At this point in time I can honestly say I am not sure if I will be able to logistically make it to qualify for nationals, much less make the trip to nationals. I'm not happy about this at all but do not see any other options. I will continue to keep the door of possibility open but my gut tells me it's not going to happen. So with that in mind, I am calculating competition/training plans in my head. Nothing is set yet.

I headed into the gym this morning to get a baseline of my grip and roll out a bit. Things are getting tight and my hands are soft. Overall, I am ok with where my numbers are right now in the absence of meaningful grip training. Half way through grip training I had unexpected visitors that threw me for a loop.

Rolling

Grippers - ended with 2, 1x1

Fat Pinch Block - worked up and ended with 50 lbs

Hub - worked up and ended with 42.5 1x1

Anvil - worked up to and ended with 115 lbs.

Now for my visitors...

This morning I was alone in the gym training for an hour. That context is important, it's not like I was in a group of five guys all deadlifting 500+ lbs which is a daily occurrence at our place. I was training grip, alone for no more than 30 minutes. I kept the music pretty low keeping in mind people were working on both sides of us.

I made it halfway through the hub and I see three men scurrying up to the gym door, which was locked. I put my stuff down and headed to open the door as they were walking away. I popped my head out and asked if I could help them.

An older gentleman walks back towards me (the owner) and says every time I slam the weight down, it's like a bomb is going off, right through the wall into his office. I was in disbelief and said, "Wow. That's odd. I was lifting that with my fingertips and wasn't even dropping the weight."

I know we are not easy neighbors to be next to and nearly all members train in the afternoon. But I also know this guy came over once asking to turn the music down, which the guys did. He later came back and introduced himself to Big Bald when a group of our college guys were training and told him not to worry about the music. He loved the guy club.

So I called Big Bald and was like, "I thought you said "the guy" was cool?" and incredulously went on to describe the incident from this morning. So, I get the lecture that hopefully I wasn't disrespectful, he is signing on for personal training and was coming over to meet later today. After the fact I hear he did make it over and met with Big Bald. He never mentioned a word about the incident from this morning and it was never brought up that I am the wife. He probably sees me as the cleaning lady. Whatever.

I'm not big into gender issues, excuses, band wagon, blaming, shaming, whatever you want to call it. But this morning STINKS of man club hating on chicks who lift. If I didn't have such grace and poise, I would have ended our encounter with something along the lines of, if my fingertips could make it sound like a bomb going off in your office, imagine what they could do to your neck.

This one just isn't sitting right with me and next time I will make sure I "drop" a few heavy things right next to the wall and turn the music up quite a bit louder.