Sunday's sit down

I trained on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and I was focused on getting my squats. Monday really took it out of me and I should have done the recovery session rather than the 4x4@90%. I was able to get two sets of four reps. Each rep felt brutally hard and it took everything I had to get the fourth reps. In my third set, I actually had my best 3 reps yet and I had the very strange sensation of thinking I was pushing through the sticking point of my final squat, but I was actually going down while it felt like I was going up. Very strange. I only had time to squat on Monday and aside from my warm up, that was all I did.

On the Wednesday I did some Snatch skill work with Wayne and Tommy helping me out. I did around seven or eight doubles with 50kg and I worked on extending up rather than back. I finished off with a few doubles at 80kg and then I did the recovery squat session with 6 sets of 2 @80%. This is supposed to feel easy by now, but it never does.

On the Friday, I worked up to a few singles with 90 in the Snatch. I was pretty beat up from the current cycle of training and nothing felt like it was going right. I had 3x3@90% to do with 162kg. I did my first triple and in my second, I got buried in my second squat. I couldn't even squat the weight up with a spot and had to let it drop. I felt as rotten as I have ever felt and walked into the changing room about to pack it in, but thankfully my innate stubborness and mortification at my lack of fortitude got me back out. I loaded the bar back up to 162 and just about got my triple. I gave myself around six or seven minutes to rest. Anger is a powerful stimulant and can be very productive when used in the right setting. It was only my anger that got me through my third triple that followed. It was not courage or any other virtue worth singing about; just pure, self-directed anger. Thank God it was there, because I did not have the focus and concentration on the day to get me through the squats otherwise.

So, I am in a bit of a quandry as to what to do for next week's training. The squat routine and the heavy Snatching has taken its toll on me and it took four weeks to happen. I have hit the wall. Cathal Byrd is coming up to Dublin to train with myself, Zag and Wayne. We had planned to train twice on the Monday and Wednesday and a light technique/recovery session on the Tuesday. Harry wisely told me to have another light week next week because I have a competition on the Saturday. I told him I had a light week this week and his reply was: "look at the state of you. You need another light week." So I will mainly work on my technique over the next few days. I will leave the last week of the Russian squat program for after the competition, which I will be treating as another training session, but I still want to do better than last week's debacle.