Meet recap. Video to come in a day or two. Short vids are up on my
Insatgram @Wolf_Strength. It was great to compete with Dwayne and Tom, and special thanks to Brent and especially Dr. Petreeezo and Nick for traveling quite far to come help handle and cheer us on.
Body status before meet: knee was still very achey, pec felt ok, back felt a lot better - not quite 100% but way better than even 3-4 days ago - but totally untested with heavy weights.
Weigh-in: 125kg, I think on the money. Maybe 125.1? Heavier than I've ever done a meet but basically unchanged for the past ~5 months.
Meet ran reasonably on time (unlike yesterday, which was way over-crowded and went about 3 hours late). Not a surprise, but USAPL runs a very different ship than RPS.
Performance: 7/9, 702.5 kg / 1549 lb total. A bit disappointed but since this was mainly to get experience in the USAPL, I'm ok with it.
Squat: 3/3 @ 237.5 (523.5), 247.5 (546), 255 (562) - all good. Didn't see but I think 3 white lights for all. Very happy with this considering my right knee pain lately, which was under control and only minor today. Third attempt looked like I had at least 5kg in the tank.
Bench: 3/3 @ 160 (352.5), 167.5 (369), 172.5 (380) - all good. I think all white lights for all three here too. These were solid and fairly easy, but kept it conservative a. To save some erector burnout for the DL (which ended up not helping) b. Since I haven't been able to train bench most of the last 5 months c. Due to the narrower than usual grip I've been taking because of my b/my pec and d. So as not to actually strain my pec during any of the attempts. Given all those things, I'm ok with 380. I will not be chinning for at least a while, and think my pec will be ok with this narrower grip in the absence of chins. Hopefully. If it is, I should be able to get my paused bench back up to 405 and then beyond before too long.
Deadlift: 1/3 @ 275 (606), 290x (639), 290x (639). Hook gripped these, which may have been a tactical error. First attempt looked like a first attempt, but I could feel my back in the tweaked part not quite as strong and locked into extension as usual. Went up pretty fast but I got 1 red light for a soft lockout. Second at 639 was hard, I could really feel my back tweak here, but held extension pretty well. However, my hook grip wasn't solid and I didn't get a good, definitive lockout and got two reds. Didn't have anything left for the third, which I put down before getting it to my knees.
I'm very pleased with my squat, fine with bench under the circumstances, and very disappointed about my DL. My recent training numbers in the DL far exceeded what I did on the platform today. A small % of that is the tweak, but far more is my failure to convert. I need to work on this, and I will. With smarter planning and better execution, I still feel 660 is very close.
I will take 2-3 light weeks before beginning to train in earnest for the SS Fall Classic.