windsrprk’s BodyBlog

Wow, been awhile since I’ve visited my Bodyspace page. I admit I stepped away from lifting for a few months and got into my other passion…horses. Adopted an ex-racehorse at the end of May and find myself at the barn a few days a week now. While my horse is healing from an injury (he had it already when I got him) I am taking lessons on different horses and am enjoying it! Feels good to be riding again. Once my own horse is ready to return to work I hope to eventually be able to take him to some horse shows. Time frame for showing should be sometime next year, provided all goes well!

Also on my calendar for next year is to compete again in figure. Yep, I miss having a definite goal and what better goal than to hit the stage again? The 2010 schedule is not out yet for the INBF so at this time I’m not sure exactly what show I’ll be doing. More to come later…

The freight company called early last week to say they had my Powertec order. The woman on the phone said they prefer to do residential deliveries on weekends. Great, no need to take time off work! We were given a window of 9am to 5pm on Saturday. My hubby predicted the driver would show up later in the day and sure enough, he was right! The driver showed up around 3pm and between the three of us it took no time to get the boxes upstairs.

Hubby and I ran an errand after the delivery guy left so the rack was not immediately assembled. We got to it upon our return and the rack itself went together pretty quickly. The high/low pulley assembly took more time since there were more parts. Now that its assembled we are impressed with the size and stability of the rack, and the smoothness of the pulleys. I am so excited to get to do barbell bench press and back squats again!

The pulleys use Olympic size plates. Doh! I only have standard size. The holes in the 25lb plates are big enough to slip onto the plate holders so for now, that is how it is set up. Future purchases include an Olympic barbell and plates.

Well, its been quite some time since I last posted in my blog. Took a short break from training for about a month, then got back into it for a couple of weeks only to come down with a cold! What a bummer. No training until this yuck has passed. In happy news, I finally ordered the Powertec power rack I’ve been dying to have! I got the one that has the high/low pulley attachments. No word yet on when it will be here since it said its on backorder through the bb.com store. I hope it arrives by sometime in early January. I cannot wait to get to do back squats on a regular basis, in addition to barbell bench press. Hubby and I already went shopping for a variety of bars/handles to use on the rack. With the timing, its like Merry Christmas to our home gym!

I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas (or happy Hannukah) and a safe New Year!

I went with a friend from work to their gym to do a leg workout this evening. This was an exciting session since I have yet to purchase a power rack (December!) and going to the gym gave me the opportunity to do back squats. Did a warmup set of 80lbs then three sets later worked my way up to a set of 3 reps at 120lbs. A personal best! Body weight is currently 115lbs so I FINALLY squatted more than my weight - WOOHOO!!

I helped my friend with his leg training (he had previously used just machines) and by the time we were done he said his legs were shaking! He enjoyed the training so much he said he wanted me to join him again next week for another leg workout. Will do!

Wow, what a mess of a weekend! Patrick and I live on a third floor apartment and we were not sure how well the complex would handle a storm. During the night, we lost power around 3am. We could feel the building twist in the wind…a scary feeling to be sure! The wind howled and I heard a couple of car alarms go off, probably due to flying debris. We got up at 5:30am to peek out the window and could see the trees whipping around. The sun provided enough daylight to see around 7:30am. So far so good…no visible damage on any of the other apartment buildings, and no downed trees that we could see. Things seemed to calm down around 9am so we ventured outside for a quick look. There were a lot of leaves and small branches scattered all over the ground. Luckily, no trees landed on anyone’s car!

We went for a proper look around the complex about 12noon. This is when we discovered that there was quite a bit of damage. There were numerous roof shingles on the ground, and some of the buildings lost their hardiplank. One couple was inspecting the damage on their car. The driver’s side mirror was destroyed, probably by a flying roof shingle. Considering the severity of the storm, it is pretty lucky to have just minor damage! One building suffered major damage when the siding and everything underneath was torn off. There was a giant hole in the wall! We later saw a carpet cleaner van outside this apartment. We can only hope no one was home at the time of the storm.

