Wow, I just had a whirlwind bunch of days. I was super psyched to be invited to participate in this Powerlifting Experience. With my job, it is hard to get time off and I had to miss the last one. This time around I was on vacation so I had plenty of time. I actually got to town early so I could visit my hetero life partner Matt Rhodes.
Rhodes is the head strength and conditioning coach at Morehead State. So I got off the plane, jumped in the rental car, and headed down to Kentucky. It was really cool to see Matt in his element. He is a born coach. Matt is a very technically proficient coach as well as a great motivator. His team responded really well to him. It was great to see.
We also got time to just hang and eat. Rhodes is a terrible influence. He forced carbs down my throat. We went to some restaurant that had these sick fresh baked rolls with some kind of apple butter on them. I think I ate four. Luckily I did not slip into some kind of insulin coma. Other than that Matt and I talked movies, tv, and a little training. He is one of those friends you cannot see for years and then pick up just where you left off. He is a good dude and one of my best buds.
Luckily I got there early enough to hang with my homie Wendler as well. I consider Jim a good friend and we can talk about a lot more than lifting. I think two of our favorite topics are comedians and music. You see, I am old and do not keep current with music. Jim always recommends some gems for me to check out. Of course we also talk a lot about training and conditioning. Jim always motivates me to want to push myself harder in the area of conditioning. This is awesome because it is a facet of my training I am really becoming excited about. Oh yeah, Jim made me eat carbs also. He forced macs and cheese on me at Outback. My friends are bad people.
Now all this took place days before the PL Experience ever happened. Rhodes and I rolled in Friday for the UGSS-Underground Strength Session. This is when the team just gets to train. I always enjoy this. It is not often we all get to train together. It is a motivating situation as well as a great learning opportunity. I was really looking forward to having Rhodes watch my squat. He quickly saw that I was going too deep and then caving over in my upper back down in the hole. I had Matt give me up calls for all my squats so I could develop some consistency. I am so used to going a$$ to grass that I felt like I was doing half squats. The big cue for me is to call "up" in my head before I get to the hole. That keeps me from getting too deep and rounding over.
After that we did a little meet and greet with some of the attendees we would have on Saturday. We broke down into our teams of coaches and lifters and reviewed how the day would go. During introductions, it was awesome to see so many lifters new to powerlifting. I keep saying this is the golden era of powerlifting because there are more opportunities to compete than ever.
When the Saturday morning session began, the whole compound was a buzz. Everyone was ready to get their lift on. I was coaching with Rhodes, JL, Joe, Mike, Christine, Jenn, and Meana. It was a great group. Most of the athletes were new to me, but there were a few familiar faces. It is amazing to follow the progress of athletes you have worked with over the years. I even received a really nice card from Lo, an athlete I have known for years. She has made incredible progress and her card truly touched my heart.
I sometimes forget the positive effect what I do has on people. Events like these reinvigorate me and deepen my passion for this sport. All in all it was just an amazing day. We had dozens of pr's in our group. When wrapping up the day there were over 160 pr's by all the athletes combined. That is really quite an accomplishment by all. The proficiency of the coaches combined with the perseverance of the lifters churned out a lot great lifts.
I was really honored to close out the day out as one of the speakers. It was Dave Tate, Steve Goggins, Clint Darden, and little old me. Pretty good company.
Sunday was another UGSS. It was a bench session and there was lots of great lifting going on. I really do think I was quite worn out though. My lifting went fine, but my body is just not holding up well. Between coaching, the change in nutrition (with mostly eating out), and changes in recovery, sleep, etc I was pretty shot. However, this wrapped up a great string of days. Oh yeah, I got an invite to compete at Relentless from teammate Marshall Johnson, now that capped off a perfect long weekend.