2009 Arnold Pump and Run in the Books
Here’s Scott on the bench at the 2009 Arnold Pump and Run. He got 18, but for some reason they didn’t count two of his reps. I think he just got a stickler. Scott ran right around 17 minutes for the 5k and is ready for the Flying Pig in May.
Here’s me on the bench at the 2009 Pump and Run. I got to 10 reps no problem. In fact, it was almost too easy. I got to 15 and re-evaluated my condition – still seemed too easy. Got to 20 and knew I could surpass my goal of 23. Did 25 reps and almost 26. I guess the minute sets really helped. The bench coupled with a 19:30ish 5k got me to a net time of 7 minutes+. We’ll see how that places. Maybe top 40 overall – perhaps top 30. I was happy. My best overall time by far. On to the Flying Pig in May.
The rivalry renewed - Scott and Andy tangle again 21 years later.
Start of the 5k
Other thoughts – I think the minute sets really helped out quite a bit. That was a great suggestion that I got from a weightlifting forum. If you’ve never done a pump and run, it is basically 3 stages of stress. Stage 1 is the weigh-in which doesn’t sound stressful but if you come in overweight you are going to be benching more than you planned on. Imagine going in thinking you will be benching 175 and find out that you have to do 180. Most people will scoff to themselves having read this and think – no big deal, only 5 more pounds. I’ve been training for 4-5 months with the thought of benching 175. Moving up 5 pounds is something I hadn’t planned on for those 4-5 months. A curveball on the day of the event is not something you want to face. Plus, I’m trying to do 175 for as many reps as possible. Now, I’ve got to do 180 for as many as possible? I’m probably going to lose 2-3 reps which translates to 60-90 seconds difference in overall time.
Stage 2 is the bench press. With the time change, we were basically benching at 7:00 in the morning. You’re never sure how your body is going to react. Your only warm up is push ups unless you bench at home beforehand. Scott was unlucky to have two of his reps disqualified. Imagine getting through several reps and then having the spotter tell you that the last rep didn’t count. That will really throw you off your game if you are not ready for it. If that doesn’t do it, imagine having a second rep disqualified. I was happy they moved the bench press out of the corner of the Expo hall. There was a lot more room to move around and it seemed much less cramped.
Stage 3 is the run which takes place almost 3 hours after the weigh in. You’re tired and you’ve already gone through a couple stages. You’ve been up since before 6 am with the time change. It’s tough to keep your mental focus for that long. I kind of lost mine during the run this year. Not that I would’ve gone much faster but I definitely felt like I was resting on the laurels of having exceeded my bench press goals. It would’ve helped to have run a 5k in February as a tune up. That also shows you how important the bench press is. You can make up a lot of time with just a couple more reps. I got two extra than I had dreamed of getting and kind of figured that busting my ass on the run wasn’t going to make as much difference.
I was jokingly telling Scott that they should add chin-ups as well to the event. Maybe if they added a 5 minute deduction for each one arm chin up, I’d win hands down.