HA HA! Sorry guys... Just sort of savoring the events of last weekend still and not wanting to switch back to "normal" life even though I have been back for nearly a week now.
The performance was beyond my wildest dreams. Scott (the teacher) put me as the last player and had me playing the Sarabande (slow piece) first and then finish the program off with the wild and very happy/loud Prelude. The first and last spots of a show like this are paramount as they set the show and set the ending. My peers likened the last spot to the leg man of the relay. The pressure was really on me with such a major work and in such a major spot.
The program was setup so that there were 4 of us on the stage at the same time in the last set. We all had Baroque pieces to play. For me this worked to my advantage as I was able to get nervous and work through those nerves while my peers did their solo pieces. The man who made my own handmade guitar was on stage with me and played the third spot. When he finished his pieces, I launched into mine. I felt calm and the Sarabande just flowed. Then came the "money" piece... Guys... I nailed it. I had a tiny memory slip with an easy recovery in the middle but that was the only place I even faltered slightly. That piece just came out of my instrument like a pro and that final chord was HUGE and I could not help but grin ear-to-ear as it set sailing from the strings.
The audience exploded with applause... I counted to 3, stood up (then the others on stage stood up following my queue as instructed), bowed and exited the stage. We had only a few seconds backstage before we had to go back out for more bows but in those seconds other performers all congratulated me and some of them lifted me in the air. It was like sinking the ball for the winning point from the half court. All 10 of the performers then walked out for a final bow. One of the performers forgot to come up stage and ran on late. He later said he was so captivated by my performance that he just got swept up with the audience and forgot to come backstage again.
After the concert we all went back to the dorms and we partied our asses off! The serious part of the week was finally over and we got to relax and just be loose finally. This is always a very special week for me because I actually founded and fund this weeklong event. Many years I play a strictly support role but this year I got to participate and two of my biggest guitar dreams came to pass. I got to play onstage with the builder of my instrument (I so admire his playing) and I got to perform some of the Bach suite I have been working up for nearly 5 years.
Needless to say, coming back to real life has been somewhat strange for me. Back to training and daily reporting and work. I am now just 12 weeks away from my photoshoot and getting a little bit emotional about all of this too now. My physique has changed drastically in the past 3 months. These pics show more of a difference than I saw in a year before. Nobody is questioning anymore if I am on a cut. I lay in bed at night and can feel mucles in my abs and my ribs are so prominent. It all feels weird. Size 3 jeans fitting me just fine, boobs disappearing (along with bf) and whole shape changing. For some reason this sort of drastic changing is always very emotional for me. It is like I am no longer me.
But this is it... the final 12 weeks to 10% bf. The Make-or-Break time. The weird thing is that this diet is really not hard at all. I read all the time about how people in their final 12 weeks have such a hard time and have to do hours and hours of cardio. I still am doing no extra cardio and the food is actually pretty easy to keep up. In fact while I do get the munchies sometimes and even get occasionally really hungry, I am most of the time force feeding to keep UP the calories. The hardest thing about the diet so far has been accepting the performance decreases in the gym and NOT changing things all the time to "optimize" things. Alan is pretty strongly against changes if things are working overall.
I believe it was in Wendy's log where I read that she opted to not do fitness due to the fact that she found such distaste with all the diets and the exclusion of foods, etc. Interesting that because I am finding nothing to complain about with my diet. I eat what I want to eat within the confines of my macro allotment. I exclude nothing and eat pizza, chocolate, or whatever. Stupid dieting is stupid dieting... doesn't matter what sport you do it in. For fitness and bodybuilding sports we have a great number of resources here for non-retarded dieting.
Through all of this process so far I have learned SO MUCH that it is hard for me to sort and write it all out. I feel like I could write a book. Main take aways so far...
* finding balance between deficit and workout/life and how to do that
* How unpredicatble ALL forms of measuring bf% are (how to rely on the eye)
* How significantly different this way of loss is from previous (look at those 3 mo pics) You can see amazing bf% changes. There is only 3 lb scale weight change in those pics but look at the cuts in the abs and back even with a plain flash picture. Incredible....
* It doesn't have to be hard or painful... just consistent... (Hint:consistency is hard)
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