Thanks

Thanks to everyone and their nice comments. I haven't checked this blog in 2 months because I was sad about not achieving the dunk. One day...like if i win the lottery, I'll do it to it.

Quick note: I now jog less than once a week. I'm not sleeping much, and I don't eat as well. So OF COURSE I weigh less than I ever did whilst training, at 188! Of course, my legs and upper body have visibly less muscle mass. It feels like a little trick the workout gods are playing on me.

Keep training everyone!

Week 80.1

QUEST SUSPENDED
I have had a beautiful baby girl, at 3:30 am on September 27th. What this means is my life has now radically changed, starting with sleep schedule and deprivation, and constant diaper changing.

Thanks to so many of you who supported me and gave excellent comments and insight. It was awesome.

I did manage one more jump test on a wood court, and easily grabbed rim, but it wasn't enough.

My quest is only suspended, because I know this is achievable, at least till age 50. That's just how I feel.

Good luck to everyone out there, and feel free to hit me up with questions. At the very least, I can direct you where you need to go.

Week 78.1

OVER?
I don't know what to say. It's been 3 weeks since I've even posted, because it's sad.

I had become so overwhelmed with the move, work, a pregnant wife - I simply had no time to workout. And I can feel it. I tried jumping this weekend, and it was pitiful.

I think I've lost another 5 pounds somehow tho? Not sure on that yet.

If my wife doesn't go into labor this weekend, i will try one more jump, but it could be hard to even get on a wood basketball court. But I haven't done anything properly in the last month that one would expect for this quest.

At the end of the day, and I'll say it again, at 36 years old, I needed to play bball about 3x a week, on top of the jump training. Without that, I kept hitting a wall.

Sigh.....

Week 75.1

Dazed
I don't know how i'm managing to even workout, but I did squats and deadlifts on Monday.

I'm moving on Thursday, still putting in 10+ hour days, plus other crap. I'm gonna try to keep working out one more week, then take another 1-2 weeks off, then do my final test.

Week 74.1

Chugging
I've just been barely managing to do weights 2x a week, maybe jogging 2x a week.

I hurt my back a few weeks ago, so I've only been going up to 185lbs on squats, up to 10 reps. After 2-3 weeks, my legs weren't getting sore after each workout. I decide to do light deadlifts, and boom, my hamstrings and ass got sore again. A good sore.

My life is just getting busier and crazier with a home move, a baby close to birth, and 10-12 hour workdays. Wish it were different. That's where the lottery comes in.

Week 71.1

Brokeback Vert Up

The day after shooting my last jump test, I wrenched my back doing squats. I wasn't even going max, but it felt like crushing and tearing. Somehow, i was able to stand back up, which meant my legs still had the strength at least. I could barely sit for 2 days, but my back improved enough to tell me it wasn't spinal. By Sunday, my back was still sore, but curiously it didn't hurt when I jump. So I did a little one-on-one, and another jump test...Here ya go...

Week 70.1

OY ACCELERATED
My vertical has actually increased up to 2" in the last 4 months. I've been playing b-ball the last 2 weeks, and it's hurt and helped me. It's given me some spring, but also made my joints and muscles hurt. I'd need a month of regular ballin' to get in good shape - and that's never gonna happen.

So today's jump test sucked. Time's running out. I will persevere for 6 weeks or so, until the baby comes.

Here's the video. Music is Beastie Boys "The Move"

Week 69.1

More Ups
First, thank you to everyone giving my tips and comments. There's been a flurry lately, and it's much appreciated.

I was gonna do a jump test this weekend, but my knees were still hurting, feeling a little like wet noodles, from the pickup game on Wednesday. I was disappointed, and worried about my knees, but happy that I'm clearly jumping higher.

I am now consistently getting the rim below my knuckle, which is kinda a big deal. That's about 29". My last test was at 28", but this just feels like more. We'll have to measure the rim height for sure.

Mickey and I played one on one tonight, and at the end when I was exhausted, I got good rim. Good stuff.

I'd also love to jump on a wood court instead of concrete, but that could be hard, since Mickey and I don't belong to the same gym. That's a stupid reason, but oh well. I'm not so close to dunking that an inch would make the difference, YET, so I'll be fine.

My shin muscle on my left leg is really sore, which is where my sore knee is too. Gotta keep it stretched.

Week 68.2

Wood Court
Played basketball today on a wood court for the first time in probably 4 years. It continues to slap me in the face that constant basketball playing would help immensely. Needless to say that despite my regular jogging, I was winded after one game.

