PastorPump’s BodyBlog

Sunday was travel day. At the airport I got the BIGGEST SURPRISE OF THE WEEKEND! I’M ON THE GOVERNMENT SUSPECT LIST! I guess just having a non-american name will do that. Even my five year old is on because of his. Got to love the way the government filters out the real threats with the fake ones. First I flew with my family to Charolette then I took my flight to Canada and they went home. Slept a little on the plane. Got to the hotel and did some cardio to burn off a little of the last nights steak!
Monday: MT after shots. First I’m greated downstairs by the sight of Branch Warren, Grimes, and Melvin. They were here a shoot as well. They went off to the gym to do theres and we went to the office. There we have Dave Henry walking around, say hello but he don’t want talk! Dex is in the room were I go to wait as well. He remebers me from meeting before and talk some and he was super cool the whole afternoon. Real nice guy. Cormier is there as well and we know he is always cool. Didn’t talk to much as he was snoring like a horse. The real kicker of the weekend was having Gustavo come into the room. We started talking about everything. Not just bodybuilding but family, business, his traveling. Must have been a good hour at least. No wonder he is in high demand. He is one of the most approachable guys out there. Anyways, they took my after shot when they finished with the pros and sent me packing! Would have loved to stay and train with the guys but they don’t pay amateurs for extended stays! All in all a good experiance. Even though most competitiors know about the after show depressions, it comes with the package. Meeting some of the guys helped though.
Thanks again everyone for the support and encouragement. God Bless.

Pictures up at my site, www.fitnessbycarlos.com , at MD , and here at http://contest.bodybuilding.com/gallery/contest/2542/event/1/site/1/photographer/9/mode/will/page/84

Friday: Prejudging
Up at 5am, another light night of sleep. Ate up in the morning and at the venue by 8am.
Hung out backstage just talking to some of the other guys. The prejudging was super rushed. We though we had time to get ready but we were called out 1hr after they started the womens! hardly any time to enjoy the pump up area set up for the pros. Just had time to do some pushups and streching outside the stage area. Judges do a quick over view of all the guys in to lineups. Now its time for first call out. My number is called out second in order and you can only imagine my relief! They take out three guys and leave me with the second group so I figure I’m 4-5. Sent back in line. Final call out. They call out the top four which includes me. Feeling pretty good. I make the cut and its on to Saturday.
NOTE: went back to the hotel and played outside with my son. We made the snow man, even if it was a 2ft one, but we made one! Had a little snow ball fight with the wife and kid and it was all good. Even though my snow balls were orange from the coloring.
Saturday Finals.
Where friday was rushed saturday was a drag. We got there at 8:30. We expected to be rushed again but we didn’t hit the stage til probably 12:30. Way to much time on my feet and way to crowded backstage. The pre was done at the Vet and the finals at the Convention center so it was a completly different set up. They re-judged the top 5 on Saturday. Don’t know if me smoothing out cost me a place or not. I’ll find out when I see the score card. i can live with 4th but I’m not satisfied. I need to do better. Not that the judges are wrong just that I need to be better.
Walk the expo a little but i was beat and it was a mess. Went to dinner with some friends on Saturday night and it was all good. Didn’t pig out as I still had to do MT on monday.

Wed. Travel Day
Before I left for Ohio my fridge went dead! Had that fixed ASAP before I left, an extra 460 out of pocket! All in all our flights got delayed and we got to Ohio 2 hrs later then scheduled. My 5 year old was beat as were the rest of us. Got to the Hotel and the computers were down so we couldn’t check in. So I go do my groceries at 12m and come back to check in. Get to bed at 2am up at 7. Slept on a sofa bed since I’m covered in jan tana and can’t sleep with anyone.
Thursday:Weigh ins: First I get stopped by Bill Comstock and Flex Wheller to do MDtv. Wow, I’m a huge Flex fan and that was just awesome. Bill tells me he has never seen me better so I felt pretty good. Weighed in at 217, a little light but I was sharp. The pics are washed out but even my glutes were hard this year. After the weigh ins I hung around with the MDtv crew translating for Flex and the Spanish competitors. I had fun with it and Flex got to remember me. Went back to the hotel after picking up some more stuff at Kroger.

http://www.teamsbix.com/teamsbix/index.php

The interview will air at 7pm Mon Jan 21.

You can check out my journal over at Intense Muscle. http://www.intensemuscle.com/28264-pastorpumps-prep.html

I try to update daily and you can post any questions you have for me as well. God Bless.

It will be official next week but Iovate(MuscleTech,Muscle Asylum, Six star) has chosen to Sponsor me.  I just got back from Toronto today. I am very excited and privileged to be part of the Team.

Even though I have cleaned up my eating for the last four weeks, this week marks the beginning of my prep.  I lost ten pounds of flab so I’m starting at a good 250.  Goal is 225-230.