Oct 26 first place open heavyweights in granite state open
-spent the week away with family and then flew to Cali
Nov 2 2nd place open heavyweights at the inba World Cup to someone from Greece
-went immediately to San Diego for a 4 day conference then flew immediately to Omaha where I competed in the nanbf USA super pro qualifier and bluffs classic.
There were 14 of us in the open tall class of the bluffs classic portion of the show and I got 3rd. Huge show and what can I say despite always wanting to win I was happy with my placing.
Oct 24 to nov 10 on the road with zero touching down on home turf the whole time. Been an incredibly rewarding but very demanding crazy schedule.
Wanted to see if I had one more in me so after this I did the NGA Mount Rogers in Virginia Nov 23. Was told by many I was in the top 5 and thought so myself, but wasn’t my day, ended up not in the mix, but honestly by that point I didn’t particularly care. It was a long, but rewarding season and I was just proud to have seen it through. Being done meant I finally had time to start working on something I’ve really been wanting to do - launch a podcast!
my final show, the nga mount rogers - for me personally was really proud of the conditioning i brought - def a personal best and i owe it to cliff wilson big time. was already down to a scary low 187.2 lbs several days out i believe -
Figured I’d give a few reflections/lessons learned on the time between the final shows where I sucked at updates:
I spoke up! For show 1 I put dream tan on the night before and didn’t sleep a wink in my sweats. Even though that was Cliff’s standard protocol to apply the night before I asked if I could just apply in the morning for subsequent shows and actually got some sleep - don’t be afraid to speak up for yourself - if you got a good coach, they’ll listen.
On those same lines - we were having me wake up quite early before prejudge to carb up before stage and that was also wrecking my sleep - although I know that’s pretty typical for show day. I get up to piss a couple times a night anyways so I suggested we carb me up at those times and it worked great! 2nd show I did super concentrated gatorade quickly when getting up, but realized by shows 3 and 4 that mixing up jello pudding mix in a shaker is also great and i actually preferred that - again concentrated to minimize extra fluid causing me to pee even more or take too long to pound - making the quick night break too long
After shows 1-3 I kept post-show indulging to a minimum - really kept it in check. basically i just didn’t count macros on a modest amount of food - and TONS of diet soda, lol. - however after show 4 i went nuts that first night - lol, no joke had over 30 pieces of thin crust pizza - thats for real - not an exaggeration - i got witnesses, lol. craziest part is that was just comfortably full, so i don’t even know if you can consider it a binge - i can put down some mean quantities of food when i let myself. i just told myself i was going to eat till i was comfortably full, however much food that was… while i’m not saying it’s a good idea to eat like that it did get me back in the mode of recognizing how to break routine and indulge, but adjust accordingly. before i would never allow myself to have a real big indulgent meal for fear it would mess up subsequent meals. i think after that pizza fest i just sipped on branched chains until the afternoon the next day - and within no time hit a new low and resumed a more normal reverse diet.
in regard to my color although i did like the idea of waiting till show day to tan for sleep purposes - show by show i cam to realize i was one of the lighter guys on stage - i highly recommend applying that dream tan THICK
by the end of these shows quite honest i was pretty burnt out. i’d had it - just didn’t really care to compete anymore even say had i won. was proud of myself that i stuck it out for one last show when i wanted to end after show 3. i can definitely says it’s been a life changing experience. spending the weekend of the mt rogers show staying at philip ricardo’s place, seeing how he lives, being around marshall johnson at that show with all the shows he’s done. following jeff alberts of team 3dmj. letting myself have some indulgences and rest days and not losing my physique overnight. all just made me realize that bodybuilding just doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it i think. i truely believe i could have been considerably more relaxed about the obsessive food weighing, fear of missing the tiniest bit of my workouts, etc. i mean honestly, between shows 2 and 3 when i was at the conference i was so on edge with stress the first day or two that i was gaining weight and feeling awful 24/7. once i adjusted my training and chilled out mentally a little about how i was going to manage prep with the 14 hour days for work - all just fell into place. i think we get so robotic during prep sometimes that we forget our mind is very powerful in influencing our physiology. seriously. i literally think that staying exactly per protocol food and exercise wise…if it causes extreme stress when life becomes unconducive to it, is less optimal than going off plan a little to accomodate a little more balance in life. just my 2 cents - and def seems to be the way many of these great natural bodybuilders who’ve been in the game for decades approach things.
i don’t plan to be on stage anytime soon - possibly not again - time will tell. thanks for the few of you that tuned in and supported me - i’m sorry i was not more regular with updates during the actual season. now onto my podcast - something i’ve been dreaming up for a while - shifting focussing a lot of my time on that now and hopefully will be inspired by some of the studies i’m reading to try some cool splits and run some new nutrition plans for my off season.
Congratulations man! You looked great and a very successful contest season, hopefully you’re nailing that reverse diet ;). I wish you would have told us you were doing the show in Omaha, I was there and would have loved to meet you. I watched you haha but didn’t know that you were from Tnation
[quote]pwolves17 wrote:
Congratulations man! You looked great and a very successful contest season, hopefully you’re nailing that reverse diet ;). I wish you would have told us you were doing the show in Omaha, I was there and would have loved to meet you. I watched you haha but didn’t know that you were from Tnation[/quote]
dang - wished we’d met up too, thanks man. ehhhhh i was doing solid with the reverse, but chose to let it go a lil for the holidays and recently when i was in vegas for over a week - DEM BUFFETS. again, no one to blame but self, and really haven’t gained too crazy, but prob should have kept it a little more in check. how’s your stuff going right now?
