Saturday, June 13, 2015

Becoming Us - My Thoughts

I watched a new series today called Becoming Us. Here's a quick synopsis: In this unscripted drama, a teenager named Ben learns to live with his dad becoming a woman. The series will follow Ben, his family and his friends as they support one another through this unexpected journey and navigate their new world with Charlie now living as Carly.

Transgender seems to be a hot topic these days and rightfully so. It's about time this section of the LGBT community gets the spotlight.

When I first watched this series I thought it was a well done "scripted" reality show but come to find out that it's not scripted at all. They actually followed this family for three months and filmed them. Of course being in TV I know that it's been "produced" to some extent but for the most part it feels very real.

I really enjoyed the first episode. Got to know all the characters and the various relationships. I admit that this episode made me tear up several times, especially when Ben's girlfriends father (who is also living as a transwomen, but not as far along as Ben's father) go bra shopping for the first time. There is this moment when she looks in the mirror and is near tear because it's the first time that she feel beautiful... it's an amazing moment.

I like the overall style of the series, with it's many windows with moving pictures and stills as transitions. It also takes advantage of all the social medias like hashtags, twitter, texting. This may age the series in the future but for now it's fun and very cool.

I'm actually looking forward to episode 2 and seeing how this father (now mother) and son relationship continues to grow. Check it out on Monday nights on ABC Family.

Going Away Party

Today I went to a goodbye party for fellow NerdStrongers, Cate and Tyler. They are moving to Northern California in a few weeks and was having a BBQ going away party.  First thing I did was pick up my friends Erin and Mike who were also attending the party. We got to Cate and Tyler's friends beautiful house out in Glendale. There were quite a few people there that I didn't know, but there were also some fellow NerdStrongers. Seely quickly got into the spa so a group of us gather around the pool and hung out. As more NerdStrongers arrived we all congregated over by the spa/pool.

It was fun seeing these guys outside the gym. I got to talk with coach Andrew and coach Marla on more of a personal level. I also had a good heart to heart talk with my new buddy Kevin. We enjoyed some burgers and hot dogs and chatted for about three hours. Overall it was an enjoyable day. Though I just met Cate and Tyler in February when I started NerdStrong I'm sad to see them leave... they will be missed.

NerdStrong Gym - Kettlebells and More Kettlebells

We started today's workout with some running, 4x 140 meters. They asked us to try and keep the same pace for each set. Unfortunately the group I did it with sprinted and it almost killed all of us so when we got to the workout we were spent.

We worked on the Kettlebell Clean today as our skill work. I was still trying to recover from the sprinting and was feeling a bit light headed but I manged to push through.

For the first workout we were doing 3 rounds of :30 seconds of work and then :10 seconds of rest. We started with Kettlebell Thrusters, and moved on to Kettlebell Figure 8 to Press and finally Kettlebell Reverse Lunge with Front Press.

I manged to do one and a half sets before I started feeling light headed again and as I continued to swing this heavy weight around my head I decided that it was time to stop and take a break. So I put down my kettlebell and headed over to the storage area, laid on the floor, put my feet up on a bench and closed my eyes. After about 10 minutes I was feeling better and join the group again as coach Andrew was explaining workout 2.

For workout 2 titled "Tail Pipe" it consisted of teams of 2 & 3. I was a team of two with my buddy Derek. We had to do 3 sets of 250x Meter Row (originally was 500 meters but cut in half for us) and Kettlebell Hold. How it worked is while your teammate is rowing the other person had to holds a Kettlebell in front of them. I manged to get through this workout without a single dizzy spell... woot, woot!!!

So I wasn't able to complete the entire workout today but still did a large portion of it. Overall it was a good workout. I think I killed myself during the warm up sprints but other then that all went pretty well.

Friday, June 12, 2015

Matt's B-day, Twitter Surprise & The Passing of a Legend

So today I opted out of going to Open Gym at NerdStrong. My body was telling me to take a rest and this time I listened to it.

I do have a few things I'd like to blog about.. first it's my buddy Matt's birthday today. Matt is my mate from England who visited recently. He's just a youngling in his early 20's but he is one of the sweetest guys I know and deserves all the happiness he can find. I've said this in the past but he's like a little brother to me and I so appreciate his friendship. Happy Birthday Matt..

