I can't advise you on that as I have never squatted three times a week - it was always too difficult to juggle that with my running commitments. I know there are some people here who have though so maybe they'll have some input.
So here's an update on me as it's been a little while.
So as I've alluded to in earlier posts, I've been struggling a lot lately as to whether I should gain weight or lose weight. I rather enjoy being big and lifting heavy but I do love to run as well and would like to be competitive in it. I was hoping I may be able to live in both worlds.
Me last month in this thread said:
At the moment I feel like my philosophy for this year is 'Lift heavy and often, run fast and often and whatever will be will be. Fuck the scales.' It may be naïve but I'd like to try and do things on my terms. We'll see what happens.
Guess what? I was so fucking naïve. I had my first race for quite some time yesterday and I was utterly dreadful. I felt slow and heavy and like I had no business being there. For the first time in my life I experienced how it felt to be a mediocre, back of the field runner. Ladies and old men were coming past me and I had to let them go because I just couldn't go any faster. I could see the crowd looking at me in that sort of admiring 'He's a muscular fellow' sort of way that I normally quite enjoy but this time I just wanted them to stop looking at me because I felt nothing but shame.
Anybody who runs often will probably understand or have experienced the heightened sense of self and awareness that accompanies difficult running, it's like an almost meditative state wherein you can just about hear your brain's subconscious thoughts. And all I could hear was a quote from (strangely enough) Dragonball Z bouncing around in my head. It's what Future Trunks says after losing to Cell, when he realises his super-muscular form rendered him too slow to compete with Cell.
'Of course...that's why father stopped getting stronger. He could have, but he knew about this form's limits. And I just kept ploughing forward...like a stupid child. You can kill me if you want. I've failed.'
And this was exactly how I felt at that moment, right down to the 'you can kill me if you want' because I was completely furious with myself. Over the past few months I have recklessly piled on weight, seemingly oblivious to the repercussions. Stupid. Naïve. Blinded by vanity.
The picture on the left is from late December, standing at 160lbs. The picture on the right was from mid March, at 180lbs. 20lbs, 9kg or 1.4 stone...whichever you prefer. Yes, it's mostly lean tissue but it doesn't matter whether you're carrying an additional 20lbs of muscle, 20lbs of fat or 20lbs of potatoes; gravity simply doesn't give a shit and I was reminded of that in the most excruciating, humbling way yesterday.
You can probably guess what my course of action is now...
The diet began today...I am eating at quite an extreme deficit, aiming to lose about 1.5 to 2lbs per week. I am still doing weight training to preserve my strength. If I can get back down to 160~ while still having the strength I currently have at 180 then this whole debacle could work out very nicely indeed as I will have radically improved my power-to-weight ratio.
With the exception of a short stint last year (where I basically just removed a few bad foods from my diet and started cycling more), I have never really attempted anything like this so it's a big learning experience for me. I am literally calorie-counting (gasp!). My findings so far are that when we're in that 'weightlifting mentality' we get into this habit of eating simply because we haven't eaten in a little while or eating because 'I think I just felt my stomach do something, maybe I'm catabolic?' and I'm constantly having to override those instincts. I'm not hungry...I just think I should be hungry and that is what I'm struggling with right now. Oh well, only another 5 hours until Day 1 is over...