On the 23rd October 2020 I wrote this post:

1 month to go…

Now, here we are 9.5 months later and I have less than 1 month to go…

15 days to be exact…

half a month…

2 weeks tomorrow!

I am experiencing a strange mixture of panic and complacency! I am definitely not as prepared as I was this time last year, I am more or less as strong, but generally less fit, which is making me panic a little, but I have waited so long for this that I have got to the stage of wanting to just go and do the things whether I do them well or not.

This competition has been postponed now 3 times, this is the 4th date and there is a tiny part of my brain that has decided it is not a real thing now, it is more of an abstract concept. Of course I know it is going ahead, there have been lots of messages flying about confirming events and the like but it doesn’t feel real.

Despite all the unreality of the situation, I am now throwing myself back into training like there is no tomorrow. I want to make sure I can do as many of the events as possible so I don’t make a giant fool of myself! Strangely, however I am not as worried about looking stupid as I was, I am there or thereabouts on the weights I need to lift/carry/pull etc and even if I come last at least I have had a go. I think it is something to do with the strangeness of the situation.

Just getting to do the competition at all after the last 18 months is brilliant.

Everyone is in the same boat when it comes to training and the like, I am sure people will have been training, but the gyms and lockdowns etc have made everything so odd for everyone that I don’t think anyone will have been doing what they normally would. On top of that the events have changed for this about 1 million times (well maybe 3) including again at the weekend. This all makes me think that it is impossible for me to be fully prepared for this event now so I am going to prepare as best I can in the next 20 days and go along and do the best I can.

On the plus side, I have now practiced the log press and I can still manage 40kg which is the competition weight so maybe things are not as bad as they could be.

Since I realised that I had so little time, I have managed to kickstart my gym going… as you know I had a plan and thus hadn’t been doing nothing, but really hadn’t been doing enough. Until now… I went Friday, twice on Saturday, Sunday and twice on Monday. I have trained upper body (twice), deadlifts, legs, all in all I have started doing what I should have been doing all along. It may be too little too late, but I am hoping that the general base strength increases I made in 2020 will help!

I have even managed to squeeze in some running, because it will help with the moving events and the general levels of fitness that I need to compete… That and training things like heavy drags and farmers carries should help with the cardio.

In sort, I have accepted that I am not going to do as well as I could have done this time last year, but I am just going to go and do the best I can do on the day. I will be able to do some things and not others, but at least I’ll know if I like competing and it will be an interesting experience to ad to the list of “strange things Sam does at the weekend” 🙂

Also, I have dyed my hair back to pink… that’s bound to help right?