This Girl Is On Fire

I feel like the Energizer bunny this week. I don't know why but I'm the complete opposite of how I was a week ago. I've had killer workouts all week, slept well, haven't been starving (by competition standards anyway), and have managed to keep both physically strong and mentally focused. I just hope I can keep it like this from here on out! Twenty-one days to go...

Today I woke up and had my usual favourite start-to-my-weekend workout with a bicep & tricep routine followed by spin class with my favourite instructor who was subbing again. My spin membership ran out today so I'm going to take a break from spin for the next 5 weeks so I can focus on lower body weight days. I can't do both on the same day so spinning always seems to ruin my weight training schedule. It was so wonderfully quiet when I arrived at 7:30 this morning. Even the old-man usuals weren't there! Thus, I got in a nice hour+ distraction-free routine that consisted of the following:
-DB bicep curls standing on the bosu
-Tricep overhead extensions (rope on cable)
-Bicep curls (dual cables)
-Weighted tricep bench dips on a bosu
-DB hammer curls, 1-legged on the bosu
-Tricep pushups on a medicine ball
-Incline side-to-side crunches (to kill time as I finished a bit early)

Spin class was especially awesome today due to my increased energy level and the great music being played. Today she had a lot more heavy metal type music as well as some Eminem and Nickelback, artists that always make me work harder! Speaking of which, on my last leg day which was Tuesday (legs are due again tomorrow) I decided to use my iPhone for music while I worked out. Now, I know I've said how I hate wearing it because the wires are always in the way but it's not so bad for a leg workout. Well, let me tell you, best leg sesh I've had in a long time! I had my Pandora on the Eminem station and didn't have to skip over a song the whole time! And better yet...no one bothered me!!! I think I'm going to have to break it out again for tomorrow's workout.

The only minor changes I've made in my diet this week have been a) adding in an extra Calcium vitamin in the morning because I noticed that my multi does not include calcium and I'm definitely not getting enough in my diet due to it's restriction on most dairy products and b) as of today I have switched over to an all-natural whey protein as opposed to my favourite Syntrax varieties. I bought the About Time peanut butter flavour at PNC and it's not that bad. One scoop has 103 calories, 25 g protein and no carbs or fat. Since I refused to buy into the whole CSF-recommended Isagenix line, my coach advised that I at least go for an all-natural variety to avoid bloating pre-contest and it supposedly absorbs into your system better. I figure it can't hurt to try, at least for the next 5 weeks anyway. The stuff sure is pricey though! I swear if I added-up all that I have spent on CSF, supplements, groceries, stage outfit & accessories, tanning, show and organization registrations, and posing classes (am I missing anything?) I think I might have a heart attack. No wonder I make a decent living, am exceptionally good at saving my pennies, yet am still always broke!

Anyway, just a nice quiet Saturday here. Typical afternoon of chores, dog walking and relaxing (well, trying to add that word into my vocabulary anyway LOL). Tomorrow is St. Patty's Day and I am so happy to not be going out. After the fiasco that was last year (still trying to permanently bury that memory deep into my subconscious), I have no intention of stepping foot in the Old Port tomorrow. I'll wake, have a nice breakfast, massacre my legs, and then hit up my last scheduled posing class. For all of you that are going out to celebrate though, have a splendid time, don't get too drunk, and please please please don't all show up at World's at 5:00 pm on Monday trying to burn off all that Guinness.

Earlier in the week I thought a good blog post title at this stage in the game would be "Resisting Panic" but I just feel so much better now and want to get to stage-day ASAP! I dunno, I feel pretty ready at this point. Maybe I have my head in the clouds but I'm not coming down. This girls is on fire... 

Sunday: Day of Rest (for real!)

Twenty-seven days out! I figure I should start counting down the days now rather than weeks since I know they are going to fly by in no time. Today is the first day that I've felt like Springtime is finally on it's way. It also happens to be Daylight Savings so the fact that it's late afternoon and still bright and sunny outside is definitely a plus. I decided to make today somewhat of a Sunday Funday and change up my routine a bit. I ended up taking Friday off from work as a much needed day of mental and physical recuperation. I will not get sick. I will not get sick. I repeat, I will not get sick! It definitely helped as I am feeling much better today. It's still hard to say whether I just feel down from my waning nutrition plan or some other factor but I took things very easy this weekend, drank a ton of fluids, loaded up on vitamin C, and avoided people as much as possible. 

Not having work and being able to work out in the morning when I'm much more alert and energized, I had two great gym workouts on Friday (shoulders & core) and Saturday (StairMaster, biceps & triceps).  I contemplated doing spin yesterday but a) I didn't want to push it if I am battling a cold and b) World's still hasn't set a permanent spin instructor for the 9:00 am class and I didn't want to risk having a shitty instructor. I do need to get in at least one more spin class before my monthly membership runs out so perhaps I'll hit it up Monday or Tuesday of this week. 

Today I actually skipped the gym, purposely, if you can believe it or not! And get this, I don't even feel guilty! It was supposed to be a legs day but my shins have really been aching lately despite not having done a run in over a week so I thought it best to lay off them another day or so. Tomorrow I'll either do them or alter my CSF schedule some more and hit up back and chest instead. So anyway, this morning I got up, fueled-up on my favourite cinnamon roll oatmeal (see recipes tab) and coffee and drove out to Obie's Fitness in Westbrook to meet a fellow Savage Girl who also does posing lessons. It was very odd showing up at quarter to 9:00 and having a completely empty gym! It was a small but very organized and clean facility. If it wasn't so far, I'd contemplate switching things up for a while to escape Tool Central! I spent the next half hour getting a 1:1 posing lesson which I think helped a lot. The hooker heels are becoming easier to walk in and she gave me some good pointers to help me keep my fake smile plastered on my face the whole time hahaha. Next weekend is the last of the 3 group posing classes I purchased back in January...last chance to soak up the knowledge then I'm on my own! 

