Hello, Austin

Yesterday I had the opportunity to travel to Austin, Texas for a job interview with Gymnastike.  It all started about a little over a week ago when one of their head guys, Martin, gave me a call expressing interest.  The next day I had a Skype date with him and the main site editor, Anne.  After that I received an email asking me to send in a video tape of me breaking down the uneven bars final at the Olympics. With some help from Alex and Cale I was able to get it done and sent it in really early last Friday morning.  I heard back soon after and was asked if I would be available to make a quick trip down to their headquarters (HQ) for a visit.  Of course I said yes and soon I was sent an itinerary for my trip.  I left really early yesterday morning (got up at 3:40am, flight was at 6am) and arrived in Austin after stopping in Phoenix at 1:45pm local time.  I was greeted with really warm weather and Martin picked me up from the airport.  We grabbed lunch on the way to HQ and as soon as we got there we jumped right in.  I was asked to go through the motions of a planning meeting, met with the CEO, did a video shoot with one of the producers, and had a quick meeting with Mark, the other head guy/company founder.

After all the formal stuff things cooled down a bit and I was able to just chat with Anne and the site editor for cycling.  It was nice to talk about anything and everything and get a feel for what it's like to work there on a day-to-day basis.  It seems pretty relaxed and the company is still small so they're pretty much like a family.  Anne is getting married in six weeks and Mark is in the wedding, which is pretty cool.

Anne took me out to dinner (Tex-Mex!) before dropping me at my hotel.  I decided to get my running gear on but the combination of being full and it being really hot outside led to me just walking around.  It was fun to see parts of the city and I must say that I really do like just wandering around on my own sometimes.  I was able to watch the sun set and then I made my way up to the capitol building.  I came back to the hotel afterwards, showered, and was going to make a phone call but passed out instead around 9pm.  I was exhausted and I needed to get up early again this morning so it was good to get some sleep.  Anne was a trooper and came to take me to the airport at 6:45am; we arrived thinking I was there in plenty of time but neither of us took into account that it is Labor Day weekend so I was stuck in the security line for a long time.  I almost missed my flight actually, being one of the last people on and unable to stop and grab breakfast beforehand.  I was starving by the time I landed in San Francisco, but a call to Alex and Cale in Phoenix distracted me for enough time and I was able to make it to noon when I could finally grab lunch.  I have a busy afternoon ahead and I can only hope that I can stay awake until I'm done working at 9pm tonight, but it was well-worth the trip.

Kindle Club

Yesterday I finally got my act together and went out and bought a Kindle.  I've been wanting one/have been encouraged to get one for quite some time, but for no particular reason I just haven't made it happen until now.  I was all ready to buy everything on Amazon but then I found out that they've been sold out for weeks!  I quickly got on the phone and started calling places around here that carry them, finding out along the way that they are extremely popular (there were many places that were out of stock).  I finally hit the jackpot with Best Buy in Sunnyvale and made the trek there before someone could come and clear out the remaining supply.  I got the wireless Kindle Touch (no 3G, I didn't feel like it was needed) and stayed up really late last night playing with it.  I'm in the middle of another book right now and I'm doing my best to power through so I can actually use my new toy.  I'm SO excited...it's kind of like Christmas!

Meet At Mavericks

Today I spent the day in Moss Beach at a compulsory competition hosted by Gymtowne.  It was the first meet of the season and all the girls were excited to showcase their hard work.  We started off early in the morning with a big group of new level 4's; we got underway on floor and right away the coaches were able to pick out the girls who really enjoyed the spotlight, as well as those who shied away from it at first.  We got through the session without any major breaks and it was fun to see the girls soak up the intensity of their first competition.  Our other group of 4's came in in the second session and they were really interesting to watch because they were all younger and a little disoriented at first.  We had to stand close and remind them to salute the judge, etc., but they were so cute and did really well handling their routines.  As a group we ended up third, but we had event champs, all-around champs, and six kids who qualified to state!  Overall I would say it was great first experience.

