STS Oct. 3rd & The Show.

Well, SW regionals is over and the dust has settled. Condors have once again secured a spot to The Show and took Bravo down to the wire for the #1 seed.

Recap:

Saturday- Things in the Inland Empire started out screwy, as they normally do in the IE, or as I like to call it, SoCal's armpit. I've been in LA for most of my life and have only been to the IE maybe 4 times. It's everything you don't like about LA (unbearable traffic, smog, intense desert heat, plus the always comical white trash population) without any of the good stuff. I made sure to remind Calle the RC of my disdain for his field choices throughout the entire weekend. The morning started off with a helpful phone call from a friend that the main freeway to the armpit was completely closed at one section...sweeet. Luckily us roadwarrior badasses knew an alternate route and jumped the 10 and made it out there lickety-split. Thank god, because the only thing worse than going to the IE is sitting in traffic going to the IE.

Games 1-3 were against Anomaly, Sunburn, and some other team I can't remember. We were firing on all cylinders and rolled through the games 13-4 or 5ish. Nothing especially spectacular to report.

Game 4 was against Monster, and we finally got the SoCal Showdown I had been looking forward to all year. Playing against a former team is always emotionally intense, especially when you're still good friends with the majority of the team. They came out fired up and ready to play, and we did too. A decent crowd had gathered and created an exciting atmosphere. Unfortunately for Monster it was business as usual for the Condors as our Zone D was looking SICK and played some of the best team defense I'd seen all year. They jammed up the Monster O, forced quick turns with great field position and scored even quicker. We took half at 8-5 and rolled from there. I somehow managed to match up on Ben Spears the majority of the game on both sides of the ball, and we ran each other silly. He was unquestionably the best player on their roster this year and it was so much fun battling with him. We each got each other good a couple of times, I caught a nice score on a great huck from Geoff Buhl, and he got a good D on me on a huck that fell short. I thought it was mine all the way till his hand knocked it out of the way...so it goes. We rolled through the second half with fierce efficiency all the way until the final point, which also happened to be the longest point of the game. 4 turns on each side (one of them mine) till I caught a caught a filthy IO forehand break from Rory and hit Robbie G in stride with the only IO huck I've thrown this season for the score and the win. 13-4, no 2nd half points for Monster. Mission: accomplished. Message: delivered.

Sunday:

Semi's: Yet another game against SDU. This one was much more clean and much more fun. We jumped out to a 4-0 lead with more aggressive Zone D and transition work, kept our marks sharp and capitalized on turns. Ran away with it 15-6.

Finals: 'Dors vs. Bravo. The excitement in the air was palpable. So thick you could cut it with a knife. We played at 11am and it was mothaf'ing HOT. The crowd had grown and everybody came to see some entertainment. I can't even describe how exciting it was to be a part of that game, it was one of the most intense and emotional games I've ever been in. It was exactly as I thought it would be: a battle of athleticism. We threw a grip of zone transition at them and tried to slow their offense down as best as possible. They went mostly man on us. The 1st half was pretty standard, we each got a couple breaks, and mostly traded to half, which Bravo took 8-6. Don't remember much specifics, but we did open our deep game up and had some nice huck scores on them. Lorenz the Swiss Air Force was droppin' bombs! Bravo did their usual bravoness and made some athletic plays. Second half was equally as tight and we took it down to the wire, getting to Universe Point, but unable to get the score and the win. Beau was unfortunately the hero of the day with the most athletic rundown of a huck I've ever seen on a full-field backhand from Dugan, and also scored the game-winner with yet-another iso play to him to take it 17-16. I don't remember much else of the specifics, but there's a video that should be floating around soon enough. One thing I did notice was the concept of "Big Game" players though. Some players have the ability to raise their level of play according to the impact of the game and we sure had some guys that proved their Big Game ability this weekend. Seeing guys play their absolute best when it matters most was truly inspiring. That's really what this is all about, competition and athleticisim at it's highest, and players rising up to meet that level and exceed it. You can't write drama like how sports have the ability to play themselves out (just ask Box & Rare). We had some guys step up huge, but these 3 come to mind first: Alex "A-bomb" Roedel played the best game I've ever seen him play. Dude had 5 D blocks on Bravo, including the filthiest game-saving layout D on Universe Point on an up-the-line throw to rabbit for the score. He was everywhere on the field and played a truly complete game. Jimmy Chu was another Big Gamer with super solid D on some of Bravo's best, and had the sickest layout score when we really needed it. He loves those trailing-edge grabs. Always a crowd pleaser. Tim Paymaster showed his old team how much they miss him with some of the best D on Beau I've ever seen and had some great grabs and hucks.

