Competing at the NPC Pittsburgh Championships
Amid all the crazy work schedule I have been pumping out lately, I have also been VERY hard at work building my body so that I can challenge for a national figure title this year. I want my IFBB pro card in figure so badly, & that is my driving force, dream & motivation.
Reaching that dream is requiring a tremendous amount of work, dedication, & what some would consider sacrifice. And it’s going to require even more, at a whole new level, as I get closer to competition time. I don’t really call it sacrifice, because the things that are so important to some people pale in comparison to the things I consider important in my life. For example, I can’t go out & party, eat at restaurants, go to events, & do many things that most people consider an integral part of their everyday lives. Well, it’s not that I can’t, it’s that I CHOOSE not to do those things. I could do them, but then each time I did I would be moving further away from my goal instead of one step closer to it.
I set my sights this year on the first big competition of the year, the NPC Pittsburgh Championships, which took place on May 1st. Over the winter, as you know, I was working hard on building my body up, gaining muscle in my back, shoulders & legs. To do that, I did bulk up a bit, so then I had to work hard on getting the bodyfat down & becoming lean & defined.
My coaches put me on a nutrition plan with very few carbohydrates. Like or hate it, the more carbs you eat, the softer the body will look. And the balance is amazingly delicate. I will go into that more later on. I needed to strip way down so that the detail of the muscle will come out in my legs. My legs definitely are not nearly where they need to be in terms of nice full round shapely muscles that show definition easily. Mine tend to be very tight & skinny, & even though I carry very little fat on my lower body, my legs don’t show definition easily. I think, however, that as I gain muscle size & shape that the definition will come naturally.
With the crazy work hours I was keeping (I had also been working part time at Home Depot for some steady income, & it was common for me to work late & not get home until 10 or 11 o’clock PM.), the new workout schedule & nutrition plan was tough. I had to do cardio training twice a day, plus a weight workout. So between that & 6 or 7 meals a day, the training is a full-time job in & of itself. I like to do my first cardio session immediately when I get up, before I eat my first meal. Because of my Home Depot schedule & training clients who like to work out in the morning, I have been getting up at 4:30 or 5 AM to do cardio before my day gets started. ‘They’ say champions are made out of 6AM cardio sessions—we will see if that is true!
So doing cardio that early, coupled with working all day & often into the late evening, a low-carb nutrition plan, & then having to do ANOTHER cardio session before bed, I was really getting run down. I don’t function well on 4 hours of sleep. I wish I could. I have always wished I had more hours in my day. But I need at least 6 or 7 hours. Plus, sleep is SO VITALLY IMPORTANT to muscle growth & recovery. Sleep is when your body releases growth hormone & repairs all the damage you do to your muscles during the workouts, building the muscles back stronger, tighter, bigger & tougher, to get ready for the next round of stressors that the body needs to be prepared for.
This is also why you haven’t heard much from me. At Home Depot, we weren’t allowed to get near a computer, check email, have a cell phone on us, or anything. So I was cut off from the rest of my life while I was there. That was very frustrating to me, even though I love the heck out of Home Depot! It’s my favorite place to shop, so I really enjoyed working there & helping people with their home & garden projects. That’s right up my alley. But it sure killed me on time, especially computer time with all my Defiant Friends!
PITTSBURGH
I really drove myself hard & gave 110% to get ready for the Pittsburgh show. It’s a very important show because it is owned by Jim Manion, the president of the IFBB, which is the confederation that I wish to compete in as a pro. Because it’s the president’s show, ALL the big-time bodybuilders are there-current, former, & future Mr. Olympias. Miss Figure Olympia Nicole Wilkins-Lee, & Miss Fitness Olympia Adela Garcia were there too. There’s tons of media coverage everywhere, & most importantly, the judges at that show are the exact same judges who judge the biggest pro shows. So, obviously, this is THE show to get noticed by the right people, & is an important move in the chess match of setting yourself up to compete in nationals.
