So two weeks before the big day, I had to deal with another major interruption in my pre-contest preparation routine. A work-related trip to Las Vegas, NV.
I know what you all are thinking. Vegas, Sin City, gambling, drinking, tons of fun. Well if you are dieting and preparing yourself for a bodybuilding competition, then a trip to Vegas means only one thing. STRESS!
Besides finding a suitable training facility, making sure that you can follow your diet can be quiet a task. Thankfully, after two successfully completed trips in the middle of my pre-contest period, I was much more relaxed this time and knew exactly how to prepare for this one.
First I went online and searched for gyms nearby. Lucky me, it turned out that the hotel I would be staying at, the Excalibur, had a well-equipped gym, which was free for hotel guests. With only minor changes to my workout, I would be able to complete three solid training sessions
Once I figured out the gym situation I packed my "travel workout gear", consisting of a pair of sneakers, which I could potentially also wear casually, a pair of training shorts, three shirts, cheap lifting straps, a blender bottle, a copy of my workout plan and last but not least my IPod.
Next I had to get my meal situation worked out. Since it was a business trip, I figured that the dinners would be covered and I could simply get plain chicken breasts or steak along with veggies, as described in last week's post. So with three meals out of the way, I was left with planning for only 21 more.
I took my meal plan and calculated the exact amount of foods and supplements I would need from Sunday night to Wednesday night and came up with the following:
- 4.5 cups of oatmeal
- 540gr of Whey Protein
- 180gr of Carbomax
- 90 oz. of chicken breast
- 3 cups of brown rice
- 180gr of Casein
- and my stack of vitamins, minerals and aminos.
Now that I knew how much food I needed for the trip, I had to figure out how to get it all to Vegas.
Since I would be staying in a regular hotel room, I would not have any access to a kitchen and would be far away from any kind of supermarket or grocery store.
So the only option was to prepare all my meals in advance, put them in plastic containers and pack them in my carry-on bag.
Somehow I managed to pack everything, including regular work and casual clothes, in my bag and was ready to head West.
First I went online and searched for gyms nearby. Lucky me, it turned out that the hotel I would be staying at, the Excalibur, had a well-equipped gym, which was free for hotel guests. With only minor changes to my workout, I would be able to complete three solid training sessions
Once I figured out the gym situation I packed my "travel workout gear", consisting of a pair of sneakers, which I could potentially also wear casually, a pair of training shorts, three shirts, cheap lifting straps, a blender bottle, a copy of my workout plan and last but not least my IPod.
Next I had to get my meal situation worked out. Since it was a business trip, I figured that the dinners would be covered and I could simply get plain chicken breasts or steak along with veggies, as described in last week's post. So with three meals out of the way, I was left with planning for only 21 more.
I took my meal plan and calculated the exact amount of foods and supplements I would need from Sunday night to Wednesday night and came up with the following:
- 4.5 cups of oatmeal
- 540gr of Whey Protein
- 180gr of Carbomax
- 90 oz. of chicken breast
- 3 cups of brown rice
- 180gr of Casein
- and my stack of vitamins, minerals and aminos.
Now that I knew how much food I needed for the trip, I had to figure out how to get it all to Vegas.
Since I would be staying in a regular hotel room, I would not have any access to a kitchen and would be far away from any kind of supermarket or grocery store.
So the only option was to prepare all my meals in advance, put them in plastic containers and pack them in my carry-on bag.
Somehow I managed to pack everything, including regular work and casual clothes, in my bag and was ready to head West.
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| Traveling 6'8" Style |
With a suitcase full of food, supplements and three bags of white powders (protein, casein and carbs) I miraculously made it through airport security without any problems and safely to Las Vegas.
Once I arrived at the hotel I was faced with another slight problem. No fridge in the room. I was hoping for at least a mini bar fridge or something comparable to store my food but nothing. Having cooked chicken in plastic containers sitting in a hotel room in the middle of the desert for three days did not sound like a great idea to me, so I had to get inventive. I had a small cooler bag with me that I simply filled with ice so half of my chicken was taken care of. For the other half I had to construct my own "fridge". I took a large metal trash can from the room put the food containers in it and filled it up with ice. I don't want to know what the cleaning ladies were thinking when they saw my little "kitchen" set-up in the bathroom.
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| "Setting up shop" in the hotel bathroom |
A few quick words about the gym at the Excalibur. The fitness center is located in the spa right next to the big outdoor pool area and offers some state-of-the-art equipment.
Besides a number of treadmills and stationary bikes, it features several Life Fitness machines, a smith machine and several dumbbells.
Surprisingly for a hotel "fitness room" the dumbbells even went up to 100 lbs. and allowed, along with the smith machine, for solid chest, back and shoulder workouts.
The "pool view" and TV's provided sufficient distraction during my three 45 minute cardio sessions at the end of my lifting sessions and made the time pass quick.
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| Excalibur Las Vegas Fitness Room/Gym |
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| Lovely view from the free weight area |
I met up with my trainer Jack after my return and we discussed the game plan for the upcoming week. The last week before D-Day. The so-called Peak Week.
He increased my daily consumption of glutamine from 20gr to 30gr per day, fine tuned my diet and exactly laid out the daily protein, carb, fat, water and sodium intake for the next 6 days.
Starting today I will have to drink 3!!! gallons of water per day until Thursday and then gradually decrease it to zero for the last 24 hours before the show, but more about this next week when I actually completed the program.
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Including the few calories I burnt off at the hotel gym.
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