Definitely still feeling some of Friday's heavy squats and deadlifts today. Which will lead into my programming thoughts below in the notes.
Squat
415x5x4
Notes: I had planned to start alternating weeks between a 3x5 and 5x5 here, but I've been feeling so good I decided to do 4x5 today. The basic plan is to add 5lbs but drop the volume to 3x5, then do the same weight for 5x5 the following week. The goal is to maintain volume at a high enough intensity to continue to drive Intensity Day, but not burn out on volume and get overtrained and stuck. I'll do 415x5x5 next week, and then 420x5x3. Considering how much weight I'm using relative to my maxes, I think it will work because it'll give me some volume adaptation, and the 5x5s are now heavy enough that they should also last more than just one week.
But, we'll see. I discussed it briefly with Andy when I was in Houston a couple weeks ago and he thinks it's worth a shot. I like it as an alternative to the one heaviest set of 5, then 4x5 at 5-10% less, because it really gives you a big break every other week. But, it might not work. We'll find out.
Power Cleans
95x3 - from jumping position, 95x3 - below kneecap, 95x3, 115x3, 135x3, 155x3, 175x3, 190x3, 205x3, 220x3, 205x3
Notes: So, my power cleans continue to be exceptionally unimpressive. Whether this is because I'm too fatigued when I do them, the less than hard floor, or my own technical shortcomings, or a combination of all three (most likely) - it's long past the point that they're doing anything for my deadlift. Which brings me to my next programming experiment.
I'm going to try Deadlifting every alternate Tuesday or Friday, instead of on a weekly schedule. So I'll end up deadlifting 3x/month. The big upside is obviously I get more recovery between deadlift sessions, but continue to do the lift more often than on an alternating weekly schedule as I did when I last ran the TM healthy last year.
The downsides are several. One is that I don't get a consistent exposure for deadlifts; sometimes it's after intensity squatting and sometimes it's after volume squatting, and if I'm trying to linearly progress the DL, that could change things. In the same vein, my squatting sessions will also be unevenly exposed to DL fatigue. Sometimes volume day will be right after a Friday deadlift, like today was. And sometimes VD and DL will be on the same day, with ID squatting only 3 days later. That will no doubt be rough.
The rotation will be DL, Power Clean, Clean Pull; basically an H/L/M pulling schedule over the 10-11 day cycle. I should be able to clean pull into the mid 300s right off the bat, which, done fast enough, should provide some training effect carry over to the DL. Plus I'll get yoked. The power cleans are just to maintain the movement because it's cool and athletic and they're light enough that they won't impede recovery.
I'm going to give it a try, in combination with the squat volume adjustments and see what happens. I can always switch things around easily enough if this doesn't end up working well. But my goal here is to prolong a regular schedule of weekly linear gains in all the lifts (and every 10-11 days in the DL), without burning out and needing a long de-load and ramp back up period.
C2 Erg
20/1:40 x 9 (2 warm-ups, 7 all out)
Paces: 1:56.2, 1:42.0, 1:28.4, 1:24.0, 1:24.0, 1:22.6, 1:22.6, 1:21.9, 1:21.9
Notes: Maybe this is also fatigue here and explains why the power cleans were so lame as well. I just couldn't explode here and get fast. No strokes were below 1:20. Lame.