cesimpson

This past weekend was the Missouri River Irish Festival in nearby St. Charles. Saturday morning, as one might expect at this sort of thing, was a competition of the Heavy Events of the Highland Games. On Sunday was a demonstration and an opening of the field for any and all to try their hand.

It was raining off and on all Sunday morning. The air and the ground were both damp. As such, I was one of only two who showed for the demonstration and participation. I basically got one-on-one attention, which was awesome.

We started out with the caber. The tree selected for me was about 16′ long and weighed about 55-60#. Getting it up into your hands and balancing it is quite a tricky manuever. The first couple times I got it up, the top of the tree swung wildly, basically throwing me all over the field. After a few tries, I finally got it up and balanced.

Eventually I walked, then ran, let it start to fall forward, and hoisted with all my might. One’s natural instinct is to throw the tree out away from you. Bad idea. That’s the equivalent, basically, of trying to throw the world’s longest, heaviest spear. It flies forward and doesn’t flip. The key is to throw the end straight up, just past the tip of your nose - like doing a snatch.

With the right timing and enough forward momentum the tree flips through 270° and lands on the ground, facing directly away from the thrower. I got close a couple times, but never quite got that perfect 12:00 throw. And, of course, I was working on one of their smaller trees.

Stone Put

Next up was the stone put. It’s literally a big river stone - this one was about 17.25#. It’s not nice and round like an iron shot, but an oddly-shaped rock with no good place to put your hands or balance your fingers.

There are two stone put variations; both are common in competitions. One is a flat-footed put called the Braemar Stone. You simply pick a stance, wind up and toss. I could hurl this stone about 25-28 feet from that style.

The next is called the Open Stone and, similar to the shot put, allows a spin, glide or run across a short area (7.5′ long) to build up momentum before putting the stone. My glides were terribly inefficient and resulted in only about 6-12″ more distance than my Braemer.

Weight for Distance

There are two weight-for-distance events. Both involve the one-handed hurling of a weight on a short length of chain. Both allow for spinning through a 9.5′ long box, then releaseing the weight. The “Light Weight for Distance” is a 28# ball on chain while the “Heavy Weight for Distance” is a 56# weight on chain.

Both are technically very hard. The light weight was just light enough to control somewhat. The heavy weight felt like it was going to throw me out into the field rather than the other way around. My best light weight throws were around 30′. My best heavy weight throws were much less. =)

We couldn’t do the Weight for Height events as a 56# ball of iron falling from 10′+ heights was making HUGE craters in the water-logged river-side park, tearing up the grass and pissing off the groundskeepers. ~shrug~ Maybe next time.

Over all I spent 2 hours throwing heavy things and about an hour drinking Guinness with the kilted mountains-of-men who were there. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. I’m glad I did it.

Monday Morning Workout

Monday morning I was sore. Throwing stuff makes one sore in all sorts of new places.

Warm Up

Jumping Rope

I actually got up to 50 consecutive jumps w/o tripping over the rope!

More Warm Up

5x Clean & Press @ 100#

10x Chin Ups @ BW

5x Clean & Press @ 120#

8x Chin Ups @ BW

3x Clean & Press @ 140#

6x Chin Ups @ BW

Work

3x Press @ 105#

3x Deadlift @ 275#

3x Press @ 120#

3x Deadlift @ 310#

8x Press @ 135#

14x Deadlift @ 350#

3x Assistance Circuit

10x Press @ 95#

10x Chin Up @ BW

10x Snatch-Grip Deadlift @ 245#

10x Press @ 95# (not a typo - normally would have done dips but the dip stand was busy)

6x Toes-to-Fingers

That brings my Theoretical 1RM Press to 171# and the Deadlift to 513#. Both are what I expected.