jack, for real, man, get it out of your head that your conditioning was what held you back in the contest.......It was a small part of the end result. the big part is that your muscles are not developed enough in certain areas...your contest physique was lacking density...no depth, no wseparation etc...Even when a good bodybuilder is off season they will have these critical elements present. go back to the drawing board...re adjust EVERY SINGLE PART of your training, eating and hormone use...more is not better....training has to change significantly (and Zi dodn't even know what you do) and your eating from now till the contest must change TOTALLY in order to get the result you are looking for. I'm being honest..the worst thing for progress is when your led to believe the wrong things. I hope you do well and come back and place well or win a show...that will be awesome, but you have to address the truth...forget about the carb this or the last 3 days...it had NOTHING to do with your placing.