A pre meet deload is the time to get your head and body physically right before the meet. Aside from just lifting at a light and lower intensity and volume, you want to keep life stress levels as low as possible. No matter how rough meet prep training cycles have been in the past, I've always been able to get it together during the deload week and recoup for the meet just fine. Unfortunately, this was not to be for this meet! Due to reasons I don't feel like delving into due to time constraints, I suffered from a heat stroke on 8/6 that really had me jacked up the week before the meet. Fortunately, I had the week off work and was able to rest as much as humanly possible. Despite getting 10-12 hours of sleep on some days, by Wednesday of this week the effects of heat stroke were still kicking my ass. A pounding migraine, pronounced loss of appetite, chronic fatigue, and a general feeling of brittleness / systemic joint pain. I started coming around on Wednesday until an ugly sinus infection reared its head. I believe I came down with the sinus infection due to the heat stroke zapping my immune system. And better yet, I was hit simultaneously with a pretty nasty stomach bug on Wednesday night.

...but enough of my bitching. This brings me back to a story that Dave told me when I went to the EliteFTS compound for Swede, Casey, and JL'a training camp. Long story short, he was telling me about how Chuck V rolled his car on the way to Westside to train one day. He showed up still on time to train in the back of an Ohio Highway Patrol officer's squad car, ready to train despite having massive lacerations in both legs from the wreck. His legs were bleeding through his suit on every set, despite liberal applications of bandages and duct tape, and he completed the workout for the day. 2 or 3 weeks later, Louie gave Dave a call and said, "hey, did you hear Chuck rolled his car?" Dave confusedely replied, "yeah that was a couple weeks ago, what do you mean?" And Louie replied, "no, he just rolled the rental too." And in typical Chuck V fashion, he still showed up to train with his fresh lacerations oozing and the old ones opened right up.

Case in point - although I felt like dog shit, it's no excuse to be skipping workouts. At least I wasn't bleeding. This sport isn't about being comfortable, better get used to it!

8/8 - Deload Squat

Squat - Worked up to 455 for 3x3
Paused Squat - worked up to 365 for 3x3
Single Leg RDL's - 70x10, 75x10x2
Leg Extensions - 2x50, systemic joint pain was hitting me really hard right here. Did these light to try and make my knees feel a bit better.

I hit this workout at the local commercial gym to be able to lift in the AC after the heat stroke. Despite that, this workout was pretty rough to get through because everything just felt brittle. Still powered through and focused on the fact that I'd probably feel good to go by meet day.