COMPETITION WRITE UP: “BACK TO SCHOOL BASH: CABERS, TRACTORS, AND VIKING STONES,OH MY!”

BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT (BLUF)

* I took 3rd place out of 4 competitors in the “þyngdarflokkur þrjú” division in an open weight charity competition.  This competition was a dream come true, as I’ve wanted to toss a caber ever since I was single digits years old.  I came to have a good time and I did exactly that.

 

BACKGROUND

* This competition was put on by the same guy that did my last comp in Feb: The Trials of Heracles.  I really dig this dude as a promoter: he’s a history and lifting nerd and he’s really focused on getting shows done quickly while still being fun.  These days, after competing for 13 years in strongman and 16 years in strength sports, that’s all I care about.  The fact that these events all support great causes is just icing on the cake. 

 

* This show was unique by combining strongman, highland games and Viking tests of manhood, and it was reflected in how divisions worked out.  There were no weight classes: you competed based on how heavy a weight you wanted to lift.  There was a bit of “honor among thieves”, with the assumption that 400lb behemoths wouldn’t choose the lightest class, but if worse came to worse, promoter had the right to move dudes.  It honestly worked well pretty well: we had a de facto female class, novice mens, light-middleweight mens and heavy class (going class 1, 2, 3 and 4), with appropriate viking names.

 

* I started training for the comp after having just finishing a mass building block of Tactical Barbell, comprised of Grey Man and Specificity Bravo, capped off with a cruise vacation of the Memorial Day holiday (that’s the end of May for my Non-U.S. readers), returning home at a bodyweight of 85kg, feeling large and strong.  Now I needed to become lean and athletic for the summer. 

 

TRAINING FOR THE COMPETITION

 

* I’ve already done 2 extensive write ups about my training leading up to the comp.  Give them a read here

https://mythicalstrength.blogspot.com/2026/07/program-check-in-tactical-barbell.html

https://mythicalstrength.blogspot.com/2026/08/program-check-in-tactical-barbell.html

* To sum up: I was able to employ Tactical Barbell’s “Operator Pro” program from the Green Protocol with very little modification to fit strongman.  The only event I didn’t train specifically for was the Caber Toss, due to lack of equipment and priorities for my time. 

* I took a bridge week leading up to the competition, which I filled up with weighted vest walks and Crossfit's "Cindy" WOD, just to keep blood flowing.

* Leading up to the competition, on 8 Aug, while coming down the stairs, I twisted something in my left knee (the one I blew the ACL out on) so badly that my knee swelled up like a grapefruit and spend the rest of the day clicking and falling out of the socket.  I lost the majority of my range of motion and dealt with a lot of pain, swelling, clicking and instability for the next few days, to the point that I had to reschedule a fitness test and seriously contemplated getting imaging done, as I was worried I had torn the ACL graft.  VERY slowly, over the next few weeks, with some aggressive icing employed, I was able to restore fullISH function to the knee just in time for the competition, but it definitely weighed on my mind, with me ultimately deciding that a charity comp wasn't worth blowing my knee out over, ESPECIALLY right before I went on a cruise where I was supposed to walk all over Europe.  Funny enough, the knee could perform well for strength work as long as I wore strong enough sleeves: it was lateral work that killed it, specifically when I trained martial arts.

 

NUTRITION FOR THE COMPETITION

* Similarly, I’ve written extensively about my nutrition approach, found here

 

https://mythicalstrength.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-roulette-diet-dont-gamble-on-your.html

 

* To sum: since it was open weight and a charity comp, rather than go with “GFH”, I used this as an opportunity to lean out over the summer for a cruise I have in the start of Sep and to set myself up for a good solid long gaining cycle through the fall/holidays.  It succeeded: I showed up stupid lean at a bodyweight of about 175lbs.  My nutrition approach was a combination of intermittent fasting and carnivore diet with 1 meal a week that included carbs.  Over the course of 12 weeks, I lost 11.5lbs, without counting/tracking, and saw PRs in my training lifts.

 

MORNING OF

* Though I did all of my training fasted, I had breakfast before the competition.  It’s a bit of a tradition to do so, and breakfast on weekends IS pretty typical for me, even during this training cycle.  I stuck with lamb and eggs: another tradition at this point, aping from Hercules.  Went with 5 lamb chops and 6 sunny side up eggs cooked in butter.  I ate nothing else throughout the competition, and relied on 1 cup of black coffee with breakfast and another cold brew coffee during the comp as my caffeine sources.  I don’t really need stimulants for competition these days, compared to my prior days of living off Rockstars and Poptarts.  I also made consistent use of electrolyte powders, rather than Gatorade, because, honestly, Gatorade sucks.

 

* It was a 15 minute drive to the competition site, which is another reason why I picked this one.  Crazy local with such good events.  Once I arrived, I set up tents and chairs for the family to relax and watch and proceeded to do my bare minimum warm-up of 1-2 reps with the lightest loads possible on the axle.  Ultimately, I was just testing out which set of straps I wanted to use, before settling on the “Why Our Way” straps, for reasons to follow shortly.