After the finals we saw ourselves emotionally and physically spent. But we also saw what kind of team we are, and what we are capable of. I'd say we learned a LOT about ourselves from that game and from this weekend. I think we also really became a team for the first time this weekend, and that's a great thing. We played the best team defense we've played all season and the emotional and mental connections with the guys have never been better.

Backdoor Finals saw us with SDU again. 4 times in 7 days. We made a decision to not let our finals heartbreaker affect our backdoor game, as John Wooden says "the best athletes have no short-term memory" and we had to learn to move on to the next game real quick. Same story as the morning, we jumped out to a lead and kept it to grab the #2 seed. I will say that that wormser guy on SD is a hell of a runner and never quit the entire game. Real respects real.

So we accomplished 1 of 2 goals for the weekend. We made it back to The Show, but didn't beat Bravo. But what I didn't expect was what we learned from it and how close it brought us together as a team. And it reminded me (again) how much I love team sports.

Now, there's still tons of work to be done. Florida is going to be a dogfight...and the Condors are comin' to rumble.

My focus for today's session was on explosiveness.

MP: same story, but I included 2-inch runs and added more jump-roping in between the quick drops.

Functional Lifts Supersets:

Overhead squats w/weight 3 sets @ 1o reps immediately followed by plyo-pushups TF

Overhead backwards lunges w/weight 3 sets @ 10 reps immediately followed by pullups TF

Deadlifts 3 sets @ 8 reps immediately followed by box jumps 12 reps

Cable explosions: starting with the cable down low at my right side I face outward holding the handle in my arm in a karate punch-ready position. I perform a squat and explode up switching my feet in the air so that I land facing my left with my feet still underneath me now pointed to the left while throwing a punch across my body. Resume regular athletic stance facing forward and repeat. 3 sets @ 10 reps each arm.

1 arm-snatches 3 sets @ 10 reps

Lateral box-jumps 3 sets TF http://www.exrx.net/Plyometrics/BoxLateralJump.html

Finished with some abs and a bit more jump-roping.

#40

STS 10-26-07 & Sectionals/Regionals

-Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing that you made the effort to do the best of which you are capable.

-Winning is a by-product. Focus on the product: EFFORT.

-The teams that compete at the highest level love the thrill of the contest, They may have winning in their heads, but they have a love for the struggle in their hearts.

-Intensity makes you stronger. Emotionalism makes you weaker." -John Wooden

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-KDhVwD0UA

Some great quotes from one of the greatest coaches ever. I had the chance to meet John Wooden and hear him speak at a charity event when I was in High School, and I even got to shake his hand and tell him how great it was to meet him. It wasn't I got a little older that I realized how lucky I was to be able to meet and listen to such an impactful coach. Easily one of the top 5 most influental coaches ever.

Put Rocky in there because pump-up montages are meant for the days before tourneys. Man Law. Special note: The original script was written by Stallone in 3 days and had Rocky throwing the fight at the end. Kinda adds a whole new perspective on the movie had they kept that in.

