After all of the obstacles I dealt with last year, I feel I have some unfinished business and I will be preparing for a show in 2018. I might compete in Colorado or I might just compete here in Florida, I am not sure yet. I have narrowed down my options to a handful, but I won't be detailing my plans for which show or where, publicly. Though I will be detailing everything I am doing, I also won't discuss how far out I am from my show because I just don't want the fanfare or anyone to know what I am doing and where.
I rather enjoy everyone here in Florida not knowing who I am and no one really paying attention to me so I would like to keep it that way. When I train, I wear my "Colorado" clothes which is usually a sweatshirt and a stocking hat so I am covered and no one really thinks I would or could compete. My clothing (being so warm in southern Florida) is about all of the attention I get as no one really talks to me and there are very few people in the gym when we train around 9pm, anyway. In fact, I was talking to the guy that works at the gym the other night and he asked me what I do. I responded with, "I just do some boring stuff that you wouldn't find very interesting," and changed the subject. I am enjoying my anonymity.
I doubt I will change much with my approach this year and likely use the same game plan that I used last year because it was working so well until the shit hit the fan. Of course, having a plan going in doesn't mean that I won't adjust on the fly so I will be transparent with the things that I do in regards to training, nutrition, supplements, etc..
I know I am going in with a keto approach as I really enjoy this approach and find it quite easy to maintain, as well. I will still Skipload but it will be moderate carb and moderate fat. Right now I am doing no cardio and haven't for a few months so as soon as I add in cardio, I anticipate changing my condition relatively quickly and easily, at least at first.
The gear plan is the same this year in that I plan to be TRT as long as I can during the prep and then if I feel I need to add in something more, I will but it will be on a very small scale similar to what I did last year. I will detail everything being transparent, as usual. In fact, I likely won't change much with my approach or plan that I used last year because it worked so very well until I got sick again with shingles. Even with basically the same approach or game plan going in, I will tweak and adjust based on how I feel and how I am progressing.
I would love for Mrs. Skip to do the same show but she is sick as hell right now and I won't discuss this with her until she feels better. I am feeling much better but I am still not 100% because I do still have a pretty bad cough but I feel better training as I feel it is helping my breathing quite a bit. We almost had to make a hospital run yesterday as she was in terrible shape and right now the flu season is kicking the shit out of a lot of people so we were concerned that maybe she was worse than we had thought. She is feeling a little bit better today so hopefully she continues to improve.
I will be competing in BBing and I mention this because I did have an idea of changing to physique just to give myself a different challenge but I can't bring myself to do that. That is not to say it's "bad" but more because I am injury free and can train legs hard again without any back issues so I see no real reason to crossover. It will be enough of a challenge to get into the condition I want to be in while keeping as much muscle as possible while on TRT for my 5th year at 48 years old. I will compete in masters but I will almost certainly do the open division, as well, just to see where I stand.
What will happen? I have no clue and as much as I want to win and I am preparing to win, I also understand the limitations that I have with so many years of not being able to hammer away on my legs, 5 years of TRT and just plain getting older - closing in on 50 years old in a couple of years. Don't get me wrong, I want to win and I will bust my ass with that goal but I am realistic at the same time especially when it comes to the open division.
After everything that happened last year, I am very much looking forward to finishing what I couldn't last year.