Well, if it wasn’t enough that those of us in Portland already suffer from a superiority complex based on our early adoption of biking, going “green” in nearly every way possible, high per capita college degree holding, and abundunt strip clubs (what?) …

It turns out we also read more than everyone else in the nation. 

Multnomah County
has the highest collection turnover rate per capita — meaning its
books, CDs, DVDs and other materials are checked out at twice the rate
of the national average.

Seriously, Portland is a weirdo place. I can’t tell you how many coffee shop barristas I know who have masters degrees, but decided that they wanted a more mellow life.  One of the coffee shops I frequent regularly is owned by a guy who will sit with me and talk about Foucault, neuroscience, and Quantum game theory (my masters-degree focus).

People here are freakishly well read.  Now I know why: all that “liberal” access to libraries – Oh My!

As my friend, Tony, once said, “In every city, the strippers say
they are ‘working their way through college’.  In Portland, it’s
true.”

I’m finally getting around to writing this, a few weeks after the fact.  But, the Portland Highland Games 2010 was a success and a ton of fun.  Three of our crew competed: Myself, Chris, and Roy.  Chris and I were in the C class (Remember, a C gets a degree) and Roy was in the Novice class.

We spent a fair amount of time practicing the weight for distance and the open stone prior to going in this year.  Roy built a make-shift weight for distance out of pipes and plates.  And it served us well.  Though we did break one of them!  And he had to make a second one.

While I know my own spin technique leaves much to be desired, I did get quite a lot of complements from the more experienced competitors.  So, it turns out that practice does help … who knew?

We’re all quite new at this sport.  We assumed (wrongly) when we first started that our Olympic lifting would carry over far.  Wrong.  While we are often among the strongest guys at our level, our technique is so far behind that we can’t utilize our strength and power correctly.  We get killed by guys far less athletic than us.

This is actually good news.  Just like the Olympic lifts, once we learn the technique and get better and better at that, our power will transfer and the weights will start going a lot farther.

Here are some vids.  (The pic above is me with the 56 pound weight for distance.  Let me tell you now, 56 pounds spins you more than you spin it – see my wipe-out below.)

28 Pound Weight for Distance

56 Pound Weight for Distance

Hard, this is very hard!

Open Stone

Caber … Well, Not so much!

And here are a few pics of Roy (sadly, I ain’t got no vids):

Sarah Bertram, Oregon’s own superstar weightlifter, got 6th place in the Pan American games on Friday. 

Bertram completed her first two snatches of 85kg and 88kg, but just
missed her 90kg attempt at a new personal record.  The reigning Senior
National Champion, Bertram was in fourth place following the snatch
portion of the competition.

In the clean and jerk, Bertram successfully lifted 104kg and 107kg
during her first two attempts, but missed her final lift of 109kg. 

My friend Mike (2010 National Champion in his age/weight class in Olympic Weightlifting -  he’s the buff dude in the above video) sent me this great list of Viking laws for success to share with you. 

They remind me a bit of what you might find in the Hagakura, the Japanese book of the Samurai.  Succinct and clear, and surprisingly relevant to your real life and to your fitness life.

OK, here we go:

VIKING LAWS

BE BRAVE AND AGGRESSIVE

BE DIRECT

GRAB ALL OPPORTUNITIES

USE VARYING METHODS OF ATTACK

BE VERSATILE AND AGILE

ATTACK ONE TARGET AT A TIME

DON’T PLAN EVERYTHING IN DETAIL

USE TOP QUALITY WEAPONS

BE PREPARED

KEEP WEAPONS IN GOOD CONDITION

KEEP IN SHAPE

FIND GOOD BATTLE COMRADES

AGREE ON IMPORTANT POINTS

CHOOSE ONE CHIEF

BE A GOOD MERCHANT

FIND OUT WHAT THE MARKET NEEDS

DON’T PROMISE WHAT YOU CANNOT DELIEVER

DON’T DEMAND OVERPAYMENT

AGRRANGE THINGS SO THAT YOU CAN RETURN

KEEP THE CAMP IN ORDER

KEEP THINGS TIDY AND ORGANIZED

ARRANGE ENJOYABLE ACTIVITIES WHICH STRENGTHEN THE GROUP

MAKE SURE EVERYBODY DOES USEFUL WORK

CONSULT ALL MEMBERS OF THE GROUP FOR ADVICE

We’re off to the Russ Knipp Weightlifting Championships tomorrow
morning bright and early (2 hour drive, lift, 2 hour drive back!).  It’ll be Me, Roy, Chris, Celia, and Noel
competing this time. 

