The usual

This week has been going quite well. Back to the clinical teaching again and managed to get my boring dissertation and shitey presentation out of the way. lol. This week I've been in ENT in the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH). I like the way this attachment has been coordinated. Normally we have stupid attendance logs to fill in and get treated like kids. In this attachment we have tutorials scheduled every day for 12.30 and they don't seem bothered if we turn up to them or not. The rest of the time in the week is up to us to fill. I like it this way, gives me the chance to seek out stuff to watch/observe and don't feel like I'm being treated like a child. I've heard that attendance is taken by QUB right up to 5th year. A complete joke in my opinion. Taking attendance of 23-25 year olds who will be qualified doctors in a few months time is a bit of an insult. But anyway, I'll just continue to jump through the hoops.

Training wise, started a couple of different things this week and I feel pretty sore for it today. Hoping my hamstrings and elbows ease up for Saturday. At the moment I feel like a dog on a leash. It seems that as soon as I'm out of the gym I want to be back in it wrecking the place. lol. It's a great feeling. For a few months I really lost my spark. Training felt like a chore and my enjoyment of it had really decreased. I'm convinced that was something to do with my back pain. In the last week I haven't had any of the back pain I associated with my injury. It's unreal, I just hope it continues. I also think that I'm enjoying the training a bit more because of the people who are around me when I'm training. We're all very like minded and just want to be strong as fuck, so it works well. They know who they are. Doing all my training in the PEC on my own was becoming soul-destroying.

As regards competing this year, after a few months of thinking about it I've decided to leave the IDFPA and WDFPF. I have no issues with the IDFPA, they are a fantastic association and I have met some brilliant people there. The problem is the WDFPF, they obviously don't listen to their lifters or address issues raised. I want to compete at an international level and I'm not going to hand my money over to the WDFPF so I'm going to look elsewhere for international competition. It will also mean I will be able to travel with a group of guys from the powerlifting club as they compete GPC. IPO is looking very promising at this stage, I've heard fantastic things about that association and it seems a good step to take in my equipped lifting. In my opinion I don't nearly have the strength required to go multi-ply.

Started squatting in briefs last weekend and love love love them so far. (For those that don't know, the above picture = the briefs I'm talking about, NOT y-fronts!) Much easier than a squat suit. For my first comp this year I reckon I will just have tight briefs with a loose as hell squat suit or even just leotard over them. I have been meaning to take training videos the last while, but always totally forget. Weight-wise I'm probably sitting at about 110kg, will be hoping to get up to about 113-114 then I can make the most of the weight class and make an easy cut to 110.

Not long now until I've to move up to Derry for a few months. Looking forward to it. Don't think I'll have too many distractions, so I can just spend my time learning, training and getting my grow on. lol.

It's my birthday this week, turning 22 :S I think 22 is the age where you start to sound older. It's weird, 21 still sounds young, but 22 just sounds waaaay older. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I'm old, but it's weird how life moves on.

Thought for the Day:

"As you get older, you're always maturing, you're always learning something new about yourself"

Troy Vincent

Peace

bEn