We were without power for 18 hours. Patrick and I ate most of the food from the refridgerator. Fortunately our food supply was low since we typically shop on Sundays. This means we didn’t lose a lot of food, thank goodness! While our power is back on we are working with a different problem…no running water. Patrick suggested we use water from the nearby swimming pool to flush the toilets. He just finished boiling some of the pool water so we can somewhat bathe. This is preferable to no shower at all! hehe

It sounds like there were very few casualties from Hurricane Ike. There were some humorous moments like The Bear, The Chicken, and Geraldo losing his Blackberry to The Surge. We hope everyone affected by the storm is safe and sound!

Not much going on here show-wise. I have settled into the offseason, deciding not to compete for the remainder of the year. I will look at doing an INBF show in the late spring or early summer, depending on what is out there. The biggest news is Patrick and I got married! We went to Florida from August 17-24th and got married on the beach on August 19, 2008. Tropical Storm Fay didn’t bother us at all. There was off and on rain on Monday and Tuesday, then beautiful blue skies for the rest of the week. We enjoyed some sightseeing and shopping in South Beach and honeymooned in Key West. I’m not sure what gave us away as out-of-towners but every shop we walked into, we’d get asked the question "Where are you from?" Florida is so pretty and we’ll definitely go back there for another vacation. We have our sights set on attending the Arnold Classic in 2009. Can’t wait!

My dad and one of my best friends, Diane, joined my fiance and I for dinner. It was so much fun! It felt sooo good to enjoy a burger and steak fries after the show. The hot apple pie with vanilla ice cream and two Coronas was great too! Slept like a hibernating bear and then we came home this morning. Relaxed by going to see a movie and then went to my favorite place, Whataburger, for lunch. I’m still full! Eating will be back on track come Monday.

The show was a great learning experience. As a kid I was so shy and the thought of doing an oral book report in front of the class used to make me get shaky and feel like I was going to cry. Since then I have lost that shyness and found it easy to walk out on stage. Watching myself on video I can see that my posing still needs work. I have a habit of dropping my right shoulder during the back pose and wow, that looked really bad! I suffered an ankle injury during a cardio session weeks before the show. Unfortunately, it did not heal completely by the time the show arrived and it flared up when I wore my heels. I did my best to hide the discomfort although my stride still looked a bit choppy.

I would’ve liked to get some feedback from the judges to help my presentation for next time around. This is where I had a huge moment of disappointment. Upon inquiring about feedback, I got passed from one judge to the next without receiving one single comment. They chatted amongst themselves and gave me the impression they were "too busy" to offer one to two minutes of their time. I can guess that I would’ve been told I came in too lean. It would be nice if I could’ve confirmed this and received a couple other tips as well.

My fiance’s parents came to watch the show. They have never been to a bodybuilding/figure show and his mom made the most priceless comment. "I can see its all about the face and tits." OMG! I would like to think that figure is not based on this and yet she picked EVERY class winner based on these aspects. I have seen the whole fake breasts issue on several forums so it is a concern for those interested in competing in figure. I personally will not go that route so its fake inserts or nothing!

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the show was the spectators. The attendance started off fairly strong and quickly waned. Wow is all I can say. As each class ended there were several people that would get up and leave. It got so bad that the MC finally said something about it. There were scattered spectators here and there by the end of the evening. To me, that speaks volumes about the show itself and its not saying anything good.

Even though my wrap-up doesn’t sound sunny cheery I can say I absolutely loved wearing the pretty suits, getting dolled up, and most especially seeing my body in such fantastic condition. My fiance loved the glamorous look! hehe I will take the remainder of the year off since the rest of my vacation time is allotted to us going to Florida to get married. Woohoo!

Well let’s start off with how the morning went. I have a tendency to sweat at night while sleeping and last night was no different. I woke up with some funny looking tan runs on my abdomen and the back of my arms. Luckily, fixing the problem was no sweat (haha, how punny!) and the tan was evened out pretty quickly. Did a short cardio session (15 minute walk on a treadmill in the hotel gym), a quick upper body workout (10 minutes), ate breakfast, got hair and makeup on, and made it to the competitor check-in a few minutes early.