Sectionals was last weekend and unfortunately didn't bring the matchup I was so fired up for, as Monster forgot to close out their semi's game and lost to SD United. I was curious to see how the PBR split would work out for San Diego, but they surpised Monster by showing up strong and putting it to them 15-11. My initial thoughts were that SD would be weaker than last year as I depth would be an issue, but SD United is most definitely better than last year's PBR squad. They still play the split offense with two downfield receivers on each sideline and the middle of the field open, and depend on big breaks from their handlers to their always-active cutters. Finals was an ugly, scrappy game with the old condor/pbr/tide/squid bad blood spilling over onto the field. The first half was simply terrible, too many stupid turns to write about, but we managed to cleaned it up a bit in the second half. Our offense was clicking and moving the ball fast, and our D had some great marks, held up their offensive flow and kept their main guys in check. Bad calls and bad vibes were unfortunately the order of the day, and it left a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth, but so it goes. SD does play hard the entire game and have some athletic dudes who made some athletic plays, so I respect them for that, even if neither side showed each other much respect during the game. I guess I just much rather like playing tough, physical, athletic ultimate with my opponent and then be able to look each other in the eye and acknowledge our mutual heart & hustle vs. having them talk shit after we shake hands. Luckily my football background is one of nothing but shit-talk and showboating, so it's an environment I'm used to and quite comfortable in. There's more shit-talking and mental games in one of my flag-football league games than in an entire Ultimate tournament. For a game that requires so much communication between opponents (contested calls...etc) it's a cakewalk in the shit-talk department. Thank god. But I will give SD mad props for beating Monster early and supplying me with an endless amount of jokes for all my LA buddies. :)

Workout:

Movement Prep: Same bat time, same bat channel. Added the usual quick-drops also.

Functional Lifts:

I sprained my right pinky this weekend, nothing serious, but it's swelled up something fierce which means I can't hold a bar in my hand so it meant I had to alter things up a bit. No hang cleans makes me a sad panda.

Front squats 4 sets @ 8 reps

1 leg step-ups 3 sets @ 8 reps each leg

Backwards lunges with bar overhead 3 sets @ 8 reps. Gnarly mofos.

Cable twists while in squat position 3 sets @ 8 reps each side

Box Jumps 3 sets @ 12 reps

Core Circuit:

Couldn't hold anything so that meant no pullups, dips, or medicine ball work

GHD's

Sit-ups

Side twists

Plyo push-ups

Windshield wipers while holding 135lbs with locked arms http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcNGCG2L0OA Those KILLED me. Did mine on a bench instead of on the floor.

Repeated circuit 3x's with no rest.

Regionals this weekend in San Bernadino. Time to do what I've been in the weight room and on the grass 10 months for...get back to Nationals. Playing Monster last game of pool play on Saturday, and if things go as planned, Bravo on Sunday. Time to go to WORK.

http://www.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=124&id=3871

STS 9-19-07 & The Sectionals Beatdown

Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play." -Mike Singletary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy2ElkOuNF0

Posted that again because it's just so awesome to watch. Imagine training so that each time is different than the last time and each session pushes a new threshold of fatigue. Now stop imagining it and make it a reality. Seriously.

With Sectionals under way it's crunch time for everyone. While this is the point to fine tune the high-level concepts of your game, don't fool yourself into thinking that where you're at physically now can't be improved in time for The Show. We are a month & change away from Nationals and if you've been working hard consistently then there is still time to make significant strength, speed, and recovery gains. Time for another check-in to make sure you're doing what it takes to get you where you want.

Yesterday's workout:

Movement Prep: same ol' story. Added 2 sets of overhead squats with the bar and 3 sets of quick-drops. Btw...if you're still not jump-roping as either part of your MP or workout then you should feel real guilty right now. Have I taught you nothing!?!? You're killing me smalls.

Functional Lifts:

5 sets of Hang-cleans. Last two sets were hang-clean to push press. Just cuz.

3 sets of Jump-shrugs- did 6 jump-shrugs then finished with 4 regular deadlifts. Coretastic!

3 sets of Front-squats @ 8 reps

2 sets of 1 leg step-ups @ 8 reps...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXngKlZhqiQ

Interval Training:

For this I did a set of 10 push-presses at 135lbs then immediately did 12 box jumps, rest 30 seconds and repeat for 3 sets.

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/PushPress.html

This superset was awesome because of the progression/regression involved. The push press is hip-initiated and requires the body to enter a 1/4 squat to begin movement and generate power. And the box jump obviously uses the entire legs & core to generate the vertical leap. So you'd go from small (but equally powerful) squat to 3/4 squat for box jump back to 1/4 squat movement. Filthy. And really, really effective.

