Update 2/8/2010

I thought I'd get a quick update in before we start the new week.  It's been a while since the last Newbie Log was posted; I apologize for that.  It was crazy times after the holidays with work travel and getting ready for the Best of the Best in the Midwest meet on February 6.  Here's what I've been up to:

Had to go to Honolulu for work for 2 weeks in January.  I'd been training every day up until then but kind of got cut off without a place to really get after it.  I did some light work with dumbbells during that time and a bit of cardio (which I hate now).  Upon my return we got back into the gym and picked up training where we left off.  I saw some improvements immediately after the layoff.  I've started training in a bench shirt on a weekly basis now and really like it.  I also got into a squat suit for the first time a few weeks ago.  The suit is going to take some time to get used to, as it's completely different than anything I've done before.  I think I'll really like it once I get going and learn how to sit back and get to depth with the straps up.  As for deadlift, I haven't trained in a suit as of yet.  Maybe that will come this week or next.

One major thing to report - I thought I'd give sumo-style pulling a shot (raw) and ended up setting a new gym PR for myself after completing all of my work sets for the day.  I was pretty pumped about that.  It came up pretty good but we didn't do an actual max effort since I had already completed my training for the day.  We probably need to set a work weight with those again, but we'll see what's going on this week.

As for my first meet live - I was awed by it all.  I really want to do one now!  The whole thing is a spectacle everyone needs to see if you haven't already.  I will say this as well; it's a LOT more work than I  thought it was going to be.  I feel for Al Caslow, who put in a lot of work to get this thing rolling.  Overall, I thought it went really well though.  We'll work out the stumbling blocks we had with the first one and get things really going for next year's meet.  I'm assuming some glitches are expected for someone's first time putting together something of that magnitude.  I was amazed at how many people showed up for the meet.  At one point in the morning it was standing room only and the warm-up room was jam packed as well.  When the big lifts were going on, there were literally people standing on chairs to see.  It was awesome.

Anyway, I'll start posting again on a weekly basis starting this weekend, after we complete this week's training cycle.  I'm hoping to get in some gear and see if I can learn how to take advantage of it all.  We might mess with trying out some different shirts, etc. so it will be a fun week for me!