I got a surprise today.. author Daniel Errico, who wrote my new favorite "gay themed" fairytale called The Bravest Knight Who Ever Lived followed me back on Twitter... woot, woot!! Maybe he'll read my blog about his book. You can check out my original blog post about this amazing book HERE

Yesterday I heard the sad news that Christopher Lee had passed away. Though it wasn't unexpected as he was in his 90's it was never the less sad. He was truly an amazing actor and human being. I've seen alot of people posting things about Mr. Lee and his life but Peter Jackson had the best ulogy (IMO) and I'd like to share it with you all. I especially like the final line.

Sir Christopher Lee

It is with tremendous sadness that I learnt of the passing of Sir Christopher Lee. He was 93 years old, had not been in his usual good health for some time, but his spirit remained, as always, indomitable.

Christopher spoke seven languages; he was in every sense, a man of the world; well versed in art, politics, literature, history and science. He was scholar, a singer, an extraordinary raconteur and of course, a marvelous actor. One of my favourite things to do whenever I came to London would be to visit with Christopher and Gitte where he would regale me for hours with stories about his extraordinary life. I loved to listen to them and he loved to tell them - they were made all the more compelling because they were true - stories from his time with the SAS, through the Second World War, to the Hammer Horror years and later, his work with Tim Burton - of which he was enormously proud.

I was lucky enough to work with Chris on five films all told and it never ceased to be a thrill to see him on set. I remember him saying on my 40th Birthday (he was 80 at the time), “You’re half the man I am”.  Being half the man Christopher Lee is, is more than I could ever hope for. He was a true gentleman, in an era that no longer values gentleman.

I grew up loving Christopher Lee movies. For most of my life I was enthralled by the great iconic roles he not only created - but continued to own decades later. But somewhere along the way Christopher Lee suddenly, and magically, dissolved away and he became my friend, Chris.  And I loved Chris even more.

There will never be another Christopher Lee. He has a unique place in the history of cinema and in the hearts of millions of fans around the world.

The world will be a lesser place without him in it.

My deepest sympathies to Gitte and to his family and friends.

Rest in peace, Chris.

An icon of cinema has passed into legend.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Jurassic World - My Thoughts

In the evening I was fortunate enough to go to a PGA (Producer's Guild of America) screening of Jurassic World. I was able to being a plus one so of course I brought my best bud Robert. The screening was happening at the Writers Guild theater, which is my least favorite of the Guild theaters but it's free so I can't really complain. And in fact I think they refurbished the place since I was there last as it wasn't as bad as I remembered.

Anyways.. if you've been living under a stone and have no idea what Jurassic World is here's a quick synopsis: Located off the coast of Costa Rica, the Jurassic World luxury resort provides a habitat for an array of genetically engineered dinosaurs, including the vicious and intelligent Indominus rex. When the massive creature escapes, it sets off a chain reaction that causes the other dinos to run amok. Now, it's up to a former military man and animal expert to use his special skills to save two young brothers and the rest of the tourists from an all-out, prehistoric assault.

From the previews alone I knew that I'd probably love this movie and I was right. This movie felt very much like the original Jurassic Park (which I loved) but bigger. The special effects were amazing, the dinosaurs looked great. I enjoyed the simple story and the acting was good. There were alot and I mean alot of nods to the original movie. From what I heard about the movie I was expecting alot more deaths but if there were alot more deaths (which I'm sure there were) we didn't get to actually see many of them. One particular death stands out and if you've seen the movie you know which one I'm talking about... the female assistant. These Pterodactyl played with her dropping from Pterodactyl to Pterodactyl before she finally drops into the tank with that giant sea dinosaur but even then you think that thing is going to get her but no the Pterodactyls dive in and grab her to play around a bit more before finally the giant sea dinosaur jumps out of the water and swallows the assistant and the Pterodactyl holding her.. it was pretty horrific. 

But overall I really enjoyed this movie. If you liked the first one then you'll like the this one. I look forward to seeing it again and even purchasing it when it comes out on blu-ray. I give Jurassic World a solid B+

NerdStrong Gym - Strength & Dudes

Strength day today at NerdStrong Gym. And for the only the second time since I've been going to the gym.. it was all dudes. :)

Today's workout was broken down into three segments and we teamed up with a friend. My team mate is my usual team mate Derek.

The first segment was two reps of Pause Back Squats, for six sets. It was a 2:4:1 speed, which meant 2 seconds down, 4 second pause and 1 second up. Since we were doing quite a few sets we only did about 80% of our max weight.

