September Open
-2024
Niamh Gallagher
The Dreaded Peak
So this comp breakdown is going to be a little different than the previous ones. We all know how a competition works, when the nerves kick in and how things can go on the day. I want to start by saying, I honestly think this was Niamh's best performance yet in terms of progression. We went 8/9 on lifts, missing only one bench press through a technical falter. Squats went all the way up to 135, no obvious problems, giving us a 5kg pb, bench unfortunately we just equalled our previous pb at 70kg, then deadlift we blew past - hitting a 157.5kg pb, another 5kg to the total. The great thing about where Niamh's numbers are now, is that we can actually start playing the "game" of powerlifting, trying to psych people out or make some last minute changes. I will say - while Niamh hasn't accomplished a medal in these last two competitions, she has been in absolutely packed out categories and the fact we've gone up by 10kg since the last comp alone (just 4 months), I think we will be seeing gold soon.
The videos of her final lifts are down below for you to have a looksee at.
As you can see, the nerves were high going out for all of these final attempts, especially bench - as missing that would have meant we would have been well behind. I have to say though, I wasn't expecting this competition to go half as well as it did, hence the title of this one.
This peak was a real nerve shaker, and I completely get it. I tried to draw out the program previous to the peak, with the shorter timeframe between this comp and the previous one I wanted as much time "building" as possible - instead of "peaking." We had to do this for longer because Niamh had a few weeks off from sickness and had her numbers fall down a fair bit from this.
What this did cause however, was a build-up of fatigue that I haven't actually come across in Niamh before, I think it's genuinely the first time I've pushed the boat out too far with volume / intensity in one of Niamh's programs, she usually has an absolutely massive tolerance for volume, but that one is on me. Things started off okay, the first two weeks of peak were grand, but as soon as we got towards the "peak week" we were failing reps we wouldn't normally and her technique just looked all off.
This really messed with Niamh's perception of the comp, it does show her growth as an athlete though - as there was no talk of dropping out or even (overly) massive freakouts. The great thing was though, her flight was on Sunday - and we got her openers done on the previous Sunday - giving us an entire week to rest up and take it easy. I think that week off is what saved us to be completely honest.
Basically - I wrote a really hard program and it nearly backfired.
NOTED - WON'T DO IT AGAIN. (even though it turned out great in the end)
All part of the process for both of us - look at these happy faces though.
