Another week!

It's Monday again. As per usual, it started off as a typical Monday. I got up at 4:30 so I could be at the gym by 5:00am. (I get into work normally around 6:30/45am so I can get out earlier.) As I'm getting out of my car at the gym I realize I forgot my bath bag. I figured I'd be okay because my gym bag usually has extra stuff...just in case. Well, while I'm doing back/bis I realize that I have my non-traditional gym bag because I'd left mine at a cookout on Saturday. So I had nothing in my bag but a towel and work clothes. So instead of doing cardio as well, I had to go home after finishing weights to shower and change. Now I'll have to go back after work to do cardio. Going after work isn't the big deal, but I have volleyball at 6pm and since I run the league and have the nets, I have to be there about 5:30/40 at the very latest. So it'll be a quick cardio session. There goes my effort at getting up early!

At least the day has gone well and I had no other mishaps...at least not yet! I've been super busy at work and feel like I don't know up from down right now. Then again, that could be due to the fact that I had my first SCUBA class in water on Sunday. By-the-way, I'm so excited to be doing the SCUBA certification. I was intimidated while reading my books and watching the videos prior to going to my first class, but it's great!

I just found out yoga is cancelled for this week which really sucks. I missed it last week because of a funeral and the week before because of a meeting. Bummer! I really needed it this week.
Anyway, as for my workouts, they are going great and I'm definitely making gains. I'm maintaining a good weight and happy with that. I'm cleaning my diet right now and doing well with that. I'm just under 16 weeks out from my next contest so I'll start my true diet at week 12 (July 17). It will kind of suck for some events I have planned the rest of the summer and this fall, but it's my choice and I need to deal with it.

OK, back to work!

Contest date different than expected

Well, I just found out the first of the 2 shows that I want to do this fall is October 18 instead of November 1. I spoke to the organizer and he said he was 95% sure it would be in November this year and not October. I guess I should have bet on the 5%. Oh well. It definitely changes up my schedule as I was planning on starting my pre-contest diet on 1 Aug. Now my 2 shows are 5 weeks apart instead of 2. Should be interesting.

I was at a funeral service all day yesterday so was out of the loop. When I got into work this morning I had 173 emails in my inbox...and I even checked it before I left for it yesterday morning. Crazy! But I did go to the gym before leaving for the funeral yesterday. Did shoulders and low back and then some cardio. It was a good workout.

With the change of the contest dates I will now need to change my training splits as well. I have to sit and look at the calendar and figure out what I need to do now. Oh well. I also need to let some people know that the contest will be on a different date. Sucks!

Well, I have to get caught up at work. Best in training, ya'll!

Feeling good!

I'm feeling good about myself and my body this week...even though I am PMSing. Just thought you all should know. Hey, it's not always easy to feel good about yourself when you're PMSing and bloated.

Had a good night at volleyball even though we only went 2-4. I was hitting great and playing good defense. So I can't be upset about my game. Now, my teammates lost it there on passing for a little bit and that's why we had some bad games. But they were making smart plays and serving well. We just lost some that we should've won. Oh well.

I had a great back / bis workout yesterday and my bis are screaming at me today....but in a good way. But I fed my muscles really well yesterday so hopefully they'll recover quickly and I'll be stronger. Today I have legs and a bit longer session of cardio. It's been a good week at the gym so far.

I have a funeral to go to tomorrow so I'll be hitting the gym before. Then I'm going to be even more behind at work than I am now...which means I have to stop writing this post.

If I only didn't have to work...

...I could then be at the gym all the time and any time I wanted. Since I don't play the lottery and don't have any rich relatives, I don't see that happening anytime soon. What's funny is how when I'm gearing up for a contest (stressed, excited, etc.) and on a low-carb diet, I don't sleep the best so it's easy to get up in the morning and hit the gym. But when I'm on much higher carbs to include some sugars I sleep so much better and rarely get my butt out of bed to hit the gym and then have to go after work. Come August 1 though, watch out!

I'm still a bit sore from my first week back after a one-week break from weights. It's the first time I've been sore from lifting in like 4 or 5 months. OK, not completely true. I've had slight soreness in that time but it has always passed quickly enough that I hadn't noticed it. This new 6-week split is definitely much more strength building than the last few have been. I sure hope I fed my muscles enough this last week that I made some good gains.

