Trip to the Arnold Classic
The trip went fairly well. I enjoyed the stay there overall, but there were a couple of bothers, some of which were my fault for bad planning.
The drive to Columbus was rough. I got behind on preparing and packing on Wednesday, so I only got about 4 hours sleep before packing and leaving early Thursday. I was going into a strong wind and hit a snow squall on the way, plus had to stop twice at rest stops to take naps so the drive took almost 10 hours. Got to the hotel at almost 5 o'clock exhausted and starving even after eating three times on the trip up. There was a great Hometown Buffet restaurant near the hotel, so I had dinner there and went to bed at 9:30.
Did early morning cardio at Ballys, had breakfast and then went to the Expo. Walked around the booths for awhile, watched the pre judging for the women's competitions and then went back to booth meeting and greeting. Talked to alot of people, took many pictures and got several signed pictures from pro and amateur competitors. These are the ones I remember and/or got pictures from: Bob Cicherillo, Alissa Carpio, Angela Monteleone-Semsch, Melissa Frabielle, Tara Sciotti, Tazzie Colomb, Lisa Marie Bickels, Cassandra Floyd, Sara Morin, Stan McQuay, Alti Bautista, Frank Sepe, Jennifer Searles, Stephanie Collins, Dana Della Valle and John Hansen, Mr Natural Olympia. I bought John's book, Natural Bodybuilding, which he personally autographed.
I carried a protein shake and a bar, but I was starving again, it was 4:30 and the women's show at the Auditorium started at 7. Eating fast food downtown was not something I wanted to do 3 weeks out and having "cheated" by eating at McDonalds on the trip up, so I decided to go back to the hotel, get a good nutritious dinner at Hometown and skip the Friday night women's show.
Saturday, I went to both the pre judging and the finals for the Arnold Classic men's bodybuilding. It was an all around disappointment. My tickets cost $125, for which we got 75 minutes of prejudging and a night show that was less than 2 hours and included many minutes of non bodybuilding stuff. I was disappointed greatly by the quality of the physiques. Only one person, I thought, was near or better than the level of development and conditioning I saw at the Olympia. Several, including Gustavo Badell and David Henry, missed totally on their tanning preparations, so that they looked totally washed out under the lights in the prejudging. Dexter Jackson won, but I thought he was not near where he was at the Olympia. He may have crossed the line in that he was several pounds heavier than at the Olympia and lost some of his crisp definition, but it was still enough to win. Chris Cormier was flat again in the upper body just as at the Olympia and got a gift in taking second place. Gustavo looked a bit blocky and again may have gotten too big. Lee Priest and Melvin Anthony looked really good in 4th and 5th and I thought Darrem Charles got jobbed for 6th. He was bigger, which for him worked(unlike the others) and the only one I thought who looked better than at the Olympia. He should have been second, or third at worst and definitely ahead of Cormier. Tonie Freeman (10th)looked great with good size upper body, great legs and a very small waist. I think not having a reputation kept him out of the top 8.
I left before dawn Sunday and had a much quicker trip back, with the wind at my back and no traffic.
Next year, if I go, I will do it differently, getting there a day or two earlier, doing the night show only on Friday, skipping the men's pre judging and doing the Expo Saturday and Sunday.
I did enjoy seeing many women in the crowd proud to show off their muscles with bare shoulder and bare backed dresses. Muscle looks good on men AND women.
you've got a friend that thinks he's 
!! LOL
) and a McDonalds stop( hamburgers, chicken nuggets and small fries) on the Turnpike going up. Prepared a couple of clean home cooked meals in the hotel room and though I ate dinner three nights at Hometown Buffet, I kept the portions small, ate slowly and ate only clean food(lots of baked chicken without the skin, boiled carrots, cucumber salad, soup, baked potatoes, corn bread, pot roast on Friday and no desserts). Target for the week was 3950 calories. Actual based on Fitday, Nutritiondata.com and my best guestimate on portion sizes was 3849. Protein 239 g (25%), Carbs 541(55%), Fat 89 (20%).
), adding cucumbers dipped in white vinegar to start the diuretic process. Last week, I had one weight workout and two cardio sessions. Since it was almost a rest week, I am going to do 4 weight sessions starting today through Sunday and three cardio, the first of which was this morning. The weight split will be what I was doing last summer to prioritize the hamstrings and chest: Monday Chest and back, Wed Hamstrings, shoulders and abs, Saturday Chest and biceps, Sunday Legs, tris (and abs if my energy allows it). Doing 20/15/12 again. I will post today's workouts on Tuesday...its bed time 
.....back to the real world of work tomorrow.
) and I felt especially dead trying to recover between sets. Gutted it out and my back looked really wide in post workout posing as I did three width movements.
You got this!
a little cycle related 'water weight'??!! 
Can't wait to see the pics! 
