Finally….an update!

Hi everyone!  I finally have a few free minutes, so I wanted to write a quick update about how things have been going for me lately.  A lot has happened in the past few months, and I have been SUPER busy! So here’s a quick rundown…..

Back in October I was lucky enough to sign with Gaspari Nutrition and so I am officially a Gaspari Nutrition Sponsored Athlete…woohooo!!

In November, my boyfriend Jeff competed for the first time in 3 years (this was his second time competing).  In 3 shows he had a first place, second place and third place finish, and earned a national qualification in the middle weight division.  He also recently signed with MuscleTech as part of their up and coming athlete program.  I couldn’t be more proud!!

Back in September I began a Dietetics internship program through a company called ARAMARK that has me working in a hospital setting 8-9 hours per day.  It’s actually pretty interesting, but a LOT of work.  The only bad part is its UNPAID….so I am essentially working 40 hours per week for free!! And this goes until MAY!!! 

I debated whether or not I should put in for the Arnold, because I knew how busy I would be with my internship, and my opinion was, if I was going to compete at such a HUGE show as the Arnold, I wanted to be sure I could be at my best and give it my all.  Well, at the last minute I decided to send in an application, and just a few days before Christmas I found out that I got the Invite!!!  I can’t even describe how excited I am to have this opportunity to compete.  Despite being so busy, I’ve made a commitment to myself to be the absolute best I can be at this show.

So that brings me to my training…..  Right now I am about 6 weeks out.  My training for the past 6 weeks has been quite different than typical fitness training.  I’ve actually been doing a lot of power training, supplemented with some hardcore conditioning circuits and routine practice of course.  I’ve found that I REALLY enjoy this style of training, and I can’t believe how strong I”ve gotten!  As of this week, my one-rep maxes are:
push-press: 170
bench press: 195
Squat– not sure of this one– I got 295 as a box squat but it was with a spotter.  Free squatting I believe my max so far is 255
Deadlift: 285
Again, these are just 1-reps!!  But this style of training has actually really helped my routine and also helped to get my body a little more proportionate…..and its really a lot of fun/challenging.  Its funny, my legs are actually quite behind in strength compared to my upper body.  Must be from all of those long hours spent training as an uneven bars specialist   I’m working on the legs though, and they are defintiely getting stronger.  And these numbers are all while DIETING!  So I’m interested to see what I can do with some carbs in me, LOL.  After this week, my training will probably shift more towards a conditioning focus until after the spring shows, but we’ll see, b/c my body seems to be responding well to this training, so I may try to stick with it a few more weeks….

  I have a new 2-minute routine this year and I am sooooo excited about it.  It’s a bit different than what I’ve done in the past, but don’t worry, it still has that “Tiger-Eyes” style   Its so much fun and I can’t wait to perform it at the Arnold!!

One last thing…. Gaspari Nutrition and Rich Gaspari himself will be hosting the Dragon’s Den Seminar at Apollon Gym on Saturday 1/31/09 beginning at 12noon.  This is going to be a really cool event, and I would like to invite anyone in the area to please attend…..its FREE!!!  Definitely a great opportunity to learn a lot from one of the icons of this sport!  For more info, check out this thread on MD: http://forums.musculardevelopment.com/showthread.php?t=50657

So thats the short version of what I’ve been up to these past few months.  I’m going to try to get my website page updated with some new stuff over the next few weeks, but I can’t make any promises  

I hope everyone had a happy and healthy holiday season, and good luck to everyone getting ready for the Arnold and the 2009 season!