Ouch...

This might be pretty short...having difficulties typing as have a bloody plastered up right arm. Will come back to that.
So since last post, (most) things have gone well. Been training well and have had a busy week. Aussie day was spent at my cousin's place for her daughter's 4th b'day party. I was supposed to go to a friend's bbq but had some car issues and couldn't get there so just did the b'day party - which was actually good fun (why do adults seem to have more fun at kid's birthdays than the kids?? lol) It was a bbq too and the only downside was the heat. It was sooo hot and humid, gotta love Aussie summers ;)
That took up most of my day. By the time I got home i was exhausted!!
Wednesday was just another normal 'hammies' day. Thursday didn't start off so well. I went to the gym in the morning to train chest (least fave training session) and while setting up for the 2nd exercise, incline db presses, I did myself a mischief. While adjusting the incline my hand supporting the bench slipped and the bench came crashing down, jamming my wrist in between itself and the bench's base. Can anyone say OUCH!!! Hurt *a little* (insert expletives being called out across gym - lucky it was quiet!) but could move my fingers so didn't think much of it. 3 hours later, I start work. Hand/wrist THROBBING and swelling up into a nice lump on the top of where the hand and wrist meet. Put some ice on it and tried not to use it much.
After work I headed to the pub to catch up with some friends who are over only for one week from London (they are here for a mutual friends' wedding that is on today). Wow - it even hurt to rest my hand on the steering wheel! Anyway was great to catch up with them. Off home to bed.
I wake up Friday and knew training was not an option. Wrist still throbbing and swollen, and some nice shades of purple starting to appear. Worked all day and then off to the Dr. Let the fun begin. Turns out they are concerned I have fractured one of the carpal bones - the small bones at the base of the wrist. Apparently it is also hard to detect fractures to these bones in a normal x-ray (not sure why) so they usually order a bone scan - which unfortunately won't pick up anything til about 4 days after the injury was sustained. Anyway the one they have concerns about can be bad if they miss a fracture there due to lack of blood supply to that part of the hand and can cause all sorts of problems later in life, so until they confirm one way or the other, they treat it as though it is fractured. Enter the cast I am currently sporting, which was applied late yesterday arvo. It basically goes from the end of my thumb (not allowed to move thumb) to my elbow. FML.
For anyone that has not had a plastered up wrist...not fucking fun. It is hard work to do anything. Examples. Typing. Doing up pants. Doing/undoing bras. Putting on/taking off tshirts. Going to the toilet. Holding stuff. Eating. The list goes on. Oh, and did you know it's illegal to drive with one arm? Yep, voids your insurance. Not that I could anyway. So dad and one of his mates had to come pick me and my car up from the doctors, and he insisted I stay at my parents' place this weekend since I cant really do anything.
Anyway went out last night for my old flattie's bday which was a mission. Took an hour to get ready!! haha princess!! Today I have a wedding on and am a little worried about how I am going to manage stuff like washing / straightening my hair etc. Hmm should be fun.
OK that's it from me. Off to the gym (not joking) for some cardio, which thank God I can still do!! I may just become the next cardio queen (NOT) if I end up stuck in this thing for 6 weeks lol...
Til next time Train hard, be good, and keep your fingers crossed for me that this isn't bloody broken!
Vic x

Week in Review

Thank fuck for the weekend. I think it's the only thing that kept me sane this week. Sorry to start my post so abruptly but I seriously had a bitch of a week.

Work was so draining last week, it seriously was. Busy as all hell and every single day we had betwen 1-3 staff either on leave, off sick (that gastro is STILL going around at work) or just not show up (very considerate, especially when they have back to back appointments scheduled in). I am feeling very over it at the moment (think it's time for a holiday personally) and the whole situation is seriously sapping ALL the energy out of me. No matter how much sleep I got, it wasn't enough (and it wasn't enough to start with so that didn't help!!)

Training went well for the week. Despite lacking a lot of motivation and energy I pushed through my workouts and even included some exercises I have avoided for the last few years due to my spinal arthritis. I did deadlifts in my back workout on Monday (yeah Tara...I do them for hammies too but I do stiff legged ones on leg day, did Romanian ones for lower back)...and I haven't done these in years. Didn't break any records with weight but I was so happy to have pumped out 3 x 12.

Same with quads yesterday - managed 5 sets of free squats, 3 sets of 15 reps and two of 12. I haven't free squatted in a few years, opting for the Smith machine because of the weakness in the spine, but decided to give it a crack yesterday. Again, only did 60kg so by no means a world record, but for someone who hasn't squatted in about 5 years I was pretty happy with my efforts.

