40 Tons

I was squatting alone today; often I like that, and sometimes, like today, I don't.  I could have used a depth check, a walk-in, and a fly swatter.  Flies seem to know that I'm helpless under the bar, and all my screaming and threatening to throw the bar at them did nothing to dissuade them.

Some day this bar will go through the cinder blocks.  You'll find a flat-ass fly under it.

As compensation I had relative quiet; only Social Distortion, Monday squat music was playing, and I was able to concentrate.  The session developed so:

45 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 5
235 x 3
275 x 2
315 x 1
335 x 5 x 3
365 x 1

I had intended to hit 385 x 1, but I wasn't entirely sure the 365 was deep enough.  The golden rule of meet preparation is never to miss a single attempt.  I understand that because confidence is almost everything, but had I missed, I'd have lied convincingly to myself: I would have made that if I had purple shoe laces, I would have made that if I hadn't worn clean underwear, I would have made that without that fucking fly in my face, and so on.  In short I'd rather miss and rebuild my confidence than think a high attempt was good and so train myself to squat heavy singles high.

I made a deal with myself that I would squat squat 345 x 5 x 3, so I will, but directly after that - next week - I'll go down to triples.  The fives are heavy enough that my form is breaking down before the set ends, and I want to weed out every technical problem before meet day.  Triples should let me find where I break down technically without the interference of excessive fatigue.

I am sure that my back is relatively weak which doesn't surprise me after going two years or so without pulling a heavy conventional dead lift.  I put the conventional dead lift back in this cycle, and even though I'm now definitely a sumo-puller, I'll keep the conventional dead until my back is not the weak link.

After squatting I did some ab work then enjoyed a nice walk home uphill in the rain.

The hill is delightful after squatting.

When I got home, I decided to total my working volume of squats since surgery.  In two months, counting only my top sets of fives, I've done just over 40 tons.  If I included warm ups, it would be another 15 or 20 tons, and I've excluded all of the occasional insanity like squatting 275 x 20.

There's no telling exactly how the meet will go, but I'm putting in the work.  40 or more tons less than three months after surgery seems respectable.

Sure, some days I miss laying in bed re-reading the same paragraph six times on Vicodin and fielding calls from friends asking if I need them to come by and wipe my nose or such like I had it after surgery, but it feels ever so good to be intact and working.

Actually if I find myself missing the post-surgery days too much, I'm sure I'll need my thighs reduced soon.