first the pictures from last week - 8 weeks to the Nationals.

Monday was a fantastic night up at the Training Center - always a better atmosphere = very conducive to heavy lifting there. SQUATS:
B put his squat suit on for the second time, and hit a 935! He had to unrack it 3 times off the monolift because the weight was crushing him down, he couldn't get the bar up over the lip, and had to lower the setting. All that energy spent and it still was a walk in the park for him(ok, so he walks hard!)
I weighed in at 155 on Monday - hit 405 for four reps. I wanted to go to 445, because I knew that I had done that before, mentally I was preparing for that. While B wrapped my knees Al Fortney snuck over to the bar and slapped 20 more pounds on the bar. I did not know until I was done that I squatted 465...I did it though, and I did it well. That computes to exactly 3x bodyweight...I'm still all giddy and full of myself for that one!!!
It's Thursday and my legs are still lead-like...I am blaminmg the hacks on that one. I am making good friends with that particular hack squat...and slow as I do them I need to be friends with it.
Last night, normally chest delts, tri's, was a DISASTER!!!! For both of us - B was fighting that awful bench shirt thing again. He was in incredible pain, and found out later last night after a trip to the emergency room that he had a busted ear drum, and an infection. He doesn't give in to pain often, when he does you KNOW that there must be a problem.
He wrestled with a couple of sets, then wisely quit.
Me? Well, due to a "low recovery week", I was still beat up from Monday's session. I had five and a half hours sleep the night prior, and I wasn't used to that either - it was the most sleep I'd had in one stretch in weeks, and weeks, and weeks....sleep is beneficial, but when your body is not used to it, mine anyway, it just wants to wallow in the relaxed state once it finally gets some. After yanking on B's shirt while stuffing him in it, my forearms, elbows and even my biceps were already fatigued and sore by the time I got under the bar. I picked off 225 x 8, but they were not what I would call "groove reps". My next attempt B was in his shirt, and a hand-off in a bench shirt just isn't optimal - he "pushed" it out wobbly and I had it wobbly, and it just sucked, then I waited until he took the shirt off, but things were just sucky all over. 255 pause was ok, but I couldn't lock out on 265 pause because my forearms were so incredibly fatigued. So the atmosphere just continued to deteriorate, and I knew that continuing on was pointless, and probably detrimental. So I called it quits, too.