| 2008 WSM write-up | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Sep 18 2008, 05:12 PM (1,048 Views) | |
| David Ostlund | Sep 18 2008, 05:12 PM Post #1 |
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Minnesota Wrecking Crew
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I arrived in Charleston WV on Sept. 2nd, 4 days before the contest started. The 3rd-5th consisted of medicals, tv intros and interviews, and of course the equipment testing. This year at the testing I decided to do very little, just lift the sandbag once or twice, try the empty keg deadlift apparatus, and get under the viking press just to see how to set-up. I hate doing too much lifting at this because I don't get amped up in an effort to save my nervous energy for the contest, so as a result equipment feels heavier than it should. The competitors in my heat were very tough this year, but I also knew I was in good enough shape that if I didn't make any major mistakes I would have a good chance of advancing to the finals. Travis had a huge win in New York earlier in the summer, Magnus was coming off a victory in the Sweden super series, Jimmy Marku is the current British champion, Raivis can be very tough when in top shape, and Florian can be a spoiler in certain events. The way I approached the contest this year was to view it as two separate contests and at this point I was totally focused on qualifiers and figured if I make the final I can think about it then. Our group's testing session was on the 4th so we had all of Friday to let the nerves build up. That night I was flipping through the channels in my room and saw that 300 was playing on HBO so I watched that. This is what I watched the night before Venice Beach SS last year so I saw this as a very good sign. Of course I had a lot of trouble falling asleep afterward but it was worth it. The next morning I ate as much oatmeal and eggs as I could manage, which wasn't very much. I was, however, able to take 3 deuces before leaving for the first event. The number of dumps I take before events has a strong positive correlation with my performances. One is normal, two is great, and three is a once or twice a year thing. The first event that morning was the keg/sandbag loading race done in the sand. It was 2 105kg kegs followed by 2 125kg sandbags for about 10 or 12 meters each. The sand really fatigued a lot of athletes in the earlier groups, but there had been some fast times as well. Going against Magnus and Travis I knew I had to go 100% speed right from the start if I wanted 6 points. The first two kegs were very easy as was the first sandbag. I was still in the lead going into the final bag, but my legs were getting pretty trashed. Instead of trying to run with the last bag I walked but took big steps and kept the bag high so I wouldn't have to spend extra time loading it. I held the lead and finished in 47 sec for the win in my group and the best time of the day. Later that afternoon we had the keg toss event. This year's format was different, we had 8 half kegs that had sand and gravel in them to make them heavier. The weights also got heavier as the athletes got further into the course. The wall was also set to 16' this year. My plan going in was to do the first four by grabbing them at the handles and then on the last four tip them sideways before I threw. My thought process was that the last four had a good amount of sand in the bottom and this affected the trajectory after the release. I felt I had a better chance to get the heaviest ones over sideways as I felt they would take a more normal path over the wall. Anyways, I only managed to get 7 of the 8 kegs over which was disappointing since I consider this to be one of my better events. This got me 3rd in my group behind Travis who just killed the course and Jimmy who has gotten much better at this event. The 7th keg turned out to be critical because the other 3 athletes in the group tied on 6. After day one Travis and I were tied for 1st in our group with 10pts each. On day 2 our group only had truck pull. We used a coal truck that was filled with coal for a 20 meter course. This was a very heavy pull, especially at the start. I had an average pull and finished the course in 58 sec. Magnus was around 50 and Travis took another event win with a time of 46 I think. Jimmy and Florian were unable to finish the pull. Another third place finish kept me at a solid second place two pts behind Travis and two ahead of Magnus. Day 3 consisted of deadlift and viking press for our group. I knew Jimmy would be very good on these events and I couldn't afford to place lower than 3rd on either of these. I felt confident in my deadlift and viking press training had been going very well. I was excited to see where I was in relation to the other guys in my group on the press. The keg deadlift was made heavier this year than last with the last 3 lifts being 720, 750, and 800. Only Felix and Poundstone had made all 7 so far. I felt that going for 6 in a very fast time was the best strategy for me. The first four felt very easy, the fifth at 720 started to slow a little at the top. I immediately went for the sixth lift when I heard the lift command and it came up quick and with a little hitch I had it. I regrouped for a shot at the last lift and rested about 20 sec. I strapped up again and went for it but only made it to a few inches below the knee. I ended with 6 lifts in 26 seconds. Next was Ortmayer who also made 6 lifts but in 25 sec and then Jimmy made 6 in 23 sec. Third place again, but I stayed in 2nd overall. Jimmy was now 3 pts behind me and Travis was 3 ahead. I knew Jimmy would almost certainly beat me in viking press, but I had to keep it close. I was first to go in deadlift and the organizers had me going last in the viking. Before Jimmy went, Florian had 9 and Raivis and Magnus were tied on 10. Jimmy came up and hammered out 15 which wasn't surprising as he is very strong on static events. Ortmayer then came up and cranked out 12 very fast and easy. He took a short rest and knocked out 3 more but couldn't get his triceps to catch #16. He rested and tried it again, but was too shot by this point. I came up knowing that 10 was the absolute minimum I needed to stay in a good spot. The first few felt very easy and I was able to knock out 11 before I set it down. My knees had come unlocked a bit as I was locking out either rep 5 or 6 and I wasn't sure if Colin had taken the rep away or if it was just a warning. Not taking any chances I picked it up again and got a hard 12th rep. I got