Alpha Project Athlete Intro, Randall Pattee
I'm originally from Medford, Oregon. Studied briefly at Oregon State before deploying to Iraq in 2003 with the Oregon National Guard B-Co 2-162 Infantry. I currently live in Portland, Oregon and train at Elite Performance Center. I've lifted on and off since high school in the late nineties, but the last 3 years have been the most consistent and serious. I've been powerlifting for one year. I've competed 1 deadlift only and 4 full power meets, most recently at USPA Nationals in Las Vegas. I lift in the 181 lb class mostly. I have 7 USPA raw state records for 181 and 198 but still have a very long way to go before I'm competetive with the upper echelon of lifters in my class.
USPA Nationals Recap
Nationals was an unfortunate meet for me, I went in expecting a much better total than what I got. I had cut for about 6 weeks leading into it, gradually tapering calories from 3k to 2500. I lost about 13lbs and was at around 184-185 the week of the meet. After fasting for 36 hours or so I made weight Friday morning. I didn't have to do any time in the sauna or anything like that. I hit the buffet right after weight ins, and I think that was a mistake in hind sight. I got full after just a plate and it kind of put a damper on my appetite for the rest of the day. Next time I plan on drinking a bunch of water/gatorade for at least an hour before I go stuff myself, that way my body is prepared to process a bunch of incoming food. So the first thing I learned is that I really need to strategize my rehydration after making a notable weight cut.
The day of the event my lifting was scheduled to start at 3 PM, but the event was not run very smoothly as far as time goes. They had a hall of fame induction ceremony before the PM session, by the time it was all said and done, we starting lifting some time between 7 and 8 pm. I had been down in the lifting area since 2:45 ready and waiting to lift. I had a bunch of team mates there and wanted to cheer them on and hang out, but I should have just gone back to the room and relaxed for another 5 hours instead. I didn't really eat much the day of the event because normall if I was going to lift at 3 pm I would just need a moderate meal to be fine. I definitely could have planned better and had more food in my bag for this kind of situation.
So by the time I was warming up, I wasn't feeling great about the weights. I hit my opener squat at 451 lbs, narrowly missed 475 on 2nd, then had it staple me on 3rd. Bench opener 260 was good, but I missed the 2nd at 280 because I didn't have a good bar path. I came back for my 3rd attempt to repeat 280. It was an absolute grinder, I pressed and locked it out within the rules. Unfortunately after pressing it, for what seemed like forever, I totally skipped the rack command and got red lights. That was disappointing, but I know that I can do it in competition next time. I actually started to get a bit of a second wind for deadlifts. My 500 opener felt good and fast. In an attempt to beat out one of the JR competitors for 3rd in overall, I bumped my 2nd deadlift up to 550 from my original planned 525. I was under the impression that all the Jrs would be included in the open for placing as well. This was a big mistake, I should have clarified this before ever switching my attempts. My 2nd attempt, 550, got out in front of me and I dropped it cause I was going forward. I think I was just too fired up and should have just picked it up. I repeated 550 on my 3rd attempt and got it up but had a hitch, so get 3 reds.
I ended up with a 1212 total, the exact same as a meet I did last November. That was a real kick in the nuts. I met a ton of cool people down there and learned a lot though. I don't meant this write up to sound like a laundry list of excuses. There were plenty of other lifters in my exact same situation that absolutely dominated the platform that night. I just chalk it up as a learning experience and continue to get stronger.
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