Leslie is both driving us down and taking video, so she’s doing the hard part! 

Wish us luck!

OH, and check out this great shot of Jessica Gee, one of Oregon’s top lifters, in a full clean at the American Open (that’s 92 kilos, MORE than 200 pounds!)

Blazers kicked butt against the Thunder (previously the Seattle Super Sonics – RIP).  This was both good and bad.  The bad is simply that it nearly guarantees that we won’t be playing the Lakers in our first match up of the playoffs (we’ve got a better shot against them then a few of the other teams).  The good part is … well, we won, and we did it without Brandon Roy. 

But, the most important thing about this game is that it allowed the ever ridiculous Trail Blazzer analyst Mike Rice to get in a couple fantastic quotes.  Seriously, replay the game and look for both of these.  They’re there:

“Bayless … Penetrating … Rudy!”

and

“Oh … Oh … Backdoor!”

The man is a quotation machine, maybe only matched by Dan Rather. 

Here’s a video compilation of the 5 lifters of mine that competed at the Iron Works Olympic Weightlifting meet in Creswell, Oregon.  2 of them were brand spankin’ new.  So that was fun.  Every one of them either matched or broke personal records.  And Leslie won her weight class again!
If you find yourself wanting to join in on the fun, click here to find out how.

BTW, in case you’re wondering, the music in the background is mine.  Roy thinks I have a career writing music for the “adult” film industry.  Maybe I should stick to coaching …

Leslie, Chris, and I just (well … Saturday) got back from the Iron Mind Weightlifting meet at Iron Works Gym in Creswell, OR.

It was hard going getting there.  It was crazy icy between Salem and Eugene.  I think we counted 6 semi trucks stalled, jack knifed, or otherwise out of order on the side of the road.  Sadly, there were a few other accidents we saw that looked pretty bad.  One guys pickup truck was demolished, with the passenger side roof crunched down completely.

We didn’t think it was going to be that nasty when we left home, but we were clearly wrong.  At any rate, we got there safe (albeit in about nearly double the time it would normally take us).

To top it off, the pancake place we normally eat at was closed.  No pancakes!  Chris and I decided this would be our test case to see how dependent upon pancakes we are before a meet.  Read on and find out.

Leslie needs no pancakes after weigh in (if this case study has any relevance).  Not only did she win first place in the 63′s, but she broke personal bests in both lifts!  To top it off, she wasn’t even “supposed” to be in the 63′s.  She’d been wanting to diet down to them, but has been so busy with school that she was hanging out pretty comfortably in the 69′s.  She was shocked when she got on the scale, and it read 63 on the nose.

Chris did well, too, hitting an 80k, and a 105k for a 185 total.  He feels he could have done better, but I think he did good, considering the lack of pancakes!

He was head to head with Sam McLean in the 94′s all the way, and had to make his last clean and jerk to win it.  I’ve never seen him jerk a 105 in the gym, yet.  But, he stepped onto the platform, cleaned it like it was a sack of pillows, and blasted it over head for 3 white lights.  Killed it, and won his weight class.

He’s continually getting stronger and more technically proficient, and I see him hitting 90 and 115 at the State meet in June.  Maybe he doesn’t need pancakes either.

I missed everything but my openers.  I need my pancakes.  In fact, I was opening at 105 in the clean and jerk.  But, in the warm up room I missed 100k not once, but twice!  Somehow I made the 105k on the platform which gave me a 180 total (5k less than last contest).  Am I a carb-o-holic?  Without pancakes, I’m a half a man.

It was a fun meet. Too bad the weather didn’t allow more of the usual suspects of Oregon weightlifting to make it.  But, we had a good time.

For all results, click here.

Sarah Bertram and Jessica Gee got 1st in the 69′s and 4th in the 63′s, respectively, at Nationals this year.  Both of them are from here in Oregon.

Both are also coached by Tom Hirtz, a legend in his own right.  My club competes against their club all the time, and it’s fantastic to see the two of them doing so well.  They both work extremely hard, and are genuinely cool people.  Congratulations!

Here’s a news story about them from KEZI news Eugene, OR. It includes shot of them practicing, and interviews.