31 Oct Dan Dalenberg | RPS Meet Report
The meet has came and went! Overall, I am pleased with the results and hit most of what I set out to do.
Week of the meet
I ended up pretty sick most of the week. It started about 8 days out and I fought it all week with the worst days being Wednesday and Thursday. Not the best timing! Thankfully Friday I woke up feeling much better and was ready to go.
I paid a lot more attention to my nutrition over the past 6 months and it was well worth the effort. I came in a much harder and better put together 247-249, making for an extremely easy cut. I sort of cut carbs, but not really just kept it under 100 grams a day for 4 days. I sort of water loaded, but not really since I drank right up until about 15 hours out and had a 16oz monster on the drive down. The weight came off easy, coming all the way down to 239. I didn’t want to overshoot and generally did pretty well with this. 239 was about 2 pounds light than I would have liked, but I didn’t have to dehydrate and I wasn’t completely depleted so it made for an easy refeed.
Squat
Started warm ups very early and was putting on briefs as the flight before me started taking openers. I’m glad I did it this way, as it gave me tons of time to finish my work. I was able to time my warm ups perfectly. I find my spot in the flight and take my last 2 warm ups when the corresponding lifter in the flight before me is taking their 2nd and 3rd attempt. So if I am the last guy in the flight, I take my 2nd to last warm up and last warm up as the flight before is wrapping up 2nds and 3rds.
Worked out great!
I was told they were calling it pretty deep and they sure were. I felt like I sat in the hole for an hour. Opener of 850- good.
885 good. Knee wrap started to come undone as I unracked.
910- No lift on depth. Disappointing, as the strength is clearly there to take a mid 900 squat for a ride very soon.
Bench
Now the nerves were gone. Sort of. Until I remembered that I had to bench and have only touched once, ever, in a multi-ply bench shirt. Thankfully, I didn’t mess around on the bench.
605- Good
630- Good
650- Good! Absolutely perfect. All 3 attempts came down great and pressed out smooth.
Deads
Now I had a choice to make. At subtotal, I could total pro and get that out of the way with a 665 opener. So I had my opener bumped up to that and pulled it fine.
Went to 720 on the second for a life time PR and to chip Dain, putting me up 5 pounds on the total.
740- No good. Ran out of gas. I think if 740 had been what I needed for something that mattered I would have finished it. But damn is it hard to pull a grinder when it is just for bonus points.
What’s next?
For now- nothing. I’m not even going to step foot in the gym this week as I am traveling to Austin, TX for work tomorrow afternoon. I expect to enjoy some Texas BBQ and eat my face off between meetings. The guys I work with down there keep telling me I have to try Rudy’s, which is a “country store and BBQ joint.” It’s a gas station with food. I told them I would try it though. Texas must do gas station food much different than Michigan.
The next meet will be the Arnold XPC. Danny will be helping me out a little with my diet again. I want to make more incremental progress on my body composition and come in just a little leaner, a littler harder but still upper 240s. I’ll have a brief off season through the end of the year and then probably start contest prep around the first of the year. Hopefully Brian has time to help me again!
Thank you
To my local team for all their help and expert meet handling this weekend. It was absolutely the most stress free meet I have ever experienced. I was able to completely focus on just lifting and nothing else.
To my PRS team for their suggestions and advice throughout the training cycle. Especially Brian for his guidance. I had a great training cycle and ended up with excellent results. Very grateful for all of the help.
To my wife, Chelsea, for tolerating me. That’s a job in itself. I love you!
Honorable mention- Cory Schutter, Todd Brock, Bruce Mason for lending a hand in the warm up room and spray glue during the bench. Thank you!
Daniel Dalenberg
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