Deadlift Better When Tired?

I don’t deadlift regularly (criticize, if you like), but throw it in every few weeks to see how the whole package is coming along, so to speak. But I’ve noticed something odd on days I deadlift:

If I make sure I’ve had caffeine and Power Drive, and get psyched up, I inevitably fall short of making progress. It seems to me that the last 2-3 times I’ve done deads in the past couple months, on the days that I’m a little tired or have had a hard day at work, I wind up doing better.

Do you suppose that I am simply psyching myself out of max effort (worried about perennial back problems), and on “lull” days I take the mental pressure off and give it a better shot?

This morning, feeling not quite up to snuff, I pulled 295. For me, this was a personal best. I thought about it for a couple minutes, and put it up to 305, and pulled that twice more. Last time was slow going up, but steady; at no point did I think I would miss it.

But I swear that, on days I go in feeling great, I’ve ultimately fallen short of max effort. Does anyone else find ironies like this?

A lot of times when I see people that are “too psyched up” on the deadlift, they tend to shoot their ass up in the air to initiate the lift and maybe compromise form too much with the excitement.

If you want I’d be willing to help you out on it-- RIT just built a new gym that is opening Monday-- supposedly with both deadlift and olylift platforms.

RIT Jared