This will be the first time I've seriously planned my lifting for myself and I'm using the RTS protocol because its the one that really allows for you to do that, and because the manual was extremely descriptive and made more sense than any other powerlifting related thing I've ever read.

So I'm wondering if I should work with weekly stress levels as its outlined or if I should worry more about just learning to program for myself and coming in with an rep scheme and a planned RPE to work to and just do a volume block followed by an intensity block and as I learn more about the programming to eventually work in the more advanced portions of the manual.  I'll be in a 5 month lull between powerlifting competitions, and a nearly 3 month absence of any type of lifting competition.  I have a pretty good idea of what my body has responded to in the past and the V/I blocks seems to have worked in the past in routines that have somewhat applied those principles.