The Risto Sports entourage and I leave for the Arnold on Thursday, 2 days before I compete. I had been relatively on body weight that week. Physically, I felt good, save nagging wrist pain and inflammation.
Early Friday, for lack of better food choices, I ate crappy carbs. I was shocked to step on the scale, Friday afternoon, and be 1.5kgs+ over weight. What this meant was that I would not be eating or drinking much of anything until after my weigh-in, 5PM Saturday.
As you may have guessed, I had lined-up my food and multiple drinks to rehydrate and fuel me right after weigh-in. Just as I started eating my food court Chinese food, my buddy Eric (the Viking) informed me that he and his family got bad headaches from the MSG in the food. So, I tossed my food.
Now, having no solid food, I got resourceful. I went into the Arnold Expo, across the hall from the meet venue, and started drinking the mini free samples of protein shakes and amino acid drinks. Finally, I spotted a cafe, which turned out to be out of food/carbs and got a latte instead. Somehow, I felt like a million bucks afterward. I was completely rehydrated- over hydrated probably. And, because the meet was running late, I had plenty of time to digest my calories.
Going into the competition, I stayed confident, knowing that I was just here to do what I do every Sunday in workout. I opened with a solid 75kg, one of the highest snatch openers of the session.
I had a long wait until my second attempt of 78kg. Unlike the old Gwen, I managed to stay relaxed and to take a couple of lighter reps in the warm-up room, while I waited. 78kg was then flawless.
Now, the competition was down to 3 more lifts. My third attempt and 2 more attempts from a competitor. She snatched 77kg and went to 80kg and missed. I stayed calm in the waiting area, unaffected by the outcome of my competitor, whether it be good or bad. I then went to my 80kg, something that weighed 17kgs more than me, and I nailed it. It was a white moment. I was so in the zone that I can barely recall what it felt like. It was an outer body experience. I knew I just did something awesome, worthy of a TEBOW.
As you may have guessed, I had lined-up my food and multiple drinks to rehydrate and fuel me right after weigh-in. Just as I started eating my food court Chinese food, my buddy Eric (the Viking) informed me that he and his family got bad headaches from the MSG in the food. So, I tossed my food.
Now, having no solid food, I got resourceful. I went into the Arnold Expo, across the hall from the meet venue, and started drinking the mini free samples of protein shakes and amino acid drinks. Finally, I spotted a cafe, which turned out to be out of food/carbs and got a latte instead. Somehow, I felt like a million bucks afterward. I was completely rehydrated- over hydrated probably. And, because the meet was running late, I had plenty of time to digest my calories.
Going into the competition, I stayed confident, knowing that I was just here to do what I do every Sunday in workout. I opened with a solid 75kg, one of the highest snatch openers of the session.
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| Gwen Sisto with solid 75kg opener in the snatch |
After this lift, I would be suspended in a state of Euphoria the rest of the night.
The clean and jerk
In hindsight, I think my 80kg snatch pretty much psychologically crushed my competition. The competitor missed her last snatch at 80kg. Looking at the results several days later, there were a lot of missed clean and jerks.
Needless to say, I felt pretty good going into the clean and jerk. During my competition, I focused only on my lifting and did not concern myself with the lifts of others. I let myself go, in terms of leaving the strategizing to my coaches, focusing only on lifting whatever was on the bar in front of me.
I went on to do an easy 90, 93kg, and 96kg clean and jerk. I know I got a little sloppy in my recoveries, as in not being perfectly elastic bounce out of the bottom of my clean. And, to me, the lifts felt very doable. I recall standing-up with 96kg, and taking a step forward to complete the recovery of my clean. The bar felt like a toy on my shoulder. Still, I knew not to rush my jerk and to take a nice straight, effective dip and drive.
My mental state was a balance of white moment euphoria and rational clarity. The lifts felt flowed, like a state of mental flow, like typing with out looking at the keyboard. Keeping myself from over thinking each lift was all I needed to do.
I know I had the ability to more that day, and it was a good competition. It was just the beginning of more good lifts to come.
Other things of note
As my reward, I got to sit in USADA drug testing until 1 AM. Apparently, I did so well re-hydrating myself, that I needed to give them multiple samples for them to boil down. Now, I feel completely paranoid about my test (all my Stats and SixSigma training). Testing is just so unglamorous: someone watches you pee, you can't wash your hands with soap afterward, you use the same dirty faucet as all previous lifters. I personally experienced the following: staying-up until 1AM, chugging 5 or so 20 oz bottles of water over 2 hours, and then was asked if I could fill the pee cup just a little bit more as I stood over it for the third time. The icing on the cake: having to walk the streets of Columbus, at 1AM, from the drug testing site to the venue, only to find that the venue was locked as I suspected despite USADA rep claiming it would still be open, then walking in just my light warm-up jacket, in the snow, back to the next unlocked door a couple blocks up. It is a dubious honor to be tested.
Going back to happy thoughts
I won medals for my performance, and I got my first ever Rich Schultz award for my six for six performance. Here are some photos:
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| I'm on the far right, I really hope you would have figured that out. |
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| Gwen getting a Rich Schultz award for a 6 for 6 performance |
I made a new BWFF, Best Weightlifting Friend Forever.
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| LG and Gwen with BWFF, Nick Horton |
Sweet!
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