Time flies when you're having fun, and when you're training the house down too!  It's been great back in the land of not being lean mean posing machines.  Now mass building maniacs (I'll think of something better than that 'MBM' at some stage). 

So yes, we're alive and well, and gearing up for another busy holiday season in Whangamata.  But who cares about that, training has been going great guns!  Still the early morning training sessions going down, training down to four days a week, for plenty of recovery.

Back to the land of the living at last!  Into our second week of weights, and third week of eating enough food to fuel some decent workouts!   We're also back onto our maintenance eating plan, so no more cookie times for this cowboy.  I'll just have to eat them all on our free eating Sunday!!

Actually that would be an interesting exercise, sort of.  Buy all the things that grab your fancy through the week, but then don't eat them, and see what you've got by the Sunday, and would you be able to actually eat them all without making yourself sick...  S'pose you could just record what you eat too, but that'd be too easy, much harder to have the food in your hot little hands and not eat it - a battle of the brains!

As the smoke clears the and toilet paper goes to where all good toilet paper should go to (I don't know where that is, and I don't want to know, I press a button, water magically appears and carries all my troubles away), a few moments for some reflection on the Phil-Asia Championships in the Philippines.

Firstly the results, obviously not happy with where we both placed, but such is this sport of ours - subjective and down to the eyes of the beholders - in this case the 11 judges, 2 Kiwis and 9 from all over the shop.  And what they were looking for, another case of who knows! 

Pre flight - we hit the wing tomorrow at midday or so, NABBA Phil-Asia Championships, here we come!

And thankfully, NABBA North Harbour also been and gone and no casualties - we've not retained water like camel at an oasis, not having a million kilos of pure refined sugars obviously the key, which we knew in theory, but we now know by practise! 

I was pretty worried about this, as with flights and competition just five days after North Harbour I thought we could really foul this up.  The Wednesday after a comp in the regular season I am usually at the peak of retention, and then the water/weight drops off as fast as it comes back on, faster even.

Quick update for the world, if three people entail the world that is. This weekend – tomorrow in fact, NABBA North Harbour. Gaol, to qualify for next years Nationals, meaning some heavy duty training for the next year until we hit the stage at Marty Naio’s superb NABBA BOP regional contest.

However, this comp is on the way to the lean down for the Phil-Asia Championships in Cebu, the Philippines. So a top three place is the goal to get the qualification! Win a bonus!

Well exhaustion set in, and has now set out, but still very tired and looking forward to the end of the bodybuilding season - and that comes along with the Phil-Asia Championships in a few weeks.

But a moment to look back now, instead of forward, and reflect on last weekends NABBA Nationals.  You forget just how long the day is at the Nationals.  144 athletes battling it out for gold.  About 2 million classes, and a lot of great bodies out there.

Ain't life grand.  You finish one competition, and before you know it, the carbs are gone and you're lining up for another punt at another championship!  This time though, the 'big show', the NABBA Nationals, October 1, 2011, Westlake Boys High, and I can't wait!

Now though, not being a regional competition, you know who you're going to be butting heads against.  No longer wondering, "who's going to come out of the closet" (so to speak) this time out.  It's going to be good physiques right across the board, from Novice through to Masters and all stops inbetween.  Come in looking your best, or be mown down in the crowd!

Tuesday already, Wellington now a dim and dark carb depleted memory.  Well, not really, but a memory all the same, something we can revisit when we have a little more time!  Sights re-focussed on Nationals on the 1st of October, so back into the routine straight off the bat.

So results from Wellington NABBA 2011, I entered Masters Athletic this time around, thought I'd better act my age for a change.  A neat class of 6 well tuned bodies, one belonging to an airline pilot Kristian Olsen (I think it was), who flies with my cousins husband.  Small world!  Anyway, won my section there, and went on to take the overall.  Greg Mawson knocking out Andrew Murray in the Open Athletic earlier so overalls was butting heads with Greg and the novice winners.

Gee, that is sooo unimpressive when you type it, as opposed to listening to the opening credits of the Thunderbirds.  Not the movie, the real thing with 'supermarionation' puppet action.  Now that was TV...  But please, re read that heading, and add in the booming classical music and the big deep voice, the pauses, and then young get the gist of it, and five more days until action. 

Action this time around being the Wellington NABBA bodybuilding championships, a dress rehearsal for the Nationals a couple of short weeks later.  How quick time has flown as we trained the house down for the first 9 months of the year, and then 'biff, bam, kapow', competition time.  Yes, please add in the Batman sound effects fro that 'biff, bam, kapow' - the corny 1960s TV series, not the modern movies.  They knew how to make TV then eh...

And before you know it, the countdown begins again. This time NABBA Wellington, this time 11 days out, this time, well, this time same old same old, just different dates.

But not really, heaps is different, with our new trainers Daryl ‘Max’ Payne and Tarren McCall have made life so much easier. Maybe not Mr Payne, as his name is very very apt, but just spelt wrong. But certainly we are eating much better, and more food. But the payoff is of course more cardio – but with the extra food we are also able to train harder on the weights, so the trade-off is more than worth it.