Bounding Backwards

Well there it is then.... 23 weeks of tight nutrition.. 23 weeks of planning, training, carefully monitoring everything from food and cardio to sleep hours, supplements, stress and water...

The result was not a spectacular success.. fourth out of four.... but I did it, I stood up there and I know I gave it my best shot.. not particularly overjoyed with the outcome... still very very happy that I completed the journey.... which I could not have done without Hubby, Kelli and the fabulously supportive but slightly evil Julie....

I found out the points from the head judge and I am please with how I was placed, and I have her email so I can get her critique because I believe that this sport is about constantly improving and without getting the feedback it is easy to carry on making the same mistakes and as we all know.. if you keep doing what you have always done you will keep getting what you have always got...

So what now????

My "Big Picture" through this whole competition preparation has been to make sure that today is the first day of Bounding Backwards!!

I suffered severely after my comps last October with horrendous rebound and water retention problems and I have a very tight plan in place to try and make sure I do not have the same problems again...

It began this morning with me getting up at 5am and going and doing cardio... actually it began last night when we went and ate my after-comp-whatever-you-want-meal which was Nachos and garlic bread (neither was finished!) but no cakes... I did have some Snakes Alive jelly lollies during the pump up and the salt free granola is full of sugar too, so I was already on sugar overload and didn't want to compound the problem for today....

So as I said I got up at 5am to do my morning cardio, this has always been on the plan, first day after the comp back on the treadmill to walk for 30 mins. I planned this to loosen up tight muscles, get me back into a nice routine and to help reduce any carb overload from the carb loading the previous two days.. It was surprisingly easy to do, mostly because once the dehydration kicked in on Saturday afternoon my back and legs had me in tears with pain.... yep the same problem I had after the last comps from dehydrating my discs, but this time the pain arrived before the comp. In the end I succumbed and had to take heavy duty pain killers on Saturday night so at least I got 3 hours sleep.

I managed to get through the prejudging round without taking anymore but had to hit them again before the evening judging. Once again I am in pain standing but once I sit or lie down it is mind numbingly painful. I got to sleep ok last night but by 3am I was wandering around trying to ease the pain so by 5am I was ready to hit the treadmill...

I really enjoyed the walking and my back eased up almost immediately, I am still sitting down in small bursts but I know why it is hurting and I am re-hydrating carefully so as not to bring on Oedema but to get enough fluid to plump up the discs and joints.. I will be doing cardio in slowly increasing amounts over the next couple of weeks and increasing my food in exactly the same amounts that I decreased it coming into the competition. I am not going to suddenly drown my body in salt, fat and fast carbs.

Saying that my breakfast this morning was protein pancakes with banana and blueberries.. nuom nuom nuom, yes this was on the plan and in the end I did leave a fair chunk on the plate which Tank and Morgan were very happy with..

So now the training gets back to heavy and hard, the cardio stays to keep the rebound at a minimum and I look forward to seeing what changes I can achieve in the coming months..

Competing???? I really don't know, after my back flared up on Saturday night I thought about all the other injuries and physical strain I have been through this year, and I really do have to take my age into consideration especially in a federation where the Masters starts at 40. But already I yearn for another goal

At this point I am going to concentrate on getting balanced which is something I desperately need, then growing more muscle, keeping fat low and riding my broom...

Speaking of which.... today is perfect riding weather, Hubby is just cleaning a couple of vans and then we are off on the bikes for the day....... bliss!