Competition Day and Lesson's Learned
1994 2012
So the competition was last Saturday and I did not place. I was disappointed initially but then realized that I really didn't have any expectations except to compete and get an idea of where I was at compared to the other competitors. You can't help feeling the sting of losing but it is so much better then doing nothing at all. I know what I need to work on. I over trained at the end. My biggest concern in prepping for this show was that I would not be able to lose enough weight. It had been almost 20 years since I competed and I know that losing weight is harder when your older. Apparently not for me. It's crazy because I had written about how important the last week before a competition is and I ended up really screwing it up. I did not eat enough. I was shocked when I weighed in at 129lbs. That means I lost about 16 lbs in eight weeks. At least 5lbs of the that was water weight that came off during the final week but I should have gained some of that back the last two days as I ate more carbs and let the muscles fill up. On the Friday before the show I ate four sweet potatoes and about 12 ounces of flank steak but that was it. I wasn't hungry so I didn't eat. On Saturday morning I still wasn't hungry but I ate oatmeal, a 4 ounce yogurt and half a granola bar. After judging I ate a banana and a salad a couple hours later. Next time I will eat a lot in the 24 hours before the competition. As I had written earlier I was really afraid of retaining water. What I discovered was that I looked better on the Monday morning after the show. On the way home from the show I stopped at Safeway and bought a small jar of peanut butter and three apples to eat in the car. They were delicious. Obviously I also ate on Sunday :). I had a large cheeseburger, some fries and two beers and then had some frozen yogurt later. On Monday I posed a little in front of a mirror and I did look better. Next time I will know. I'm not going to eat a hamburger, fries and drink beer but I will have something more substantial during the 24 hours before the pre-judging. I know competitors that eat sandwiches and that seems like it might be a good idea.
When I was backstage waiting to go on I noticed that every competitor was eating rice cakes covered in jam or jam and peanut butter. The competitors that had their trainers back stage were actually being fed the rice cakes/jam combo as they pumped up. I had never heard of that but since literally every competitor I could see was doing it then I decided that I will try it next time. Rice cakes and jam are both super high glycemic foods so the uptake into your system would be super fast. For that reason maybe it helps with posing. I had a really hard time holding my poses during the Figure competition. My muscles were shaking pretty badly. Posing is so important that I am positive I got marked down for that. I also was not prepared to go on for Figure. I went in to get my second coat of tan before the show started. I needed my tattoos covered but they told me to come back when the Novice Men's Bodybuilding division was called because they needed to get other people done first. I went back at that time and as the tanning people were working on covering my back they called my division. '35 and over Figure is up and I need 50 and over Figure right behind them. Now!' Then they called out 'I'm looking for #41, Priscilla Bell. Is Priscilla Bell back here?!' I was completely panicked - I hadn't even been glazed yet, also I was first person who was supposed to go out. I was pulling on my shoe as the Figure Over 35 women were filing off stage. I had no time to regroup and that definitely contributed to my ability to pose, smile and present myself. When Physique came up I was totally prepared, not nervous or anything. Next time I am not going to get my tattoos covered, not because of what happened but because it was expensive and other people had large tattoos that weren't covered and they looked just fine. Also I was WAY over tanned for Figure. The dude ask me if I wanted to tanned for Figure or Physique and I said I didn't know and ask him what the difference was. He told me that Physique has a darker tan. After watching me pose he said that he thought I had a good shot at Physique so I should go that direction. I ended up with FIVE coats of tanner on and, as you can see from the photos, I was way too tan.
So the decision between competing in Physique or Figure? Most likely Figure. The Physique women are still way more muscular then I would ever be able to get. I do still think they are trying to figure out what they are looking for in Physique because a couple of those women looked like they could easily compete in bodybuilding...and a couple did compete in both divisions.
Below are two of my Figure photos. The one on the left I am standing next to the winner and the one on the right I am standing next to the second place finisher.
The below photo is from the Physique competition:
I think in general my diet was right on up until the last ten days. Next time I will start to relax my training the week before competition. I will not do two a days every day and I will cut down on the cardio. But most of all I will eat enough 24-48 hours prior to pre-judging.
I am planning on competing at the 2013 NPC Vancouver Natural and Tanji Johnson Classic in March. Don't forget - you have to be in it to win it:)
