Ok, here’s another show picture that my wife snapped backstage after the show.  I had a painful cramp in my right quad when she took the photo, so I wasn’t squeezing it.  I’m anxiously awaiting the posting of the photos taken by the photographer at the show.  I thought they would be up on his [...]

Show Results

Well, the results are in.  I placed 2nd in the open heavyweight class at the 2008 Metrolina Show held in Salisbury NC on May 10, 2008.  I was fairly happy with the results, although I had some problems with water retention at pre-judging that left me a little off of my driest condition.  I weighed in [...]

Long Lost Blogger

Well, so much for keeping up a blog.  I may have been a bit too ambitious last summer when I told myself I would blog every day for eight months.  Clearly, it didn’t come close to happening.  The good news is I am two days away from competing in the Metrolina Bodybuilding Contest. See here [...]

Learning Your Body

You will hear competetive bodybuilders talk about learning your body.  I never really knew exactly what this meant until I had prepared for about 4 bodybuilding competitions.  In general, learning your body means understanding how your body responds to varied approaches to diet and training, how long it takes to see a response, and to [...]

Two Day Update

I forgot to write an update yesterday, so this will be a two in one blog entry.  Let’s get this out of the way first:
Today’s Training: No morning cardio this morning.  I did calves and abs this morning instead as my bodyweight has now dropped to 216lbs and I don’t want to overdo the cardio [...]

Improvement

I’m getting better at meal timing and frequency and I’ve added some complex carbs to my meals which has made a world of difference.  Body weight this morning was 219lbs and my pants are fitting better.  Here was today’s meals:
8:00am        2 Servings MRP, 1 Serving Protein Powder
11:30am       6oz London Broil, 1/2 cup rice
3:00pm        6oz Salmon, 1/2 [...]

Lean Beef

I bought some London Broil yesterday and my wife and I cooked it on the grill last night.  For those who don’t know, London Broil is one of the leanest cuts of red meat available.  This is good because you get very little fat and tons of protein.  The drawback is that it can be [...]

One week complete!

Well, the first week of “focused” diet and training was not too bad.  As I reflect on previous years of contest preparation, I am recognizing similar thoughts going through my head.  As I entered the week, I was gung ho on plunging into a reduced carb stage and tons of cardio.  This works well when [...]

More work to do

I did not post yersterday’s diet and training, so I’ll recap yesterday and today in this post.  Yesterday I did not weight train, but I did do my usual 30 minutes of cardio in the morning with the 15/15 split elliptical/bike.  I was at work until 7:30 as I am every Monday Wednesday and Friday, so I did not weight [...]

Back to work

I have been of vacation from work since Friday June 29, 2007.  I returned to work today with lots to do and several important meetings back to back in the morning.  I got up and hit cardio for 30 minutes before going to work and had a solid first meal (protein shake).  The diet was [...]