For the first time all year I feel like I can just take a deep breathe and relax. This should be a good feeling but instead I feel kind of lost, wondering what I should be working toward now. I know my body needs a break from the intense dieting and training, and I intend on giving it one, but I also know that I am the type of person that always needs something to look forward to, a goal in mind, and sitting here stagnantly is going to drive me crazy pretty soon!
This weekend was of course the OCB Spirit of America pro-qualifier where I competed in both the open and novice bikini categories. It was the second and last competition I plan on doing this Spring, held in Carver, MA. I have to say, I am very glad that for my first show I chose a small, local one as this was a totally different breed. Not necessarily better or worse as there were pros and cons to each, I just think that my first show will always be my favourite. I drove down early Friday morning anticipating travel delays due to the horrible Boston terrorist attacks that occurred last week. However, the roads were smooth sailing and I made it to Plymouth an hour early for my 10:20 am tan appointment. Luckily the lady in charge was a bit of a drill sergeant running a very tight ship, and was early herself so she got right to it when I arrived. The tanning product used was a bit different than the last show. Con: it wasn't as dark as the last one and I prefer a darker color on stage; pro: it dried quicker and once dry didn't get on your clothing (or anything else for that matter) so there were no nasty messes to clean up.
After my tan I drove over to the host hotel to register and pick up my number tags and goodie bag. To save money, I stayed with my Aunt in Kingston (the next town over) who had to work that day but luckily I have a lot of family in the area so I headed over to my Grandmother's house to visit for a while as I now had a ton of time to kill. Boy was she surprise to see her Oompa-Loompa Granddaughter show up at the door LOL!
Saturday morning I awoke at 5:00 am to start getting ready. I didn't need to be at the venue until 8:00 but I knew my lacking hair & makeup skills would require some serious prep time. Thank goodness my Aunt brews some especially delicious coffee...she even grounds fresh beans every morning! Off I went around 7:00 am. Being one of the first to arrive I snagged a great spot to both set-up and view the stage for the day. For the next few hours I mingled with the other competitors, had a brief competitor meeting around 10:00 am and then it was showtime at 11:00! There were I think 7 different bikini classes this time with approximately 60 competitors (147 in the entire show). I was in novice class C and open class B. The classes were supposedly divided up by height but no one ever asked me how tall I was and there were a few girls out there with me who literally towered over me! This time around I was not that nervous for the group comparisons. The stage felt a lot different than the last show though. The lighting was such that you could see the entire audience, not just the judges, and there had to have been at least double the judges there were at the last show. I got very worried when I was up there though as my former method of trying to make eye contact with each judge didn't seem to be working. I felt like they weren't paying me any attention and my attempts to change positions and wiggle around weren't helping either. When I exited the stage for the last time people asked me how I felt it went and I honestly had no clue. Time to wait.
For the next few hours I sat in my camp and socialized, touched-up, ate, and watched the other groups. The day was both long and exhausting. Luckily one of the other competitor's friends who was there for support and prep-help made a Dunkin' Donuts run for us mid-day. That may have been the best iced coffee I've ever had LOL! Around 5:00 pm it was time for our individual stage walks. Supposedly the judging is already done at this point but I still have insane stage fright and would pay extra to be able to skip this part! I also wasn't feeling very confident as I had only practiced once since the last show and the class I had planned on brushing-up my skills in on Friday had been cancelled last minute. My anxiety rose as I waited my turn backstage and as competitor #55 I was about the 20th person to go. Once out there I kept it simple, following the same routine I had done before, but I think I went too fast and felt like I probably looked as un-confident as I felt. Again, I felt like the judges weren't payment me any attention, despite being the only one up there this time, so I exited stage with a queasy feeling. At this point I waited around backstage as unlike the first show, here they posted the results of the top 5 in each class (supposedly in random order) immediately after the walks were complete. I'm glad they did this as it was a couple more hours at least before award time and if you didn't place it was nice to be able to leave early. Here's a pic of the placings:
That might be a little hard to read but I made the top 5 in both of my classes! I had told myself not to expect to place since there were so many other competitors so at this point I was on cloud 9! However, I do have to say that each class was smaller than the group I competed against at the first show (7 in open and 9 in novice) so I feel like placing at the Pine Tree was a much bigger accomplishment. The next hour or so I spent watching the other classes and categories perform their individual walks/acts. I have to say, the bodybuilders were beyond entertaining to watch! I highly recommend attending a pro-qualifying show next time you have the chance just to see the talented and often hilarious performances. One act involved 4 competitors all out on stage at once doing a group act that combined both traditional poses with expert dance moves; another competitor did an act including a full costume to a country song I wish I could remember the name of and several other competitors were just so much fun to watch for either their confidence, attitudes, or hilarious song choices. These people definitely knew the meaning of "owning the stage"!