While waiting to play, I tried about 10 jumps until (gulp) my knee started hurting. I first tried 2 feet and didn't get very far. Then I tried one foot, and got rim at the top of my palm! This made my non-ball playing aspect even more frustrating, because I'm confident that with 1 hour+ a day, I'd weigh 180 and be damn near close to dunking!

Thus, I think I'll try my test this weekend on a wood court. If my knee stops hurting and my big blister isn't too bad.

Week 68.1

Home-ish Stretch
Well, this weekend will be my big vert test after 8 weeks of plyometric/weights training. I'm taking this week "off". But that means I'm still jogging, which isn't ideal, and I'm trying to play basketball on wednesday. I really should be playing ball 3x this week. But lemme tell you, I have so much going on in my life, that's a joke. In case I haven't fully explained my constraints.

1. workout = 1-2 hours, 3-4x a week
2. day job = 9-11 hours a day
3. sometimes night job = 1-3 hours
4. pregnant wife needs love and attention
5. house hunting

Then there's usual bills and chores and stuff. I'm not saying I'm a martyr, I'm just saying I've clearly made the choice to prioritize other aspects of my life before ballin'. What's sad is I want the dunk so bad, I'm even willing to play regular ball, despite the 50% chance I injure myself and derail the whole thing. Time's running out, and I'm willing to "pull the goalie".

I'm also focussing extra hard on eating salads this week. My weight was down to 190, but after this bbq birthday weekend especially, i'm back up to 194. If I could get below 190, that will help a lot.

Week 67.1

Birthday
I turn 36 today, July 4th. So I started this at age 34. Crazy. I only have 2 months left, and then my baby is born and I'll be sleepless and exercise-less.

I'm in the final 2 weeks of my latest jump program with Kelly. This week I'm doing 30 depth jumps, 3x a week. My max height is 38", which is much higher than 24" I was doing the first week. Next week, I do nothing, though Kelly highly recommends playing some ball. To me, that's obvious advice year round, but it seems super important next week. I'm so busy with work and life that it may not be possible. But I'll try, injury be damned.

So a week from Sunday is the big day.

Week 66.1

Same Ol'
Just doing my depth jumps and squats. That's it. I've shot on video a couple jump tests, and had no vert. But I know my leg strength is there, so it really will just come down to what happens after my recovery week.

Week 64.1

Feelin Good
Guys, I'm sorry if this is taking too long for you. Believe me, I wish it were going faster. Again, I'm sure if I played basketball 3 hours a day, weighed 175, and was 15 years younger, it would be going better. Such is my challenge. I accept this challenge!

This week Kelly has me doing depth jumps (middle section of clip) from 24"-30"+, 15 times a day. I missed today's workout because of lack of sleep on an overnight project, but I'll resume Friday and Saturday.

I flew to New York for a shoot last weekend, and didn't get a lot of exercise. And I lost 4 pounds! So now I'm at 190. Zoiks! Could 185 actually be a possibility?

Week 63.1

Chuggin
Today I did 2 sets of 5 in squats at 225lbs...Feelin better about that. The depth drops don't feel like they even work me, but Kelly said not to fear. Guess we'll find out.

I haven't done practice jumps in weeks, as it seems pointless b/c my legs are so tired from squats. But I need to do em a few times a week, just to stay in that frame of mind.

I haven't done a video in a long time, there's just not much to show, since I have no ups right now.

Week 62.2

Yeah?
I woke up after 5 hours of sleep to workout. I felt a little sluggish, but not much weaker than I have in the past. After my depth drops, I went to the gym for squats. And to my surprise, for my 3rd set of 5 reps, I did 225lbs! After a year of training that's not stellar, but it felt great and I was very pleased with myself. I felt totally energized. I'll be curious to see how sore I get. I usually start getting sore the next day, and the 2nd day is brutal.

Kelly has me doing plyometric depth drops from 10-20% more than my vert, which for me is 30"+. The idea is to shock train the explosiveness aspect. After doing a few months of pure strength training, I should be at a point to take advantage of the plyometrics. He wrote an article about it here.

NOTE: Thanks to everyone who comments. I try to reply, and for some reason my settings don't let me contact people directly.

Week 62.1

Training
Nothing new to report in the improvement area. Don't worry, I'm still working out.