This morning have started off with a half hour HIIT session (15min on stepper, 15 min on treddy) followed by about 10min plyometrics. Couldn't do more than that due to having to get home for the insulation guys, who were due to get to my house at 6.30am (who, being tradies, showed up at 7.30am instead)...God they are noisy fuckers. I had no idea it was going to be this noisy!! Roof tiles being moved, shit being dropped, sounds like someone is gonna come thru the roof any second!

So update on the weekend. Friday night I didn't do much - I did a boxing class at 6pm and no joke, I was soooo wrecked after it all I could manage to do was spend quality time on the couch! Saturday morning did some cardio and had to go into work at lunchtime to have my PT profile photo taken (?? they have decided to put pics up on the wall of the trainers). Saturday night was a friend's birthday...was looking forward to it so much as it was a friend I haven't caught up with in FOREVER. Had a nap on the couch before getting ready...and a big wind storm arose while I was sleeping. I must have been zonked out of my mind...because I didnt' even hear half a gum tree come down pretty much in my front yard. I am talking a section about 20m high, just broke off the tree on the council strip...and I didn't hear a sound, despite being asleep on my couch, which is in the front room of my house!! I am counting my goddamned lucky stars that it fell in the direction that it did, cos if it came my way...let's just say that nap would have been my last.

Anyway so after a few calls to the council and SES I left and headed to my friends' place for some pre-dinner drinks. A glass or two of wine later and I was on my way to a gooooood night!! We went to the place we were going for dinner and drinks, a country-kind of pub called the Camden Hotel. There is a restaurant in there that we were meeting everyone for dinner, and arrived to find out that they have $5 cocktails from 6-9pm every Saturday night. Gotta LUUURVE $5 cocktails!! hehe So we ordered several rounds (we got there at 7pm...you can fit quite a few $5 cocktails into 2 hours if you try real hard lol) and had some dinner...I ordered the lamb woodfired pizza - it was to die for!! They had a DJ in the bar that night so we danced the night away. Got chatting to this Kiwi dude (nothing romantic, he was just good fun and I liked his sense of humour). We were on a girls night (supposedly...however 2 of the girls decided to bring their partners to the girls' night...WTF???) and seriously, some girls can be fucking prudish. Here I am chatting with this dude and they kept trying to get rid of him like he was hassling me or something, they were actually being quite rude and one of the guys who had invited himself on our girls night was also being a prick to this guy. Seriously. I am 31, I am single. I will talk to whoever the fuck I like. And if they irritate me, I am a big girl and will tell them to piss off. So I really didnt appreciate being treated like a 13 year old who didn't know what I was doing!!

Anyway aside from that little irritation, I had an awesome night. I haven't had a big night like that in ages! Lucky I was staying at the birthday girl's place haha...

Yesterday was a big recovery day. I surprisingly didn't have a big hangover (I say surprisingly as I didn't have 2 cocktails containing the same thing, had wine before leaving for the pub, and after 9pm moved onto vodkas, followed by champaigne...definite recipe for a hangover I would have thought?? apparently not!) but I was tired as hell. It took EVERYTHING I had (and I mean EVERYTHING) to get to the gym yesterday, but I managed. I then spent the rest of the day on the couch, between napping, eating, watching tennis and recovering :)

SO...that's my week wrap up. I really must blog more often to prevent these massive posts!! Promise to lift my game!
Here's hoping for a better week at work...

Vic x

13 weeks out...?

Today marks 13 weeks til the IFBB Australasians.
I woke up this morning and my first thought was that I did not want to do my early morning cardio. Not that I didn't want to do it 'today'. That I didn't want to do it two to three times a day for the next 17 weeks (the last comp I was planning to do for the season, INBA Sydney titles, is 17 weeks away today).
So I sat and contemplated.
And I spoke to one of my girlfriends, a fellow competitor, who I knew would not try to sway me either way, but who I knew would listen and help me see clarity.
And I decided that I won't be doing the comps. After 3 years straight of competing, both my body and my mind need a break from it. All the strict dieting and the rigorous training regime eventually takes it's toll and I just need a rest from it for a bit. I haven't decided how long - I may do the Sept/Oct comps, I may take the entire year off - that's a decision I'm not in any rush to make.
So I called Coach (Mike) and told him my decision. Mike is great in that he has never tried to sway me either way but he did say after I told him that he thought it was a good idea. So we will be meeting this week to work out an off season plan - something I have not had before as I haven't really had a proper off season (aside from 6-8 weeks between comp seasons, which isn't really that long). I am still planning on keeping up the training, but not at pre-comp level, and am really looking forward to having some fun and mixing stuff up, like doing some swimming or kickboxing, or maybe even some crossfit as well as my weights.
And I know I have made the right decision because I am actually really happy with it.
SO after that call, I went and trained - with no expectations of myself - and smashed out an awesome quads session. I did:

3 x 15 hack squats
4 x 15 squats
5 x 20 leg extensions
6 x 15 leg press
and followed this with 20 mins bike/x-trainer. I also went for a walk this evening "just because i wanted to", not because I had to - and enjoyed it.

