seems that different people have different experiences with how much their monthly affects things. it changes for me, too, but guess i’m starting to notice some general patterns. i wonder if… a lot of athletes go on the pill or depo or something in order to reduce the impact of monthly variations during training. then time fake bleeds well away from whatever event they need to peak for. i’m trying to learn to be more in tune with my body. learn to listen to it properly. tell the difference between ‘that is metabolically costly so i’d really rather not’ messages vs ‘i’m about to break’ messages.
one thing I’ve learned from the RSR (that actually occurred to me before I began) is that I can’t do a 6 week cycle. need to deload when my body tells me so. so in order not to set myself up to fail i will need to modify programs around it. need to track things better to figure out how predictable / projectable things are beforehand.
charlie - i think you are right about the bloating. i wasn’t sure whether to ignore what my body says about squatting or not… i’m thinking i should not ignore it. deep squats don’t feel safe. something goes wrong with my L/T junction and… I think it might be bloating / low level cramping messing with my recruiting my hip flexors and abs properly. it is okay to do light (for me) reps - in fact, that kind of mobilization can be good, i think. but it isn’t the time to really push things or something will break.
i pulled my hamstring up high by my glute 
feels tweaky / crampy. i’m resisting the urge to dig into it with a ball… it hurts when i try and use my glutes to stand up squats. that is what i get for trying to squat when things didn’t feel right. lesson learned, hopefully.
COMP:
snatch:
35kg done
36kg miss, miss
then the guys loaded 40kg on the bar. i thought i had one more attempt and they were hoping i wouldn’t notice (hey if i was gonna miss may as well miss going for a PB). was totally lost in my i-pod so i stomped on up and got it!!
turns out that it was ‘2 misses and then you are out’ rather than ‘3 misses and then you are out’ and they were loading it for someone to warm-up on.
but it got filmed apparently, so i’ll post the vid once i get it. ugly as fuck. know that for sure lolz. they said they would let me have it, but whatever… means i got to get more than 40kg next time, though, to get a PB so guess i’ll take it.
weighed in at 63.something not negligable. so… not under 63kg weightclass anymore. definately too cheeky to call 40kg 2/3 bodyweight now so still need to work towards a 2/3 bodyweight snatch! i know i should feel proud because of the trying to bulk thing… i didn’t avoid eating / drinking beforehand so sure i could have got to under 63kg if i had have and also removed a couple extra layers i had on (no dress code for the comp).
Clean and Overhead:
I said I didn’t want to do this, basically. They let me go for a PB powerclean (no overhead) and I got 50kg. Then missed 52.5kg twice, I think. Equals the most I’ve powercleaned before. I think I could get 52.5kg if my hamstring / butt was 100%.
apparently they will make us nominate which 3 lifts will count next time. and there has to be an overhead. these comps are mostly about trying to encourage people training to train a bit more seriously and think about taking up a strength sport, i think.
powerlifting comp in a few weeks. think i’ll have a go at the deadlift.