Kelly has changed me from the Bulgarian lunge workouts to just doing high intensity depth drops. And doing squats 3 sets of 5, 2x a week. I've only completed one week, and it didn't seem to do anything, as far as feeling sore or anything. I've asked Kelly to explain more what's the goal here. Stay tuned...

Week 60.1

Truckin Along
Last week, I had a great session with my lunges...So great, I suppose, that I was super sore again. On Friday I was supposed to start my jump training regimen, but during warmups I strained my hamstring/groin. I decided to bag the day and just did upper body weights.

Luckily, 2 days later (today), I was healed and did the lunges well again. Perhaps our 2 night stay up at a cabin in BigBear, at 8000ft altitude, helped me heal?

Oh, and in a seemingly cool development, my Week 6 video was flagged by a music company - UMG (Universal Music Group)? That's the only info i have, but the 2 bands I used were The Fratellis and Mika. I'm allowed to keep using the songs, so I guess they think it's a good ad for them...hmmm....

Week 58.1

PUMP
For the fist time since college, I felt the "pump" of lifting weights, in my chest and deltoids....Schwarzenneger describes the "pump" from the movie Pumping Iron:

"The greatest feeling you can get in a gym or the most satisfying feeling you can get in the gym is the pump. Let's say you train your biceps, blood is rushing in to your muscles and that's what we call the pump. Your muscles get a really tight feeling like your skin is going to explode any minute and its really tight and its like someone is blowing air into your muscle and it just blows up and it feels different, it feels fantastic. It's as satisfying to me as cumming is, you know, as in having sex with a woman and cumming. So can you believe how much I am in heaven? I am like getting the feeling of cumming in the gym, I'm getting the feeling of cumming at home, I'm getting the feeling of cumming backstage, when I pump up, when I pose out in front of 5000 people I get the same feeling, so I am cumming day and night. Its terrific, right? So I am in heaven."

Needless to say, it was a good feeling - one that lasted for a good part of the day. I wonder why I never feel it in my legs. It's probably because they're used so much more often, with less recovery time?

Speaking of which, I've lost 4 inches in my vert, I discovered in my jump drills today. I'm fairly confident this is simply because I've started a new round of training. It's never very encouraging, but I feel great about the bigger picture.

Week 57.1

OUCH
So, i restarted my workouts last week. I did Bulgarian lunges on Friday, and had lost 25% of my strength. By Sunday, I couldn't walk, and getting onto the toilet was an adventure of muscle pain. So I delayed working out until Tuesday, starting with jump plyos and upper body. I didn't get back to Bulgies until today, and it wasn't pretty. As in, I had lost even more strength, and now it's my glutes that hurt. Specifically, my left glute. The silver lining is that I'm obviously working the right muscles.

Thanks to everyone for the supportive comments. I'm often a negative guy, but this quest has been all positive for me (though still can get discouraging). It's amazing how I have zero tolerance for haters. This new found positivity through my quest has spiritual overtones, but I'll save that for another day.

Week 56.3

NEW VIDEO
It's like a month old now, but finally here's the last video we shot!

No need for music credits on this one...

Week 56.2

WHAT THE !@#$
So, yesterday I resumed my training, and started with my jump plyos and upper body weights. I had gained 2 inches on my vert! This, after 2+ weeks of no workouts and no sleep!

Look, I get the physiology of it all - that my body somehow was able to rest it's joints from wear and tear, that I may have lost a few pounds because I still ate healthy and ate less....And of course I'll take the gains after many months of no improvement. But it's also frustrating that I made more gains by doing nothing (yes, my previous training was a big part of that gain).

Anyways, it felt like I was on a trampoline. I really felt some spring for the first time in a long time. We'll see what happens now...

Week 57.1

AND WE'RE BACK
Let's see, for the last 3 weeks, I've gotten about 4-5 hours of sleep a night. For the last 2 weeks, I haven't worked out a bit. Wednesday I resume my 3 day a week training regimen, with cardio in between ( I did a light "hello" jog today).

I have no idea how far back my working hell will have set me. I do know that I probably could have used a break from training, as my knees were feeling raw, and I tweaked my ankle doing Bulgarian lunges. However, an ideal break would include cardio, not sitting 18 hours a day at a computer.

I'm hoping to put my anniversary video up by mid weekend.

Week 56.1

MORE TIRED
Working on a commercial I directed, now I'm doing all the graphics, as well as my usual Dairy Queen Red Lips stuff...It's 3:25am and I feeling sick tired, like where you wobble around and your eyes fall shut until a queasy feeling wakes you back up.