While fun and in a gym setting, posing is certainly not a workout so after the lesson I headed home and met a girlfriend for some mid-day cross-country skiing at Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook. It wasn't peak skiing conditions but the sun was shining and it was a great way to get my butt outside this time of year. The birds were chirping and there was a stream running among the trails; sure signs that Spring is on it's way! Skiing usually works muscles I don't hit in the gym so who knows, maybe tomorrow I'll be be limping like I had that leg workout after all! When I got home I made lunch and took Mugsy for a long walk down Ocean Avenue, something we haven't been able to do in a while with all the icky snow covering up the sidewalks. He's sitting in the sun zonked out right now so I'd say he got in some good cardio today too :) 

Now I'm just sitting here drinking my green tea and putting the final touches on www.fitfiercefun.com before I start broadcasting my services over Facebook and Twitter. You can click the link here and it should work - there are just some minor changes I need to make and can't seem to get the template to allow them to happen urghhh! Eventually this blog will be incorporated into that site but it's staying separate for now because I haven't the slightest idea how to a) create archives in the 1and1 template and b) move all of my material over from one site to another. I really have a love/hate relationship with technology! Anyway, back to the grind tomorrow. I'm trying to stay positive and tell myself it's going to be a good week but honestly the thought of sitting in my cubicle tomorrow for 9 hours makes me want to poke my eyes out with my ski poles! We'll see how much coffee it takes me to make it to 5:00 pm. Goal of the day: avoid human contact as much as possible. Happy Sunday everyone and get after it in the gym this week...just not when I'm there LOL!   

RUNnin' DOWN A Dream

Four weeks out. My entire body aches right now. The best way I can describe it is to compare it to the complete lack of physical strength you experience at a certain stage of the flu. This has been a rough week for me. At the start of the week I found myself ending my weight sessions before they were complete because I literally did not have the energy to finish them. It wasn't even a matter of "digging deep" to find the energy as some competitors told me to do. It literally wasn't there to dig for. I chalked it up to my lack of allowed carbs in my nutrition plan and complained to my coach about this as well as the "too skinny" comments I had gotten from a couple gym regulars late last week. Luckily she agreed and told me to increase my carbs ever so slightly this week. Of course I did, and actually I'm not as starving right now as I was a week ago. However, a couple of days ago the exhaustion I was feeling went from hunger/mental exhaustion to muscle/joint exhaustion. Way worse in my opinion. I honestly don't know if it's from over-training, carb-depleting, time-of-the-month (TMI?), or maybe I am battling the onset of a sickness which is highly possible since I work in a germ-infested nightmare 8-5 every day. My guess is it's a combination of all four. You know it's bad when I actually allow myself to take a day off. Today was that day. Well, sort of. I did show up at World's after work but only for a light cardio/stretch sesh. Back & chest was on the original agenda today and that was simply not happening.

I've also found myself more easily irritable than normal (not possible, eh?! LOL) and forcibly holding back some much-needed temper tantrums on a regular basis. Work people annoy me. Gym-goers annoy me (mostly the former PF ones though LOL). Slow drivers annoy me. Random pedestrians and passers-by on the street annoy me. My neighbors annoy me. Even Mugsy annoys me. Poor guy :(  I'd like to think I will get to bed early tonight and wake up refreshed but honestly I've been sleeping 8-10 hours a night and it doesn't make any difference. Basically I'm a mental and physical mess right now. This about sums it up...

Well, at least I know I'm not the only one who feels this way! I found this funny on a friend's Facebook page the other day and had to share it. Underneath the caption another friend joked that there should be a bodybuilder support group. This is not a bad idea at all! If I put myself through this torture again I am soooo starting one up! Speaking of bodybuilding, I have to say, I hate using that word. It's true, what I am doing is a form of bodybuilding but I feel like every time people ask me what I'm training for and I say a "bodybuilding competition", they take a step back to look at me, scrunch up their faces, and in their politest way possible tell me that I don't look like a bodybuilder. I get what they are saying but to me this is a huge insult. So, for all of you who still just don't get it, here is a clear breakdown of the major physique categories:

Get it now??? Hopefully I look somewhat like the bikini girl on the left 4 weeks from now. Well, minus the boobs anyway LOL! Anyway, that is my rant for the night. Just having a really off week. I have some fun things planned this weekend including another posing class and some cross-country skiing so hopefully come Monday I'll be back to normal both mentally and physically. On my way to work this morning in my run-down channel-surfing daze I stopped on Tom Petty's "Runnin' Down a Dream". The lyrics couldn't be more perfect:

I felt so good like anything was possible

I hit cruise control and rubbed my eyes

The last three days the rain was un-stoppable

It was always cold, no sunshine

Yeah runnin' down a dream

That never would come to me

Workin' on a mystery, goin' wherever it leads

Runnin' down a dream

I rolled on as the sky grew dark

I put the pedal down to make some time

There's something good waitin' down this road

I'm pickin' up whatever's mine