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Nix0r
03-09-11, 1:51 pm
Another year, another legendary experience. Let's break shit down.

Thursday:

Nothing quite like waking up at the asscrack of the morning to roll out. Didn't sleep too much the night before; way too goddamn excited. Flower pulled up to my apartment around 6:45, packed up all our shit, and off we were to Joliet, to meet up with Phil and Josh. Pulled up, shot the shit, and were Oscar Mike. In keeping with tradition, we stopped off at a steak and shake; double steakburger, fries, and three mini sliders later, I was a happy, bloated man. Fast forward 6 hours of looking at a whole lot of nothing, we were in Ohio. As we are pulling into the hotel parking lot, I shoot Rob a text, asking if he's still at the Expo setting up, or if he's already at the hotel. As soon as I jam on send, he comes roaring into the parking lot in his van, gets out, and greets me with a "Here I am, motherfucker." Typical. After a lot of confusion and whatnot, turns out Rob booked a room at a different hotel. 'Tard. Anyway, he and I head over to the other hotel, unload the metric fuckton of stuff that was in his van.

This is Rob's "happy" face: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14689019/Rob%20Herp%20Derp.jpg

Quick stop to Meijer to pick up some grub for the weekend, back to the hotel, and then off to Metro for Day 1 of training. We hit shoulders; I doubt I'm gonna do a body-part only workout again. Fueled up properly afterwards at BD's with BamBam and his crew. We wandered over to the Hyatt, to meet up with one of Rob's friends for a little bit; she ended up being ridiculously late, but we got to shoot the shit with Brad Rowe, Shawn Clarida, NG, Bobby Fields, and a few others. Good times indeed.


Friday:

Rob decides to be a nice guy in the morning, and blast Amon Amarth to wake me up (he has the video, hopefully he'll post it up... it's pretty priceless). We then scare the regular people at the hotel by our food consumption at the continental breakfast. Drive over to the Expo, and meet up with Phil, Josh, and Flower. Doors open, and mad fucking dash for the Cage. VIP Badge... check. Cage shirt... check. Rage... double fucking check. Drop off all our stuff, and then Phil and I decide to make a quick trip around the Expo, before all the damn mouth-breathers make life impossible. During our random wanderings, we ran into a guy... he's sort of a big deal. Motherfucking Ed Coan. We talk for a bit, and he tells us to come out to Quad's South at some point on a Saturday morning. ABC anyone? Not only yes, but fuck yes.

The legend: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14689019/Me%20and%20Ed%20Coan.jpg

So Phil and I make our way back, just in time to see Bobby and his training partner pull some stupid-heavy weight on deads. That was goddamn intense when his training partner turned into a human blood fountain. I also got to sit in on the Mass Monsters seminar, because I love eating, and Big Al is the world's greatest public speaker. And then after that, Jimmy Kolb benched 815. That's goddamn sick for a 20 year-old.

Went to Metro to train Friday night. Benching with Rob. Goal was to really work the technique; ended up hitting three pretty smooth singles with 315, and then did a bunch of other bench assistance stuff (skulls, close grips with tyler grips, banded bench, etc). Made our way to Max & Erma's, and had dinner with Rob, Phil, Flower, Josh, Dannynb, Michelle, Wyck, Vinny, Rowe, and Big D. The conversation was hilarious... to say the least.

Hotel. Archer (JUST THE TIP!). Sleep.


Saturday:

Standing outside the Expo doors, waiting to get in, I get a call from Rob saying I have to go get batteries. That bitch. So Phil and I made the trek to the nearest CVS in the rain, only to find out that it's closed. Double bitch. Hoof it back as quickly as possible. Got to watch Efferding play with those 200lb dumbbells was freaking ridiculous.

Following that we had the Rage in the Cage. I'll be the first to admit I got a little emotional when we had that moment of silence for Nick Winters; he'll always be remembered.

After that event, I got to watch Tiny Meeker bitch around 1005 on the bench for a few sets. Just... wow.

Stuck around the Cage during the next few rounds of seminars and exhibitions, chatting with various FORVM members and whatnot, and then some fun happened. As I was walking over to the sound board to probably make fun of Flower, I see that Juggernaut is looking at the computer they brought with frustration and anger; not only was the UStream feed down, but the computer was infected with a trojan. Computer Programmer Nix to the rescue. I guess you can take the IT worker out of the office, but you can't take the IT out of the worker... or something like that. I spent the next half hour or so manually removing it, digging through registry entries and all that fun, and then set up the UStream again, and made sure that was all working. Whew.

Saturday night was the National ABC, and I had the opportunity to squat with Ben Seath, aka one strong motherfucker. I worked up to a weight where I knew that the form would start to break down a bit, 405. I hit it for a single. Walked out another set with 405, and then the weight started to slide off the right side of the bar. Holding onto it for a good 20 some seconds while they scrambled to get it situated, I hit it for another single. A few pieces of help/advice here and there from Seath, Ben Rice, and Higa, and I hit 405 for a double. Fully convinced that walking the next day is not in my itinerary, I go for a third set. Seath put on a pretty light knee wrap, and then I hit a relatively easy triple with 405. I am beyond thankful for all the help and advice that I got that night from everyone. After that, I worked in with some other guys on deadlifts, pulling 6 speed sets of 405x3, mixing up my stances.

The post workout eats were once again goddamn fantastic. If you didn't have a chance to run a train on those collard greens, then you royally missed out.

Unhinge that jaw: https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/198306_10150212331209377_812484376_9076133_1442463 _n.jpg


Sunday:

Today was my day to Intern. Rob had me on VIP Badge bouncer detail at the start, which was kind of fun when I got to get rid of all the Affliction-shirt wearing DBags.

Skiba once again put on a great powerlifting exhibition on advanced powerlifting. I took notes. He truly knows his shit.

Following Skiba, Hoss came in and decided to rep 1000lbs on the squat for five. Big D and Bobby Fields also were involved, each working up to over 900lbs (I think Bobby ended up hitting some massive PR).

After Hoss and company, made my way back to the sales area, where CB and I took over one of the areas; two Chicago guys running part of it... oh God. Tricking all the stupid people who try to hassle deals out of us, wanting us to cut prices for them and shit. It was fun telling them that I would sell them two shirts for $20; it took them a while to catch on to that one.

Stayed in that area until the Expo came to a close. Said all of our goodbyes, and we were on our way back to Chicago, and I got back to my apartment and was able to rack out by about 1am.


Closing:

Once again, I had an absolute blast this weekend. I can't thank Animal/Universal for everything that they do for us. This really is more than a brand; it's a family. We are all there for each other.

Until next year...

smoothballer
03-09-11, 2:00 pm
Had a blast hanging out with you all weekend. Gonna have to make it out your way for an ABC one of these days...

Phil800101
03-09-11, 2:45 pm
Great stuff bro! It was another amazing year. Kermit is going to be fucking pissed...

Nix0r
03-11-11, 9:32 am
Had a blast hanging out with you all weekend. Gonna have to make it out your way for an ABC one of these days...

Hell yeah you will!


Great stuff bro! It was another amazing year. Kermit is going to be fucking pissed...

Just... goddamn.

Also... here's the video Rob took of me waking me up to the sound of Amon Amarth Friday morning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElmyIdicGA0

Phil800101
03-11-11, 10:16 am
Lol, that is amazing.

J-Dawg
03-11-11, 12:21 pm
What an awesome and information write-up about the weekend through your eyes Nix.