Other than that I don't have much to report about the weekend. I worked Friday morning then again Friday night; all day Saturday; then today just trained and bummed around watching Foxtel. Was tempted to go to the beach since it was a ripper of a day weather wise but still recovering from last week's sunburn efforts lol, combined with the fact I was very tired and feeling like being a lazy slob most of today ;) Need those days every once in a while!

Anyway that's me in a nutshell. Hopefully a more exciting week for you next week to report about. So til next time...train hard and be good. Vic x

This is what the Devil looks like...

Cheat meal night. Chinese followed by Sara Lee Rocky Road Overload ice cream. It is the Devil. No, really. Was eating 1/2 a tub (and probably a week's worth of calories) worth feeling sick for 4 hours afterwards? You bet your ass it was!!
The end.

A Day In The Life Of....

My turn!! hehe
Kristin tagged everyone so figured why not...?

I am gonna write my typical Monday for you...my work hours change from day to day so using Monday as my example :)

SO...
About 6am - Get up, take supplements. Get dressed and go for a power walk.

7am - cook breakfast. This is invariably eggy oats with splenda, cinnamon and sometimes SF maple syrup. OK occasionally I make it into a pancake instead. During comp prep, thanks to Steph D, I also add mushed up cauliflower into the mix to bulk it up.

7.30am - eat said breakfast, usually in front of the computer while checking emails, facebook, blogs etc. Usually 'Sunrise' is on in the background.

8.30-10am - head to the gym, do weights session followed by a bit more cardio. Have PWO shake then head home.

10am - Prepare meals for day.

11am - Meal 2, then shower and get ready for work. I only live about 2 mins from work so don't have to leave til about 11.55am.

12pm - Start work. Meals 3, 4 and 5 are eaten there, along with about 11,000 coffees. Meals are usually chicken or kangaroo (or tuna if I'm desperate) with steamed/boiled greens OR a massive salad. My 2nd and 3rd meal for the day also includes rice. Mmmm carbs... If I'm not in prep sometimes lunch will be a wrap with chicken and salads on a spinach tortilla instead...mmm wraps... Coffees are normally large long blacks with a dash of light soy milk - I even do this when not in prep these days as I find full milky coffees way too heavy now that I am used to having the LB's.

8pm - Finish work and depending where prep is at might do another 30mins or so of cardio. If not, head home and play on the computer for a bit.

10pm - Last meal for the evening...either a night time protein shake (mmm love my night time protein shake) or eggwhites with cauliflower, splenda and cinnamon. I usually have a coffee here too. I know it's not good to drink coffee before bed but caffeine doesn't have a stimulant effect on me so why not!

11pm (ish) - bed

Hmmm reading that most people would find my day pretty boring!! I'm filling this in during comp prep though so as we all know - there's not a lot of room for much else in that time!! The other bummer is working hours like this, when I am getting home most of my friends are winding down for the evening so it's not like I have a lot of social time during the week - all good though, makes the weekends more fun ;)

So that's me in a nutshell!
I won't tag anyone as I know quite a few have already done this....so my tag is open to all who haven't!

