Part One is HERE
Day two began just like the beginning of all great trips in the making, with the realization that all that truck stop food you ate the night before and through the night WAS A BAD IDEA!!!!
As I woke up and realized that every time in the night that I rolled over in bed I ate a doughnut, a handful of chips, a ham sandwich, and a drink...I also realized that I am obviously allergic to something in the high quality foods in which I had been consuming. My throat was about 80 percent closed and continuing to swell shut.
Realizing that I had my emergency injections in my bag in the trunk of my car (since it was a freaking freezing 70 degrees in Ohio, this was not a problem) I took off out the hotel room door and down the hall. Then went back down the hall and back into the room and put on a shirt and shoes. Then went back to the elevator and headed towards the lobby.
This is the point where I realize that Ohio may not have the best recruiting grounds for hotel employees even though the hotel was strategically close to a Waffle House, a state prison, and said truck stop (and interstate for a quick get away). I could not speak and I was trying to get the point across to the ladies at the front desk that I had eaten something, my throat had closed, and I needed some hot tea quickly to try and open up my throat. Dear Lord and Bless Their Hearts...
I had squeezed my throat to demonstrate that it had closed, made the hand gesture for a coffee cup, then made the letter "T" with my fingers and their best guess was "You need toothpaste? Mouth wash?" A good 10 minutes later I headed back upstairs with my medicine bag and a hot tea in my hands and began the realization that this trip might not end up how I had dreamed it.
I start taking cortisone injections so that I can open my throat, live, and do an interview with Steve Colescott and be HORRIBLE in the gym the entire time (because cortisone eats freaking muscle and exhausts me)...or die with the possibility of not dying and having some great training sessions while I was silently there. Still not sure I made the right decision.
Emailed Steve and told him that I was going to be just a little late (I am on Standard Cyprus Greek Late Time) and what had taken place, he was casually Steve about it!
Finally I arrive and meet Steve and Jacob Bobo to set up for the interview. Jacob is the-freaking-man with some pretty sweet audio, video, and photo equipment and I could have spent the entire week sitting and talking with him about photo gear and asking tons of questions. Next time I may just do that...over several adult beverages.
Steve put me through a set of interviews under the hot lights similar to what I can only imagine torture would be like. I also learned that there is a lot that I can't talk about on video and I think that they learned that I FREAKING LOVE TO TALK ON CAMERA!!!!
Steve grilled me for hours it felt like then he gave me some relief...he grabbed me an EliteFTS hoodie to wear since I actually was freezing up there. While everyone else had their windows down, were outside playing, and had the tops off of their Jeeps (Matt Goodwin), I was freezing my tail off in the Arctic Land of Ohio.
Steve, Matt Goodwin, Mark Watts and I headed out to a burrito joint to eat. While waiting in line I asked Steve "so, what is good here and what kind of food do you suggest?" and he looked at me and said "Have you ever eaten at a Chipotle?" and I said "No" so he obviously replied "Well, it is kinda just like that but different" and walked on. I ate about a thousand calories and farted for the next six days straight.
Back to EliteFTS they informed me that Matt Ladewski was driving in any minute to train tonight and I could think only of four things:
- No Julia Ladewski?
- Still no Jennifer Petrosino?
- Crap...I'll have to train and be awesome!
- I'm supposed to bench press, and Matt is here! No room for error!
It is also VERY IMPORTANT that we had a small meeting in the office and Dave pointed out a few things:
- I kept saying that I just wanted to snatch and never mentioned deadlifts.
- Matt Ladewski was going to deadlift Max Effort tomorrow morning at 9 AM.
- Dave looked me in the eye and said "So, are you going to pull 800 tomorrow?"
Mark Watts was supposed to train with us at 5:00 (ish...right?) but it seemed he came in and went straight up to a max snatch and then headed out the door. My wife (slightly competitive) asked me how much he had on the bar...then she loaded up the bar and beat him, slammed the bar down and said "OK, I'm done now.
I didn't kick any tail technique wise...but it wasn't a bad session.
I also got to set a bench press PR with 225 lbs x 20 reps with Matt Ladewski watching me!!! It isn't every day that your friend and coach gets to give you THIS look!
Off to bed...thinking about big deadlifts the next morning, bright and early! Don't miss the BIG STORY!!!!
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