Hee hee, uhhh....at least my knees might recover a little from all the workouts?

Only 4 more days of this....

Week 55.1

TIRED
Yup, I'm definitely in the thick of things with work. I've been pulling 15+ hour days. I somehow managed to get my 3 workout days in, plus a jog. But now my body is rebelling. I'm gonna try to get at least 7 hours of sleep tonight. But next week is gonna be even worse. I hope to get at least one workout day in. But I'm not gonna sleep much in the next 7 days.

I just hope i don't lose any gains, or gain any more weight.

Week 54.2

My knees are feeling a little raw the last few days...I think my jump test on Sunday followed by regular workouts - was probably a little too much. Not sure if I'll do a program workout today, or tomorrow.

The next 2-3 weeks for me are going to be insanely busy. Very little sleeping busy. I'm worried it will cut into my workouts. If so, I hope i don't go backwards.

I weighed 195.5 this morning, up from 193. I'm hoping it's just a light fluctuation.

Week 54.1

Had a good outing for my 1 year vert test. Video won't be up till this weekend tho.

I've also lost 8 pounds, down to 193! Not too shabby. Three cheers for rabbit food! Strangely, I'm only making trips to the bathroom every other day, if you know what i mean. That can't be good.

Week 53.1

SWEET SWEET SLEEP
I went home this weekend, and after sleeping a bit on the plane, I took another nap at home . Then I took more naps the next afternoon, and finally got full sleep Saturday night. It's ocurred to me that I haven't slept much in the last few weeks, yet I've been doing my workouts. Oh, and I've been sick. So none of this has probably been good for my improved vert. I'm trying to get more sleep this week.

I plan on shooting my 1 year anniversary video this weekend. Mickey says we should play one-on-one to loosen me up. I have already talked shit that I will destroy him. Keep in mind I haven't played in 2-3 years. But we'll see.

Week 52.1

NEW VIDEO
I'm back from the Toronto shoot (a success!), but I think I got sick no thanks to jogging in sub-zero temperatures. I only got 2 exercise days in, so I'm sore again from Friday's workout.

I was going to do a high-fa-lutin video with cool graphics and stuff. But 1) I'm just too busy, and 2) since I'm in my ANNIVERSARY week, I will shoot a vertical leap progress video in a couple of weeks. The video below is the one finally showing my customized workout with Kelly Baggett .

You, like me, might be surprised to find it's not super intense, as far as quantity of workouts. The day with jumping kills me on the lunge jumps and the other day kills me with the Bulgarian lunges. Obviously, lunges are killing me, in a good and necessary way, of course.

Here's the video:UPDATE: Baggett watched the vid and told me I should do the lunge depth drops to the side, not forward....
Music by Goose, "Bring it On".

Here's the other videos, or at the link at upper right of home page.

Here's my actual workouts:
(do every other day)
I.
-backwards depth drop x 3
-lunge jumps, 5 per leg
-1 jump
-------repeat the above until the jump decreases: Kelly said to do 5, but it takes me a while to loosen up, so I do about 9
-single leg box jump (jump onto a stair each foot at a time)
-upper body free weights, including bench, chinups, curls, etc

II.
-single leg lateral hops for 10 seconds
-depth drop into lunge, 3x3
-eccentric speed squat
-bulgarian dumbell lunge (back foot raised on bench)
-single leg back raise

So these exercises are more catered to a "overweight" (compared to my high school weight) person with decreased flexibility. And these are just the start. I am also trying to lose at least 10 pounds, and I'm doing this by eating less overall, and eating more rabbit food overall.

Week 51.1

Holy %#*!

Next week, my quest will be a YEAR OLD!!! I'm sad that I haven't reached my goal, but proud that I've been dedicated for so long. I'll definitely have to get my new video up.

I'm in Toronto this week for a shoot (tomorrow.....by the way, I'm working with legendary cinematographer, Dean Cundey!). I flew a red-eye Sunday night, so any chance of a workout Monday was derailed by involuntary napping. I also found out a one week gym membership in my area would cost $50 -- and therefore ruled that out. I didn't even find out if they had squat racks.

Today I still jogged to stay in shape, along Lake Ontario. In Toronto. Canada. In the winter. I actually did quite well, except the lack of gloves killed me. And I think I froze half of my alvioli (the oxygen receptors on the lungs). So unless it warms up Thursday before my flight, I'm only working out Tuesday and Friday. I just hope I don't lose ground in my training.

