CPU Nationals were held last week (April 8-11th) in Quebec City. Angie and I were both there representing Epicentre and I think we did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself!
Angie lifted on Thursday morning and I was there to coach/run numbers/etc. Angie squatted 115kgs, benched 60kgs and deadlifted 125kgs for a 2nd place finish in the 56kg Open category. These were all PRs for Angie in competition and while she was a bit disappointed with her squats, I was VERY proud of her - this was her first Nationals, afterall!
I did the announcing for one of the men's sessions that afternoon. I was nervous about handling the mic, but in the end, it was actually really fun and the best part was getting to know many of the lifters. Then we hit the town for Angie's celebration dinner......but off to bed early for me as I had to be up for a 7am weigh-in and 9am start.
I think I'm still in disbelief at how it all turned out. I have been chasing my elite total for much longer than what might seem reasonable. For a long time, it was just because I was floundering around in my training, lacking knowledge, experience...and strength. Two years ago, I buckled down (and opened my own PL gym so yeah, that helps:) and decided to actually get somewhere with this lifting thing. I should have totaled elite this time last year, and again in the fall but due to either bad decision making or inability to remember the rules (DON'T DROP THE BAR AFTER YOU HAVE DEADLIFTED AND GOTTEN 3 WHITE LIGHTS, DUMMY!) I have missed it a few times. Anyway, long story short, the plan was: no matter who else is competing, or how close (or not close) our numbers were, to just stick to the numbers I had laid out to total elite and once that was done, go for a record. I did exactly that - I totaled elite at 422.5kgs (getting the provincial record for total) and for my last deadlift I pulled 180kgs, breaking a 12 year national record and fulfilling a 6 year old dream I have been chasing since I first started lifting with Emil Muller at my old cegep - Champlain College. Maybe I'm getting all nostalgic here but bear with me.
Emil was the first person to introduce me to the sport of powerlifting and he's the one who encouraged me to start competing. He used to go to the school gym with me every single Sunday afternoon. He'd tell me stories about his life in 'Czecho' as he called it, the war, about his good friend Ben Weider (yep, THAT Ben Weider), about coming to Canada, about his years of teaching, and all the things he was doing as a 'retired old man' (anyone who knows Emil will understand why calling him 'retired' is just plain funny). He'd wrap my knees, go over squat technique, give me some good sport-psychology coaching and inevitably, throw in a few dirty jokes. Emil did this for countless students before me, giving hundreds, if not thousands of hours of his time.
Even though Emil hasn't been my coach for years now, I credit him as being one of those instrumental people who changed the course of my life, and I've always wanted to make him proud. I still call him before every competition so that I can hear him say (in his fantastic Czech accent) "Be my force with you" and he is the first person I call after every competition to give the run-down on all my lifts.
So, it felt pretty good to call him up on the ride home from Quebec City to tell him I had pulled a National record, totaled elite and finished first for a second year in a row:)
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