another 3rd place and was now going into stones 1.5pts ahead of Jimmy. I felt like I was in a good spot, but I never underestimate anyone and knew that I still needed a good stone run the next day. On the final day we just had atlas stones. Group 5 went last and Jimmy and I were the final pair. For the qualifiers this year the 5th stone had been replaced by a new 400lb stone instead of the old 352. The first four remained the same since the organizers wanted to make sure athletes could still finish before removing the first stone and moving the others over one spot. Plenty of athletes were still finishing in good times. Arild Haugen did the course in 16sec and one motioned every stone. This would have been a record on the old set. Travis and Magnus went just before us and Travis put up a time of 20 sec and Magnus had a bit of trouble on the final stone but finished somewhere around the mid 20's still. When I went I was conservative on the first two just making sure they stayed put and then I sped up for the last three. I ended up finishing at 20 sec just slightly ahead of Travis and Jimmy ended up fourth on this event. I was very happy and relieved that I was going back to the finals again. I knew this was going to be a tough finals with Pfister, Ortmayer, and Poundstone easily qualifying and Mariusz would have a couple days to heal up his injury. The first day of finals had three events: Power Stairs, Car Walk, and Fingals Fingers. I knew I had the potential to have a very good first day, but when you compete against a field like this you just never know how things will turn out. The power stairs was 15 giant steps using a 495 block. This was run in 2 heats of 5 athletes. I was in the first group with Mitt, Haugen, Bergmann, and Poundstone. When the whistle blew, I got off to a quick lead. With about 3 stairs left I was starting to fatigue rapidly. I made to next two just fine, but when I picked it up for the stair I couldn't get it high enough. I decided to rest for a little bit so I could regain enough strength to finish. I wanted to lift it again immediately but knew that I would burn the rest of my energy in a futile attempt. Meanwhile, Poundstone caught up using a steady pace and finished. I heard 15 sec left and went for it. I got it just high enough and then brought it over the line to finish in 67 sec. Derek and I were the only two in our group to finish. In the second group, Pfister got out of the gates fast but started to fade near the end. Mariusz did not fatigue and finished in an incredible time of 40 sec, the only one of that group to finish. I ended up 3rd on the event. The next event was the car walk which was about 900 lbs for 25 meters. The best time before I went was 18 sec posted by Sebastian Wenta. I trained quite hard for this event this year and was excited to see how I could do. I got set up and used a split stance start so I could get moving as I picked it up. It felt light when I picked it up and took off down the course fast. With about 10 meters left I tried to accelerate even harder. I ended finishing in about 14.2 sec which put me into first. I was very pleased with this mark since I cut my time in half from last year. Mariusz had a rough start and only got 16 sec which put him into 5th. Pfister had a phenomenal run and came it at 13 sec to take first. I ended up second here and was now tied for the overall lead with Derek. We had a lunch break and then came back for the fingers. After a slight rain delay the 4th pair came out which pitted Phil against Mariusz. Phil tore through the course in 36 sec and Mariusz made 42 sec after having to go to the shoulder with the fifth. The organizers made the fifth finger heavier this year by putting 15kg of weight in the end of it. I was paired with Derek on this event. I got the first 2 over well and then my third and fourth felt slow, but I made up the time on the fifth finger and ended up getting 34 sec for the win on this event. I was now in 1st overall and was quite happy, but knew I had a couple of tough events to get through yet before I even started thinking about my overall placing. Day 2 started with the car deadlift for reps. They tried to make the in hands weight similar to last year which was around 330 to 340kg. I got to go 8th in this event and saw some good deadlifters go out before me. Arild pulled 5, Bergmann 6, and Travis 7. I knew I needed at least 7 to stay in the mix. When I started, the first three felt very easy. The next three reps were starting to feel very tough. After 6 I rested for just a few seconds and then made seven with good hitch. I then took a long rest and went for 8 but there was nothing left. The worst I could do now on deadlift was joint 3rd with Ortmayer. Mariusz and Derek tied on 10 reps for 1st so I ended up tied for third on this event and still hung on to a 1 point lead in the overall. Next were my two tougher events and I knew I needed huge PR's to stay in contention for top two. The log lift was 308 clean and press each rep using the thinner wood logs. These logs are very long and have a lot of weight on the ends which makes them a bit awkward. I went up knowing I needed to get 7 if I were to have a realistic shot at top 2 still. This is where I ran out of gas. From the first rep I never felt stable or comfortable and only managed to get four. I was upset because I knew 5 or 6 was definitely within my current ability levels, but it seemed the fatigue from the previous events caught up with me here. I finished 9th on this event and dropped to 3rd overall. I ate a big dinner and went to bed very early that night trying to rest up for the final charge of day three. The first event of the last day was the plane pull. We used a Hercules C-130 and pulled for 25 meters. Unlike the truck pulls in the prelims, this one started out easy but got extremely hard at the last 10 meters. I got off to a good start and was staying quite low, but about halfway in my form started breaking down a bit as I was going side to side a little. I gutted it out and finished in 49.09 sec. I only remember that exactly since Wenta was just ahead of me at 49.04. Even if I had a good pull I think 42 or 43 would have been my best possible time and that would still have only given me one more point. Mitt was fifth on this at 40 sec and Wenta sixth. I finished 7th on this event and now I was tied for points with Pfister for 3rd place. We were far enough out of the top two at this point and far enough ahead of 5th that we now just had a battle for 3rd and 4th place overall. We did the atlas