Carry on my wayward son

Woke up, packed up the room, and went to the OTC. We lifted pretty hard and then showered, grabbed some lunch, visited the Air Force Academy, and are heading up to Denver pretty quick. Posting some of the photos of the wrestling room and weight room.

Zadick Wins

Exciting day today, let the the boys sleep in, we grabbed some lunch and headed to watch the Zadick wrestle off. There were about 200 people their to watch the best of 3 series. Tom and Terry Brands, Dan Gable, Randy Lewis, Zeke Jones, Bobby Douglas, Nolan Harris (Actually Cael Sanderson but dang they look alike), Mike MacArthur, Ben Askren, many of the OTC guys, and 15 of the current Iowa Hawkeyes. The match started with a huge cheer, followed by the ref blowing the whistle. You could have heard a pin drop during the first few moments of the match. It was a wild and controversial 2 matches with Mike Zadick coming out on top 2 matches to zero! We hung out a little and then did an open workout down with the senior level guys. The boys were the only high school guys in the room, they were also the last ones wrestling which brought a tear to this proud fathers eye(well I feel like their 2nd dad after 9 days with em!). Drove back home (Drury Inn, we have been here so long we are calling it home haha), had a quick shower, and then back to OTC for dinner and bible study. Had a great conversation with Gene during dinner and then a good time going over Philippians chp. 3. Went home (Drury) watched the AIA Wrestling DVD that the Buraks gave the boys, listened to the boys argue (again), and then bed.

Im so good at bowling call me Pete Sampress- RJ Pena

Slept in this morning and then headed to Manitou Springs to do see the Cliff Dwellings and run the Incline. The Cliff Dwellings were pretty cool, but not quite worth the $9.00. Some of the pottery and weapons were pretty cool. We ran the Incline for the 3rd time, some of us were more excited to do it than the others :) Headed back to the Hotel showered then met the Burak's and their foreign exchange student Steve (Hungarian National Freestyle Champion at 211). We bowled, with team Oregon winning the Gold (RJ), Silver (Bryce), and Bronze (Rob). The 2nd game was Oregon again dominating with Gold (Bryce), Silver (Rob) and Bronze (Micah Burak), we had to let Colorado win something. The boys got free passes and raced Go-Karts and Laser Tag. We finished with Mini-Golf with scores of 1 over par(Rob), 5 over par (RJ), and 9 over par (Bryce).

QUOTE OF THE DAY- "I'm so good at bowling call me Pete Sampress" - RJ Pena (Dont worry we explained to him the Pete Sampress was a Tennis Player)

mmmmm Cheesecake

Went to dinner at the Davus Ranch, Gene, Francis, Shashta, Hope, Lucas, and us. We had a great dinner of hamburgers, hotdogs, fruit salad, green beans (Hope and I ate them even!), and cheesecake for dessert. We played ping pong and pool. RJ and Gene got lucky when Rob triple scratched on the last shop.

Come home with a sweaty t-shirt and a empty lunch box

Was a good day of working out again today! Started off lifting at the OTC then at lunch did some sight seeing at the training center and followed up with a 90 minute practice. Felt good to workout, although my nose is a slightly different shape now than it was in the pictures thanks to Bryce's large melon. More pictures of the weight room and wrestling room to come tommorrow. We have an "off" day tommorrow, hiking th cog again!

Just Do It

Today was a good day of working out but tiring for us all. We went and filled out 19 pages of information to be able to workout at the OTC. Some of the best questions were: Have you ever had acne? Are you stressed out right now? Do you wish you weighed less or more? Do you take Vitamins? Were still not sure what that has to do with being able to wrestle. We lifted in the morning, grabbed some lunch, headed to hotel to rest, and then back for practice. Practice was pretty tough. It started out with a great speech by Terry Brands about how he hates the phrase 'just do it" and quoted Proverbs 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron so man sharpens man". He talked about how to use iron to sharpen iron you have to be violent, you have to hit it hard, and you have to be intense. That is how he wants USA wrestling to be known. Practice was tough drilling for 30 minutes, three 2 minute goes, eight 1 minute goes, twenty 30 second goes, followed by one 4 minute go. Lot of people came in today Ben Askren, Dustin and CP Schlatter, and Stephen Abas. Tomorrow we will go and lift, check out the world team's simulation of the world championships, and the finish with practice and dinner at the Davis' ranch!

A day of rest....

Well today day was a day of rest and fun! We went to church with Gene, Francis, and 3 year old Hope(she is so cute!). Went to lunch at the Elephant Bar and had some great food. We then relaxed at the hotel and explored Garden of the Gods, did some rock climbing, and finished with some fruit smoothies! Tomorrow is lifting and then practice at the OTC. More to come tomorrow....

Got my run in, got my lift in.....

RJ crashing after the run, and Bryce getting his lift in.....

Woke up at 7:00am and headed off to conquer the incline for the 2nd day in a row. There were about 60 wrestlers there. Terry Brands (wearing his neck brace and with his trusty dog) started us off and away we went. It was a great workout with RJ almost beating Brands until the very end. RJ time was around 32 min., Bryce 41 min., Rob 42 min.(sucks to be old). Lunch was jamba juice and a taco at a little Mexican restaurant. Headed back to the hotel, may catch a movie or go bowling with he Burak's. Went to Transformers at the mall, pretty good flick!

Quote of the day "Do I need to come back and put a bullet in your head?" Terry Brands to his dog on the Cog Incline,

2nd Place "I was watching Beast Wars on youtube......" Bryce Whitehead

Cog Incline and Practice at OTC

Slept in a little this morning, grabbed the rental car, and then went for our first workout of the day! We drove to the base of Pikes Peak and hiked the Cog Incline. The cog is 2.1 miles with a 2,100 ft elevation gain! It took us about an hour, we took a few breaks along the way to get acclimatized. We then ate lunch and went to watch practice at the OTC. Watching practice quickly turned into the boys participating in the practice! The practice was pretty tough: 20 minute warm-up, followed by four 2 minute goes, six 1 minute goes, eight 30 second goes, and finally twelve 30 second par-terr goes. Both the boys said it was a good practice and they were pretty tired. We are going to head back to the hotel, shower, rest-up, eat some dinner, and probably watch a movie.