For the second segment we did one of my favorites and that's Bench Press'. They had us do 5 sets, each with different weight and reps. It was a 5, 5, 3, 3, 3 and finally 12 reps. For the five we did a about 50% our max weight (I and bench a bit more then Derek so I came down to his level). We increased our weight when we did the 3 reps and finally bad down to the lighter weight for the 12 reps at the end.

In between our sets we did these new things called Evil Wheels and yes they were evil. It took alot of upper body strength and lucky for me I have a decent amount of upper body strength to I was pretty good at these.

For the final segment we did 3 sets of 7x Dumbbell Curls. Again these weren't so bad.. well the first few sets.. the third started to burn especially since I was trying to do heavier weight for a better workout.

Overall it was a  nice strength day workout at NerdStrong Gym.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

The Flash S1 Finale

After work today I finally sat down and watched the final two episodes of season one of The Flash. Like with Arrow I watched with my buddy Erik via Skype.

First I watched Season 1 Episode 22 "Rogue Air" Cisco discovers that Wells has been supercharging his speed while he sits in his wheelchair, which is why he is so much faster than Barry. The particle accelerator is activated and the team realizes that Wells has been at S.T.A.R. Labs the entire time and he has repaired the accelerator. While investigating, Wells escapes but the team is able to find and rescue Eddie, who is disillusioned after Wells showed him that Iris marries Barry in the future. Eddie later tells Iris what he knows of her future and ends their relationship. Worried that when the accelerator reaches full power the metahumans imprisoned inside will be killed, the team decides to relocate them to the A.R.G.U.S. prison on Lian Yu. In order to set up a safe transport, Barry is forced to go to Leonard Snart for help. Snart agrees but only after Barry erases Snart's criminal record and history from the CCPD database. Snart sabotages the transport and allows the metahumans to escape. Wells arrives back at the lab just as the accelerator fully charges. Barry, Ronnie, and Oliver all meet outside to fight Wells. After each tries battling Wells individually, they coordinate efforts and Oliver finally stops him with a nanite injection that disables Wells' speed.

I enjoyed this episode alot but it did bother me that Snart turned "bad" again.  I mean I guess he was never good but still, with this character moving on to Legends of Tomorrow it's hard to believe this guy will be a member of this team.

Anyways I enjoyed the episode but halfway through it I kept thinking to myself... when is the big battle happening but then would remember that this wasn't the finale, but only the second to last episode. But at the end of this episode I did get a somewhat "big" fight between The Flash and Reverse Flash, with the help of Arrow and Heatwave and that was pretty awesome.

Then I watched the finale, Season 1 Episode 23 "Fast Enough" Barry visits Wells where Wells describes their relationship in the future, why he killed Barry's mother, and why he ultimately had to help Barry become the Flash. Wells also propositions Barry, requesting help creating a wormhole where Wells can return to his time, while also allowing Barry to go back in time to save his mother. Barry and the team are conflicted, as this could alter the timeline in an undeterminable way. Barry decides to go through with it, so Wells informs him that he will need to turn the particle accelerator on and then super speed at the right velocity into a hydrogen particle to create a wormhole. Barry will have less than 2 minutes to change the past, or the wormhole will create a black hole that could destroy the world. Barry successfully travels back in time, but his future self motions him not to save their mother. Instead, Barry identifies himself and reassures Nora that he is safe in the future before she dies. Barry returns and stops Wells from returning to his time. Before Wells can kill Barry, Eddie shoots himself causing Wells, as he is reverted back into Eobard, to be erased from existence. The team is unable to prevent the black hole from being created, and Barry super speeds into it in an effort to stop it.

This was one of my favorite finales this season and that's saying alot as it's been a season of some amazing finales. Flash has been nothing but amazing from beginning to end. Unlike Arrow, I can't really think of any bad episodes this season. I guess the series plays towards my likes.. I'm a huge fan of Superman and Captain America (good guys) not so much a fan of Batman (anti-hero) and I feel that Arrow has gone down that anti-hero path and has gotten a bit to dark for me.

The Flash on the other hand has had nothing but fun (though dark at times) episodes. This finale was awesome. Barry finally gets to go back in time to save his mother but then is told by his future self to not do it so he allows his mother to be killed. I am happy to say that Barry does get to be with his mother as she dies in his arms.. it brought me to tears.

So many feels in this episode, I was laughing one second, then crying the next. You're happy for characters and then sad for characters but the biggest shocker came towards the end. That's when Eddie sacrificed himself to save everyone. It was an amazing ending to a character who's always been playing second fiddle to Barry. I did like his goodbye speech to Iris about being a Hero.. and at the end he was the biggest hero of them all.