Vic x

Bad tan lines and other assorted stuff

Comp prep kicked off last week without a glitch. Well kind of. Monday was perfect. Perfect training, perfect eats. Tuesday I had to alter my normal training regime due to altered working hours. Opening the gym meant that I couldn't do my usual first session first thing, as I had to be at work at 5.45am and worked the close shift on the Monday night before heading to say farewell to my brother and SIL, who were leaving Tuesday morning to go back to Melbourne. I didn't get home til about 11pm and was too buggered to prepare my meals before bed, so had to get up early to do that. Anyway enough of the jibber. I finished work at 1.45pm (i could get used to the open shift, I tell ya!) and stayed back to train shoulders. Good sess. Followed the session with 20min cardio, then home to nap.
Was *supposed* to go for a walk in the evening...but tummy started to feel off when I woke up. Ended up with a bout of gastro - so the walk didn't happen as I didn't want to get caught in an emergency sitch if ya know what I mean.
Anyway the cramping lasted the next few days but that was it - no "emergencies" to speak of, so trained well all week.
Friday when I finished work at 2pm I headed off down the south coast to a place called Callala Beach. My family have been going there forever, and I remember most summers being spent down there. Well my parents and their best friends are down there for a couple of weeks, and being my first complete weekend off in God knows how long, I decided to head down for a long weekend (didn't have to work Monday). Arrived there in the late arvo and headed straight to the beach for a long soft sand walk. Aaah bliss. Here - see for yourself:So. The next few days went as follows:
Wake up. Go for 45min soft sand walk. Eat breakfast. Read. Eat meal 2. Go to beach. Lay in sun/swim/read/listen to iPod. Go home for lunch. Go back to the beach. Lay in sun/swim/read/iPod. Go for 30min walk. Go home. Snack. Shower. Read/watch tele/nap. Have dinner. Plodder around. Pre-bed snack. Read. Bed.
Oh. Might mention here that in between all that - and sorry for the info - the gastro returned. So that also dictated when I had to run home from the beach!! I might also throw in here that I missed an afternoon walk on Saturday due to said emergencies...which SUCKED because apparently there were PENGUINS (!?!? WTF?!?! Been going to this place FOREVER and NEVER seen penguins there??) at the end of the beach that I would normally walk to!
Anyway on Monday I woke up and went for my early morning soft sand walk but it was significantly cooler than it had been the previous few days. And overcast. After brekkie I checked the forecast for the day on my mobile (God bless technology!!) and it said that it would clear up to a sunny day, and be 35degrees. So SOLD! I was staying the day (if it was gonna be a shitty day I had resolved that I would just drive home in the morning). Anyway at about 11am it was still quite cool and overcast, so I figured the forecast was wrong (imagine that!?!) but I was still there so may as well spend the day on the beach. So off I trotted. Just like that. No sunscreen application (can anyone say DICKHEAD??), just 'kini, singlet and boardies, Havaianas, sunnies, iPod and book. And fell asleep. And only woke up cos my phone was ringing (no I normally don't take a phone to the beach but was expecting a call). When I looked at the time...I realised I had been asleep for an hour and a half. NINETY FUCKING MINUTES!!! And in the meantime, the clouds had cleared to make way for an insanely HOT day. And I had fallen asleep. With no sunscreen. And wearing sunnies. YEP. I got burnt. And I got a LOVELY tanline of SUNGLASSES on my face!!! OMG hilarious!! Anyway must say that I got a few interesting looks that afternoon when the redness set in and I arrived back in Sydney. I went to the gym I work at to train (AWESOME SESSION!!) and had a few laughs.
Tuesday morning and the tummy issue still hadn't left the building (although on a happy note the burn had started to turn into a nice shade of brown) so I thought it best to get to the dr. Well turns out I have gastroenteritis (gee who woulda known...it's only been here a week lol) and a fever (I seriously didn't know that...felt a bit fluey over the weekend but that feeling came and went pretty quickly, with the help of some cold'n'flu aides) and am "highly contagious"...so Dr gave me til Friday off work. Wish I had seen a dr BEFORE i came back from the coast, I quite easily could have stayed there ;) lol
Anyway it is a bit sucky cos other than some cramping which happens sporadically, and the "emergencies" I feel fine, so being stuck at home in quarantine is boring the shit out of me (haha just realised the pun!!)
So training has been a bit "how you going" the last few days cos I can't go to the gym. Did some bodyweight leg stuff at home today, hopefully I will wake up tomorrow and this will be all gone and I can get on with it!!
Anyway sorry for the epic (and gross?) post but that's pretty much what's been going on with me!
So til next time...you know the drill ;)
Vic x

And so it begins...

Comp prep 2010 has officially begun and I am Big Kev excited. I am so pumped for a big year.

Day one went well on both the food and training fronts. Day two food has been spot on (and given I'll be going to bed straight after this post there isn't much more time for naughties. Training has been semi-good today. I did my weights and post weights cardio. My early morning cardio had been put on the backburner as I had to open the gym this morning as our morning receptionist is on leave at the moment. My plan was to do another cardio session tonight however after work today I had a bit of a nap (been bloody exhausted lately, but given I have averaged about 5 hours sleep every night for 2 weeks not really surprising) and woke up feeling not quite right in the tummy. The next few hours weren't my prettiest for the year to date and didn't want to risk trying cardio and getting caught in an emergency situation (I know I know, TMI). Anyway enough of that shit (pardon the pun).