Today I have chest and tris again and volleyball for 2 hours after that. I'm looking forward to my gym workout. I'm kind of looking forward to volleyball but I'm already getting sick of the 'schedule.' It's nice that it's the same time and place every week and that we play 2 matches each week otherwise it wouldn't be worth going. The luster of volleyball is starting to fizzle. I guess that can be considered normal since I've played consistently since I was in 5th grade. But yeah, I'm pretty much sick of it. And after playing in one tournament the weekend after Memorial Day, I have no others scheduled for the entire summer. I was supposed to play in one next weekend but that is the only day I can get my SCUBA certificaiton so I'm doing that instead.

OK, I'm so super busy at work so I shouldn't even be writing this blog right now.

Best in training!

TGIF

I know, that's a lame title. But it's true!

It's a beautiful day outside but it sounds as if it's supposed to start storming again either tonight or tomorrow. That's the last thing we need...more rain! Augh.

I start my 2nd 6-week split today. I'm moving from my weekly splits of chest/back, legs/abs, shoulders/bis/tris, legs/abs with 5 sets of 12, 10, 8, 6, and 4 to chest/tris, legs/abs, back/bis, legs, and shoulders/abs. I'm going to move to 3 sets of 10 and a set of 12. That set of 12 will be a drop-set for burnout. I'm still in a building phase right now. I've been lucky that I'm still maintaining a good bodyfat percent and not putting on too much weight too quickly.

Work has really been picking up lately. Also, my busiest 4 months are the 4 months following quarter ends: January, April, July, and October. So much of my work is quarterly so I get slammed on those months. At least I'll be busy in October so the time should go fast the month before my contest on November 1st (and November 22nd).

I'm antsy at work right now even though I am busy. It's so nice out and I just don't feel like being here today...so I'm taking the afternoon off.

Sample Diet

Some gals interested in competing have been asking what my diet was to prepare for the show. I've attached an excel document to this post to show how I started getting ready. I altered this diet to the changes my body made and my tastes. I mostly consumed sweet potatoes and plain oatmeal as my carbs (and of course lots of green veggies). I also actually did more of a carb-cycle with a 3-day cycle. Day 1 - higher carbs (and this is to say that I got both a sweet potatoe and oatmeal). Day 2 - medium to low carbs (got either a sweet potatoe OR oatmeal...not both). Day 3 - low to no carbs (just green veggies). When I started 'dieting' about 10-11 weeks out I was 163 and on the day before the show when I weighed in I was 140.

The next time around I plan to start at 18-weeks out as I have made the decision to compete a lot sooner than I did last time. Last time I made the decision at just 11 weeks out so it was a lot harder diet. But know that it can be done!!!

As for my current training. I'm on an off-week from my first 6-week split. So it's straight cardio/plyos/sprints this week and nothing too major so the bod can recover. I start with my next 6-week split next week and I'm looking forward to it. 6 more weeks of building and then it's back to maintenance for 12 weeks. I've put on a few more pounds in the last 3 weeks but I feel confident that it is muscle and not fat as I look about the same as I did 3-4 weeks ago.

I finished up bedazzling my next 2-piece suit for my next contest and it looks great...not on me, though! I put it on and took some pictures and boy do I feel as I have a way to go to get into contest shape. Not that it's THAT bad, but it's not great. Then again, it's still a lot better than it was before I started to get back into this competing lifestyle again!

By-the-way, I've finally gotten rid of my stalker! Yippee! He can go stalk someone else now!

Training on the mind...and Happy Father's Day!

