Longhorn Open 2019
Round three, let's go!
This meet recap blog post will pretty much be just that; a meet recap only, and not including any team shenanigans in Austin this time :(
Chronologically wise (if you will), this meet happened right after the 9-day sprint to create my camera-tracking autocannon (see project: baki (V1)), during which I barely ate or slept. Actually ended up weighing in a fair bit under, even.
Pretty much the entire travel time was spent snoring in the car, and in the evening before the meet, when my teammates went and had dinner, I slept in the Airbnb as well.
TL;DR: I don't have too many photos of this trip, and I’m sorryyyy
This year, Rice Powerlifting had a very new (but not necessarily inexperienced) crew: Fredy, Eli, Spencer, JP, and me. This would be Fredy’s first meet, and Eli’s and Spencer’s first as RP members! Everyone did incredibly well - there’ll be pics of everyone’s placings a bit later on!
I know last year I made fun of my friend Logan for completely forgetting the squat command and going before the judge was ready (see Longhorn Open 2018). Well, sleep-deprived Brian made the same mistake and got three red lights, so I guess I’ve lost the right to say anything 🔴🔴🔴
Instead, here is my Squat attempt #2 (~408 lb). I had made the decision to take my big ‘jump’ in between attempts #1 and #2, instead of between #2 and #3.
Considering the lack of sleep and food for the week prior, I was feeling pretty weak/underprepared for this meet, and wasn’t sure if I could last three attempts. So I treated my second as my final, and went ‘heavy’ here.
It was a real grinder and probably the ugliest one I’ve ever performed in competition. I don’t remember my thoughts from the lift itself, but from the video it looks like I might have missed the bounce? Stability was also all over the place, with my knees knocking around like Bambi.
This ended up counting as a successful lift, and I got my attempt #3 (413 lb) as well!!
Next up (you know the routine by now) was bench! Everything went pretty straightforward, and I hit a meet PR of a 303 lb paused bench on my 3rd attempt! This was the lift I had missed last year, so the fact that I hit it while so fucked up meant there was undeniable progress!
On thing that did happen though, was I had forgotten to unhook my thumb loops from my wrist wraps for the 1st attempt! The judge let me off with a warning, but it was kind of embarrassing to have been so absent minded.
‘Yeah that’s the good stuff’
‘Ofuk I wonder if he’ll be ok out there’
It turns out, my being all over the place was more noticeable than I thought. After my first bench attempt, Vincent from Project Strength (a DOPE powerlifting gym and community, check them out!) actually came up and asked if it was my first meet. I replied, mortified, that it was actually my third and that I was just really, really sleep-deprived. The pictures above are him getting me to sniff ammonia before I went out on the platform again.
Vincent then offered to handle for me for the rest of the meet. For those unaware, typically a powerlifting athlete has a handler/coach that travels to meets with them. This individual would have spent time throughout the athlete’s training and ideally knows their quirks and mindset inside and out. They set the weights for successive attempts, and make calls and decisions on how they think the lifter is mentally and physically performing that day. It’s not beyond a handler to sometimes just not tell a lifter what their next weight is, and to just trust them, if that gives a better idea of their role.
Rice Powerlifting, being a literal grassroots team run by passionate but otherwise completely clueless undergraduates, had no handlers. Nor did we have coaches, any unified programming, or much organization in general. This was something I was ashamed to admit as Club President.
Hearing this, Vincent offered to help our team out in the future, in sort of a Project Strength - Rice Powerlifting collaboration. I was so hyped!
(Only true OGs end up networking at a freaking powerlifting meet)
Finally, deadlifts rolled around! I was beyond exhausted at this point, but attempts #1 and #2 generally went along okay. Before the third attempt, however, I guess I fell asleep in the waiting chairs. I was comfortably unconscious, when -
“Brian Chen, your bar is loaded”
I woke up in a panic, and still very much groggy, burst out of the curtains and stumbled out onto the platform, while tugging my belt to some arbitrary tightness. Kind of stumbled up to the bar and just, well — pulled 485 lb (thank God there’s no start command in DL to mess up). Not that it was easy or anything, but not thinking much might have helped things mentally.
That stagger + stumble off after probably says a lot, actually haha
*Also, USAPL changed the rules to require a shirt during deadlifts, so no more sexy delts :(((
All in all, it was a great meet! Everyone on the team put in so much time, and I was really proud of everyone. Fredy took home silver (!) in his first meet ever! I placed 2nd in my division as well, but Eli, Spencer, and JP placed 1st (!!!) among some very fierce competition! Not to mention, JP literally bombed out (was disqualified - specifically for failing all three attempts of one event) the year before, so what a comeback!!
We all had school/work to make the following day (LH Open 2019 happened on a Sunday, unlike in previous years), so we carpooled back to Houston pretty much immediately after. I slept, of course.