So I know I have been a slack blogger lately. I have seriously had so much on in the last few weeks that it was actually nice to start dieting and all else that goes with comp prep yesterday! Between Christmas, my grandmother's 90th, having Melbourne and London visitors, hosting a NYE party and then having my brother's best mate's wedding on Sunday (they are the Londoners - he and his now wife are living over there at the moment), it has been go, go, go and one social event after another. Needless to say the diet continued to be "relaxed" over the 10 days following Christmas. Happy with that though as I didn't really overdo it and I am not going into this season feeling like I missed out on anything.

NYE was fun. We had a "good vs bad" theme at the party, I as the host went as half angel, half devil. Here are a few pics from the party:

Me and Jesus (aka my brother Joseph)

Dracula (Gab); a pirate (Mick); a terrorist (Brian - note: he can get away with that kind of costume as he returned last year from serving a lot of time over in Afghanistan...and the outfit is authentic!)Queen of hearts (Felicity); Lara Croft (my sis-in-law Rachel); a naughty nun (Kris)

There are more piccies on my facebook - it's taking too long to upload them here!!

Anyway the party was good fun. There were probably about 30 of us...I don't really think anyone was quite 'sober' but in saying that there were no messy drunks, thank goodness. We actually MISSED the countdown believe it or not - and although I could be disappointed in that I am actually happy that we were all having such a good time we didn't even realise it happened!! At about 12.05am when we were all waiting for it to happen on the radio (again, I will add that everyone had a few bevvies so noone really noticed it had passed lol) Rachel noticed what time it was, so thought quickly enough to start screaming out the whole "ten...nine...eight...etc" and everyone just assumed it was happening and chimed in!! lol too funny

Ended up with about 400kg (no I am not exaggerating!!) leftovers, between steaks, sausages, pasta, potato bake, rice croquets, bread rolls, chocolate cake, tiramisu etc etc...unfortunately I couldn't ship it all home with others (try as I might) so my dogs thought they were in heaven the next couple of days! Tonight is bin night and I was so happy to be able to finally clean out my fridge!

Anyway I have just realised the epic size of this post (and the time, I have to wake up in little over 6 hours!!) so I will leave it at that.

So til next time, train hard and be good.

Vic x

Blogger Award

I have been tagged by the lovely Sandra for a Beautiful Blogger award, so here goes.

SEVEN THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT ME

• My nickname growing up was 'Squeaky'. This was given to me by my Godfather when I was a toddler and my brother has carried on using this name for me ever since. Funny enough, all his mates call me various versions of 'Squeaky' (eg Squeak, Squeakster etc) but none of my mates use the name at all. I actually think some of his mates don't even know my name is Vicki!?!
• I have an extra pair of ribs. They are tiny, and are in the upper spine, at the base of the neck
• I took up training a few years after fracturing several vertebrae in a car accident, to help strengthen the muscles supporting my spine and try to delay the inevitable onset of arthritis. I got hooked and soon became interested in the bodybuilding world.
• In 2005 I went to work down in Canberra for 9 months, and would commute home to Sydney most weekends. During my 9 months there I managed to lose my licence via an accumulation of demerit points (speeding fines driving to and from Canberra...these were my first and only ever driving fines and all happened within a few months of eachother); my Sydney house caught fire while I was in the shower (bathroom fan caught fire, setting fire to the beams in my ceiling and in turn my bathroom); and my Canberra house got robbed while I was home in Sydney for a weekend (EVERYTHING in the house was pretty much gone...the furniture, the whitegoods, the food in my pantry...EVERYTHING). Needless to say, 2005 was a year I was happy to see the back of!
• I love travelling and have been on a few big trips. My favourite places in the world (in order of preference) are Rome, Venice and New York, and I would drop everything and move to any of those locations in a heartbeat.
• I once won an eating contest at my favourite steak and ribs joint. I polished off a 500g steak with a side of potatoes; a rack of ribs with a side of potatoes; bread; salad; and 2 scoops of Royal Copenhagen icecream. I won in the dessert round. I could have kept going too...there's always room for icecream I say!
• I have broken my nose 5 times and HATE the shape it has been left in!

OK so now I have to tag 7 other bloggers and get you to do one of these too! SO - here goes:

• Kristen
• Fern
• Tara
• Steph D
• Ali
• Em
• Frankie

So that's me done :)

BTW - I have been meaning to write a proper post but haven't felt very inspired lately (think all the excess food has made me sluggish!). I promise I will post a proper blog in the next day or so :)

Vic x