I may have gone a little too hard & too far. I came in to the show RIPPED. I was proud of myself. Man, I was the leanest I have EVER been in my life! My abs were so ripped that I had veins showing everywhere. They looked like a road map! Now, I LIKE that look. I love the thick-muscled, rock-hard, ripped look of a Monica Brant or Trish Warren. But that is definitely NOT what the judges are looking for in Figure. They are really trying to differentiate between bodybuilding & Figure, & they are rewarding ladies with a ’softer’ more mainstream look. Ab definition doesn’t even seem to be an important part of the picture anymore. It’s more of a total package look, a curvy silhouette with broad shoulders & lats that have a deep V-taper into a tiny waist, & then flares back out slightly with very shapely, but not overly muscular, legs. And they want to see full muscles, with some definition, but definitely not ripped & striated, & I tend to get ripped & striated,
I put so much pressure on myself for this show. Not only did I want to do well to set myself up for the national championships later in the summer, but it was also a huge financial sacrifice for Michael & me to make the trip to Pittsburgh to compete. The shows are unbelievably expensive. The travel expenses alone are brutal, then the entry fees, supplies, food, etc. etc., all add up into the thousands for each show, depending on where it is. And it’s no secret that since real estate has been so poor, it’s like I have been laid off from a formerly high-paying job. And the training is going GREAT, but it’s not yet come even close to replacing my former income. It will come, but it’s not there yet. So I put even more undue pressure on myself to perform well, to help justify the expense & sacrifice my incredibly wonderful husband was putting out there to support me.
Normally, when I step on stage, I come alive. I love being on stage, & I usually take it up several notches & perform at a much higher level on stage than I do in practice. But this show, I freaked out. I didn’t hit my poses well, I stumbled on my individual quarter turns, & just was nervous on stage which caused my performance to be subpar. Naturally, I wasn’t in the first callouts, although I did make it into the second callouts in the Open Figure Class. In Masters Figure I did better, both onstage & in the callouts, as I was in the first group called out.
I was very upset, not with the poor (in my opinion) placing, but with myself. I knew I lost it, & didn’t perform to the best of my ability. After all that incredibly hard work & tremendous effort, I didn’t showcase my physique to look its best. And you can have the best physique in the entire world, but if you don’t display it properly on stage, & have a confident attitude that comes across in your performance, then you won’t win. Period.
Not only did I not perform as well as I had intended, my coaches said the judges felt I was far too ripped. The judges didn’t like seeing the veins in my abs & placed women over me that I had previously beaten in other contests, who were showcasing a softer physique. They looked GREAT—don’t get me wrong! They deserved to place above me, & I deserved to get what I got. I am not complaining about the judging—they were spot on for what they are looking for, & they did a great job.
When they called out the results for the Masters Figure Class, I did place 5th. At least I made it into the Top Five & got a big trophy! Top Five at Pitt is actually very prestigious, & with the level of competition (2 ladies who placed above me were Top 10 at Nationals last year) onstage, it wasn’t bad at all. Not what I wanted though! I want to WIN!!! :
When I only got 5th in Masters, I figured I didn’t have much of a chance in Open. My coaches did have me scarfing down serious carbs both Friday night & Saturday to try to soften my abs up some. Heck, I had ‘cheat meals’ all weekend! Other competitors were still choking down plain boiled chicken, & I was eating pancakes, butter, syrup, bread, jelly, etc. I actually didn’t like it & didn’t want to. It made me feel bloated & bad, plus those are not exactly my idea of health foods! But in this sport, unfortunately, health sometimes takes a back seat to results. And I had not worked that hard & come that far to blow it, so I did what I had to do.
So at the night show Saturday for the Finals, I was softer & looked a little fuller. And to my surprise, I actually placed 5th in the Open Class, too! I was excited & thrilled with that placing, because according to the morning callouts, I didn’t think I was anywhere close. So I moved up a notch or two with the efforts we put into softening me up a bit.
So I got to bring TWO big trophies home through the airports. That was funny! Definitely a head-turner for most of the other travelers. It got me special privileges on the plane, though. They let me board first & the flight attendants were so kind to put my trophies in their personal storage area & they even packed pillows around them to protect them from possible shifting & turbulence. Good thing, too. We hit some big bumps as we had to fly through some thunderstorms.
After assessing my performance with Shannon, my competitive spirit kicked right back in. Michael & I had discussed at length that what I needed more than anything was actual stage time in front of live judges, to practice & practice on the REAL THING before I get to Nationals. Posing in my bathroom & the aerobics room at the gym is important, but it’s no substitute.
So I decided to throw myself into another big show the next weekend at the last minute. The Eastern Seaboard Championships in Atlanta were coming up, & I took off to Atlanta. More details to come! Stay tuned for next post………
Be Defiant!!!
Christy
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