Finished with core & upper-body circuit that consisted of:

Pull-ups TF to hanging leg-raises TF
GHD's sets of 20
Plyometric push-ups- both feet & hands off the ground TF, then hands-only TF
Medicine ball twists
Sit-ups w/weight

Went through circuit 3 times w/no rest. Finished in 1 hour and 5 minutes and did more work in 1 hour than all the meatheads at my gym could do in 3 hours. Suckers. But their curls and bench press did look sick. Seriously. Sick.

SW Sectionals this weekend. That means a beatdowns a' coming. Condors are Back in Black and will be putting some people on notice that they might have made the wrong decision a couple months ago. Frosty-frost has been waiting for a specific game against a specific team and is so fired up for it that he's now speaking in the third person.

Showtime.

#40

STS- 9-13-07 & Your Ego

"Do not let your ego get in the way of your speed potential"- Me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVKayGh7LTg

Little dude with BIG hops.

I was training with a new client for the first time this morning and I realized how much easier it is to train women than men because of the ego factor. No guy (especially an athletic one) likes hearing that they have imbalances or weaknesses that need to be addressed before they can reach their full potential. But all truly intelligent athletes know that once you have a solid strength base and aerobic capacity your main focus needs to be on recognizing and addressing any and all weaknesses. Because an imbalance or weakness during speed movement translates over to an energy leak, and that means you're now working harder to move slower.

The problem is that addressing a weakness correctly sometimes means that you have to move back down levels of regression to a very basic movement and build up from there. Something guys with egos hate to do, myself included. I still remember how much I fought the simple routines when I was learning Athlete's Performance (http://www.athletesperformance.com/) until my trainer showed me how ridiculously deficient I was in some areas, and then it fully hit me how much I had to learn and re-teach myself about movement efficiency and form. Because a lot of it isn't innate principles and has to be cognitively recognized and applied, and bad techniques have been reinforced throughout the years with muscle memory and movement patterns. And it can take a long time to un-learn incorrect technique if you're fighting it the whole way and think you're too cool for school. News flash Walter Cronkrite: you aren't.

So in summary:

1. Drop. Your. Ego. and recognize that you have weaknesses and imbalances that need to be addressed before you can reach your speed/strength/agility/vertical leap potential. And recognize that some of those imbalances might mean that you might have to start at the basic moves and build up from there. How do you expect to be able to jump your highest if you can't even squat correctly?

2. Recognize that exercise science has evolved significantly in the past few years and that the routines and techniques you were taught in High School or Jr. High may not necessarily be the most effective or even correct way to acheive the results you're looking for. Recognize that you DON'T know everything about exercise science and be open and willing to learn new things. You might just surprise yourself.

3. Variety is the spice of life. There are too many activities out there for you to keep doing the same routine over and over. Change it up constantly so that you're always keeping your body guessing and ready for anything. Running stairs exactly how you've run them since college is not only f'ing boring, but also means you're getting 1/2 the bang for your buck. If you're going to commit the time to training you might as well get the most out of it.

Onto the training:

Movement Prep- usual nonsense. Also did 3 sets of quick drops and 3 sets of overhead quats. Steadily improving at those.

Did The BEAR today, and...well...it was quite unbearable. The BEAR consists of a hang clean to front-squat to push-press, then back down for another front-squat to push-press. That's 1 rep. 6 sets of 6 reps. Yeah, that's right. 72 front-squats to push-press in one setting...with 36 hang-cleans. Note: the regular BEAR calls for the 2nd squat to be a back squat but I keep both front-squats as I'm really trying to improve my front squat. And it's harder.

Next I did an core-circuit consisting of hanging-leg raises, medicine ball twists, sit-ups, & GHD's (glute-ham developers- awesome exercise). Went through circuit 3 times with 45 second rest between circuit, no rest between exercises.

