Final Day

Waking up today was not fun. I was much more sore than I thought I would be.

Day 3 started out with a snatch ladder. I went into the workout with little confidence. I knew my Olympic lifting movements were one of my weakest areas but I was surprised at just how bad it was. I felt weak, slow, and uncoordinated. I failed twice at 195 and was emotionally defeated. That pulled me down from 2nd to 4th overall behind Dan, T-Rank, and Michael Mogard. It is obvious to me that I need professional help on my Olympic movements. I know that they are weak but I am not clear as to what I need to identify and fix my issues.

I knew that workout 6 was going to be good for me and I needed to seriously step my game up in order to restore my pride and give myself a chance to make it to the podium.

I felt great through the dead-lifts and muscle-ups and moved on to the wall ball shots in the lead. I was able to do the wall ball shots unbroken and broke the toes to bar up into 2-3 sets. When I moved on to the Farmer's walk I knew that I was going to finish this workout. The burpee box jumps were steady and painful. After I finished the burpees I hooked gripped the DBs and tried to make it back to the rings as fast as possible while giving my shoulders a break. I got back to the rings just as the announcer was calling out the 1 minute warning.

I was one of 2 guys that finished the last workout (the other was also an American Military Member who was deployed in Afghanistan, Aaron Gardner) and I had the fastest time in the region. This workout brought me back to 3rd place overall with Daniel Hersey in first and Taylor Rank in second. I can not think of 2 better guys to lose to.

This trip has been a blast and I have truly enjoyed meeting and hanging out with all of the competitors. I missed the cut to go to the games but clawed my way onto the podium, learning a good deal about my strengths and weaknesses.

I can't wait to get back to Koda to train and enjoy the Oklahoma summer. I want to thank all of you who have kept up with my adventure and cheered me on along the way. Having you behind me is a true blessing.