I finally returned Monday night after a very long trip to Columbus, OH where I made my less than stellar pro debut at the Ms. International (Arnold Classic). I actually didn't realize how "off" I was until I came back and looked at pics. My conditioning was there but I think some of the things we tried the last few days caused me to smooth out a bit--and unfortunately, I have the type of physique that has to be dead on or else I look completely off. The diet adjustments were conservative but I think complicated by the fact that I had basically done 2 consecutive preps with the shows ~16 weeks apart and was just run down and tired. Oh well, live and learn. At least I had the opportunity to compete at such a major show and got my pro debut under my belt. I think I would have been in the last callout regardless at that level so no harm done. I did feel like I earned the respect of the other competitors which means a great deal to me. I was just in awe of the women I was standing on stage with--they are all tremendous athletes and wonderful people.
I want to thank Dave Palumbo and Species Nutrition for sponsoring me and Maggie Blanchard for making my suits--they were gorgeous and fit perfectly! I also have to thank my boyfriend Branden who stood by me through this prep and a very emotional weekend. Now we can focus on getting him ready for the USA's and then hopefully be competing together at the 2009 NY Pro.
It will be good for me to have a long offseason and also allow me to finish my thesis and get settled into a new position in the biotech sector. Cross your fingers for me--I have a couple of interviews lined up! And I did get my paper submitted before I left to compete and am starting new experiments this week which will hopefully get me a decent follow-up paper and enough to complete my Ph.D.
I'm already back to training and even doing cardio because it's what I enjoy. I realized a lot of other things about the sport that I don't enjoy so much this past weekend but can just distance myself from those aspects. I'm picking up Gene from the airport this afternoon to go to Martin Schoeller's gallery opening in Beverly Hills. He photographed me for his book on Sunday morning and has some of the female bodybuilders making appearances tonight. Should be fun. One other announcement is that I had 8x10's printed and didn't sell any at the expo but had plenty of visitors come by the Europa booth to take pics with me which was great! So, email me if you're interested in purchasing an autographed photo :) Better get back to work!
I had to share a couple of pics from the Arnold--one from backstage and one courtesy of my good friend and the best MC in the biz Lonnie Teper (with me and Branden). Seems like so long ago now--wow! I'm gradually easing into my offseason which means still doing cardio every morning and very, very slowly introducing more foods into my diet. Training has been awesome though--I love taking advantage of the rebound period! I'm looking to change things up a little; I know I need to cut back on my training volume but I've been saying that for years.