After this all bikini top 5 placers got called back stage for award time. It was a bit chaotic as they seemed to be rushing everyone out on stage as fast as possible and there wasn't much glory involved in receiving your trophy. It was all so fast that I couldn't even tell you who the other girls up there with me were. I must say though, and I know this will piss some people off but hey, it's my blog and I'm not going to censor myself, I am very discouraged with the judging at this show. Being a large show, yes there were many more competitors but I didn't feel like the competition was any harder than the first show. In fact, I felt like there were a ton of girls there who came straight off of OOB and never trained or dieted a day in their life! As I stood there on stage after receiving my trophy for the open category (I got 3rd Novice and 4th Open), I remember this one girl come out having placed ahead of me who I kid you not had the sagging ass of my 93 year old step-grandmother! I don't recall which place she got but I was beyond disgruntled. As I looked around backstage I realized that given how small the classes were, at least half of the girls got trophies which made placing even less of an accomplishment. If it were my show I would have had half the classes, making them each twice the size so it was more of a true competition. Don't get me wrong though, I am of course extremely happy I placed in both categories. I just feel like I don't know what they are looking for anymore. The advice I got from the judges at the first show made me think they wanted a little more muscularity. I was so excited to be bringing way more shredded abs to the stage this time and spent my entire time up on stage flexing my quads to make them look more defined than they are. Apparently these judges wanted the soft Sports Illustrated cover model look. Oye Vey! Anyway, here's a pic of me and my two trophies after the awards were given out:
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The overall winner definitely had the body type of a SI girl. She was tall, thin, had a great figure and was extremely confident (and disgustingly rude and cocky backstage I must say) but she did not have much for visible muscle tone. I guess I just feel lost as to what to do to improve my scoring next time. I personally like the more muscular bikini look way better and I'm going to continue to train that way. One girl recommended I try NPC (another organization as opposed to OCB) as they look for a more muscular bikini physique. For now though I think I'll continue with OCB for the rest of the year, see how things pan-out, and then maybe change things up next year. I haven't yet decided on when I'll compete again but right now I'm considering a show in July. The next month however is all about a more normalized (but still clean) nutrition plan and building more muscle mass.
I stayed until the end of the show which was around 10:30 pm as I had plans to grab dinner with the other competitors on my new team, Team Maximum, which I was invited to join last week. Most of the team members don't live in Portland (or Maine for that matter) but it's great to say I'm on a team now and know that I'll always have a network of people for support at future shows. We went to a Mexican restaurant in Plymouth and I had a delicious skinny margarita and fish tacos, both of which I'd been craving for months! The service was terribly slow though and being beyond starving I think I ate about 3 baskets of tortilla chips myself before we got our food. As a result I spent the next 12 hours with a massive stomach ache!
The next morning I got up early and headed home, making it from Kingston to Portland in only 2 hours. Mapquest says it's supposed to be a 3.5 hour trip...apparently I have a lead foot LOL. I was beyond exhausted yesterday after the long day on Saturday and then only getting 4 hours of sleep. Luckily I took today off from work so I can recover. It will be my first day back in the gym since Thursday and I'm ready to bust some serious ass! I'm cutting-back a bit on cardio and going hard on the weights for the next month. Bulking season here I come!
This weekend was of course the OCB Spirit of America pro-qualifier where I competed in both the open and novice bikini categories. It was the second and last competition I plan on doing this Spring, held in Carver, MA. I have to say, I am very glad that for my first show I chose a small, local one as this was a totally different breed. Not necessarily better or worse as there were pros and cons to each, I just think that my first show will always be my favourite. I drove down early Friday morning anticipating travel delays due to the horrible Boston terrorist attacks that occurred last week. However, the roads were smooth sailing and I made it to Plymouth an hour early for my 10:20 am tan appointment. Luckily the lady in charge was a bit of a drill sergeant running a very tight ship, and was early herself so she got right to it when I arrived. The tanning product used was a bit different than the last show. Con: it wasn't as dark as the last one and I prefer a darker color on stage; pro: it dried quicker and once dry didn't get on your clothing (or anything else for that matter) so there were no nasty messes to clean up.
After my tan I drove over to the host hotel to register and pick up my number tags and goodie bag. To save money, I stayed with my Aunt in Kingston (the next town over) who had to work that day but luckily I have a lot of family in the area so I headed over to my Grandmother's house to visit for a while as I now had a ton of time to kill. Boy was she surprise to see her Oompa-Loompa Granddaughter show up at the door LOL!
Saturday morning I awoke at 5:00 am to start getting ready. I didn't need to be at the venue until 8:00 but I knew my lacking hair & makeup skills would require some serious prep time. Thank goodness my Aunt brews some especially delicious coffee...she even grounds fresh beans every morning! Off I went around 7:00 am. Being one of the first to arrive I snagged a great spot to both set-up and view the stage for the day. For the next few hours I mingled with the other competitors, had a brief competitor meeting around 10:00 am and then it was showtime at 11:00! There were I think 7 different bikini classes this time with approximately 60 competitors (147 in the entire show). I was in novice class C and open class B. The classes were supposedly divided up by height but no one ever asked me how tall I was and there were a few girls out there with me who literally towered over me! This time around I was not that nervous for the group comparisons. The stage felt a lot different than the last show though. The lighting was such that you could see the entire audience, not just the judges, and there had to have been at least double the judges there were at the last show. I got very worried when I was up there though as my former method of trying to make eye contact with each judge didn't seem to be working. I felt like they weren't paying me any attention and my attempts to change positions and wiggle around weren't helping either. When I exited the stage for the last time people asked me how I felt it went and I honestly had no clue. Time to wait.
