I had  great conversation with Dave via email about the pros and cons of not training for 6 or so weeks. The details I won't share, but the basics...

Common sense: It's not ideal to go from training 100mph to slamming on the breaks. It would be optimal to taper off.

But in the same breath, where other athletes can take a break from their sport and train as a different stimulus, that doesn't work for a strength athlete because their sport IS training.

There are pros and cons to blood flow work, but to prevent me from doing anything stupid, I don't get to train...at all.

To  be honest, part of it sucks but part of it is a relief. After about five days of no training I already feel mentally recharged and my stress levels feel lower. Now there are still things going on at work that can be stressful at times (the price of a barrel of oil is the same as a bucket of KFC, just to put some perspective on how that affects the market) but I've been able to keep everything in perspective and put a good spin on work and training. Plus I hit a bench PR on my last day of training so it can't all be bad.