After core-circuit I did box-jumps and row machine intervals. 30 seconds on/30 seconds rest for 4 sets to hit that lactate threshold even more. Legs. Were. Spent. Along with the rest of me.

Tonight will be medicine ball throws, speed & agility work, and throwing. Love September in LA, it's sunny and 78 degrees till 8pm 7 days a week. Say what you want about the traffic, smog, and flaky people but I'll take that weather any day o' the week!... along with the saucy girls that walk their silly little dogs at Studio City park in their silly little skirts. God bless that park.

CF

STS 9-9-07 and Rollin' with Nolan

"I wouldn't ever set out to hurt anyone deliberately unless it was, you know, important —like a league game or something."

-Dick Butkus, former Chicago Bears linebacker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5pWMP6HdXc

Yeah that's right kids. It's that time again. It's time for some mothaf'ing football!

I've been waiting 7 months for this. 49ers on tonight and back in the hunt. We're winning 10+ games this year. I'm calling it now.

Football has always been my first true love. The only good thing about Nationals being over is that I get to play Flag Football with my boys again with the Sandlot All-stars. 6 of us on the team have been playing together for 7 years now. In honor of the season finally here I ran a bunch of routes with QB Chris this week intermixed with our speed workout. We also did some 2 and 3 ball drills. For The 2 ball drill we would run a 12-yard out, catch the ball, then immediately drop it and explode into a post-corner route as ball #2 was coming over the shoulder. The 3 ball drill consisted of a slant across the field, catch & drop, immediately change direction to a 15 yard out across to the opposite side of the field, catch & drop and immediately turn upfield for a streak and a long-bomb ball #3. The focus is obviously on changing direction at maximum speed and catching every ball. Both of the drills felt VERY ultimate-specific as it was 5 cuts in a row. Oh yeah, and it's fucking sweet to catch 3 balls in a row from a guy who's got a collegiate-level arm. Dude throws darts.

On to the workout:

Movement Prep- Same stuff as before. See previous posts if ya don't know. One change though as I started incorporating more overhead squats and quick drops into my workout. Quick drops have officially taken place as my new Hot Exercise of the Moment. An unbelievable disassociation & explosive exercise. In a single explosive move the arms move up, the legs move down into a squat, and the core stays stable. Simply phenomenal. And amazingly difficult to get your arms and legs to move in opposite directions with fluidity. Took me 3 seperate sessions before I felt mildly comfortable, so don't worry if they don't automatically click the first time you try them. Remember, the point is that you're trying them. Because I guarantee the guy you cover at the next tournament isn't...well, unless you cover me.

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/QuickDrop.html

Functional lifts:

Hang-Cleans 4 sets: 6,6,4,4 increasing weight

Front Squats 4 sets @ 8 reps increasing weight

Jump Shrugs: 3 sets of 6, then immediately transitioned into 6 deadlifts after each set. Those rocked.

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/JumpShrug.html

Push-Press: 3 sets @ 10 reps

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/PushPress.html

Russian Dead-lifts: 2 sets @ 10 reps, wasn't planning on doing these but felt like hitting the hamstrings a bit extra today so I only did 2 sets. I'm such a wimp.

Next was a core circuit that consisted of twists on a swiss-medicine ball w/weight, weighted situps on a decline bench, glute-ham developers (SICK exercise), swiss-ball planks- improved at those to the point where I can balance on two swiss-balls, one on my feet, one on my hands in push-up position. Really fun to balance on those, even though I don't think people like it when I take up two of six swiss balls we have available. :)

Finished with Box Lateral Shuffles while holding a 10lb medicine ball overhead. This strengthens your core at it's weakest point (hands overhead). Remember the longer your body is the more your core is forced to stabilize it.

Two words to think about this week: Pillar. Strength.

What are you doing to improve your pillar strength?

CF

STS 8-27-07, the Beach & Labor Day

Bruce Lee on competition:

"Do not be tense, just be ready, not thinking but not dreaming, not being set but being flexible. It is being "wholly" and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw_v67Izt50

Probably still the most amazing thing I've ever seen. The ability to generate usable force from a standstill (or deceleration) can't be understated in sports. It's what seperates great athletes from the rest. If that is not an area of primary focus in your training then don't be surprised if you find yourself left behind...literally and figuratively.

