Road to
Nationals
Craig Gilbert
Hello everyone, and congratulations to all
our Frostfit Competitors who killed it recently! I hope you get some much
deserved rest, because the Starke Games are on the horizon…
So what’s new in the world of Starke
Weightlifting? Well, your favorite weightlifting coach will be travelling to
Trenton, ON in April to compete in the Canadian Masters Championships. This is
the largest Masters competition of the year, and can draw over 300
weightlifters from across the country. The stakes are high, as it is the only
place where a national record can be set or broken. It will definitely be a
good experience and a lot of fun, but it will also require a significant amount
of preparation. Over the next 13 weeks I plan on sharing it with you!
I’ve been training exclusively as an
Olympic weightlifter for several months now, and have been pretty happy with
how things have been going. However the time has come to set some goals and
focus my energy more specifically on meeting those goals. This basically comes
down to one thing:
I want to win. I’m not travelling for
second place. I’m going to put up the biggest numbers of my life!
But how can I make this happen? There are
two points here that are going to be very important for me to address. The
first is going to deal with nutrition, and the second is going to deal with
training.
I have looked at the last few years of
results for this competition, and have determined that in my present weight
category (105+) I have a fair chance at winning. Of course the final outcome
will be beyond my control as I have no idea who else will show up or how good
they are, but if history is any guide I have a fair shot. However, if I were to
register as a 105-, then not only do my chances of winning rise but I am now in
a position where I could set a Canadian record, and I still have 4 years to do
it in my present age category if I can remain in the 105- weight category. The
only problem is that I would have to drop about 25 pounds in 13 weeks while
continuing to make strength gains in training. So, take the easy road and
register as a 105+, or go fro broke and register as a 105-?
I registered as a 105-. If I show up on the
day of the competition and can’t make that weight, I will likely be
disqualified. How is that for motivation?
To accomplish this goal I have enlisted the
help of Alex Paton of Shock Performance Nutrition. Together we will form a plan
for me to stay strong but make my target weight. Issues that we will have to
consider include not only what to eat, but the timing of meals in order to best
support training and recovery. I look forward to sharing this plan with you, as
well as passing along all of my newfound nutritional knowledge.
As far as the training goes, I have started
to plan my training schedule in advance and in a little more detail. It used to
be good enough to just get to the gym and lift when I could, but this is not
going to be sufficient if I want to be in peak form for the competition. So, on
a weekly basis I am determining when and where I will train and putting that
right into my schedule. This will allow me to better support my training by
altering my diet, for example. If I’m getting out of bed at 7:30am and plan on
being in the gym for 9:30am, my dietary needs will be different than if I’m up
all day and training at 6:00pm. This will also encourage some accountability.
If I’ve known for a week when a training session is, then I don’t really have
any excuse not to be prepared or god forbid, skip it!
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