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.

But touch wood (taps forehead, superstitious, who me?), we've got it right, now just a 12 hour flight to Hong Kong, an overnight stay, and then a two hour flit to Cebu to survive on the water retention front.  Weight in for comp the Thursday morning after we arrive midday-ish on the Wednesday, so plenty of walking that evening / night should see us right and we'll be ready for competition, lean and mean to be seen!

North Harbour then, that was a whole new experience for us.  We're usually pretty organised pre competition, and we were this time too, but We usually arrive on the Friday of a competition and stay a night in a Motel, weigh in the morning, compete, and stay another night, as the night show usually means you're not finished until at least ten.  This time though, it was drive up in the morning (5am start!), compete in the one show (finished about 4:30 - we were at Burger Fuel eating kumara chips by 5:30 at any rate).  So that was different to start with, and pretty cool - I think future comps we may do the Friday thing like this, and just stay the Saturday nights!

The carb-up was also different, as we could not go too overboard with the real target of the Philippines comp.  So we were a little underdone, as this event was really just there to keep the mind active as we look to Cebu, and to qualify for next years Nationals early, meaning we can pick and chose our comps for next year a bit more surgically!  But in saying that, Vanessa probably looked her very best this year on stage!  Full and pretty close to having the best set of pins on stage - not that I am biased, but those legs have gone from a not so strong point to ripped freak material!  Vanessa won her 35+ Figure section and with some good feedback from the judges went closer than many will think for the overall.  One judge came up and congratulated her on her improved physique for the season, and said that on his, or her (heh heh) card that Ness had got the vote for Overall Champion.  It's going to come, watch these spaces.

I, despite being mentally as sharp as a marble for this one still took the overall Athletic title.  It's a hard road to hoe when you want to look your best every competition, so you have the best chance of winning.  So going in half cocked, not fully prepared was hard - and when I saw Craig Smith there I thought bugger!  But once the war paint went on, and going through the compulsories during warm up, I could see in the mirror I was not looking as 'fat' as I felt, and I might be in with a shout still.  And so it proved, I managed to pip Craig again!  It was horrible though, and I don't think I'll ever enter a competition again like this, where your sights aren't really on the day you are competing, just too weird, and we all know men can't multi-task!

And big ups to the Tarren's Champion Nutrition team - results from this Harbour Competition - 2 overall champs , 6 first places and 2 seconds!

But enough on that - Philippines here we come, target sighted and locked in, lets just hope nothing misfires on the way!  We'll try and keep updating via Facebook - click here to check it out.

And thanks once again to Lisa at www.gofigure.co.nz for the superb photos!