keithcrone.com

I wish I could say I’m 100%, but I’m not. I’m getting close so keep your fingers crossed. I have a contest in September that I really want to do well in. I’m a little behind where I would like to be, but I’m optimistic about the whole situation.

Last few weeks
I haven’t hit any major milestones, but I’m doing better.

*Managed 225*5 on overhead last week. Probably the first time in a few months.
*Squatting is still terrible
*I pulled 475*3 recently. Still off my high, but close.
*Yoke: Did 100ft (reverse at 50ft) with 370 in 22secs this past Sunday. 370lbs is nothing compared to my contest weight of 600lbs, but it gives me a baseline of speed that I want to try to keep. The bigger issue wasn’t so much running with the yoke, it was how the weight felt on my traps. I need to adjust to that much pressure again. To train I’m going to shoot for the same time at 450, 550, and then 630.
*175*5 for 5 sets on Log press Sunday also. Hardly noticed anything in the left arm, form was looking good, hoping for a PR in Sept.

(Video is on the Videos page)

I’ve been having computer trouble for a couple weeks. Everything is close to normal so updates should resume again.

IL Strongest Man ‘09
Needless to say I didn’t do very well. Better than I expected on just about everything, but that still only got me 9th or 10th out of 12 competitors. I knew the competition would be good, and considering my arm issue, I’m happy I didn’t come in last.

Log Press
225lb for reps in 60secs. I only did 2. My best in competition is only 5 or 6, and considering my arm, my goal for this event was only 2, so I won’t complain. Unfortunately, when most of the competitors did 8+, 2 isn’t anything to speak of.

Farmers walk
250lbs in each hand for 100ft. I was a little nervous about my grip holding up here. In training a few weeks before I only held on for about 30ft. I did well at the contest and completed the entire 100ft in about 21secs. Unfortunately, the average for the event was about 15secs so I still placed pretty low. Even so, I was happy with my performance.

Keg Toss
I was HOPING to do better here, but it didn’t work out for me. We had to throw as many empty kegs over the crossbar as we could in 60secs. I only got 4 over…most competitors threw all of them. I’ve never had strong hip power so I think 4 was an accomplishment for me regardless.

Tire flip
Practicing for this event a few months ago is what screwed up my arm in the first place. My time was about 44 secs for the full 80ft. The average this time was in the high 30s I think so I didn’t do nearly as bad as in some of the other events.

Keg carry
When I started competing, the keg carry was by far my worst event. I was lucky to be able to carry it 80ft total. Since then I’ve managed to turn the event around and on a few occasions, rank near the top of the list with a quick time. Since my left arm has been hurting, I hadn’t touched the keg at all to train and just hoped for the best at the show. I finished with a time of ~28secs. Average was in the low 20s. I was really worried I wouldn’t make the whole thing again, so I’m happy with my performance here too under the circumstances.

Overall, the show was great. It was a good venue. Well run as always. I look forward to competing there again next year, hopefully injury free.

Friday:
Tire
I was doing sets of 3 or 4 flips at a time. After the couple of long runs I did last week, I’m not worried about being able to do this at the contest.

Keg Toss
The show organizer lowered the height to 13.5′ but there may be more than 5 kegs. Either way, it’s not as easy as it sounds. I don’t have any problem throwing the kegs over the crossbar, but doing it quickly to beat everyone else’s time is a different story. I’m hoping not many guys have trained this event so maybe I’ll have a slight advantage.

Saturday:
Log Press
After 5hrs of sleep and 8hrs of overtime, I still managed to work up to 215*2 on the log today. Next week won’t be as bad as I thought. My goal for this show was 220*2…I’m hoping to set a PR at my contest in September.

Keg carry
This didn’t go as well as I would have liked. Tried to carry the keg 160ft, only made it about 140ft. I was wiped out from work, sore, and I haven’t carried the keg in months. With a couple more runs next week, maybe Mon and Wed, I should be able to complete the course at the contest. Not as fast as I’ll need to win, but hopefully at least be competitive.

Farmers hold
Turns out the venue isn’t very conducive to running with weight, so the grip event might be just a hold instead of a carry. Either way, I held 275lbs in each hand for just under 30secs. Under a contest setting I would have held it a bit longer, but not into the mid 40s like I would need to be competitive in this event. Still my best in a long time but far off my record of 45secs+.