Yesterday I did a full-body circuit to end my 2nd six-week split. It was a good workout but I didn't have time for cardio as we had a 10am tee time at a course about 40 minutes away from home. We did 9 holes with a foursome but it tooks us 3 hours because the group 2 ahead of us had 5 people from a family or something and were slow as hell. They weren't even nice enough to let the group right in front of us (2 people) play through. There was a group of 2 behind us but they agreed with us that there was no point in them playing through as everybody was backed up. But I did alright for my first time actually golfing in a year or so. Jonny and I only golfed once last year even though I took lessons. I think he only golfed 1 or 2 other times besides that. But he played well yesterday and so did the other 2 guys (buddies of his that he also happens to work with). After we were done we went to an Open House for a brewery that just opened a new one here. If you know anything about Wisconsin, breweries are everywhere here. Anyway, Jon's company had the contract for the network cabling and fiber optics so we got to attend the open house and got a tour. They had a band, all of their beers on tap, and food (brats of course!). If you ever get a chance, check out some beers from the New Glarus Brewing Company. One of the more known ones is Spotted Cow. Now, I don't drink beer but I hear it's good. I just had water...which was good because it was hot out. I made sure I had sunscreen on my face for golfing, but forgot to put it anywhere else as I was hurring after my workout. So my shoulders, chest and back got burned.

Last night for dinner Jon and I went over to friends of ours. They both work out at my gym and the female used to have her Pro card in bodybuilding. She truly competed and placed as a pro. Her boyfriend is most likely going to compete...she doesn't anymore. Jon had never met them and we had tried to plan a Brewers game but it just hasn't worked out yet. Turns out she's an absolute phenomenal cook. They had venison steaks, beef tenderloin wrapped in bacon, baked chicken with this awesome no sugar, no fat sauce. She had a beautiful salad with all the fixins and made a tort for dessert. The appetizers were also great. Turns out they had another gentleman over from our gym who used to played AAA Ball back in the late 70's to mid 80's. He was a pitcher so it was fascinating watching the Brewers game with him because he was telling us all sorts of stuff we never knew. Pretty darn cool. But what was even better was we mostly stayed away from bodybuilding/figure training all together. We did talk about some people at the gym, but not about training. And I didn't even feel bad about having desert!! :)

This morning I did an hour and a half walk outside and forgot to put sunscreen on and got more burned again. Well, at least my tan is coming along...but so is the skin cancer that I'll probably end up getting. I cleaned Jonny's bathroom so hopefully he'll be surprised when he gets home from his dads house. I did my bathroom, the kitchen and some laundry as well. I had a nice salmon and sweet potatoe lunch with a chocolate chip rice cake with some peanut butter. So, I feel pretty good about eating healthy today. Now I have to drink a bunch of water though because I had 2 1/2 glasses of wine last night. I didn't go to my dad's for father's day because so many roads are still closed here in WI because of the flooding. I could easily get there but a bunch of the highways are closed on the way back because some of the highways are only flooded on one lane. Besides, I asked my dad what he wanted to do for father's day (knowing exactly what he'd say) and he said nothing. So I told him to enjoy the day. And we are unfortunately waiting for more storms to roll in so I figured it'd be best to not travel at all today.

Well, I guess that's it. The Brewers just won so I have to call Jon and let him know because I'm sure he's not watching the game since his Dad doesn't like baseball.
Happy Father's Day and best in training!

At least it stopped raining for awhile

It stopped raining long enough for us to get our volleyball matches in last week. My team kind of fell apart though. We won the first game of each match but blew big leads for the 2nd and 3rd games of each. It's frustrating but I guess that's life. We definitely weren't on our games. I think the biggest surprise is that even though the rain had stopped that the grounds weren't flooded. There is so much flooding here that we thought we would have to call the games. Luckily a gal that plays in my league was kind enough to go over early to make sure the courts were okay (the park is her backyard). Running the league isn't easy when you live on the opposite side of town. Maybe I'll convince someone else to take over next year;) I doubt it though!

I guess with all the flooding the locker rooms at my gym are closed. Today I won't need them as I'll just change here at work on the way there...but tomorrow morning I would need to shower there so I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I hate to go to the gym in the morning and then have to go all the way home to shower and change. But rumor has it they may be open again on Wednesday. I guess we'll see.

My computer is running extremely slow here at work. I'm also having an issue with my excel documents. I don't know much about visual basic, but ever since I saved a document that was sent from me from much higher in the company, I keep getting a visual basic error on all my excel documents. Slightly frustrating!!

