I'M BACK FROM NY!!

Hi everyone!
I hope you are all having a wonderful week. Easter long weekend is almost here...woo-hoo!!

My trip to NY was pretty interesting.... a lot of fun with some personal disappointment. Dennis and I decided to rent a van and drive to NY. We calculated that the drive to NY would take approximately 8-10 hours, so we thought it would be a great idea to take out the back seats and put a mattress on the floor so I could sleep most of the way. It was such a great idea...I slept most of the way and felt amazing when we arrived to the hotel in downtown Manhatten early Friday morning. Dennis and I stayed at the Marriott Financial Center... We had an amazing view. We could look out our window and see the Statue of Liberty!! Dennis and I went for a walk downtown and just took a few hours taking it all in!!
Later that afternoon, we went back to the hotel and applied my last coat of Protan and started focusing on the show.
My placing and my performances at the Fitness International is one that I'm not proud of. My physique came in solid and I was proud of what I had to present, but my routines were not up to par and I was really disappointmented with my overall presentation. I was trying too hard to do what I thought the judges wanted to see, and in the end it wasn't what I felt comfortable with and it ended up showing on stage. When I went back to the gym after the Fitness International, I felt that I needed to redeem myself at the NY Pro show. I wanted to improve on my physique and I needed to bring stronger routines to the stage. Dennis and I put a new plan into action and decided that in order to come in better we needed to make some changes. We decided to work with Fitness/Bodybuilding Guru, Mike Watson to help with my dieting. Dennis tweaked my training and conditioning and MY job was to get treatments on my hip so I could concentrate on my routines. By making the proper adjustments to my training and nutrition, things seemed like they were falling into place. My physique came in tight and hard...probably the best shape of my entire life and my routines were finally coming along....as good as they were going to get with my injury.
I felt very confident going into the NY show and I was excited and eager to prove to myself and the judges that I made the proper adjustments and hopefully qualify for the Olympia.
SATURDAY MORNING-PREJUDGING: I woke up at 4am on Saturday morning feeling pumped! My tan was perfect, my makeup went on well, my hair looked great...things were going my way for once!!!! Dennis and I both felt great and we headed down to the venue for the 9am athletes meeting. It was decided at the meeting that we would be doing both physique rounds and our compulsory routine in the morning and the 2 minute routine at the evening event. Sounded pretty good to me.
My personal goal...was to recieve some good callouts in the physique round. Well, that didn't happen...I ended up in the last line up of callouts and boy...was that a slap in the face. I wanted to cry!!!! I was even more confused than I was at the Fitness International. I really thought that I had made the proper adjustments to my physique and stage presentation. As I was standing on stage, I felt like I had let everyone that supported me down. What a rotten feeling!! My compulsory routine was ok. I had a slight bobble on my front tuck, but managed to stay on my feet and complete a clean routine.
After prejudging, Dennis and I went back to our hotel room and discussed my situation. I ate, had a nap and got re-focused for the night show.
The night show went quite quickly. My 2 minute routine didn't go as well as I had hoped either. There was a mistake with the music...someone elses music came on instead of mine...I didn't hit my press to handstand, but tried to cover it up...and then, I was supposed to tear off my genie pants...well, to top things off, the velcro didn't release!!! After I gettting thru the first horrible 30 seconds, it was smooth sailing from there. The rest of my routine felt great and I had a great time performing it. I would have to say, the best part of the show was sitting in the dressing room getting to know the athletes. The girls were all so nice. Some of us exchanged email addresses and we will all keep in touch. I would have to say Stephanine Worsfold is by far the funniest girl that I have ever met. She had me laughing the entire show. I'm happy that I got to share this experience with Steph!!
The end result: First place went to Kim Klein, 2nd: Julie Palmer, 3rd: Debbie C-WAY TO GO!!, 4th: Julie Childs, 5th Angela Semsch and 6th: ME!!!
After the show, Dennis and I decided to head home. We packed up the van and took our time getting back to Canada. Dennis and I talked most of the way home about what/where we will head next. I have decided to take some time off of competing...work on some of my weaknesses, work on creating a new routine/skills and come back in September with a better package. My next show will be the Europa Super Show, Sept 16-17th in Bedford, Texas.

I want to congratulate all of the athletes that competed at the NY Pro show. All of you are amazing people and I wish you all the best of luck!

PHOTOSHOOT UPDATES: I did a photoshoot with Rick Oliver and Dennis Beitler on Tuesday March 22nd. Some of the photos will be used on mindiobrien.com and some video/pics will be going to herbiceps.com. Newcomer, Stacey Mlinarevic, had her first "real" photoshoot as well. Great job Stacey!! I want to thank Watsons Fitness and Nutrition Centers for allowing us to use their facility for the photoshoot.

I would like to thank my friends, family and sponsors for supporting me:
Special thanks to: Dennis Beitler, Mike Watson, Karen Phillips-www.khpdesigns.com, Cee Jay, Jason Wiggins, Cathy Savage, Tim O'Brien-Autolinks, Sportlab Nutrition, Doug Schneider and my mom and grama Pat for watching Alex and Happy!!