TPA Meet Recap: My Third Powerlifting Meet
Waaay back in March 2018, I competed in my second meet with Thailand Powerlifting Alliance (my third meet overall). Because this meet was so close in time to my annual USAPL meet in CT coming up in July, I treated it as a training day, rather than a formal meet. This means I didn’t specifically train for this meet (no peaking, no taper), I just went in and performed.
As usual, I had a blast. I love competing, and in particular with TPA, the focus is on building a supportive lifting community and getting to know other strength athletes in the Bangkok area. If you competing sounds intimidating to you, this is the meet to join – everyone is super friendly and the vibe is very low key and welcoming.
Meet Recap
Here’s how things went:
Squat
My most important goal for this day was to hit a 100kg squat. I missed this lift last summer in my USAPL meet because I didn’t hit depth, so I was on a mission to get it this time (and I did!). I went 90, 95, 100kg and hit a meet PR at 100kg (220lbs).
Bench
Ah, bench, my fickle friend. Once again I got stuck at my second attempt. I wanted 55kg to tie a previous meet PR at a higher bodyweight, but no luck. I went 50, 52.5 (fail), 52.5kg. The exact same thing happened last summer at my last meet. Even the attempt I hit was uuugly, and I’m not sure I would have gotten it in USAPL.
Deadlift
The TPA meets are super long days (start lifting at 9, finish around 9pm) and I am consistently wiped out by the time last deadlift attempt comes around. This time was no exception. And I totally messed up my third attempt. I thought I had previously hit 115kg in comp, but I hadn’t, so I went too high with my third attempt. I went 105, 110, and attempted 117.5 (fail). No deadlift PRs at this meet.
Overall
It’s always fun to be in a competition atmosphere. Even if this was not my best meet, I enjoy the excitement of being around other lifters and the way we all enjoy the same sport. I totaled 262.5kg at 58.4 bodyweight (once again, I weighed in higher than I planned, I registered as under 57kg). I competed with the over 57kg lifters and came in third for the female over 57’s (but I went home early so I missed my medal and my prize). My Wilks was 298.88.
Learning from Lifting
Keep Track of PRs
I am really annoyed at myself for selecting the wrong weight for my third deadlift. It’s likely I could have hit 115 for a meet PR, which would have allowed me to move up again for my next meet in the summer, but because I didn’t have a record of previous PRs (and attempts), I just remembered wrong.
Now I have a Google Spreadsheet to track all of my PRs, including volume PRs and assistance lift PRs (front squat, high bar squat, etc), just so I know what I’ve accomplished, and so I can make better calls in my meets when I’m on my own. This seems pretty obvious, and considering that I’m type-A, I’m surprised it took a mistake like this to make me realize that I need to track my lifts. But now I know! And so do you!
Snack Attack: What to Eat
Since this meet was particularly low key for me, I wasn’t too stressed about anything, and I spent a lot of time thinking about meet-day nutrition (aka: snacks!). I think I’m finally starting to figure out what I can handle during meet-day.
I brought a TON of food with me. If there’s one thing I like to have, it’s options. But even with almost everything I could think of to bring, I realized after a few hours that what I really wanted was light, quick digesting carbs, ideally crunchy things. Again, this seems pretty obvious, but I guess I needed three meets under my belt to really understand.
Because I didn’t have quite all the right things, Alex went on a snack run and brought me back bubble tea (perfect! hydrating and chewy, but not heavy) and doughnuts (drool). I had pretzels and rice cakes, so I ate those too. I also had lots of fruit, all different kinds, and I ate all of that too. I did not eat any of the foods high in fat, and I did have some vegan sausage for breakfast and immediately regretted that choice.
Next time, I’m going to focus on:
Breakfast
- Overnight oats & fruit (my normal breakfast)
- Rice cakes with fun flavors (I love these and I wish they had them in Thailand!)
Snack
- Mango (or other available fruit)
- Protein pudding
Lunch
- wrap with mustard & field roast
- Pretzel chips
- Mini-Doughnuts (or something sweet)
- Grapes (or other available fruit)
Snack
- sour patch kids
Nap Time
One big mistake I made in my first TPA meet was chatting between flights, watching all the other flights, and generally staying hyped up all day long. It was exhausting. This time I was more conscious of making sure I relaxed a bit between flights and sessions. I brought my airline pillow and my soundproof headphones and found a quiet spot to just zone out and relax.
In retrospect, it made a huge difference in how I felt throughout the day. I felt like I had significant breaks, I was more mentally prepared to lift, and I felt calmer and more focused on what I was doing. Whenever I have a longer meet, I will make sure to take these “nap time” sessions to really calm myself down so I can get ready to lift again.
Mobilize Early
Another challenge with a super long meet day is having so much time between lifts. When I have more than an hour between lifts, I feel like I need more mobility work throughout the day to stay limber and ready to compete. At this meet, I made sure to do mobility work between each session, and spend a little extra time on lift-specific mobility work before starting warm-ups with the bar.
Future Goals
I like competing twice a year – once at home in Thailand and once in the summer in CT. I’d like to keep up this pattern and see how much I can put on my total with quality coaching from Ryan. If I can keep adding 2.5 – 5kg to each lift every time I compete, I will be super pleased with myself!