Man. A year. I can tell you this, now that I'm working out as much as possible and doing upper body, I look closer to 22. I still have some "gettin older" weight on the sides, but it's less than a year ago. As far as using Kelly this year, I've improved my jump 2 ", but I'm still not where I peaked last May. Things are looking good though....

Week 50.1

LOSIN WEIGHT
Well, after a month of my new "diet", which consisted of no fried foods and no sugar, I may have lost 2 pounds. This, with increased workouts per week.

So now Kelly and I are moving more hard-core, which can actually be summarized as: no more pasta, bread, or starch for dinner. I'll continue with a protein shake for breakfast, then meat/rabbit food for lunch, and more meat/rabbit food for dinner. I will also try to eat a little less for each meal, and snack here and there.

Kelly believes I'll gain 4-5" with 10 pounds of weight loss....should I bet him on this? However, I reached my max jump 10 months ago, after my first 2 months of training - which was really just conditioning with no weights or plyos. So if I continue my workouts, and diet harder, something good should happen, right?

Unfortunately, it's almost 2am, and I still have work left to do tonight. And it's not even March yet, which is gonna be a super tough month, probably involving some all-nighters, which will wipe me out for days and screw up my progress....

Here we go!

Week 49.1

Today was not a good workout. I think I'm not getting quite enough sleep, and sometimes you just aren't feelin it. I was also a little late getting up, so I nixed my upper body workout, because that requires me to drive to the gym. Instead, I just did some push-ups and vacuuming (unrelated to dunking, but hey).

My busy schedule has no signs of letting down, and next week I fly to Toronto for a shoot. I'm wondering if that would be a natural break from workouts anyways. I'll try to jog, but I've been doing these workouts for 5 weeks or so.

My partner, on the Dairy Queen ad campaigns we make, is a scrawny 6'5" out-of-shape 3D animator. And he can get his elbow to rim. I met another guy just like him today...Once again, I'm sick and tired of meeting all these dudes who can dunk, who most likely aren't as strong as me. I get the physiology behind it all, but it's still frustrating. And there's people who claim to have gained 10" in 5 months or something.

WHATEVER!

Week 48.1

BILLS
Working 4 jobs at once is not easy, and Friday I'll probably miss my workout. I just have too much going on. And I gots ta pay the billses.

However, I think I've lost a couple pounds (better than nothing), and I'm re-gaining towards my meager max vert (better than nothing). On Wednesday, I worked out in the basketball gym at LA fitness, and almost got to the base of my knuckles. I definitely think that working out almost everyday is helping, as I feel a little springier.

And I think the lunges are helping. I'm getting better at them, and feel some added flexibility. I'm not utilizing my glutes as much as a good lunge should, but I'm headed in that direction.

I ran out of battery power the other day, so couldn't film all of my workouts yet. Not that I'd have time to do work on my next video anytime soon. Maybe once 2 of my jobs die down...

I'm gonna workout on Saturday instead, if I'm not too exhausted.

Week 47.2

For the record, I'm rooting for Gerald Green in the dunk contest, because I'm a Timberwolves fan (poor me).

I rarely watch the dunk contest anymore as it has become mundane and lacking in energy. I guess there's only so many dunks one can do, and ever since Dominique got robbed by Jordan's home judges, the contest has been illegitimate.

I just want one teeny little dunk for myself!

Week 47.1

Wow. Not only have I been busy, but I got socked with a deblitating cold on Saturday as well. Today, Monday, I was miserable and useless at work (don't tell my bosses!). My eyes hurt, I couldn't breathe, and I just wanted to sleep. I didn't even workout, but I'm hoping to workout tomorrow, even though I'll still be sick. If I can go to bed early tonight......(it's already after 10pm).

I'm not losing weight. I can't wait to see what pain-in-the-ass diet Kelly puts me on. I've already tripled my intake of salad rabbit food. I think it comes down to not enough cardio. Kelly reluctantly says I can jog, but suggests that I do graduated sprints of 100 yards x 6 reps or something. The thing is, when i jog, I don't feel "warmed up" and ready to go until the 3rd mile.

Another solution would just be to play more ball. Sadly, I only play maybe once a year. The ankle and shoulder injuries just got too prevalent, and would certainly derail my quest.

Looking forward to making next video, even though my vert is still poop.

Week 46.1

Man, I got hit with some busy busy because of work. Sleep is hard to come by, and it's gonna stay like this until Wednesday. It's actually been a while since I've been this busy, as I'm coming out of "retirement".