Today I have legs and cardio at the gym. Thursday ends my first 6-week split. Friday I'll do a circuit at the gym and then start up my next 6-week split late next week. My gym workouts are going well and I'm definitely making gains in weight. I've put on a few more pounds then where I thought I'd be at this time, but I really think it's lean muscle because my bodyfat has not increased that I can tell and I'm eating well. Also, I've been making a huge effort to drink at least 1 gallon of water a day. I actually have a gallon jug here at work now so I get a gallon in, plus whatever other water I drink during the day. So some of the extra weight could definitely be a bit of water weight as I feel a little puffy.

OK, time to look into this computer issue. I also have a ton of stuff I have to get done here at work since I'll be in a project management class all day Wed and Thurs and have the day off on Friday.

Best in training!

And yet another rainy day

I really wanted to get out and ride my bike this weekend but not only was it rainy and stormy, but when it wasn't the wind was blowing so hard. Jon and I also wanted to hit some golf balls because he's got a golf tournament coming up, but with the wind and rain that was pretty much out of the question. So needless to say we didn't end up doing too much this weekend. Granted, it is only 10:20am on Sunday right now, but the radar is showing storms coming through all day. Oh well!

Yesterday I did a cardio/plyo/cardio workout. I first did 20 minutes on the elliptical then did 35 minutes of plyos (holy cow!) and finished it off with a 20 minute brisk walk on the treadmill. I was smoked by the time I was finished. I highly recommend adding something like this into your workout, even if you don't play sports. I partially do plyos to keep my legs strong to jump in volleyball, but I also need some other cross-training to keep the body guessing.

This morning Jon and I went out for breakfast. I had 2 egg whites but then ordered pancakes as well. The place didn't have any wheat pancakes or healthier syrup so I just splurged. 2 pancakes at those cafe' places are really like 4 pancakes anywhere else. So, needless to say I was full...but I didn't really feel guilty. In fact, I am supposed to have the day off completely and I'm going to stick with that!!

Tomorrow I'm going to hit the gym in the morning before work and we are 'supposed' to have volleyball tomorrow night. It's is technically supposed to rain/storm until about 4pm tomorrow and ball starts at 6. We really need to play tomorrow because we had to cancel last week. Cross your fingers! But even if it isn't raining the ground is still going to be slick. That can be dangerous when you are running and jumping in grass. Inevitably someone always slips. I wear golf cleats when I play.

OK, I should go. Time to switch the laundry and get some other cleaning done. I also need to finish up the last of the rhinestones on my 2-piece suit. I also found 2 one-piece suits that are used that I think I will get at least one.

My Own Fit Team

I am going to help train 3 gals (1 from work and 2 from my gym) for one of the figure contests I'm doing in November. I'm looking forward to using my personal training certification for something good since I don't do much with it anymore besides train myself. I met with all 3 of the gals yesterday to get them 'started.' We went over eating plans, workout plans, supplements, contest dates, suits/shoes, posing, etc. It's always nice to have a group of gals to compete with.

Yesterday I had to actually go out of my way to avoid my stalker at the gym. Shitty thing is that I was originally only supposed to do a morning workout yesterday. But I got there later than originally planned so I had to cut my cardio session short. So I went back after work to finish up cardio and abs. This guy just doesn't take a hint, seriously. I'm going to have to now actually be rude about it if he tries to talk to me again. Before I just told him that I don't like to talk to people at the gym. But on Wednesday he actually came and INTERUPTED a conversation I was having with another bodybuilder. How rude can you be? So now he's actually truly pissed me off. Hey, you mess with the bull, you get the horns!! >:{

Yesterday I did a leg workout that consisted of 4 groups of 5 sets each with reps of 12, 10, 8, 6, and 4. I also did 10 minutes on the regular stairmaster in the morning and then 35 minutes on the treadmill at a pretty decent incline walking. My workout is below:
Group 1:
-Leg Extensions (toes pointing regular)
-Lying Leg Curls
-Standing Calf Raises
Group 2:
-Back Extensions
-Flutter kicks
-Single leg calf raises
Group 3:
-Uneven squats (leg up on stepper box)
-Glute Press
-Seated Calf Raises
Group 4:
-Stick Squats
-Leg Raises on bench (lying on stomach to hit hammies and butt)
-2nd position calf raises