And just when you thought it was over... the blackhole reappears and Central City begins to get sucked up into the abyss. Though the odds are against him The Flash has to try and close by the hole by running really fast but they way they did this scene was amazing. He ran up a crumbling building and then started hopping from debris to debris to get to the center of the black hole before the screen went black and the episode was over.

I can't wait for more of The Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow on the CW. DC really knows how to make some amazing TV.

NerdStrong Gym - Connnnn!!!

Today is Wednesday and that means CON day with coach Blair and man was it. Not only was the workout titled Connnnnn! but it was non-stop movement for 30 minutes straight.

After the warm up we got into the first section of the main workout.. which was lots and lots of running. We started with a 250 meter run around the parking lot, this wasn't a jog, coach Blair wanted us to run. We rested for :45 seconds and then did another 250 meter run before taking another rest break. For this break we got an entire minute before we did had to do our third and final run. Needless to say I was already exhausted before we even got started with the the next section of the workout.

And speaking of the next section, coach Blair loves running but I think he equally loves rowing.. so that's what we did for the second part of this workout. We partnered up into teams of two, I teamed up with my buddy Derek and we had to take turns rowing 100 meters but there was a twist. For the first three minutes it was an easy row but minutes 4, 5 and 6 were a sprint. Then minutes 7, 8 and 9 went back to a nice easy pace before we finished with another sprint for minutes 10, 11 and 12. Both Derek and I are at about the same fitness level when it comes to rowing so I think we pretty much equally did about 6 minutes of rowing each.

Now that we are thoroughly exhausted it was time to move on to our final section of the workout. This was broken down as follows. We started with 5 minutes of Wallballs, rest 1 minute and then move on to 4 minutes of Burpees, rest :45 seconds before moving on to 3 minutes of Slamballs, rest :30 seconds, then do 2 minutes of Kettlebell Swings before getting a whopping :15 second rest before finally doing 1 minute of WallSitting.

These were all AMRAP (As man reps as possible). I started off strong with the wallballs and completely forgot that I had to do 5 straight minutes and after just one minute was dying. I slowed down a bit and tried to better pace myself. The 4 minutes of burpees were tough but I just did them at a nice slow and steady pace. Though I was pacing myself I started to get a big light headed so when it came to the three minutes of slamballs I really slowed down and would do a few and then rest, do a few more and then rest. Now for the kettlebell swings I didn't feel comfortable doing these since this is what I initially hurt my back on and I re-injured it a few days ago so instead I did ring rows and managed to do only about 20 of them before I had to stop as my head wouldn't stop spinning. The final minute of wallsitting wasn't that bad and I actually managed to sit for the entire minute.

So another awesome workout.. I expected it to be tough and coach Blair didn't disappoint. I got a little light headed but recovered with in a few minutes. Though it's a lot of work I really do enjoy these kinds of workouts. Thanks coach Blair. 

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Amazing Children's Book & Video

I came across this short video called "The Bravest Knight Who Ever Lived" Here's a quick synopsis: Cedric grew up poor and honest on a pumpkin farm, and dreamt of becoming a knight. One day he showed his courage by tricking a would-be carriage thief, and earned the chance to make his dream come true! After years of training, Cedric set off to find an adventure of his own by battling a fire-breathing dragon to save a prince and a princess. However, it was after the adventure that Cedric revealed that he'd like to marry the prince, and not the princess. 

The Bravest Knight Who Ever Lived is a modern fairytale which sets out to prove that sometimes the bravest thing you can do is choose for yourself how your fairytale ends!

I instantly feel in love with this story. I did a ton of research to find out more info about it and unfortunately there really isn't much out there. I do know that it's based on a book written by Daniel Errico and after an hour of searching online with no luck, found out that it's only available in a digital format.. which is a bummer.

In my research I found another "animated" (it's more like still images from the book) version of the book that was released a few years ago on Viemo when the book actually came out, you can watch that video HERE.

The video below was just released on Hulu and it's a slightly more animated version with the same narration as the vimeo version. Needless to say I'd love to have this book (an actual book) so I could read it to my niece and nephew. It would be great if it was in school libraries to show young kids that love is love. One thing I loved about the story is the fact that Cedric wants to marry the Prince and no one bats an eye about it, it's completely "normal"... as it should be.

