Sat, 25 April 15
I promised my good friend, Meathead Dream Team co-founder, and former training partner, Jeff Sweet, when he moved to the palmetto state, that if I am ever within 100 miles of him, I will do my utmost to come visit and hopefully train with him. I am more than 100 miles away, but I figured since I had already driven 7 hours south, another 3 to get to see Sweet and his wife and finally train at Low Country Strength was well worth it. I was right. Low Country Strength is an absolutely amazing facility run by elitefts aficionado, Will Kuenzel. It is located in the same building as Charleston Krav Maga and the plethora of powerlifting and strongman equipment speaks volumes to the quality of the trainees who frequent the facility. I am seriously honored to have been able to train in such an awesome place with great people (Jeff, Nathan, Matt). You know it's a strong facility when you are doing stones and another guy walks over to a locker and gets a pair of METAL Jack briefs to train in and he just happens to have also been a prior attendee of the elitefts Learn to Train seminars (Hi, Jon). And to top it all off, a couple guys who train there are fire fighters and they had a fire engine there for us to pull for poops and grins this morning! Sweet!
Fire Engine Pull (harness and rope)
49' x 52,000+ lb fire engine - WOW. This was by far the heaviest vehicle I have ever pulled. We asked the fire fighters initially how much it weighted and they said they thought it was around 43,000 lb. Then they called the station to double check and the word came back that since it was fully equipped it was currently in excess of 52,000 lb. The two fire engines I have pulled before in competition were both significantly lighter since they had a lot of weight removed to make it easier for the lighter weight classes to pull. This one had no such considerations as they were ready to leave at a moment's notice if they got a call. I had watched Nathan and Jeff try and fail to pull the course. Jeff had it moving initially, but the truck was slightly misaligned with the edge of the driveway and when it ran off the edge onto the grass, he came to a quick stop. After we realized that, the truck was moved into better alignment and I was up next. I geared up and strapped in and lied to Sweet that I was ready and started trying to move over 26 tons. I initially tried chopping my feet fast to generate leg drive to break inertia and get it moving. FAIL. I was not quite stretched out enough in my initial starting position so I pulled my hands a little more forward and slowed down my feet to get more push from each step. I was still not sure if the damn thing was even moving or not, but no one had told me to stop yet from expending my energy in a futile attempt, so I kept doing what I was doing and after what seemed like a decade or so, I finally realized I was actually moving forward. Once I got it going, I just put my head down, stayed low, and I kept driving my feet and pulling the rope forever to my death. Finally I heard Sweet saying something about time and I nearly collapsed to the ground, but put a hand down to catch myself at the last minute. I ended up pulling the truck about 49' of the 50' course in the time limit we had set. I could have finished up the last foot if I had known I was so close, but I didn't know where I was, who I was, or why the eff I was doing such a stupid thing at the time, so I just listened to the voice of my trusted friend and ceased in order to keep living. I was extremely happy with this effort and that I could budge it at all, let alone pull most of the course when I have done zero harness pulls recently. There were a couple more fruitless attempts made my the guys I was training with and then it really started to rain so we hustled to clean up and head back into Low Country.
Log Clean & Jerk (clean once)
complex x 85
complex x 135
complex x 175
3x225
2x265
1x285 - Slight valgus knee movement on the left.
2x305 - These were AWFUL! No part of this set was worth a Frenchman's f@ck.
3x305 - Immeasurably better. Still room for improvement, but this was not to failure and with improved techinque (or not having done the fire engine death march beforehand) I feel that I'm good for at least 5 reps here.
Atlas Stone Carry and Load to 52" (20' carries)
3x240 - No carry
1x240, 1x275, 1x310, miss x 340 - The 340 was an awkwardly shaped 21" stone and my tacky was done by the time I got to it so after sliding off once I said no mas.
1x240, 1x275, 2x310 - After carrying the 310 and loading it once, I loaded it again and went for a 3rd rep, but my left arm kept slipping on the stone every time I came out of my lap to load it so I called it after 3 attempted loads.
This was an awesome training day with outstanding people in an amazing training facility. If you live in or near Charleston, SC and haven't been to Low Country Strength, go there now! If you are vacationing in Myrtle Beach or points south and find yourself in the vicinity, go there. But be aware the hours are shortened on Strongman Saturdays from about 9:00-1:00 so be ready to get in early and hit it hard and go home. Or in my case, to sushi and stouts. Once more, thank you Jeff, Will, Nathan, Matt, and Jon!
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyTsH_xXaeU]