I ate a whole bunch.

This weekend was the powerlifting meet I have been training for: Unleash the Beast III. It was held on Saturday at Metroflex Gym in Fort Worth, TX. I competed in my first strongman competition at this very same gym, so it was nice to be stepping on somewhat familiar ground and see some of the same faces. Rendy De La Cruz is the owner, and besides being an absolute behemoth of a man, is an awesome, nice guy. My buddy Jack also drove up from Houston to do this meet, so it was good to have a teammate and coach throughout. It was Jack's first meet so it was really fun to see someone have that experience.

One thing my last experience taught me was that their scale can be a little on the heavy side, so I would have to make sure I was at least a pound lighter than expected in order to make weight. I decided kinda at the last minute to cut weight down to the 198lb. weight class. I was 206 lb. when I made the decision, and my cut was pretty simple and not too taxing. Drank about a gallon of water a day Sunday through Wednesday, then cut all water and sodium for a couple days. Showed up to weigh-in Friday on an empty stomach and made 198.0 lb. and didn't even need to sweat any out. Jack wasn't shooting to make any weight (which was smart) and would be lifting in the 220lb. class. As weak as I am, I really don't have any business cutting, but it was so easy to do and really made more sense than me lifting with 220-pounders.

We left the gym and headed to dinner. I hadn't eaten a serious meal since breakfast, so it was go time. We hit up a place called "Zorro's Buffet" and got to work. 3 plates of love:

I had also been restricting sodium for a few days so I got my NaCl on:

Then it was back the Sheraton for a couple of beers at the hotel bar.

I had Rahr & Sons Ugly Pug. Rahr & Sons is a rare species: a North Texas Craft Brewer, and I had heard nothing but good things. This was a pretty dang delicious black lager (schwarzbier) that really matched up favorably with Guinness' offering in the same style. It certainly lived up to its billing as an easy-drinking dark beer. The malt aroma and flavor were really well-displayed and the mouthfeel was light without being too watery. The hops were more prominent than in other black lagers I've tried, but it wasn't a negative in the least.

The meet didn't start until noon on Saturday so we had plenty more time to stuff our face. We hit up a Fort Worth classic - The Ol' South Pancake House. Right near TCU and full of Horned Frog fans in full game day regalia. Oh, and the food was amazing. You can probably tell from the buffet pics and this one that I was having a problem remembering to take a picture of my plate before I started stuffing my big dumb mouth.

I was back up to 207 lb. by the time we started lifting. Squats came first and through a combination of a terrible sound system, shifting flights and my own stupidity, I completely missed my first attempt. I had planned to open with 315lb., so I just had to head back to the warm-up rack and do it so I could get my confidence. I decided to keep it at 315 lb. for the second attempt so I could be certain I wouldn't bomb out of the meet. I nailed 315 lb. with no problem. I came to this meet with the goal of finally hitting a 365 lb. squat in a meet, so whether I was ready or not I called it for my third and final attempt.

Felt food to get that PR. All those good feelings would quickly get dashed by bench press though. I opened with 225 lb. and blew through it as expected. I was feeling so good that I decided to try 255 lb. I failed halfway up like always. This lift continues to mystify me. The only thing different when I hit 255 lb., earlier this year was being about 15 lb. heavier. I should be stronger in this lift, but I feel like I just fall apart in the bottom. Unsurprisingly, I failed 255 lb. again for my third attempt. Bench press is the worst. Luckily, Metroflex Fort Worth also has an MMA school and they treated us to a 10-minute striking and grappling demonstration. Pretty cool stuff and it helped get the bench press disaster off my mind.

It was a tough room for these guys, as you have a bunch of guys who are just focused on lifting the next weight for an audience. I have to give it up to these guys for putting on a great demo and doing their best to engage a bunch of lazy powerlifters. If I lived in the area, I would for sure be working with them.

I was feeling healthy and strong headed into deadlift, so I knew I had a PR coming. I opened at 445 lb. and smoked that pretty easily. My 2nd attempt was a meet PR of 480 lb. and I pulled that up without much trouble either.

I got greedy on my third attempt and went for 510 lbs instead of my planned 500 lb. The reason being I wanted an 1100 lb. total for the day and 510 lb. would get me there. A better idea would have been to not shit the bed on bench so bad, but oh well. I attacked 510 lb. well and got VERY CLOSE (as the pic below shows), but I just couldn't lock it out. My glutes were just fried and I couldn't get them to fire. Check it:

So to sum up:

Squat:

Attempt 1 - No Lift

Attempt 2 - 315 lb. Good

Attempt 3 - 365 lb. Good, Meet PR

Bench:

Attempt 1 - 225 lb. Good

Attempt 2 - 255 lb. No Lift

Attempt 3 - 255 lb. No Lift

Deadlift:

Attempt 1 - 445 lb. Good

Attempt 2 - 480 lb. Good, Meet PR

Attempt 3 - 510 lb. No Lift

Finished up with 3 medals:

2nd Place Squat - 198 lb. Weight Class

2nd Place Bench - 198 lb. Weight Class (Only two people competing. Oh, powerlifting).

3rd Place Deadlift - 198 lb. Weight Class

This is the young fella that won Best Lifter and a litany of other awards. His name is Jeremy Scruggs and he is a very talented 132 lb. raw lifter:

And here he is making a 430 lb.squat look easy:

We are all witnesses (to bad benching):

Here I am with Rendy De La Cruz, the badass who runs this gym and these events. A heartfelt thanks goes out to him for running a great event and doing so much to promote strength sports in this part of the country:

We finished the meet in the same style we had prepped for it by eating some marvelously unhealthy food. Our post-meet feast was In and Out Burger. It was a lot of food so I had to wash it down with a milkshake. I'm sure you understand.

Back to the hotel to crash face first on the floor and then shower. Unfortunately I got word that my little boy was having a rough day and night, so I had to head back early and not stay the second night.

Before that, we got a chance to split my homebrewe Dortmunder though. Being in the bottle is really helping it out, and Jack remarked that it is very drinkable. He can definitely taste the banana/fruity esters that came from losing refrigeration during the blackout, but it really doesn't do much besides add some character. Either way, it inspired me to start calling it Bitter Blackout Banana. I'm so gosh-darned clever.

On my way out of town I decided to stop by the gigantic Miller Brewery that sits on I-35 just south of Fort Worth. I could actually smell the malt and that was kind of awesome.