Today I lifted chest and back. I ended with 30 minutes on the elliptical machine focusing on the Glute 1 workout. My weight workout consisted of 4 groups of 5 sets each with 12, 10, 8, 6, and 4 reps each. I went up in weight in quite a few exercises and feel that I'll be able to go up in the rest on my next workout and even some of those I already went up in. Also, next week is the last week of this first 6-week split. I will then move my split from chest/back, legs/abs, shoulders/bis/tris, legs/abs to chest/tris, legs/abs, back/bis, legs, shoulders/abs with the same sets/reps for another 6 weeks. Anyway, my workout this morning consisted of:
Group 1:
-Flat Bench
-Assisted Pull-ups (I'm going to be able to do my own bodyweight for 3 or 4 reps soon!!!)
Group 2:
-DB Incline Bench
-One-arm DB row
Group 3:
-Decline Cable Crossover
-One-arm cable row (with lunge/scale)
Group 4:
-DB flies (flat bench)
-Lat pull down

Tomorrow I have 45 minutes of cardio plus hills and sprints. I'm also getting my hair done which I REALLY need! On the positive side for myself, I've been sticking to healthy eating pretty well this last week. Hopefully I'm on an upward trend and will be ready to start preparing truly on August 1st. If I maintain where I am at right now, I should hopefully have an easier time preparing for the next one.

I think the biggest thing right now is to not tell myself I am 'fat.' Obviously, I'm not fat...I'm leaner than I was even before I decided to do my first contest...but I'm obviously not in contest shape because it's something you cannot maintain. So it's a constant mental struggle you have to play with yourself and deal with. A female bodybuilder at the gym yesterday told me that I still look really lean (comparatively) and not to freak out. She told me to just keep doing what I'm doing...so that's encouraging.
My new suit is almost ready. I have one more set of rhinestones to put on it. I will need to order a one-piece suit though for the second contest I am going to do. I'll probably do that with the raise I just got at work...that's right! I got a raise. Not huge, but an extra $1K a year is always a help! Anyway, I just have to decide what color suit I want to go with for the one-piece. I'm thinking a purple or lavendar color.

One of the other gals that was in the last show with me brought me some pictures in hard copy today. I'll scan them in when I get a chance and download them. Her husband was smack-dab middle-front so they are right one and you can actually see my makeup. They are a good reminder of what I need to do!!

We found out that another couple that are bodybuilders are huge Brewers fans as well. So Jon and I are going to do a game with them. It helps because they'll do healthy foods to tailgate as well so it's cool.

Best in training, everyone! Just remember that your training is what YOU make it!

Misbehaving

I did not get up to go to the gym as planned this morning. When the alarm went off at 0420, I accidentally turned it off instead of hitting snooze. Well, I intentionally turned it off but I didn't expect to fall back asleep. Jon didn't get up to go either but promised he would start going regularly. Luckily we got up in time for work!

We went to another Brewers game last night. It was a great one and we got to watch Randy Johnson pass Roger Clemens on the strikeout list last night. The Crew fans gave him a standing O for that and then again when he was finished pitching. A pretty classy city. On the other hand, the Crew fans were booing Billy Hall who let his manager state to the public that he wants a trade or wants to play. Well, unless you operate in the batter's box, you don't get to play. I didn't see the point in booing him, though...I clapped. But it was a good win. The Crew's pitcher, Scott McClung, had 2 hits of RJ. It was great. Brauny also hit a 2-run homer and Fielder homered in the 8th. Hardy also had a homer. I ate too much at the Friday's located in the stadium...but it was a healthy salad:) I did have some roasted almonds (so good) but made Jon take them away so I didn't eat the whole bag:)

OK, I know this site isn't really to report on Brewers recaps, but what the heck. So, I didn't get up to go to the gym, but I also know that I can go after work. I just have a 40 minute cardio session and plyos today. I can't do Yoga at work today because I have to attend a class. If I could do yoga, my cardio session would only be 20-25 minutes with plyos afterwards. So I guess we'll see how the plyos go after a longer cardio session. I don't know, I may do plyos first. I guess we'll see how I feel after I get done with this class on Finance (boring) today.

