This article is long overdo, but I have been, and continue to be, completely spent. Work is just overwhelming right now and the new house thing is throwing me for a loop. Plus, I caught a f'ing cold. Are there worse problems in the world? Certainly, but sometimes that perspective gets lost.

The trip started off exactly as I planned. Rhodes was late to pick me up from the airport. It was only half an hour so that's pretty much on time for Matt. It gave me time for a few awesome Bob Evan's sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches. I also managed to find the Reese's Big Cups with the Reese's pieces inside. Those things are worth every calorie.

After Rhodes picked me up we exchanged pleasantries, but no bodily fluids, and headed off to Wendler's place. When we got there we were greeted by Jim, his son, and Jim's much better half, Juliet. She is the best Den Mother ever. Rhodes, Wendler, and I are certainly an acquired taste and she always takes great care of us.

We hung and caught up like old friends do. We engaged in training discussion and a lot of that locker room banter that supposedly doesn't exist. Luckily my delicate sensibilities are still intact.

Next it was off to Lunch with Dave Tate. We met at Bob Evan's. Yeah, we logged a lot of hours over a few days at Bob Evan's. There's worse places to be, but I have had my fill for a while. More training discussion and locker room banter. I bet you are seeing a theme here. One thing I walked away with was, those guys are even more beat up than I am. They have laundry lists of parts that have already been replaced and those that have yet to be, as well as a lot of pain. The commonality is, we all just want to keep doing what we love to do, train!

A little while later I got to see Jim at work as the strength coach for the local HS football team. I don't know that there's a more overqualified person for the job. That said, it was fun watching him work. Much like Rhodes, they are not nice people, but born coaches around athletes.

That evening we chilled and ate something that resembled pizza. Now, it wasn't awful. It's just your usual chain pizza joint pizza. However, I'm used to eating east coast pizza and more particularly Pepe's and Sally's, both of which have been voted best pizza in the country. In retrospect, a lot of what I ate was not worth the calories (except for those Big Cup Reese's peanut butter cups with the Reese's pieces inside). I do get really pissed at myself when I just stuff my face because I feel like I have an excuse. I'm sure I would have been happier making some healthier choices. That's something to tuck away for the next visit. Anyway, they put on a movie and I completely passed out. I am old an have no shame sleeping wherever I am when my body calls for it. Not long after we called it a night.

Morning came and and it was snowing outside. There was quite a chill in the air, and this mattered more than you'd think. You see, the meet was being held in Jim's garage and he likes to train with the door open. Now I'm old as hell and I need to have a good sweat going to train. Anyone who has competed with me knows I throw complete tantrums and start screaming when someone even cracks a door to the outside of a warm up room at a contest. Fortunately, Juliet texted me to bring warm things because the gym gets cold so I did, but that still did not mentally prepare me for open door event.

Before we were to lift, Jim had to condition the HS athletes. Rhodes and I followed Jim and family for what seemed like forever. I was like wtf? Then I realized, we were in Ohio, they don't have many hills. Now here in the North East you can't swing a crying Hillary voter and not hit a hill, but in Ohio, you have to drive half an hour to get to a stupid hill. It was an impressive hill however, and caused a few of the young lads to vomit. It was uplifting to see that kind of devotion. Those kids will certainly be ready to crush it next football season.

Next, it was time to eat. You'll never guess, Bob Evan's. I loaded up, getting ready for the day's events. Plus I figured a little extra fluff might keep me warm. After that I donned my Under Armour heat gear and my good luck SFW thermal. We met up in Jim's kitchen where we started pre gaming. I will tell you this, Wendler's pre workout routine would be something I'd imagine Jimi Hendrix or Hunter S. Thompson would come up with.

Like any other meet, this one started with a fire. After Jim opened the garage door, he torched up a burn bucket in the driveway. It didn't actually warm the garage, but it gave the meet some Wendler attitude. It was nice however, to go out to it between sets to warm up.

Now I know a lot of people are wondering who won this event. The truth is, we all did. This was never for us to compete against each other. Rather, it was three guys who love to train giving it their all for one day. That said, we all hit our goals.

We started the day with squatting. We squatted to a box using a yoke bar. This is an awesome way to test strength while really minimizing a lot of the injury risks associated with a traditional squat. My goal was to hit 550. Jim has lots of bumper plates (that's why it looks like I'm lifting close to one trillion lbs) so I really had no clear idea of what I had been lifting. I knew I was in the 500's and was giving each rep everything I had. The last squat I ended up taking got a little squirrelly. Rhodes and Jim thought it would be best I stop there. I asked them what it was and they told me it was 570. 20 lbs over my goal, I'll take it. Back in June Rhodes took 425 for 5. This time around he got 430 for 7. I'd say that's a nice pr! Since Jim's back surgery, it's impressive he can squat at all. He hit something easy in the 400's and called it there.

In most meets the squat is usually followed by the bench, but not at the NOV Meet. We figured if the lower body is already warmed up, we should deadlift next. We used the massive Dead Squat bar. It's basically a hex bar on steroids and crack, you know, all that good stuff. For this lift my goal was 600. We all got up to 520 pretty quickly. I really felt like Jim's and Matt's lifts were more explosive than mine. Again, I know we weren't competing against each other, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I wanted to keep up. I planned on taking a 50 lb jump, but Jim said he was going to just jump up another plate to 610. Being easily swayed, I was on board. I was rather pleased that once it broke the floor it accelerated to the top nicely. Both Jim and Matt missed, but ended up with pr's. The 520 was the most Matt has pulled off the floor since hip surgery. Then Jim did four reps with 520. I think in June his goal was just to be in the 500's. I still had a little left in me and went for 630. I figured since I got 570 on the squat a 630 would round out those two lifts at 1200 lbs. Somewhere in the beginning of the lift, my body did a little shift. Yeah, that's where my back wanted to completely blow out, so I think my brain sent a message to my quads to take over. Fortunately my body parts played nice and I finished the lift unscathed. Cool, 30 lbs above my goal.

For the bench Matt and I used the Swiss bar. I never really use this bar, but I do have a football bar. They are similar, but do feel different to press with. The most important thing is, both save your shoulders. James took a pass on this lift as his shoulders are trashed. My goal on this bar was 400. Rhodes' goal was 315 for 5. Matt ended up surpassing his goal and hit 6. Then he took 365 and got that for a quality single. I smoked 400, but fell short on 450 twice. I have to say I was really surprised I missed considering how well the 400 moved. It left me a tiny bit sour, but at least I hit my minimum goal of 400.

All in all we had an awesome time. We tested our strength and walked away uninjured, mostly. A lot of people along the away asked if they could join us. Unfortunately, Wendler, Rhodes, and I are not very tolerant people and we don't play well with others. That said, the NOV Meet concept needs to spread. Just get a bunch of friends, someone's gym, and put it on the calendar. Set your own lifts, rules, and goals. It doesn't have to be traditional.

We plan to do this twice a year. When we get back together in June Jim is shooting for some lifting goals while wearing a weight vest. Rhodes will probably have more of a conditioning goal considering he is having some surgery on his ticker next week. Me, I want to beat the 1600 total I hit, but do it at 210 lbs which would be 20 lbs lighter. This has totally provided me with a reason to stay motivated since I have retired from competitive lifting. I find it's difficult to push myself to the edge with training without a goal to fuel the fire. So the fun is over for now. Time to jump back on Operation Be Less Fat. Thanks for reading.