Stuffed Superdud: Bumpy road to respectable lifting
For any new followers
Loggy Prequel
I've been lifting on and off since 2004, and fortunately never had any sort of a silly-bullshit period, though my efforts were way overly conservative for years.
Got on a proper LP in 2010-2011 after discovering the 70s Big site and started playing around with the Olympic lifts, but poor athleticism and lack of proper instruction meant I was doing the lifts sloppily and was always beat up to boot. Still made some shaky progress up till the early part of 2013, when I suffered a knee injury that sidelined me for several months.
Season 1
I spent most of late 2013 and all of 2014 tired of the classical lifts and did TM for a while. This was also when I first logged for you all. My life was pretty stressful and depressing during that time and it reflected in the training and the logging. I think at the time I had one loyal reader, Oldman, whom I hope is doing all right.
Season 2
At the end of the 2014 I joined a gym that had proper Olympic weightlifting equipment and the wiry little coach who used to compete on the Polish national team (105/100/130 lifetime bests in the old 60kg class, and yes, that 105 is a fucking press because old-school). He advocated vodka and cigarettes during training, constantly told me to quit being a bitch, and said the 2nd pull on a snatch or a clean was "like when you are with a woman. Boom. Boom boom boom."
Season 3
I move to DC last summer (2016) for a new job and have been making a much more serious effort at getting less awful at the Olympic lifts.
All lifts in kgs because I am not a barbarian.
Current bests
Snatch: 104
CJ: 122
Clean: 133
Jerk: 122
Squat: 215
Front squat: 151x2
Deadlift: 201
Snatch DL: 160x2
Snatch press: 73
Older #s:
Press: 82x4 (2014)
Bench: 107x4 (2012)
Snatch DL: 180?? x5 (2014)
Recurring log characters, past/present, in order of importance
Cancer Girl (CG): BFF and the chair of my committee on feminine affairs. She suffered a bout of breast cancer 4 years ago at age 30 or so and for once in my fucking life I was able to be a normal human and be there for another human, which earned me cred for life. Her former nationality continues to give me problems with OPM.
The Pollock: Our original hero, the coach at my old gym with whom I still keep in touch.
Lyudmila (Lil' L): (Former) co-worker. A hard-drinking Russian-born PhD computer nerd from rural Louisiana. Likes rare steaks, German cars, and bad puns. Gilchrest is annoyed with me for not getting my shit together and marrying her like I know deep down I should.
Coach: Head coach at my current gym. Doubles as my life coach, against her will.
Sister: My workaholic no-nonsense younger sister, whom everyone assumes is older whenever I mention her because she has her shit together.
Mother: Makes very few direct appearances. You've heard about her from Portnoy's Complaint. Violently disapproves of my lifting, career, and extended bachelorhood.
General bio:
- 31 years old because holy shit time flies.
- I walk around at 5'9" and a bit under 100kg, but I really ought to slim down to the 94s. For health and vanity reasons mostly, not for weight-class reasons because I am terrible even by 56kg standards.
- I have a doctorate in biomedical engineering, which probably wasn't worth it.
- For some reason, I also know a lot about about fashion/style, so consult with me before buying your next expensive garment.
- I am awful at forming meaningful emotional connections in general, and am particularly rubbish at the eros variant specifically.