Training - Day 1

So, Day 1 of training over at Davids ended yesterday after a strange day at the Airport.

The beginning of the day started at midnight after a single hour of sleep, so I could continue packing for the flight as well as moving out of my apartment, into a house. Fortunately, I have a group of *amazing* friends who are helping move the last things out of the apartment while I'm gone, including my Salmon Ladder which required a bit of disassembling, so I want to treat them when I return, if I have any money left.

From there, my best friend from Middle School on, gave me a ride to the airport. I caught an hour or so of sleep along the way, instantly doubling what I had. I woke up to some old rock and started jammin along before I realized what I was doing, but was having fun so I kept on keepin on. When we arrived to the airport, I was still a full 4 hours early for the flight... So thank God for moving walkways! Kept me entertained for hours.



From there, I finally burned the spare time, but about 5 minutes before my flight was supposed to take off, I realized that although the flight was still going to Cali, the flight number was wrong! So I asked innocently about it at the desk, hoping for a "Oh it's fine, just sit down" response, but instead got "Well, last time I checked, 425 is different than 438... Your flight moved down to another gate..." And I was off... Sprinted through the airport, hopped over things ninja-style, and got there within time... just to sit down and realize I was at the back of the call line. But hey, whatever! Finally on the flight!

I arrived a couple hours later, after attempting another hour of sleep (up to 3!), and watching a *really* crappy pilot for a show called "The Middle". Holy CRAP that show sucked. Malcom in the Middle, but the focus on the mom, and every joke was stupid and not funny. Couldn't wait until it was over.

Finally arrived at the airport, nervous to finally re-meet up with David and Michael Henglebrok. It had been a year since I last saw anyone, so I was pretty psyched to finally meet back up with them. After I failed spectacularly to throw in some jokes, I took another quick nap, and soon arrived at David's brothers place, where he had all the obstacles built. Epically incredible. I couldn't wait to get started, so we changed into our training clothes and got started.

After watching David absolutely demolish his course, which was expected, I gave it a try. Not gonna lie... I failed hard the first couple tries. First obstacles were the Quintuple Steps into the ANW Rope Swing. I tried jumping too high on the Steps, only landing two before falling into the middle. I tried taking them like ANW's, which was the mindset of of to run the Dome Steps. Go higher, roughly mid-way, and bounce back and forth. David corrected that though, saying to bolt through instead, off the bottom of the steps. After that, it was cake. Still, disappointed that I failed my first time. Felt pretty stupid.

Moved on to the Rope Swing, which once again... failed. At this point, I started wondering about why I'm even here. Yes, his obstacles are harder, but I was expecting to fail the harder ones, not these. Especially after I destroyed the actual ANW Rope Swing. I still have trouble getting the momentum up to cross it, but have managed to cross it about twice or three times. I need to be able to defeat this consistently before ANW, just for a mental standpoint, as well as get a time on everything.

From there, Jumping Bars. Piece of cake. So, the Warped Wall was at the base of the hill, so I sprinted down to give it a try. Maybe it was just because I was physically tired or something, but since I wasn't able to reach the first couple of tries, I just kept going back and forth, like a half-pipe. It truly got me dizzy, which... I don't get dizzy. So maybe it was just a lack of water and sleep or something, but eventually I reached the top. I beat that one about 3 times, but didn't spend as much time on it as the Rope Swing, or more importantly... The Jumping Spider.



The obstacle is one I absolutely must conquer... No exceptions. If I don't, then there is literally no reason for me to be here IMO. I mean, what's the point? I bought new shoes, attempted to strengthen my legs, practiced between other walls... I really didn't know what else to do besides buy sticky spray, and I plan on using that as well.

Anyway, so I tried it at Davids, and did exactly how I expected. Failed immediately. Yes yes... Harder. Fine. Failure = failure. Michael had me start at the top and try to just walk myself forward and down, which with my frame and height, makes it dramatically harder. Also, it seems I was doing it wrong, and need a different style going through, so I'm going to practice that and see if I can condense myself, into this 'ball-esque' shape, practicing that. Nonetheless, this is going to be an uphill battle. I hate to say it, but I honestly wonder if my best chance is sticky spray. And I absolutely refuse to rely on that.

So, I have a lot of work ahead of me now. I hope that after a full night sleep and some food, that I will be doing better, but we'll see. Although concerned, I'd be far more worried if I didn't have over a week to train first. Thank you God and everyone at Home Depot for letting me do this!!!

Anyway, finished the night with some awesome Mexican food, and headed back to David's for a night sleep. I had a strange double cramp in my right thigh, which is odd since I've never had a double cramp before... but it turns out that that's due to a potassium deficiency! Great to know! So David had me take a type of supplement, and I'm feeling a bit better now. Gonna get some 12:00 breakfast, and get to training!

I have footage, but it's just simple stuff of me failing the first couple obstacles, so I'll see if I can get some footage of me getting through the first 4 in one go, and post that today if possible.

Bye for now!
-Chris