At the expeditor’s table I got my competitor number but failed to find out which figure class I was in. Some of this is my fault (I should have asked but I’m a noob at this) and some of this was the expeditor’s fault (she should have told me which class I was in as a double-check for their records). After asking around backstage I learned that I was in Figure Class B.

I kept myself covered up until the last minute because it was so cold in the building. Upon looking at the other competitors I thought Uh Oh…I’m the hardest one here! I had heard that the NPC was going for a softer look and today it bordered on bikini model. I suddenly felt like I was in the wrong division! I made the most of it, presenting myself to the best of my abilities on stage. No surprise, I did not make the first callout. Shoot, the experience itself taught me a lot, especially that holding a pose on the side of the stage is very hard! I wound up in the second callout (of two) and I have no idea where I placed. I believe there were 13 girls in my class.

The big goof came when I MISSED the Masters Figure class. I never did hear them call for the Masters class so I was in the midst of changing into my two-piece while unbeknownst to me the class was going on stage. My dad and fiance both said I would’ve taken that class. Aww…they are so supportive! Given my rather hard look I’m not sure how I would’ve fared and since I messed up I will never know. I will learn from that mistake!

The evening show is still ahead and even though I’m out of the running I will still give my best. My coach suggested I switch to a natural organization and I am definitely going to look into this. I told him the girls today were pretty soft and that I like the harder look myself. Since my look doesn’t seem to suit the NPC I will find an organization that is more suitable because I would like to go on stage again in the future!

Well, I have three coats of Jan Tana on now and I look like a different nationality! hehe It’s amazing how this stuff gets you so dark so fast. I had a little base tan going before using Jan Tana so that probably helped. My fiance laughed when he noticed that it looks like my teeth are glowing against this color. Haha! I had my nails painted this morning and the white tips look super white with my tan hands. I had read before online that one should not put too much color on the hands because they darken easily. This is so true! While my body has three coats my hands have only one and they already match.

I’m glad I bought extra sponges (the round microfiber kind you use to wax a car) because the one that came with the Jan Tana eventually got so saturated it was hard to get new color on. Sounds odd, right? Once the first sponge got so damp it seemed it wanted to remove color as opposed to apply new color. Changed to a fresh sponge and voila! Solved that problem and was able to continue applying new coats. I also found that after the initial coat, it works better to press the color on instead of wiping it on. Use gloves! We got nitrile ones from Walmart since they fit looser and are easier to get in/out of and reuse. Also, nitrile gloves are good for people with latex allergies.

I learned a valuable lesson regarding competition tan and going to the bathroom. Ladies, this one is for you! Pee in a cup as it will prevent splashing and spotting your tan. Patrick helped me fix the spots that occurred. What an asset he is to my life…I love you babe! Managed to avoid any other mishaps by using one of the hotel’s disposable coffee cups to take a leak. No splashing, no goofs to fix!

Patrick and I are lounging in the hotel room before going out for the registration/competitor’s meeting. There are other competitors staying here so the excitement has already begun!

With the competition this weekend, I opted to take a couple of days off from work. It feels good to have only one thing to think about (the show) instead of two (work and show). Got up without the alarm and still found myself getting up before 8am! Did some cardio, ate breakfast, and relaxed. Right now I just finished my third stage makeup practice and am pleased with the results. I made some tweaks to what the MAC girl showed me and it finally looks good without being clownish. Whew!

I have practiced posing in both suits and again, am pleased with what I see. Girls, if you need a suit designer please feel free to contact Jodie at fitweardesigns.com. She did a great job on my suits and allowed me to do the stone work to save $$. I’ll post up pics of the suits as soon as the show is complete. They turned out really pretty!

Peak week is going extremely well and I am looking forward to the show. My office has taken a poll and thinks I will finish in the top 5. Here’s hoping I do not let them down!