 

SUMMARY OF EVENTS

 

EVENT 1: Axle Wagon Wheel Deadlift for reps: 370lbs

 

As usual, I did no specific training for the deadlift event.  ROM progression cycle with a Texas Deadlift bar against chains: pretty much the opposite of this.  That said, I came in strong enough that it didn’t matter.  The axle was STIFF and that first pull felt slow as hell, but I settled into a rhythm.  There was no up command, so I took advantage of that and went touch and go for as many reps as I could, which got me to 20, when the mark to beat was 19.  The advantage of signing up first: you get to go last and know what to beat. 

I used my “Why Our Way” straps for this, because they were long enough to wrap around the axle.  The crowd had never seen anything like them before, which made me feel like a dinosaur because these were all the rage a decade ago when Chris Duffin used them to pull 1000lbs for 2.5 reps.  But, in turn, a lotta folks were struggling to get their straps to work on the axle, so points for me to be able to dig deep into the toolbox.

 

EVENT 2: Log press for max

 

I trained on a “12 inch” Titan Log, which is really like at 13-14” log.  Meanwhile, we competed with a 10” Black Widow log.  This is a lot easier to press, but the clean is a little iffy, as there isn’t as much to “roll” up the body.  In turn, when I’d get the log in place, I felt myself pretty off balanced.  You can see it in the video: I clean the log and stumble back and forth a bunch until I get settled, then nail a pretty simple press.

I was being strategic with my selection, remembering who got what in the deads, and noted my 2 closest threats picking 170 as openers.  I went with 180 for mine, to have a lead on them, and when they tried to follow suit, they both bombed out.  There was a 4th guy who hadn’t taken any attempts yet, so I knew I was up against a log ringer, so I just went for solid lifts at this point.  Called for 200, they couldn’t do that, so we did 195, which I hit.  We then got to 210, which I called for my third, while the other guy called it for his opener.  I got the 210, but so did he, followed by 220 for a chipshot, so I had second here.

 

EVENT 3: Caber Toss

 

This was my first time ever performing this event, and because I hate warming up, my first attempt WAS my first ever attempt.  Seriously, I can’t stand how shows take FOREVER because people want a million attempts before we start.  We effectively had a full event’s worth of warm ups before we actually started the event, and I was getting pissy over it.  In turn, I didn’t put that or the second one on film, but it was me learning the caber and failing to turn it, which is how you score 0 points in a caber toss.  All the other guys in my group were able to get a turn on their cabers during their attempts, so I knew I had no chance of placing above 4th on this, but I ALSO knew that if I didn’t get at least ONE turn on a caber, I’d get a 0 on the event, which means NO points vs 1 point.  THAT can change things.

 

On my previous 2 attempts, I actually got the caber shouldered pretty easily.  On this final attempt, it was a real bastard to me, but, in turn, I was able to put some real “f—k you” energy into it, because I was getting ANGRY with this caber for not f-ing turning when I threw it.  After what felt like a million years, I finally was able to get it into position and give it a very solid near 12 o’clock turn, securing me at least A point in the event.

 

EVENT 4: Tractor Pull

 

We were told this was going to be a speed and horsepower event.  Then the first guy went and couldn’t move the tractor an inch.  I got excited: I suck at tractor pulls, whereas MAYBE now I had a shot because it went from a speed and footwork event to a total grind.  However, dude 2 and 3 ALSO tried and ALSO didn’t make it move, so when I went up I said “It takes a special kind of crazy to see 3 other dudes fail this but for me to give it a go”.  Which I did…and I didn’t move it.  And neither did any of the heavyweights.  Less learned for all involved, but, in turn, we were all on equal footing on this one with last place.

 

I’m glad I didn’t try to train harder for this event.  All the prowler work was still awesome, and I didn’t try to get better at harness pulls.

 

EVENT 5: Natural stones to truck bed

 

I honestly had some high hopes for this one.  Been doing a lot of loading in training and feeling strong.  One guy picked a lighter stone than mine for my opener, and then we all settled in for 224 as the “Halfsterker” stone.  I was the first to go for it, and as you can see in the video, it was a struggle.  Damn thing just slipped a bunch and wouldn’t set right in my grip.  I was eventually able to load it, and then watched the whole field do it with far less effort than me.  So when it came for 250 on the next one, I still gave it a go, but just plain didn’t have it that day.  Perhaps I’ve lost too much bodyweight (trying to grab a stone that was now 75lbs heavier than me), or perhaps whatever I did to my knee 3 weeks ago had me taking it easy, but this excites me at the prospect of spending more time building up my loading. 

 

CONCLUSION

 

Looking at the scores, I secured 3rd place by half a point.  That’s the sort of crazy narrow margin I live for.  I’m pleased with how today went: I fought hard, I’m bruised, bloody and satisfied, I’m 40 years old and still giving it hell, and I am incredibly excited at the prospect of an off season where I put on some quality size and strength.  The promoter said he’s going to do another show in Feb, which times out incredibly well with my plan of coming back from the holidays with some Operator, so I may already have my schedule laid out.

 

Also ran into someone from the comp that recognized me from reddit, so if you’re reading this: great to meet you dude!