Road to the Canadian Nationals - Competition Day

And finally the day we have all been waiting for is here! I started off my Canadian Nationals Men's Physique Competition day with a nice lamb and Sweet Potato breakfast, with a short coffee of course. Lunch would for the most part be candy and rice cakes to get the quick carbs into my system to try and fill out a bit more for pre-judging show time which was around 11am.

Pre-judging went well and I was pretty sure I was going to get a top position in Men's Masters but in Open I only made it in the second call out which meant I was going to be placed between 6-10th. The guys in open where really built and it seemed the judges where looking for beefy guys in the open division, in Master's it did not seem to be as important?

After pre-judging my wife and I went out to Burger Heaven in New Westminster and I had the Hulk burger on lettuce with Yam fries :) I chased it down with a nice cold beer too! On the way home to rest between the pre-judging and evening awards show we stopped in at Dairy Queen to get a dip cone but when I got there I upgraded my order to a banana split. After that there was not going to be a dinner for me since I needed to digest and get the food out of my system so as not to come in looking bloated on stage.

I did not spill over for the Canadian Nationals evening show and came in nice and full and felt I presented myself as good as I could which was good enough to get first place in Men's Masters C (tall) division but not good enough for the overall at least this time around. That elusive IFBB Pro card will have to wait till another contest :(

In Men's Masters Open D (Tall) division I ended up placing 10th in a group of around 20 guys so not bad for an old timer! After the show a bunch of us Masters went to Earls for some eats, I then went over to Boston Pizza for my second evening dinner and pretty much filled myself up till I could not eat any more, it was really way too much!

All in all the Canadian Nationals was a really great show and as usual I met some more awesome people, now it's time to take some time off and get back to a more normal life for a while. I will resume my training shortly...

Road to the Canadian Nationals - Peak Week - 1 Day Out - Registration

One day out from the CBBF Canadian Nationals!, it's basically go time, all the work has been done and now I get to enjoy the process of going through the show. I will confess I did some last minute morning cardio since I was awake early and could not get back to sleep. I am neither a morning or cardio person so this was rather strange for me!

After my cardio session, I showered and then got my wife to spray on my second coating of tan, after a little bit of dry time I had breakfast and then made up my bag lunch for while I was waiting around at registration. My big carb loading meals would come later on in the day. Prior to registration I met with the other BCABBA Team members to get our Team BC jackets followed by a group photo. After that I went into the main registration to wait my turn to get heighted and officially registered for the show.

This CBBF Canadian Nationals registration process took till about 2:30pm, I was tired at this point and ready to get to my hotel so that I could grab a nap. Unfortunately the old vintage 1910 hotel I was staying at did not have AC and I was on the top floor, being one of the hottest days this summer the combination was not so great for me to try and stay cool and not sweat off my tan but I managed...

The evening concluded with dinner, a short walk around the area and seating in for a movie and earlier bed time. I did also fit in my last coating of tan before I headed off to bed and a really great sleep for once.

Road to the Canadian Nationals - Peak Week - 3 Days Out - FIT3D

Only 3 more days to go till I hit the stage in New Westminster BC for the CBBF 2016 Canadian Nationals competing in Men's Physique Masters and Open divisions. It's getting super real and I am so excited for this event to take place!

Today was my last workout day so I made plans with a neighbour and good friend of mine (Mike Green) to meet him at his place of work (Tsawwassen Springs Fitness) where we had planned to do a workout together and also for me to try out some of their new high tech body analyses Health and Fitness gadgetry. I was mostly interested in the FIT3D body scanner since it maps out a three dimensional image in Avatar form with all of your important body measurements to be analysed and monitored over time. 

Tsawwassen Springs Fitness also has a second body analysis device for measuring your body composition but my research on this one came back leaving me to wonder how accurate it was going to be in terms of reading my body fat and as I expected it wasn't any where even close to being accurate for me coming in at 13%. Sorry I don't think so! Not after what I've been through!

Anyway, I had a great shoulders, arms and abs workout at Tsawwassen Springs Fitness and their FIT3D was really cool. I was very surprised at how quick the FIT3D system scanned me and then seeing my 3D mapped image in an email I received about 15 minutes later. Yup that's me below :)

Today was also my first carb-up day, not a big one, but at least I got to have some oatmeal, rice and sweet potatoes. Tomorrow I will be adding even more carbs so I will have to get some sort of activity in to offset all the extra carb food calories I am now eating. In only two more days (Friday), I will be heading to the CBBF 2016 Canadian Nationals to get register and check into my hotel. This is going to be fun!

Road to the Canadian Nationals - Peak Week - 5 Days Out Text

We are now well in to Peak Week, only 5 more days to go till I get my spotlight on the stage for representing BC in Men's Physique Masters and Open classes at the CBBF Canadian Nationals. I sure hope I will be ready? I have done everything I believe I need to do to be prepared and I feel I'm on track with only just a little bit more weight/fat to drop over these last few days.

Energy today (Monday) was actually pretty good during my workout but I did find it hard to get my heart rate up where I am use to it being and so my calorie count for today's near 2 hour workout was a bit lower than usual. Nothing a couple of fast paced walks couldn't fix :)

I also wanted to mention that on Wednesday I will be visiting my friend Mike Green who works at Tsawwassen Springs Fitness where they have this super cool body mapping device called the FIT 3D which captures a full 360 degree body scan in 40 seconds using a non-invasive infrared light depth camera. The gym at Tsawwassen Springs Fitness also has a second body composition device I will be getting tested with, using the two of these devices I should be able to get a really good indication of where I am at just days before I step on stage! I should have a video highlighting this by Thursday so stay posted...

Road to the Canadian Nationals - 7 Days Out - Update & Posing

We are so on the home stretch now with only 7 more days to go till I get my shot at the CBBF Canadian Nationals in New Westminster BC on August 13th! I will be competing in Men's Masters and Open Physique representing "Team BC" after placing 1st at the BC Championships in Masters and 2nd in Open.

This past week has been a tuff one with very low food and carb intake. My workouts have been long and drawn out but I have been getting them done and putting in the work to get the volume in. My weight has not dropped too much which is good but I feel the fat melting away :)

Next week will be prep-week and so I will only workout Monday to Wednesday mainly getting a good pump but being careful to not overdo it since my body will be in a more delicate state from being very low in body fat and depleted. On Wednesday evening I will start my carb up with Thursday and Friday being full on high carb days where I will intake close to 600 grams of carbs per day with much less protein than I am used to since I will not need protein as much with the lack of training. I will be getting at least 3500 calories per day from the high carb loading which will also help protect my muscle.

Of course there is the other body prep like hair trimming, exfoliating and my spray on tan that I will need to apply before Saturday's show.