I wish I had books like these when I was a kid, would have made my childhood so much easier, well maybe not easier but I wouldn't have felt so alone. I know this is just a children's book but it touched my heart and I will forever be thankful for finding it.

BTW.. best part of the book is at the end after the Princess says she wants to marry Cedric.. his response is...

"Princess, you are kind and I am glad that we are friends
But now I must be brave and say that isn’t how it ends
There’s someone else I love and I believe we’re meant to be
I’d like to wed the prince if he does feel the same for me."

Makes me tear up everytime I read it. Please take the eight minutes to watch this amazing video and story and share it with everyone, especially if they have young children.

Well I can't get the video to embed so just follow THIS link.

MockingJay Teaser & How Kids Should Act

Today they released the first teaser trailer for Hunger Games "MockingJay" part 2. I have to say that I did not like the last third of the final book but I'm sure the movie will be much better.. and from this preview I think the chances are good.

I also came across this great story about a "special needs" child and how a group of boys came to his defense and formed this amazing relationship. I wish more kids were like these boys, their parents did an amazing job. You can read the story HERE.

NerdStrong Gym - Double Workout

Today is DEX day at NerdStrong Gym, we started with a nice warm up and then moved on to some Practice Ring Dips. Most of the class weren't able to do Ring Dips so we broke them down into three stages. First stage was just being able to hold yourself up on the rings (with the help of your legs). The second stage was trying to dip down (also with the help of your legs) and the final step was pushing yourself back up (yep with leg help). Each one of these stages was tough. About halfway through the dipping part I felt that familiar pain in my back. It looked as though my back strain wasn't completely healed yet. Needless to say I stopped doing the Ring Dips and took a break while everyone else finished up.

Lucky for me during the actual workout my back was feeling better so I was able to do the 3 rounds of 15x Diamond Push Ups, 25x Hollow Rocks and 50x Jump Rope. This wasn't a difficult workout.. just tiring, especially the third set. I have come to noticed that I have gotten so much better at doing push ups. I got the form down not to work on my endurance.

After a few minute rest we did the second half of the workout which consisted of 3 rounds and AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible). We started with a :20 second Plank, then :10 second rest, then :20 second Alt T-Plank, which is raising one arm in the air while planking. After the :10 second rest we did a :20 second 1-Leg Plank which meant we would raise one leg and opposite hand while in a plank. By the third round I was exhausted but I manged to hold my plank the entire time.

It was a great workout but I still have a bit of energy left and coach Blair posted another workout that he was going to do after class so I stuck around and attempted to do it as well. For this special coach Blair workout it was 5 rounds of 100 Jump Ropes, 10 Wall Balls and 5 Pull Ups (Ring Rows). I manged to do three rounds before I call it quits.

Thanks to coach David and coach Blair for two amazing workout today..

Monday, June 8, 2015

Agent Carter, X-Files, SHIELD, Firefly & Arrow

So much geeky stuff to share with you guys. First up Funko released an image of the new upcoming Agent Carter Pop figure and it's AWESOME!! I'll defiantly be picking one of these up at comic con.

Netflix announced that Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season two will be released on June 11th. This has me super excited as I really loved all of Agents of Shield but especially this past season. I think it's time to do a marathon.

Gillian Anderson tweeted the first image of the much anticipated return of The X-Files. It's a simple picture but it's pretty fantastic!!

I got a surprise in the mail today.. If you know me and have been to my place you know I collect action figures. My collecting has slowed down over the past ten years or so but I still collect things on occasions. Mostly things that I never expected to be produced. Like these Firefly figures. I collected the few that were made when Serenity was released. But Funko has been going crazy the past few years with Pop, Legendary and Retro figures. Though it has been over 13 years since Firefly left the airwaves, it's hotter then ever and still lives in the heart of all it's fans and there seems to be more and more merchandise for this amazing yet short lived series.

These new Legendary figures are amazing looking. When I heard they were making these late last year I knew they would be must buys for me. So when I saw them on pre-order on Ebay for a decent price. The retail price is $19.99 each and they had all five of them for $89.99 with free shipping I couldn't pass up the deal and ordered them. This was back in March so I've waited, and waited for them to be released but the release date kept getting pushed back.. but today they finally arrived and they were well worth the wait. I'm hoping that we see the rest of the Firefly crew in the second set of figures (if they make them). There is still one more alternate figure (Jayne in his famous Jayne hat) that is an exclusive that I must find but that will have to wait for now.

Series one consisted of Mal, Jayne, Kaylee, Wash and Zoe.

