Well, it did not go exactly as planned, but it went, well, well enough.

Back in February, I started training with Luke and Jake Ahlfield. They were training for a strongman competition. It did not take me long to decide if I was going to do the training, I might as well have the fun of a competition day. So, I signed up.

Having a competition helps the training intensity kick up a notch. It turns working out into training. There is a difference. And that training went great, up until about a month out from meet day. I displaced a rib while doing yoke deadlifts. It took two weeks and a couple of chiropractor visits to get it back in. About the time I did, I had a gout flareup that left me mostly immobile for two weeks. In fact, I did not know until two days before the meet I was actually going to be able to do it.

Still, my day went okay, especially for my first strongman meet I have done. I hit some personal bests, I struggled in a couple. All in all, well worth doing and something I plan on doing again.

The first event was yoke deadlift. I had not hit more than 465 pounds in training. My back got tight early, so I took more attempts than I probably should have, but I was able to hit 545 in the meet. I was competing in the masters division with two others. One got injured during the deadlift. The other pulled 575 to beat me. I’m chalking that one up to experience. He has done 40+ strongman competitions.

Log clean and press was next. I had to do 200 pounds, clean and pressing each rep for max reps in 75 seconds. I got six. The other guy got seven. I had the strength for it, but I ran out of gas on rep five.

Husafell stone carry was the third event. I had to carry a 225-pound husafell mold loaded with weight plates. I carried that 225 feet for the event win.

Next up was a hammer hold, with a 50 pound hammer that had to be held at eye level. I had done 28 seconds in practice, but only got 26 in the meet. It was a cool looking hammer, at least. I was at least momentarily worthy. My opponent was able to outlast me by a couple of seconds.

The final event of the day was a stone to shoulder at 175 pounds. I had not gotten more than two reps in training, but got five in the meet to close out the day strong. My opponent got six, however, to wrap up the masters class win, leaving me in second place.

Luke and Jake both had great days and it was fun watching them compete, and Luke coaching his son in his first competition. Find yourselves good training partners. It makes a world of difference. Jake Curry was a first-time meet promoter and him and his people knocked it out of the park as far as running a meet.

Videos below taken by Bridget Ahlfield.

Photos were mostly by wife, Sarah Turner, with a few by the event photographer. You can blame Sarah for this post being a week late. She took more than 1,000. I’d say she did okay considering I gave her a two-minute crash course of the DSLR about an hour before the meet.