Chuck Kasson

This marks the 200th time I've published a log...a bicentennial of bulk

Training went well up to the ILSM 09.

Here's the run-down


I took my last training day on monday the 20th. I took the next 5 days off and did a lot of walking, foam rolling, and cold tub. I left to head to Sarah's on the 23rd. We saw the second transformers movie (good pre-contest show. Megan Fox = Anabolic). We left for Bloomington, IL on the morning of the 24th. The drive was easy, but long. We took our time but it still took around 9 hours to get there. The worst part was knowing that we'd have to make it again the next day. Once to my aunt's house I took a quick walk, then we ate and took a tour of the town. The next day I was up early and got ready. We made the hour long trip to the contest area in Urbana, IL. I weighed in at 268 which is only 3 pounds higher than middleweight. I have already qualified for nationals at middleweight, so I wanted to be a heavyweight. Sad that I just barely made it. Log was first, we pressed on an inclined surface, which was weird and kind of messed me up a bit. I was able to press 7 reps, which is 2 less than my best with my log. I'm beginning to think that my log is a bit easier to clean and press than most. Next was farmers. I felt slow but ended up 2 seconds faster than my best. Good enough for 3rd just like the log. After farmers was the keg toss. I had never practiced this over a crossbar, so I wasn't sure how it would go. Since I did well in the previous event I went towards the end of the group so I was able to watch how the guys who had the best times did it. It seemed to me that throwing the kegs from where they were set up was the best. Not having practiced, I couldn't tell if I could do that. So I tested it with my first keg, no problem. I ran through the next 5 with no problems at all. Next was the tire. It was an easy flipping tire and since I was the most athletic heavyweight I blew the field away by over 10 seconds. At this point I was in first overall and I knew that if I won the next event I would win outright. The keg carry was decent for me, but I had never shouldered a 250 keg in practice. I used a lighter keg in practice. I did some warmups sholdering the contest keg to figure the best way. The quirky part of this event was that the keg had to be set down upright before time would stop. I was coming in super hot so it tipped completely over, no worries though as I had time to set it back up and still get first. So I was the overall winner! I got a sweet sword that was hand delivered to me by miss champagne county fair HA!

Thanks to Sarah as usual for putting up with all the training hours I put in and putting up with me on the way to and from the contest.
Thanks to Aunt Anne for the room and board and transpo to the contest.

On to the next one...