Week 21 was spent on the road from San Rafael, Ca to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Last Sunday, my father-in-law and I loaded up all of my grandmother-in-law’s belongings and moved her out to New Mexico. It was a long 1,300 mile one way drive which took two days to do. After the first day of driving we stopped in Flagstaff, Az. for the night. In the morning, I was able to get in a 20 minute cardio session at the hotel’s fitness center before getting back on the road, but that was the extent of my cardio for the week. We arrived in New Mexico on Tuesday afternoon and we immediately unloaded the U-Haul truck. On Wednesday it was more moving and unpacking, but before that my Aunt Anita took me over to her gym for a leg workout. I was able to do squats, leg extensions, stiff legged deads and some calf raises. It was a very good workout and that was my only training day for the week.

Aunt Anita and myself repping 3DMJ

The rest of the week it was more unpacking and getting grandma situated. I’m gonna sure miss seeing her on a regular basis. We ended up leaving to go back home on Friday morning and we finally arrived back home on Saturday evening. To say I’m tired is an understatement. Below are some of the cool pics I took from our road trip.


A hillside right after Gilroy, Ca


San Luis Reservoir in California


San Luis Reservoir Skyline


Some power plant in Arizona


It was a very long road that sometimes seemed to go to nowwhere


One big rock! Arizona


Same rock, but with a little more perspective


Another cool mountain in Arizona


We stopped off to see the meteor crater that hit Arizona a loooong time ago. 550 feet deep and 3/4 miles across. Awesome site!


Yup...thats me!

Part of the museum


Mojave Desert in California


Mojave Desert sunset

New Plans
With all that time on the road it gave me time to really think about what my plans are this year. With the IFPA Pro USA in July, I’ve realized at my current rate I will not be ready. I’ve been thinking of just bypassing that show and focusing my attention to another show at a later date. However, I really want to be onstage with my teammates,so in my mind, I’ve been thinking about pulling the trigger to speed things up. I was thinking about running some low carb days/high carb day setup. It’s funny because I talked with Eric tonight and he mentioned the same thing after he and Berto discussed my situation. So after discussing it with Eric, I decided to go ahead shoot for the IFPA Pro USA with a new plan of attack. Now I know 20lbs in 10 weeks will not be an easy feat, but I’m up for the challenge. I will try the new plan for the next 3-4 weeks and if things are not going as planned I will just forego the July show and shoot for a later date.  Starting on 5/2/11 my new plan looks like this:

Day 1 - 40f/500c/175p, off
Day 2 - 50f/150c/200p, AM - Upper or Lower, PM – 30 min cardio
Day 3 - 50f/150c/200p, 60 min cardio (30 min in morning, 30 min in evening)
Day 4 - 50f/150c/200p 60 min cardio (30 min in morning, 30 min in evening)
Repeat cycle

Can I Pull it Off?
In ’06, I lost 27lbs in 11 weeks for the NPC San Francisco and I went on to win the middleweight class and lost the overall by 3 points to the heavyweight, so I know in my mind I can pull this off.

2006 NPC San Francisco

Pulling this off…meaning…to get in great shape. I’m not claiming I'm going to be victorious…that would be dumb of me and not very realistic. I think by giving myself this challenge of 20lbs in 10 weeks that will only ignite a fire within me. This prep has been pretty relaxing as far as not putting any pressure on myself, but it’s time to make things a bit more interesting. My training will not be to failure and I’m not looking to kill myself by doing any HIIT cardio because that will only run me into the ground. I’m going to continue to train with a lot of intelligence and not jeopardize my recovery abilities. I will still train instinctively, but I will try to maintain a nice progression as long as my body lets me. My goal is still to have fun and once this prep seems to be a burden…I will make the necessary adjustments to ensure I'm enjoying myself. I look forward to the next 3-4 weeks…time to dig deep.

Until my next blog keep training hard, smart and naturally!