Tonight I watched the final two episodes of Arrow S3 with my buddy Erik (via Skype). I have to say that I wasn't a big fan of this entire Ra's Al Ghul storyline this season, I didn't like where they took the Oliver character. I did enjoyed everything else around the main story.. especially Felicity and Atom. I enjoyed Laural/Canary story and watching her develop more. I really enjoyed Oliver's sister Thea storyline, which was surprising since I really disliked her in season one and the past few seasons I've slowly warmed up to her. I love that she is now Speedy (Red Arrow). I wasn't a fan of Detective Lance, he just flip flopped to much for me this season. I enjoyed the Diggle and his wife storyline. And though this season wasn't a favorite of mine it's still far and above better then most of the other TV shows out there. I'm not sure where they are going for the next season since the Arrow is pretty much no more but I look forward to finding out.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

The Goonies 30th Anniversary

30 years ago today one of my all time favorite movies was released in theaters... The Goonies. I was 14 years old when this came out in the summer of 1985 and at that perfect age to enjoy the ride. I remembering seeing it six or seven times in the theater, I couldn't get enough of it. I so wanted to be a Goonie and go on adventures like Mikey and the gang. I considered myself a honorary Goonie. I devoured anything and all things Goonies, books, music videos, trading cards and anything else that was Goonies related. I wanted it all.

When I went up north in 2010 I made sure to drive through Astoria, Oregon and if I had had more time I would have planned to visit some of the filming sites... It's something that I still might do someday.

I can't believe it's been 30 years since I first saw this movie. Maybe it's because I watch it at least once a year so it's never far from my thoughts. Some of the actors have gone on to bigger and better things, while some have disappeared from the entertainment world all together.

The Goonies taught me about friendship and loyalty, about being adventures and taking chances and never judging a book by it's cover.

I may have grown up on the outside but I'll always be a goonie on the inside.

NerdStrong Gym - Goonies Never Say Die

So I was up early this morning, I slept decently compared to the past few days and I felt okay. Luckily this morning's class isn't until 10 so I got to sleep in a bit. When I got to the gym the parking lot was packed. This is the first Sunday where the 9am class is free and loads of people took advantage of that. It was great seeing so many new faces, hopefully this little taste will get them hooked. Also today's 10am class was completely booked as well. This was the first time that all 20 slots were taken for the new expanded gym.

So a little back story first.. Early last week I mentioned to coach Andrew via Facebook messager that this Sunday is the 30th Anniversary of one of my all time favorite movies The Goonies. I asked if he could create a Goonies themed workout for Sunday's workout (he replied with "Maybe :) ) and sure enough today on the board is a Goonies themed workout.. woohoo!!!

After a nice warm up we got right into the workout. For today's workout we were doing it in teams of 4. Each team had 4 gold coins (10, 15, 25 & 45 pounds weighted plates). We had to get the gold coins from One Eyed Willies ship and run along the beach (250 meter parking lot run) and then drop the gold coins into a treasure chest (large tire or box). But before we go run with our gold coin (weight) we had to do 10x Push Ups, 10x Sit Ups and 10x Squats, then one person would take one of the gold coins (weights) and run solo while the other three planked the entire time. We then would do the 10x Push Ups, 10x Sit Ups and 10x Squats again before the second person carried their coin around the beach. We did this four times before all the coins were safely in the treasure chest on the beach.

My team consisted of Brenden, Kiki, Jen and myself. First thing we did was discuss which weight each of us were taking. I was the Mikey of our group and kind of took charged. So I laid out my plan. Brenden or I would take the 45lbs weight but since I wasn't at 100% Brenden was kind enough to carry that one. I carried the 25lbs weight while Jen did the 15lbs and Kiki did the 10lbs. Brenden did the first run since he was carrying the heaviest weight and I knew it would be harder and harder as we continued to do the workouts in between the runs, so we got his out of the way first. I then suggested that Jen go second, I would go third and Kiki would go last because she had the lightest weight and after doing four rounds of the workout we'd be spent but carrying the lightest weight would be the best opinion at the end. Everyone seemed to like my idea so we went with it.

It was a great workout, I think the toughest part was holding the plank between the workouts while the one person ran. We were all determined to not break the plank and hold the entire time. I love doing team workout, especially when they are themed. It really does get you through them. Thanks to my awesome team of Goonies, Brendan, Kiki and Jen you guys rocked it!!! And thank you to the awesome coaches, coach Andrew, coach Seely and coach Blair.