I have legs tomorrow and chest/back on Friday. This weekend we are busy putting the piers, lifts, and boats in at my parents house on the lake. We are building new piers this year so I had to factor in a longer time doing that so I probably won't get to the gym this weekend. Hopefully we'll get some boating in because it's supposed to be nice and sunny and warm this weekend. Crossing my fingers for that!!

I just found out my work cafeteria does egg beaters in the morning. They also have fat-free/low-sugar yogurt. So I can get some healthy stuff if I don't have time to make meals for the day (like last night).

OK, gotta get some work done before I leave to go to this class.

Rainy days stink

I don't necessarily mind rainy days when it's warm out. It started raining yesterday and was still 80 degrees. But now it's in the high 50's and raining. That makes for one not wanting to go do cardio outside.

Jon and I are heading to the Brewers game tonight so I hit the gym in the morning. Good thing, too, because crazy stalker is trying to talk with me again. Yesterday I did legs in the morning but didn't do cardio because I was supposed to have 2 volleyball matches in the evening. Because they got rained out, I headed to the gym for a 40 minute session on the Elliptical. Of course my stalker tried to talk to me...I actually gave him the hand. He just laughed. Are you serious?! God help me!

We both got up to go to the gym this morning. He was totally sore from his first workout in over 6 months so he just did cardio. I did shoulders/bis/tris and 20 minutes on the treadmill. I had to make the session a bit shorter by cutting out one group of exercises so I could get to work on time. It still kicked my butt, though!

Tomorrow I'm going to do some plyos after a quick cardio session. I have a feeling my legs are going to be sore for my leg workout on Thursday. I guess we shall see!

I know this post is totally chaotic, but I'm trying to finish it before heading to a meeting and then leaving work. I first started this at 11:22am and it's now 2:52pm. Go figure!

Better Late Than Never

Saturday I played in an all-day volleyball tournament in the grass. It was almost all A and open level players and was some good competition. Of course there were some rec ball level teams that were registered and shouldn't have been, but we still had fun. We won our pool and then one our first round match of tournament play. Then we went 3 games with the team that beat us out to go to the championship match and they later won it quickly in two games. We played for 3rd place, went all 3 games, and won. So we got our money back plus $5 each. That was nice! :) It was 75 and sunny out the whole day and the tan looks good again. The drive home was about 35 minutes and I was already sore by the time I got home. My traps, forearms and fingers hurt from setting for the first time in over 6 weeks. My delts and lats hurt from swinging for longer than one hour in over 6 weeks. My legs hurt from jumping. I had cuts all over me from diving in the grass. I had bruises from running into teammates. My right ankle hurt because that was the longest I played on it in ages and it is still messed up from dislocating it 2 summers ago. Finally my left knee hurt just because it always hurts. Oh, my lower back as well...it always hurts also. Then of course when I woke up on Sunday morning all the other muscles that didn't hurt Saturday night also hurt:)

Despite my pain, I still got up Sunday morning and went to the gym. I did chest and back as well as 25 minutes of cardio and felt good afterwards. I still pushed myself as hard as I always do, even with the soreness...but I didn't overdo it because I was worried about pulling or straining something. Jon and I rode around in the car for 4 hours afterwards looking at houses. Then my butt was sore from sitting for so long! :)

Last night I went to bed early but tossed and turned all night long. I kept waking up with my hair completely drenched and the rest of me sweaty even though it was nice and cool in my room. When my alarm went off at 4:20 this morning, I had finally truly fallen asleep so I reset it to just go in at the normal time. Well then I fell asleep and then started tossing and turning again. So I sent my boss an email telling him I was going back to bed for another hour, would then hit the gym and then come in. So I got to the gym about 8am, had a great leg workout, took my time showering, and got here at 10am. I didn't do cardio because I have two volleyball matches tonight after work.

Tomorrow I'm going to have to get my butt up in the morning because we are going to the Brewers game after work. No skipping workouts..that's all there is to it! The best part is is that Jon actually got up and went to the gym this morning. I'm so proud!!

One of my contest dates was finally announced. It's the weekend before Turkey Day so that'll be interesting. I got an email from the other coordinator for the first contest I want to do and it now looks like it will be November 1 instead of October 18. But that's good because I can start dieting a little later in the summer and be sane a bit longer...and that puts the contests 3 weekends apart.

Go Brewers!