Did a beach workout on Sunday out in beautiful Santa Monica with a buddy and realized (again) how much I miss living out by the beach. SM is the perfect exercise beach. Tons o' deep sand, the usual running path stretching for miles, and a big-kids jungle gym full of rings, 40-foot rope climbs, and a different assortment of parallel bars, ring-swings, etc. Interesting note: SM is actually home to the 1st Muscle Beach. Venice Beach is the epicenter of the body-building craze and where the sport really took off, but the first beach to offer any kind of exercise equipment was SM.

Did a variety of sprint & agility work on the sand and found out that all my lateral movement exercises can be done effectively on sand, which was awesome because I was concerned that I'd get too bogged down and not be able to move explosively, making the exercise essentially useless. But much like swimming, the faster I moved the more I stayed on top of the sand. Was even able to do lateral bounds for about 35 yards across the sand. I'm okay with that. I forgot how much sand running exercises the foot muscles as they were aching at the end. Finished with some rope climbs and some parallel-bar work. Also forgot how much climbing rope makes your hands ache and how scary being 40 feet in the air is, especially when the only thing holding you up is fatiguing really quickly.

Sunday in the sand left my legs feelin' great for my workout yesterday. All springy n' stuff, exactly how I like them for the jump-intensive workout I did yesterday.

Movement Prep set #1 (no rest in between):

Jump-rope TF
Lunges w/weight overhead (25lb plate)
Hand-stand pushups
Side-lunges
Jump-rope TF

Set 2 I replaced lunges with bulgarian split-squats (essentially a lunge with back leg on a bench or plyo box) and side-lunges with overhead squats with the bar. If you have any trouble with your squat form (which is 98% of the population) these are the best way to correct it. Set 3 was clock lunges and hang-cleans with just the bar.

Lift #1:

Hang cleans 5 sets @ 6,6,4,4,4 reps with increasing weight

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/HangClean.html

Lift # 2:

Front squats 4 sets @ 8 reps with increasing weight

Lift # 3:

1 leg step-ups 3 sets @ 8 reps
(Haven't done these in a while and they crushed. Such a great exercise).

Next I did an Interval Circuit that consisted of 4 sets at 30 seconds, with 30 seconds rest, and 1 minute rest between exercises.

The exercises :

1. Jump-shrugs- LOVED these. Hadn't done them in a long time, and kicking myself for it. As functional as functional gets.

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/JumpShrug.html

2. Box Jumps on a 30 inch platform

3. Romanian deadlifts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eZA_QDy9cY

4. Row Machine- emphasizing generating as much force on the pull-back rather than using the momentum from the forward motion. Again, working on that generating usable force thing.

Finished with an ab circuit and lateral stepper walks. Lateral steppers= still ROCK.

http://www.power-systems.com/nav/closeup.aspx?c=4&sc=27&g=1419&Lateral/Stepper™

Labor Day is this weekend. Besides having quite possibly the lamest Saturday schedule I've ever heard of (game 1 at 8am, then 3 games in a row starting at 1:15...WTF!?!?) we've got a solid weekend ahead of us. At least we can play game 1 then grab some breakfast and have it fully settled before facing JAM & Sockeye back to back. Can't wait. We've definitely improved some from Colorado and cleaned up some much-needed areas. Hopefully we show up ready to blow up both days instead of coming out flat like we did on Sunday in CO. Time will tell.

Funny note: my Summer League team won the LA Men's League despite me being there. Coolest part about the team was that it included my old Fraternity brother and college roomate Ulises, the guy I started playing Ultimate with and who I won back-to-back Fraternity Champs with. Also on the team was 3 guys from our rival Fraternity, the guys who used to win it before we came along. These dudes were actually the spark that ignited my ultimate career. In college ultimate was the first sport of the semester-long competition and since it was directly around rush there was always BIG bragging rights on the table. Well, the 3 dudes (along with some others) would play in the LA Summer League every year and clean house till we joined the league and then cleaned house on them. From my Summer League team I was invited to play with DAMN, a Winter League that included Butta & Corey, who took me under their wing and really taught me the game and later on invited me to try out for the Condors. The rest, as they say, is history...