stones at a baseball stadium which was a pretty cool venue. Right when we got there it started raining lightly. It wasn't enough rain to really affect the grip on the stones, but the platform is painted plywood and even a little water made it very slippery. Under these conditions, Arild posted an amazing time of 19 sec. We were also using the heavier set of stones as well with 352 as the fourth. All the stones were right next to the boxes except number 1 which was a couple of steps away. The worst part of this was running to the first stone. I almost just walked so wouldn't slip. I was moving cautiously between the first three and I knew at this point Phil was slightly ahead of me. I sped up for the last two and loaded them quite easily, turned around and saw Phil had #5 in the lap. I knew I had secured third overall and was ecstatic. My time was 22 sec and was 2nd overall for the event. I can't say enough good things about all the athletes this year. Guys came in great shape and it was a good battle the whole way through. My car walk improved the most since last year. My truck pull and press have gotten a lot better, but I guess everyone elses have as well. I've had great support from my family and friends this year and my training partners have been awesome. Special thanks to Karl Gillingham who has helped me out a ton over the last few years and of course my wife who puts up with me and this crazy sport on a daily basis. This is my best finish so far and I'm already hungry again for next year. I've already been back to the gym twice for some light training and have been thinking a lot about my upcoming training. |
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| Bod | Sep 18 2008, 05:23 PM Post #2 |
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Excellent performance this year Dave, and a fitting write-up. |
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| shawn | Sep 18 2008, 05:24 PM Post #3 |
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Random tagline
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Great write up Dave, and great performance too. All the best in Strongman next year
Fucking love this bit
Edited by shawn, Sep 18 2008, 05:27 PM.
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| Nick McKinless | Sep 18 2008, 05:29 PM Post #4 |
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Colt who?
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Congratulations Dave...right there is a blueprint for anyone going into a competition...read this and learn! Great performance. Nick Edited by Nick McKinless, Sep 18 2008, 05:30 PM.
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| David Horne | Sep 18 2008, 05:31 PM Post #5 |
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Superb write up, and very insightful into your proceedures. Being nervous is not weakness, it is the getting ready for battle. Well done on your 3rd, and lets hope for even more next year. David |
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| Tom Jones | Sep 18 2008, 05:38 PM Post #6 |
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Administrator and don't you bastards forget it
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Cracking write up dave as always. Good luck over this year I think we were all pleased to see you do so well |
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| WILL SAN | Sep 18 2008, 05:40 PM Post #7 |
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excellent performance and write up dave. well done!
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| stainless | Sep 18 2008, 06:36 PM Post #8 |
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That made for excellent reading,a great insight.Amazing progression. |
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| Laurence Shahlaei. | Sep 18 2008, 06:54 PM Post #9 |
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Now you're boring us
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Great performance dave. it was fantastic 2 watch. Loz |
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| GrantB | Sep 18 2008, 06:56 PM Post #10 |
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Grant is a magnificent bastard
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Nice job, David. You should be proud of that performance. Thanks for the writeup. |
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| Qiman | Sep 18 2008, 07:28 PM Post #11 |
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Makes me think of a recent TV commercial in the states: A WSM write up from David Ostlund -- Priceless. Extremely interesting material about some of the behind the scenes realities. You have come a long way in a short time and your attitude is very refreshing! And thanks for the minutae regarding the weight on the end of the last Fingal, that really makes it tough. And also the bit about the heavier ends on the long logs, both of these factors make the 308 lb. log tougher than just what the weight alone would indicate, maybe a little bit like the safe lift in terms of putting stress on the stabilizer muscles? Thanks again and good training! |
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| Stevemottram | Sep 18 2008, 08:33 PM Post #12 |
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Brilliant write up Dave, well done too |
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| pjaxz | Sep 18 2008, 09:31 PM Post #13 |
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Good write-up Mr Ostlund, also congratulations for your first WSM podium. To be honest, when I saw you first time competing (SS 2005, Malbork, Poland) I didn't believe you are able to fight for titles. Since that time You made a huuuuuge progress. Respect |
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| Thrand | Sep 18 2008, 11:13 PM Post #14 |
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Thanks for your interesting write-up, and much success for future competitions ! |
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| stephen | Oct 1 2008, 07:18 PM Post #15 |
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Thanks for the great write up Dave, you certainly surprised alot of people.
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| Jamie | Oct 9 2008, 06:56 PM Post #16 |
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First Moderator on the SDF; first to have moderator title revoked.
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Great write-up, Dave. Thanks! |
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2:16 PM Jul 11
