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...

Right, so bags are packed for the flight down to the big smoke, cat will be removed though, much to her chagrin I am sure.  And boy are we looking forward to this competition.  Both Vanessa and I are in a pile better condition than we were for the Bay of Plenty champs three weeks ago, trainer has bought us in much leaner, as she promised after I bitched and moaned (in a polite way of course) that I did not feel lean at the Bay.  She told me that it was going to be a process - three comps, peaking for the nationals.  I am just greedy I guess, and want to be ripped to shreds every time on stage, which I guess you just can't do, naturally at least?

So this time, we're looking better, and feeling worse, so things must be going well!  Lists are everywhere so we don't forget stuff.  We still do, as we lose the lists, but at least we're making an effort.

Speaking of efforts, 100s.  In my 200 years of weight training (well, it feels like that sometimes as the alarm foes off at 5:20am) I have never done sets of 100 before, and it bloody hurts.  Hurts your head as much as your lungs and muscles though, as you count and get to 20 something, hell, that means there is still SEVENTY something to go...  But is fun in a sick sort of way, and once you break the 50, well it's all down hill from there, you're closer to the finish than the start.  I have not yet been able to crank out a 100 without pause yet on any exercise, the best I managed was 51 squats before I had to have a breather.  I remember when I used to be a big bully boy hooker playing rugby when we'd hit the gym and for 'fun' we'd have bench press competitions - best there in the dim distant past was 67 bench presses at 60kg. Mind you, I weighed in at 104kg then, a far cry from my current carb depleted 80kg!!

So not long to go, can't wait, always exciting going into these shows, not knowing who is going to be there, who you're going to have to pit yourself against and all that jazz.  Really gets those competitive juices running.  The best thing though is that while on the stage it's all out, back stage, usually it's all one big happy carb depleted sugar loading happy family.  Everyone's been on pretty much the same journey to get on stage, so there is a lot of shared pain!  And with Wellington being the last show before the Nationals, there will be a few new faces I expect in to qualify.  There are a few faces that I have not seen this year that should be out in force, I can't wait.  Last I heard, 66 registered thus far!