#40

Cabo'n & Wabo'n

Like Tom Glavine, now it's time for a change-up.

http://www.stevenellis.com/steven_ellis_the_complete/images/wallace_circle_changeup.jpg

Instead of crushin' in it in the weightroom and on the grass like my normal, I spent a glorious 5 days in Cabo San Lucas with some great friends last week. Although I've already given up my soul to Mexico many a' time in college (mmmm...she was a giver), this was my first time experiencing the Wabo that is Cabo.

Epic & beautiful are the two most appropriate ways to describe this place. Warm water beaches and air temp so perfect you want to spend every moment you can outdoors. Palm trees as far as the eye can see, beach town vacation vibe, and carne asada & 'ritas 'round every corner. The bansion (beach + mansion= bansion) was the true main character of our story as it was THE place to be. The greatest part of my room was that it was beachside so when I left my huge sliding glass doors open as I stood in the open-air shower I could watch the waves crash onto the rocks. I can't describe what that's like, but I hope you get to experience something like that someday.

The view looking out into infinity:

The view from the right:


And the view to the left overlooking the most awesome rocky shore I'd ever seen:

This trip was the longest amount of time I've taken off from training since my foot break. Since I only had a 1/2 season last year (started playing about a month before sectionals) I didn't need to take any time off after Nationals, instead jumping right into my program the day I got back as I was still ridin' the Natty's wave and determined to do whatever it takes to get back there this year. And the next. And the next...etc. :)

I figured the best way for me to fully enhance my 5-day break from training (and life) was to drink my body weight in Tequila. Luckily I had my partners in crime (or enablers, as some people like to call them...whatever that means) Brian Bogle, Aussie Steve, & the infinity pool to help me in my quest. It was a big task, but we were up for the challenge.

Cigars taste good in Cabo. Real good.

Our schedule consisted of laying around the infinity pool listening to the uber-swanky sound system that was hooked up to every room in the place, including outside, meandering down to explore the rocks & our private beach, and heading out to the club/bars at night. The spots were decent, the employees were well-versed in the art of handing you alchohol when didn't ask for it, making you drink it, and then charging you for it. They only fooled me 9 times before I caught on to their sinister plan. Tricky bastards. But a sizeable amount of dodgy characters plus the Entourage-esque bansion waiting at home made for us mostly just showing our faces for a couple hours, getting some drinks, and heading back to the swanky pad. Plus I'm now fully convinced now that living in LA has tainted me in the club department.

Another unexpected bonus in an already over-the-top adventure was that the company that owned the house also gave us another smaller condo & private resort to use during the day since they were doing construction on the house next door. The only thing better than having one isolated picturesque place to chill is...having two! This resort came with another private beach, 4 ridiculously beautiful and huge pools to relax in, and a nice lil' grass area to throw the ol' bee around.

All in all, it was a perfect trip that I'll never forget. Getting a chance to spend some quality time with Steve and Brian was SO great since they're up in the Bay and we only see each other sporadically. Miss those guys already.

Random awesomeness from the trip:

-The $1.50 silver plastic running suit that Steve & his girl found at the supermercado. Apparently mexian physical fitness extends further than futbol and bullfighting. Who knew?

- Supermercado's have a whole aisle dedicated to straw hats. They LOVE them straw hats.

- Apparently eating 3 pounds of fresh shrimp + 5 pitchers of margaritas = a bad thing. Again, who knew?

- Cabo Wabo= Lame. You heard it here first.

- Hunter Steve and his homemade spear.

- Crabs on rocks.



-Snorkel Time with Sara





-Butta vs. infinity

- Mr. Iguana

- Rocky beach Sunday morning after an unforgettable 24 hours.

-Da Boys at da pool

- And last but not least, some jerk.

We'll get back to that exercise thing later. For now just try and soak up a bit o' Cabo for a moment...