I’m really looking forward to the show next week, even though I’m only going to do mediocre like I’ve been doing the last few contests.

I’ll write up a preview of the contest during the week.

Snatch
95*5 for 2 sets
135*3 for 3 sets
155*1

Seated row
Worked up to a couple sets of 5 at 240lbs. I topped out the machine. I’m going to have to start doing bent over rows or something similiar.

Pull ups
Even with my arm hurting a could do a couple…but just a couple.

Shrugs
These are hard on my bicep. I went as heavy as I could handle without doing more damage to my arm. 360lbs on the shrug apparatus.

1 arm db curls
40*7
50*5
60*3
Those last ones were hard, on BOTH arms. I’ll never be able to lift any stones at this pace.

No lifting tomorrow. More event training on Friday and Saturday. Tire, farmers, log, I need to throw the keg a few times and I certainly need to see if I can handle carrying a 220lb keg for 160ft before the 25th.

Put in a quick squat workout. Did a lot more volume than I usually do.

Squat
135*12
185*12
225*12
275* 6
I think I could have done all 12 if I didn’t have to go back to work when I was finished. 275*12 is nothing to brag about, but it was certainly tough for me. Most of my workouts are way too heavy lately anyway. Lower weight and higher volume will be a nice change, especially when squatting.

Finished off with some calf work.

Going to try to sneak in some kettlebell swings after work today. I need to develop a little hip power for the keg toss event at my contest on the 25th. Just looking for a little more speed.

My computer died on Thursday evening so I spent much of Friday and Saturday trying to fix it (without much luck, by the way.) Managed to sneak in a mediocre workout in the middle of working on it.

Log Press
125*8
175*7
205*3
225*0 This isn’t very good. I need to be able to do this in two weeks. Looks like I’m going to get a ZERO for this event.
Went back to:
175*5 split jerk
185*3 split jerk
195*3 split jerk
205*1 split jerk
Had enough of log by then.

Barbell overhead
135*5
165*5
185*5
205*1
That was a little frustrating too. The problem is I still can’t bring the weight all the way to my chest so it’s hard on my upper back and shoulders. Far cry from the 265lbs I did six months ago.

Farmers holds
225*30secs for 3 sets
This was pretty easy. My guess is I should be able to walk 100ft in 30secs at my contest in Champaign so if I can hold the weight that long I’ll be ok. After these sets, I don’t think I’ll have any problem making the course with 250lbs in each hand.

PROBLEM: I woke up yesterday only weighing 218lbs. That is way too light. So starting Sunday morning, it’s time to put some weight back on. I’m going to work on being at least 223lbs by the 25th, and over 230lbs by the September contest. (I’m not a bodybuilder…if some of it is fat, I’ll fix it later.)

Another deadlift day. And not a very good one at that. Ultimately I did 405*5 and called it quits.

I didn’t eat very well yesterday nor did I feel very rested when I woke up this morning. Throw in the thought of overtime later and I probably would have been better off staying home today.

Tomorrow and Saturday are going to be event days. Yoke and farmers on Friday, log, overhead work, and some keg tosssing on Saturday. Hopefully they will turn out better.

I’m pretty sore from yesterday’s event training, especially my forearms. I thought I’d be able to handle some pressing but alas, that was not the case.

Seated overhead
95*12
135*7
165*5
185*1
I was going for 5 on that last one. Turns out my shoulders are pretty tired from pushing the tire over yesterday.

Close grip bench press
Worked up to 235*5

Dips
BW*10 (3 sets)

By now I could tell that today wasn’t going to be a very good workout so I ended with some dips and went home.

I’ve posted some sets of pictures from competitions this past year. More to come. Check them out on the ‘Photos’ page.

Thank you to Tony Soucie for providing this service to all the competitors in his events.

Trained a couple of events today. Have a couple more scheduled for tomorrow, although I think I’m going to be pretty sore so we’ll see.

Tire
Started with just a few flips at a time. After almost an hour I went for close to 80ft without an issue. Video is posted on the video page.

Farmers
This one didn’t go so well, although now that I’m finished I’m going pin some of the blame on too much tire flipping.
160lbs each hand*80ft (2 sets)
200*80ft
250*30ft
I need to do that 250 for 80ft by the 25th. I don’t think I’m going to make it, but I’ll be close enough to finish the event completely.