Pre-Meet Post

AHHHHHHHHHHH WE ARE SO BAD AT UPDATING THIS!!

Sooo sorry. Well, anyways, I have been working really hard training for the Albany Strength meet I'm doing this weekend! I've had a few setbacks but I think I'm finally ready. The hardest part is definitely cutting down to 105. This morning my scale at home said 107.3, and the scale at work said 104. So I'm not quite sure where I'm at, probably 107 though. I debated just going up to 114, but I've been working so hard dieting that it seems stupid to just throw that away. I still have a few days and I think that I can get down to 105. It's only 2 pounds at this point. Worst case scenario, I weigh in over 105 and compete at 114. Cutting weight is the absolute worst though. I cut out all carbs and dairy (my 2 favorite food groups) so I have been struggling. I've been doing well though. I want to take a moment to just apologize to Steve....over the course of the (almost!) year we have been dating, he's had to cut weight a couple times himself. At school I was totally inconsiderate and would eat in front of him and bring him to school events or out to the bar without giving it a second thought. Now that I know how hard it is to cut weight, I feel so bad for not being supportive of him while he was doing it. And let me tell you, having people eat whatever they want in front of you is painful. My family is Italian....enough said. So Steve, I'm sorry I paraded you around food when you were basically starving yourself. Now I know what its like and I HATE it. That being said.....anyone standing in between me and a gigantic cheeseburger (and fries) after the meet Saturday better be prepared to receive a roundhouse to the face (kidding.....maybe).

NOW onto my lifts! I mentioned setbacks earlier...many of you know I've had a knee problem ever since high school. As a senior I partially tore the lateral meniscus in my right knee and never had any surgery or anything to repair it. I just did PT and tried to have it heal on its own. PT didn't work, it just always hurt. After awhile I came to terms with the fact that my knee never would be back to normal and I learned to work around the pain at dance. So, as you might imagine, squats were rough when I first started lifting. For a few months now I've been doing Boyle's glute activation work before every workout. And guess what? No knee pain! My knees have been great for awhile now. Until 2 weeks ago, when I tweaked my right knee deadlifting. Now, this was weird because my knees are usually iffy on squats, not deadlifts. What happened was my knee kinda fell in when I was pulling. And it was on my warmup (95lbs) so that was a little scary. I stopped lifting after that. I didn't squat that week until Saturday. I rehabbed my knee all week then hit a squat PR (140lbs). I felt pretty good about that and thought my knee was fine again. However, its been kinda hurting ever since. I was still able to squat and deadlift last week, but I didn't go up to heavy weights and it hurt a lot afterwards. So this week, we decided I wasn't going to deadlift at all until the meet. I'm going light anyways this week. I squatted yesterday and felt alright, but I only went up to 85lbs. So I'm rehabbing all week again and I guess we'll see what happens Saturday. But I am pretty nervous about it. I just hope my knee holds up alright.

Other than that, I'm feeling pretty good about the meet! My bench feels WICKED tight. I started doing the same prep that Steve does, so I'm in a better, tighter position. That's actually the lift I feel most confident about, which is weird because bench has never been my best lift. But I am really excited to do this meet Saturday! My current PRs are:
Squat: 140
Bench: 80
Deadlift: 145

So I'm hoping to hit at least those and maybe go over! I've never done an 80lb bench with a hold, just a touch and go. So that's the goal for this weekend. I will update the blog after the meet! Thanks for all your support guys, I'm super pumped!! Also can't WAIT for carbs :)


Oh, one more thing. Any lifters out there reading this, what's your stance on knee sleeves for squats? I was thinking about using them but I tried them on in the store and it actually hurt my knee more. Thoughts? Advice?  Thanks!!

Stay Strong!