Going into this meet, I didn't set extremely high expectations for myself simply because I didn't really know what I was capable of. It was the last meet of the year (and possibly for a while) so I just wanted to have some fun. My goal was to total at least 1600 and ended up with a 1701 total. To put it into perspective, the last time I competed raw was in 2013 in sleeves. I totaled 1400 and after that went straight into multiply. I definitely surprised myself with wow weights moved and I was most excited because I went into this meet alone with my own "programming". I'll explain how everything went below...
Squat
Going into squats, I opened with 520ish (kilo weights) which was so easy it felt like it was going to come off of my back. I jumped to 565ish and that was just as easy as my first. I really wanted a 600lb squat and with how easy these were, I made the jump to 611. My third attempt honestly felt like an easy second attempt. I'm excited to see where I can push my squat throughout this year.
Bench
I opened bench with 380 that went just as planned. Smooth and easy. I jumped to my goal weight of 400ish and that got blown off my chest with ease. I decided to make the jump to 424 for a 14lb all time PR and that was just a perfect third attempt. I wouldn't have been able to lift much more.
Deadlift
Going into deadlift, I had a 1035 subtotal. I knew I needed at least a 565 deadlift to hit my 1600lb goal. Well my opener was about 580 so I knew I had it in the bag. My opener was easy as shit, and it definitely boosted my confidence on my second attempt. I went for about 622 which would be a 12lb raw PR on my deadlift. With how easy my second attempt was, I decided to try and tie my geared deadlift of 650. After I put in my third attempt, I realized if I pulled 665, that I would total 1700. I went up and changed my attempt to 666 for a third. I wanted to go out with a bang and really push my third attempts for this meet. I'm glad I did because my third attempt wasn't very much of a struggle at all. Ended up 9/9 with a 1701 total.
One thing that was solidified for me at this meet was how important picking attempts are. Setting yourself up for success is of the utmost importance at a meet. There's no worse feeling than a grinding opener. You need to set the tone, build your confidence for your second attempt, then play the third by ear. I always have a gameplan in my head for multiple scenarios that may occur. All in all, I'm very pleased with my return to raw lifting and am excited to see how much more I can bring to the platform the next go around.
