report, both. If you don't mind my asking, what are your guys' gym lifts like?

(Also, I didn't realize the farmer's walks were THAT heavy. That's more than my DL...)

[gzt]

I squat in the mid 400s and my DL is probably just north of 500. People can usually do farmer's walks on the order of half of their deadlift.

[brianb]

Awesome. Congrats to both of you. Were you guys training specifically for strongman prior to the event?

[bustermonkey2]

My PR's are: Squat- 433, Deadlift 488 (Although it's probably higher than that now); Bench 335; Push Press 200 for 3 reps. I am 40 years old and usually compete at 198 but I competed here in 232 lbs class because I didn't want to cut since weigh-in was right before competition.

I didn't even begin any strongman type training until this May after my last powerlifting meet. I didn't train tire flips or vehicle pull at all due to lack of equipment. I tried to get a tire but all the junk tires had been picked up the week prior. I did get farmers walk bars and used them about 6-7 times prior to comp. I made a sandbag and trained that about 5 times but didn't plan on drop-offs being about midchest or I would have worked on shouldering them. I have a prowler knockoff with harness and did some sled pulls and drags about 4-5 times.

I did do some conditioning 2 times a week with prowler or hill runs which was tough because I've gained too much weight (220 lbs at 5'8"). I definitely needed more conditioning because I was really exhausted 45 seconds into each event and the time limit was typically 75 seconds.

[gzt]

I had never done any of these events before the meet. I also hadn't done any conditioning. I think that was my cardio for the year, except for walking to work occasionally (it's up and down hills with a 15# backpack, so I count it as cardio, otherwise I wouldn't count walking).

[bustermonkey2]

Gzt is tall and definitely looked like he was in pretty good conditioning shape. I'm a short heavy guy that looked like he was on verge of heart failure by midpoint of each event.

[bustermonkey2]

Here are some pics of me- I'm not posting pics of gzt without his ok.farmers walk.jpgSled Pull.jpgtire flip.jpgvehicle pull.jpg