Well, after a nice long deload week where the toughest thing I did was get a deep tissue massage, it's finally Arnold Weekend. This weekend is going to be beyond busy for me. Friday, one of my training partners and Strength Lab Coaches, Josh Cioca, is lifting in the PM session of the XPC Finals at 165. He's had a great training cycle and is in a good place to have a great meet. In addition to that, I have family coming in from out of town, including my brother who is flying in from Montana.
Saturday, I weigh in at 11 am. Right now I'm sitting great at just over 220. This will be the easiest weight cut (if you can even call it that) that I've ever had. After that I am contemplating heading to the Expo, but hopefully will avoid that chaos all together. At some point I will head to the Rhodes Center to watch some of my Elitefts Teammates compete in the XPC Finals Pro Day. When it's all said and done I am hoping to be able to get a decent nights sleep and relax a little bit. Up to this point I have not really been nervous, unlike this close to a typical full power meet. I think because it is deadlift only, my best and favorite lift, and because I've had a great training cycle I feel extremely prepared for this and very confident going in to it.
Sunday, the 21 Deadlift Salute starts at 1 pm on the main stage. I figure I'll start warming up at 12 and get there around 11. My first two planned attempts are 725, which should be very easy, and 775, which I have never pulled but am very confident that will be no problem. If I'm in the mix I'd love to go for the win on my third attempt, but I guess we'll have to wait and see how the cards fall.
I know I have a lot of family and friends coming in to watch the meet, so hopefully we have something to celebrate afterwards!