For the next few hours I sat in my camp and socialized, touched-up, ate, and watched the other groups. The day was both long and exhausting. Luckily one of the other competitor's friends who was there for support and prep-help made a Dunkin' Donuts run for us mid-day. That may have been the best iced coffee I've ever had LOL! Around 5:00 pm it was time for our individual stage walks. Supposedly the judging is already done at this point but I still have insane stage fright and would pay extra to be able to skip this part! I also wasn't feeling very confident as I had only practiced once since the last show and the class I had planned on brushing-up my skills in on Friday had been cancelled last minute. My anxiety rose as I waited my turn backstage and as competitor #55 I was about the 20th person to go. Once out there I kept it simple, following the same routine I had done before, but I think I went too fast and felt like I probably looked as un-confident as I felt. Again, I felt like the judges weren't payment me any attention, despite being the only one up there this time, so I exited stage with a queasy feeling. At this point I waited around backstage as unlike the first show, here they posted the results of the top 5 in each class (supposedly in random order) immediately after the walks were complete. I'm glad they did this as it was a couple more hours at least before award time and if you didn't place it was nice to be able to leave early. Here's a pic of the placings:
After this all bikini top 5 placers got called back stage for award time. It was a bit chaotic as they seemed to be rushing everyone out on stage as fast as possible and there wasn't much glory involved in receiving your trophy. It was all so fast that I couldn't even tell you who the other girls up there with me were. I must say though, and I know this will piss some people off but hey, it's my blog and I'm not going to censor myself, I am very discouraged with the judging at this show. Being a large show, yes there were many more competitors but I didn't feel like the competition was any harder than the first show. In fact, I felt like there were a ton of girls there who came straight off of OOB and never trained or dieted a day in their life! As I stood there on stage after receiving my trophy for the open category (I got 3rd Novice and 4th Open), I remember this one girl come out having placed ahead of me who I kid you not had the sagging ass of my 93 year old step-grandmother! I don't recall which place she got but I was beyond disgruntled. As I looked around backstage I realized that given how small the classes were, at least half of the girls got trophies which made placing even less of an accomplishment. If it were my show I would have had half the classes, making them each twice the size so it was more of a true competition. Don't get me wrong though, I am of course extremely happy I placed in both categories. I just feel like I don't know what they are looking for anymore. The advice I got from the judges at the first show made me think they wanted a little more muscularity. I was so excited to be bringing way more shredded abs to the stage this time and spent my entire time up on stage flexing my quads to make them look more defined than they are. Apparently these judges wanted the soft Sports Illustrated cover model look. Oye Vey! Anyway, here's a pic of me and my two trophies after the awards were given out:
.JPG)
The overall winner definitely had the body type of a SI girl. She was tall, thin, had a great figure and was extremely confident (and disgustingly rude and cocky backstage I must say) but she did not have much for visible muscle tone. I guess I just feel lost as to what to do to improve my scoring next time. I personally like the more muscular bikini look way better and I'm going to continue to train that way. One girl recommended I try NPC (another organization as opposed to OCB) as they look for a more muscular bikini physique. For now though I think I'll continue with OCB for the rest of the year, see how things pan-out, and then maybe change things up next year. I haven't yet decided on when I'll compete again but right now I'm considering a show in July. The next month however is all about a more normalized (but still clean) nutrition plan and building more muscle mass.
I stayed until the end of the show which was around 10:30 pm as I had plans to grab dinner with the other competitors on my new team, Team Maximum, which I was invited to join last week. Most of the team members don't live in Portland (or Maine for that matter) but it's great to say I'm on a team now and know that I'll always have a network of people for support at future shows. We went to a Mexican restaurant in Plymouth and I had a delicious skinny margarita and fish tacos, both of which I'd been craving for months! The service was terribly slow though and being beyond starving I think I ate about 3 baskets of tortilla chips myself before we got our food. As a result I spent the next 12 hours with a massive stomach ache!
The next morning I got up early and headed home, making it from Kingston to Portland in only 2 hours. Mapquest says it's supposed to be a 3.5 hour trip...apparently I have a lead foot LOL. I was beyond exhausted yesterday after the long day on Saturday and then only getting 4 hours of sleep. Luckily I took today off from work so I can recover. It will be my first day back in the gym since Thursday and I'm ready to bust some serious ass! I'm cutting-back a bit on cardio and going hard on the weights for the next month. Bulking season here I come!
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