Pain in training

Today was my first time squatting with the barbell in a couple weeks, since August 5 to be precise, and on that day I was only able to squat 126#x5 to depth and 155#x5 for partials. My knee felt unstable and hurt quite a bit coming up from the bottom of each squat, and I probably shouldn't have been squatting at all, but I was still hoping that I hadn't really done any damage the week before. Happily, today I (pretty effortlessly, as far as squatting goes) worked my way up to 199# for three clean singles. My knee didn't hurt at all while I was squatting, and only twinged a little between sets and afterwards, which I take more as adjustment to being under load again rather than an indication of further injury. All in all it was a seriously great day at the gym. With the competition 8 weeks away, I want to be able to spend the next couple months cementing the improvements I've made in my form and adding a some weight to the bar.

Though the last month has been a helpful lesson in terms of managing minor injury and working around it rather than allowing it to derail all progress, I'm still not great at dealing with pain. Pain makes me anxious and starts my mind spinning in all sorts of crazy directions ("I'll never be able to squat again!", "I've torn my meniscus and need surgery!" "If I were a better powerlifter I'd be able to push through this!") none of them in any way helpful That said, I am working on being better about being able to tease out the kinds of pain I am feeling.

There is true red-light injury pain which means you have to stop what you're doing and go rehab the crap out of whatever you just effed up (which may mean resting it for a while to let it heal, I think this can be one of the hardest steps to take.) Then there's the more yellow-light irritation/warning pain, which is what I'd classify my knee pain over the last month or so as being, this pain generally means you need to fix your mechanics STAT or you're heading for red-light injury pain ASAP - I think I pushed the limits a bit on this, continuing to squat heavy without really cleaning up my mechanics, which is why I've had to take time off. To round this out I would say there's also green-light pain, which is the burning muscles and aching body that comes with heavy training and though it may feel like pain at first and be a little scary, it is actually just part of the process and ultimately necessary for progress. I know when I first started training I tended to back off at the first sign of intense discomfort (green light pain), and I think once I got over that I perhaps went a little to far in the other direction, being willing to work through yellow light pain rather than let it stop me and re-direct my work for the day (from loading up the bar with as much weight as possible to instead focusing on form and mechanics.)

Training today:
Squats: 8 sets working up to 199#x1,1,1
Accessory: Snatch grip pause deadlifts
Finisher: Kettlebells (I couldn't get through my complex today, I don't know if it was fatigue or something else, so went with straight swings with the 20kg bell for 40, 30, 15, 15 reps with about a 45 second rest between each set.)