Thursday, July 29, 2010

11 weeks out


I'm sitting at 11 weeks out and feeling pretty darned good about my prep for the Nationals. I'm wayyyyy ahead of last year, condition wise. I don't even have much more weight to lose, which almost makes it difficult to diet but keep enough weight on ! After seeing the results of last weekend's Masters Nationals, then seeing the trend at the USA's, I'm more confused than ever as to where they might place me.
How do Competitors A,B,C,and D wind up 1st, 2nd,3rd and 4th in order and less than 15 minutes later wind up 2nd,4th,1st and 3rd ???
Absolutely tragic, the Masters, and we'll never get an explanation. With the USA's it seems they went for natural structure with "ok" conditioning over everything else. Thats fine when the natural structure has decent muscle on it, hence the term body"building", but way too often we see so called natural structures with "potential" beat out a "built" physique...

I got to hang out with two really great friends who competed in Pittsburgh. Gary and Tim. I got a trainer pass for backstage and got to oil up lots of muscular manly physiques... I rather enjoyed that :). Met two wonderful FaceBook friends in person - Matt and John. John Casciato is in training to become a licensed massage therapist, and brought his table over to the hotel and I got the most wonderful deep tissue massage. Nothing like a 290 pound powerlifter bearing down on your sore spots...OWWW!!! (but AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH ). If you are in Pittsburgh and seek a most competent massuere, you can probably track him down at Celli's Fitness Center, in Pittsburgh.
Had a nice photoshoot with Mark Shaffer. I wonder what Janet Kauffman needs to do to get the
judges' nod. She looked exquisite, should have definitely won her class if not one of the pro cards at the Masters!!

I'm training totally bodybuilder style now. My arm is healing, slowly but surely. There are still many exercises I cannot do, but for the most part I have been able to pick up my training back up enough to brutaly trash myself each workout. I do so miss the heavy stuff, but I'm convinced that even after my arm heals, I'm going to need a couple of montwhs or so off to rest, recoup, recover before I dig into the power training again. I suppose that will be next year....woe is me.