West Midlands Divisional 18/11/12
What with tearing my hamstring a month before, this was never going to be the huge comeback comp I'd imagined it would be when I originally planned it. However, it did take the pressure off, and also meant that I could completely relax my diet and making-weight protocols because I decided to jump up to the 93kg weight class for this comp only.
Weigh in: 89.4kg
After weighing around 87kg most mornings this week I knew I had nothing to worry about, so I had breakfast before leaving home and stepped onto the scales fully clothed
After this there was a LOOOONG wait because I wasn't lifting until the afternoon. I coached Dom through the morning and realised that I'd planned my food terribly! My emergency shake was only just enough to tide me over.
Squats
I spent a while before warming up doing light stretching and soft tissue work. My hamstring was feeling a little crampy, but I decided to ignore and just see how it went.
Warm ups were good, despite the rubber floor being turned into an ice rink because of all of the talc from the morning lifter's deadlifts (some people like to talc their legs to reduce friction). Someone came along with a mop and cleared it up eventually. I was hitting depth easily and getting some good speed.
1st attempt: 195kg
Felt really easy, no pain or discomfort anywhere.
2nd attempt: 210kg - Comp PB
Easy again. It felt really untidy compared to the way I'd like it to move, so it probably could have been even faster. FINALLY lifted over 200kg in a comp!
3rd attempt: 220kg - Comp PB
This was a bit of a risk, but I was feeling pretty optimistic at this point. This is the same weight that I did relatively comfortably on the day that I tore my hamstring, but I'd have to find a couple more inches of depth and hope that not being able to squat properly for 4 weeks hadn't been too detrimental.
The result? A massive comp PB and the slowest squat rep I've ever done!
Bench
This was the important one for this comp. No injuries despite a very ropey left pec in the last few weeks that occasionally bothered me in training. I was determined to 3 plates in comp
Warm ups were nice, if also pretty funny. The floor was slippery again so I couldn't plant my feet at all. The solution I came up with was to get two "foot spotters" to stand at the end of the bench so that I could push my feet against theirs. It looked ridiculous, but it worked.
1st attempt: 130kg - comp PB
I got convinced to increase this attempt from 120kg, which was definitely the right choice. Very comfortable rep.
2nd attempt: 140kg
Something didn't feel quite right as I was setting up, and taking the bar down to my chest was uncomfortable. It felt better during the pause, but as I pressed out my left foot slipped causing me to lose my left shoulder stability (you can see it go in the video). I kind of wanted them to take the bar straight away, but in the moment I didn't ask them to. I just had to hope that this didn't fatigue me too much, but now I wasn't feeling as optimistic.
3rd attempt: 140kg - comp PB
More careful set up, very comfortable rep! Booyah! Possibly could have tickled 145kg if I'd got this the first time around, but I was very happy anyway.
Deadlifts
I had no idea what to expect going into these, although I was pretty confident that my opener would be easy. Last monday 230kg was ok, but I was still missing a lot of speed (obviously the torn muscle is still not back to strength) and my right hip flexor has been very tight and cramping up as it tries to balance out the forces through my hips.
Warm ups felt great. No twinges anywhere and I was getting better speed than I had been getting. There was a chance of a half decent pull here, but I tried not to get my hopes up.
1st attempt: 220kg - comp PB
Very comfortable, but pretty slow and not as tidy as I'd like (the bar moves away from me). Still, no pain/discomfort and 5kg comp PB
lol
2nd attempt: 235kg
Surely this would be easy? Nope! When it came off the ground I knew it was slower than my best, but then I knew that would happen. What killed me was getting to the joint angle between my hip and femur where my hip flexor had been playing up - boom, very painful cramping. You can see in the video that I kind of twist away from my right side, but it's hard to say if that's cause or effect.
3rd attempt: Pass
Not really disappointed, at least my hamstring didn't go! This hip flexor thing will be sorted very quickly, so I can now start rebuilding my deadlift.
Thinking about it now, given the opportunity I would have for 250+kg on my 3rd attempt. Who knows what this would have done to my hamstring?
Overall it was a great day. PBs in all lifts and no major snaps (left shoulder is a little beaten up from the bench), finally squatted near my max and got a 3 plate comp bench
I came 2nd in the 93kg weight class out of a surprising large amount of competitors for a little divisional meet. I was chatting to the guy who won the 93s, it turns out that he's also had some... injury troubles:
1) 3 years ago he had an extremely severe coeliac attack (I think that's right) where he almost died, and had the vast majority of his large intestine removed.
2) After that he clawed his way back to heath (after losing 30+kg) only to suffer a hernia the size of a football and have to carry his small intestine around in a colostomy bag. With his bag of guts wrapped up under his powerlifting belt, he went to world championships and won.
What a guy to come 2nd to! Absolute hero.
Video blocked due to forum word filter 
http://youtu.be/n2q*f*t5g7cpk - remove the stars
Of course I do, every day is bench day.
