31 Aug Dan Dalenberg | Atlantic City Europa Meet Write Up- Part 1

Overall- not a good day. Fun weekend and really enjoyed seeing everyone but simply put I didn’t execute to my ability. No excuse or obvious reason, I just didn’t have it.

The Cut

Everything about the cut was super easy. The weight came off easy with no suffering or sauna. I was even able to eat and drink some on Thursday. The weight came back on pretty well too. More than a couple compliments on my bloat- I must have looked good and terrible. No issues there, went to bed Friday evening at 256.

The Squat

Warm ups felt really good. Kelly, Danny Bellmore and Scott kept things moving for me. Kelly and Danny ran the monolift, spotting and loading. VERY nice to have that much help. I will selfishly say that having my team running the show back there meant I got to set the pace for our mono for the most part. I never felt rushed or like things were moving too slow. Went perfectly and everything felt effortless.

Opener- 740

Extremely easy and deep. Moved very fast and I thought was setting a good tone for my day.

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Second- 800

Came out of the rack nice. Good depth and turned it around strong. However, my knees caved slightly and I think that shot my hips back. I could feel that I was falling backwards so I slowed it way down in hopes that I could stay up. I didn’t. I took a small stutter step at the top resulting in REDS.

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Third- 825

This was the right call. Scott and Kelly both agreed that 800 had moved like a rocket and 825 would go no problem. I knew I was squatting a little deep so in an effort to not have balance issues I intentionally cut this one a little higher. Cut it too high unfortunately and was turned down 2-1. Oh uh. Not good. Behind the 8 ball now.

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The Bench

Warm ups didn’t go as well. My pecs felt tight and my back was beat. Regardless my opener was a safe one and I wasn’t too worried about it.

Opener- 455

I babied this down but it came up fine.

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Second- 490

Came down fine and I pressed strong but my left pec cramped hard on the way up. It felt like I was playing with a tear so I called for the spotters. Not worth ripping myself apart so I passed on the third attempt. Not happy at this point. I knew my day was shot.

The Deadlift

I almost didn’t even pull. I was irritated and didn’t know if I even wanted to put a beating on my back to maybe total 1900. Brian talked me down a bit and told me to pull the opener and go from there. If it sucked then just be done but he didn’t want me to quit. He was right.

Opener- 640

Easy just like it had been in training.

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Second- 690

Also not too bad. Took this because it will put me on the board at our new gym.

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Third- 715

I should have been able to finish this. I was completely done mentally and just quit on it.

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Part 2 will be more positive I promise! I’ll go over some cool stuff from the meet, some off season focuses and upcoming meet plans.