The last session of the day was with the level 5's and 6's, which was crazy because we had 20+ kids; they were split up into two groups and we started on bars and beam.  Trying to juggle everything was difficult, but with four coaches we were able to get through it.  We had some real standout performances, but also ones that need a lot of work.  In the end there were six level 5 state qualifiers and three level 6 ones (out of four) and we won both level 5 and 6 team awards!!  That was really exciting for us coaches and we definitely reveled in the spotlight for a little while.  The parents and kids all seemed happy and that's what we like to see at the end of the day.  There is a lot of work to be put in in the gym but it's early in the year and I think the future is bright for some of these little ones :)

Conditioning Craze

After playing in the gym on Sunday, I woke up yesterday sore in places I didn't even know existed.  Pretty much everything hurt, including my intercostals (not sure how that's possible)!!  Of course that didn't mean anything to me because it was a ton of fun and that's what matters, right?  Yesterday I went in before work and took 30 minutes to stretch EVERYTHING which felt awesome.  After that I coached for four hours and then realized that if I went home there was no way I was going to be motivated enough to go running.  What did I do instead?  I stayed for an extra hour+ and conditioned...not sure why I felt compelled to do so and even though it was painful, it was one of those "hurt so good" kind of feelings.

As you can imagine, that didn't make waking up this morning any easier.  I decided to move around as soon as I got up so I opted to walk to work at Stanford rather than drive and by the time I got there I was feeling decent.  I got through practice with minimal arm raising/movement (ouch my shoulders and elbow) only to be talked into leading a spin workout for the girls at the end of the day.  Allan had to leave to make a doctor appointment for his daughter and said that because a lot of the girls were feeling beat up he rather them not run.  I haven't really spun since I was done at Stanford and getting on the bike brought back a whole lot of memories.  I got the girls warmed up and then we went "up the mountain, down the mountain" with sprints.  I heard a lot of, "I thought this was going to be easy!" statements escaping their lips but they were sweating and very wobbly by the end of it all.  I was pretty beat myself but in a sick obsession type way it felt good.  The girls were done after that, but Cat came in and we decided to go through the posted agility conditioning list from the previous school year.  There are some 25 different exercises on there and we busted them out in less than 30 minutes.  By the end I could hardly move and some of the exercises really tested my mental toughness; having someone to do it all with really helped and we laughed and joked our way through the things that were difficult for us.

Because I walked to campus, I obviously wasn't able to drive home.  Feeling seriously dead I walked over to Arbuckle (in the new business school...one of the nicest places on campus, in my opinion) to eat my lunch and read.  I got through 75 pages and then sat in one of the rocking chairs outside and dozed in the sun.  At about 4pm, three hours after work had ended, I finally mustered up the energy to walk home.  That was cut short however and I am currently sitting in Starbucks on University Ave because I needed a break and a snack, haha (my ankle is not really happy with all the new things I've been exposing it to).  I'm about to try and conquer the last part of my walk and I'm really looking forward to showering and relaxing for the rest of the evening.  I'm curious to see how I'll feel in the morning because part of me thinks I can't get any more sore than I already am, but you never know :)

Tennis Time

In yet another awesome weekend, I got to go up to Sacramento with Alex and Cale.  The official reason for our trip was to watch Alex compete in his second tennis tournament.  This time he was up against the number one seed of the entire competition, and this guy knew how to smash the ball and place it exactly where he wanted to.  In this sense, it seemed unfair that he was in the same bracket as some of the other players listed at his level, but because he was a bigger guy and couldn't move around very well he was allowed to play at a lower level than he probably should have.  Alex pushed him hard whenever he was serving because he was taking his sweet time when it was his turn and it was rather annoying.  In any case, I'm pretty sure Alex had a good time and in the end that's what matters.

