Between rest weeks and race recovery, substantial gaps between lift-heavy-thing WOD’s (3.5 weeks this time) occur every once in a while.  It’s cool, I’d rather not be in the gym during the summer anyways.  That being said, with race season in the rear view (although there’s still a chance I do another one on a whim to get the bad taste out of my mouth from the BI tri), and (gasp) fall on the horizon, I’m planning on incorporating more strength work to address the “missed spots” in my training.  Speaking of, Tuesday marked a reunion with an old flame, the back squat!  This was my strongest lift in college but a few years ago I stopped doing it completely due to knee pain.  Looking back, running and biking a thousand hours/week were the culprit; not the beloved back squat.

• Warmup – CFWU + 3 rounds of power clean/push press/back squat/btn push press complex 135 x 3 reps 
• Back Squat – 185×5, 225×5, 245×5,5,7.  Knees parallel, accelerate to the top.
• Weighted Dips – 50×5,5,6.  Elbows parallel, accelerate to the top.

Then a 3 round mini metcon of:

• Pullups 11,9,6
• Back extensions (no GHD bench at the Westerly Y) 20,20,20
• Handstand pushups 5,5,2

Keeping with the theme, I had a feeling I was missing something by avoiding arguably the best movement for lower body strength.  Although I do a lot of OH squats and front squats, the gaping hole created by omitting back squats was obvious after this workout.  The oldvastus intermedius expressed its under trained and underappreciated feelings through deep soreness for a couple days afterwards.  In other words, I moved like the tinman after a monsoon.  Given all that and since I felt no knee pain during or after, you can bet your (and my sore) ass I’m adding parallel back squats to the list of staples for the 2010-11 off-season regimen!  It’s been too long and I definitely miss(ed) them!

Food for thought: Where are your missed spots?  Do I put too much stuff is parentheses?