I'm Baaaaaaack!

I want to apologize for my absence this past week. Between the rigors of the training week, renting a car and discovering that I can watch this season of 24 online, I haven't had much time!

Where do we begin?  I'll start with a recap of the training week. The structure was very similar to the previous week although the volumes and intensities were both increased. Tuesday was a training session for the ages! Extremely high quality work mixed with an increase in volume, I felt really good! I was bouncing around and having fun during the warmup so I went over to the court and showed these New Englanders that white men can, in fact, jump! The sprints, jumps, throws and lifts were some of the best I've had in quite some time. Training for my bench press has also been going well, I'm actually ahead of schedule in this regard. On Friday I crushed 285 for 3x3, outpacing Carl's precise extrapolations. Saturday's workout was , yet again, dynamite! While I didn't have the same level of spring and elasticity that I felt on Tuesday, I still put together a very good string of runs out to 30 yards.  After this we did some unweighted jump squats and snatches. After all this I decided I wanted to measure my broad jump, being fatigued both from the long training week and the preceding workout I still consistently jumped in the 10'3 range and lost my balance on a 10'6 jump. We haven't even worked on the technique yet so I'm confident that I'll be in the 11 foot range shortly! The 40 is really coming together and I'm cementing and actualizing some very good habits. We are projecting some very fast times that will turn some heads. So long as we don't run on the quicksand, oops I meant field, at Floyd Casey I think my performance will place me among the fastest receivers in this year's draft.

A lot of fond memories playing here.  Unfortunately the surface is about as fast as running in the shallow end of the pool!

While on the topic of sand I must pay homage to the Top Gun volleyball scene and the movie in general (I had to dominate Carl and the rest of the yanks up here on Top Gun trivia the other day). One of the most quotable movies ever in my opinion and I often feel like Iceman on the volleyball court, especially the time that Jon and I crushed Brennan and Craig in Panama City in 2005. After repeated insults from the "Under 6'0 and 200 lbs. Club" about me and Jon's finesse and agility, we proceeded to win 7 or 8 games in a row. I can't remember if we let them win one for charity or not? Another notorious event occurred at FIJI Crawfish this past April. After racing out to a 10-1 lead on the heavy favorites of the tournament by inflicting several Spalding tattoos on their foreheads, we watched that lead evaporate as we got cheated worse than the Mavericks in the 2006 Finals. I think they had more carries than Adrian Peterson in a playoff game. In fact this incensed me so much that I haven't ruled out the possibility of coming out of retirement for the 2009 event and taking the title!

A good Pro Day and I'll be telling people that "the plaque for the alternates is down in the ladies' room!"

Lauren got into Boston on Friday and we spent the weekend together. Friday night we went to a Flamenco concert, ole!  I'm a big fan of classical guitar, especially Paco de Lucia, John McLaughlin and Jesse Cook.  I didn't know it but they also have a guy singing during the dance and he sounded a lot like the Gypsy Kings, "Bamboleo"!  It was a fun experience and Carl was gracious to include us. We did some sightseeing the next two days and enjoyed each other. She's such a great companion and wife, I thank God for her everyday!


Now I must admit something that is rather humiliating for a man like me........ Boston's maze of streets downtown reduced me from my typical Magellan-like sense of direction and navigational skills to Clark Griswold (a.k.a Mitch Knicely) from European Vacation. Remember the scene where he couldn't figure out the roundabout in London and spent hours driving in circles, "Look honey, Big Ben and Parliament!"? Well that was yours truly driving around the Boston Common! I kept trying to find Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church but for some reason every street I took dumped me back onto the same circuit around the Boston Common! The one time I managed to get out we ended up in East Boston on the other side of the river, I felt like we were in "The Departed" or something! Keep in mind that I had no navigational instruments or directions so I wasn't a complete fool.......... Finally being bested by the road, we stopped for a snack and tea at Tealuxe on Newbury Street. Apparently this is kind of like the Uptown area, Back Bay. Finally I had to take Lauren to the airport and say goodbye, I hate to see her go but in two short weeks we'll be back together again!

Clark after "killing" Dinky the dog!

I've been watching 24 on Fox.com and I must say that this is the best season I've seen thus far! I can't wait to see the next episode tonight! I really hope that our real agents act a little more like Jack Bauer than the guys shown at the FBI on the show.

This training week is critical, we have a mock combine on Saturday with SPARQ testing implements. Look for some big numbers. I'm excited about my progress and once again, I'm sorry about this past week. I'll keep everyone up to speed with my movements this week!

Carl quoting Viper, in reference to a recent workout:  "We gotta push it, it's our job!"

Thomas