One year thoughts

Its been just over a year back at the gym, and wanted to capture a few items of thought.

PB list
Squat (comp): 230kg/507lb
Bench (comp): 185kg/408lb
Deadlift (conventional): 220kg/485lb
Deadlift (sumo): 200kg/440lb

Other movements
Board Press: 180x3
Rackpull: 220x1
Overhead press: 100x1

So, my thoughts.
Over the past year I have added back some muscle, gained some strength back.  So currently I am sitting around 94% of peak for squat, 86% for bench and 80% for conventional deadlift.  These peaks were all achieved around a similar bodyweight, or lighter, and around 35 years of age, plus or minus a year or two.  Now I am significantly older, theoretically a third of my way through the M1 class.

Bodyweight is higher than I like, but starting to get a handle on diet again.  I am often all or nothing with diet, where as I am trying to provide a bit of consistency and balance.  I often go all out, lower carbs, refeeds and all that, which I do not want.  For me, refeeds promote binging, and binging creates more issues for consistency.  When a single day can destroy a weeks effort, its getting a bit mad.  I also didnt like the swings of weight that come with it all, and the general gut issues of throwing down a ton of carb rich food in a single day.  I have been working on consistency, caloric control and recording the food consumed.  Keeping an overall plan, and linking that back to bodyweight changes.  Seems to be working, and with one day of the last 3 weeks I haven't been as focused on tracking, I still didn't binge, so that is a good thing.  I have also been adding in fish oil, creatine and a low dose multivitamin/mineral.

Strength has been improving, and I still have significant goals, but I need to be realistic somewhat.  I have benched 215 in the gym, and if I manage that sort of load in competition, I would be in the top 10 globally for my age/weight in the IPF.  For NZPF that would be local record territory.    That would be nice, but I have a long way to go and not many years to do.

Competing.  I want to compete this year, but I also have other requirements on my time, such as work, and potentially have two international trips early and mid year, which get in way of available competitions.  I will survive, and along with clear training approach, I will get stronger.

What do I want for the next year?  Consistency.  Consistent training, consistent eating, a more consistent bodyweight.  I need to improve my recovery, which likely means more stretching, maybe some active recovery sessions, and a more focused nutrition around training.