Started the latest Mike Tuchscherer project today. I suspect it will take a few swings before I make contact, as it were, though it isn't a complicated program. The trick is translating perceived effort to weights, knowing that RPE changes from day to day based upon any number of factors, such as stress, work, sleep, how much I ate, ...anything. So 90% RPE today might be 70% tomorrow, or vice versa. So it goes.
Still backloading, and it's going well. After the carb debauchery last weekend, I craved carbs for several days. Badly. It's abated a good bit, and I've substituted massive amounts of grassfed bison and sauteed vegetables, which I happen to absolutely love. And almonds. Anything to get to training time.
Started with a fair amount of dynamic work and way, way too many bar sets before figuring out where my RPE of 7 started.
Squats, 3-rep 2-count paused: got up to about 300kg and called it. Honestly, I think I had a couple of reps left (RPE=8), but pitched forward at the top and called it. Besides, I knew I had to DL later.
Depth was solid, pauses were strict. The weight came up super-fast. Next time.
Bench, 3-rep 2-count paused: climbed weight fast to avoid tiring, got over 200kg and was done. This was a legit RPE of 9, if I had another.
Deadlift, 4-rep 2-count paused: Got to 245kg and thought I was done -- RPE was high 8. Figured anything more would fail, so I took off 5kg and slapped on another 10 each side to go to 260kg. These came up more easily than the 245, but I wasn't going to do it again. I logged 500-something paused as RPE 9 and called the session.
These made me nervous, particularly after the squats. DL is the one discipline I expect to gain most on during this 8 weeks, frankly. The way I react to different lifts puzzles me, as I really thought I'd pull one and done, but the whole lot came up pretty well. I know I had one left in the tank, but don't know that I had two. I feel okay about it.
A good start. Next session is tomorrow, and I am very much looking forward to completing the course and seeing where it takes me. The upshot, of course, is that now I will have to start planning another comp.
Hope everyone had a great weekend, and I wish you all a great 2012.
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