After the match we drove the extra 20 minutes up to my house and were welcomed by cooling showers and warm hugs from my parents; it was the first time Cale had met them and all seemed to go smoothly.  My mom came home with food from the store and we all got busy chopping up veggies and making the rest of the necessary preparations.  It was pretty late by the time we actually sat down at the table and everyone was really hungry, but the food was good and worth the wait.  There was a lot of good conversation that continued as we left the house and walked the mile down the road to fro-yo.  Once we got back to the house we whipped out Rummikub and somehow, though not atypical, Alex came from behind to win in the last round.  We all went to bed completely exhausted and slept-in late this morning.

Cale and I got up and went on a run.  I love running with him because he pushes me but we are able to stay together for the most part.  While we were running, Alex stayed at the house and cooked breakfast for everyone which was great to come home to.  We ate with my dad and then showered and got ready to hit the road again.  There was a bit of traffic along the way back to the bay but we made it close to on-time for Alex's tennis match with Sean.  Cale dropped me off at my car and then I came home to get some stuff done before heading towards campus to reunite with the boys in the gym; Alex really wanted to swing some bars so we all decided to play.  It's so fun to be able to watch them throw stuff and do everything purely for fun.  I joined in but am not really strong enough at the moment to go for big skills.  I really want to continue to go in with them if they'll have me and see what I can get back.  Right now I can do kips on bars, passes on tumble-trak, back-handspring layouts on the floor, and some stuff on beam.  There are some things I think I can get back if I'm able strengthen my arms a little bit...it's just a matter of walking the very fine line of hurting my elbow.  My ankle was bothering me at some point but I stretched it out and now we'll just have to wait and see how I feel in the morning :)

After gymnastics playtime we got out the badminton rackets and played for about 45 minutes.  I had a great time while accumulating some rug burns and I want to continue to play and get better.  It's fun with the boys because they are so competitive and it rubs off on me.  

Here's to a great weekend and I can only hope the boys enjoyed their time as well.  I know my parents loved the company and it was really nice to have quality bonding time :)  Already can't wait to get through this week so I can see what next weekend has in store for me.

Random Roomie Adventure

This morning Megan and I got up late and after breakfast were debating what to do with our day.  We knew it was going to be nice outside and we didn't want to waste it, especially because we were both here and available and that doesn't happen often.  We settled on going to Healdsburg to visit a winery owned by some of her family friends.  We quickly got ready and were out the door around 11am; we blasted music on the way and had the sunroof open most of the time (we had to close it going through the city because it actually started sprinkling).  We picked up lunch in Novato along the way and when we finally arrived we had a free tasting session and enjoyed our lunch on the patio overlooking the surrounding vineyards.  We enjoyed the wonderful peace and quiet of the afternoon and walked around to take pictures, etc.  We were up there for a couple of hours and sampled more wine and an array of different olive oil blends made in an adjacent building before getting back in the car and heading towards home.

We again stopped in Novato on the way back to change into the running gear we brought.  We had originally planned to jog across the Golden Gate Bridge but it was crazy packed when we got there so we ditched that plan and headed to the coast to see if we could jog along the beach.  It ended up being a wonderful idea and 3.5 miles later we had sand in our shoes and our legs were tired, but we had a great time.  The weather couldn't have been better and it was fun to watch people surfing and enjoying the water.  We ended the day at dinner with the Juarez family (people Megan knows through tutoring; they have welcomed me into the clan and cook up some amazing meals) and for the second night in a row I am kind of uncomfortably full.  The olympic coverage is over for the evening so that means time for bed after a great end to the weekend.

Compulsory Intrasquad

This afternoon Twisters held an intrasquad for the compulsory girls because season is quickly approaching.  We had two local judges come in to give us a feel for where our girls are at in addition to some really constructive feedback.  It was awesome to see some of the newest members of the team keep themselves composed under pressure; we definitely learned which members of the group are the gamers!  Our first official competition is in two weeks and I think we're well on our way to being prepared.