Meanwhile, my legs have been really sore for a week. The various lunge exercises I'm doing are really killing me. I hope the soreness reflects strengthening, and not injury. Kelly gave me a couple new warmups that should help with flexibility. We'll see how it goes. I'll provide details of my workouts soon. I'll do it in the blog, and in the video too.

I'm thinking that I shoot my next video in a week, during NBA All-Star weekend. And post it soon after. Maybe I'll edit during the dunk contest....HA!

Week 45.1

I started with Kelly's tailored workout. It's still a combo of plyos, like depth drops and depth jumps. The major difference is I'm doing many various forms of lunges. I happen to be very weak at lunges.

I asked Kelly about the fact that I'm doing zero squats now. He said the current workouts should really help me in squats once we return to that part of training.

I'll try to have a new video up in a couple of weeks, once I don't look so amateur while doing the lunges.
Note: Kelly warned me my jump could decrease for these first few weeks. Should make some for some great footage.

Week 44.1

I AM NOT ALONE
Got a note from Mike Teverbaugh, who is also keeping a blog about his dunk quest, and he's 50! He's training with Gil Thomas, a dunk training guru out here in LA. I'm of course going with Kelly Baggett, who lives in Missouri - go figure. I'm only a week into it with Kelly, b/c of my injuries and illnesses.

It's still hard not to get frustrated due to my 8 months of stagnation. I really want to see improvement!

This week felt only OK. Kelly has me doing really basic stuff, to gauge where I'm at. But it hardly pushes me, and I told him so. So hopefully he'll get me working hard from here out. One thing he's told me is I need to lose a lot of weight. I agree. He had me take a test here, and it said I was "overweight, moderate risk"!!! Gimme a freakin break. I could lose a few pounds, but I don't need to go on Richard Simmons!

Let's DO THIS!!!

Week 43.1

I'm back in my new "first week" with Kelly Baggett advising me.

Always one to complicate things, I've been replacing a few posts of my neighbor/tenant's fence. No easy task, as I had to take down the fence and dig out the old posts, 3 feet down, to pull out the cement blocks. The sprinkler line literally touched the cement blocks, so digging became an adventure. Naturally, I did a lot of bending and squatting, and my legs are really sore now, certainly not something Kelly would advise.

For my first couple weeks with Kelly, he just wants to have me do some explosive plyo training, to gauge where I'm at. Then the real workouts should begin, and this blog might get interesting.

Of course, at that time, I'll get hurt and land a time consuming sleepless music video and have to suspend my workouts....

...Until then, viva verticalogy!!!

Week 42.1

Food Poisoning
Sunday night, I had a hotdog at Commerce Casino. Monday afternoon, I had a Subway Sandwich (cold cut trio with southwest sauce). But all I know is I felt funky Sunday night, and my workout Monday morning was poor. By Monday late afternoon, I wasn't feeling right. By dinner time, I was making many bathroom visits. This continued into Tuesday.

Then Wednesday night, I thought I was clear and had spaghetti. Thursday, I was back to the bathroom. My whole week was basically lost.

I did a little jog Friday and resumed my plyo's today on Saturday.

So since I hired Kelly Baggett as a trainer, I've hurt my foot and gotten food poisoning, thus wasting the first 2 weeks.

And my vert today, after hardly eating all week with food poisoning, was the same as it's ever been. So I'm more confused.

Week 41.2

Hooker Trannies
Darndest thing happened this morning at 6am. I awoke to my dogs barking and the sound of a woman screaming. My wife usually gets up around 5:30am to jog and go to work.

As soon as I became coherent, I threw off the covers and raced for the front door. In my head, I was worried that my wife had just been attacked, or was being attacked. So I didn't just explode out of the door, but opened it carefully for cover. Standing there was a tall black woman screaming.

I should point out that while I live on a beautiful tree-lined street in Hollywood, I also live a couple blocks south of tranvestite hooker central. She seemed like a woman, but my intuition was saying "man". He/She screamed "I've been robbed" as an SUV tore away. "He stole my phone!". I was thinking, that's it? You just woke me up for a phone? I'm standing in front of a strange He/She in my underwear?

I got my celly and called 9-1-1. They asked to speak to He/She. I looked down at my foot and noticed a huge golf ball size knot had swollen up. When I jumped off the bed, I slipped and my foot smashed into the bed and adrenaline kept me from noticing. I got an inch and a half laceration on my foot that was already turning blue. Damn that Tranny!

But I was happy my wife was OK (she was in the bathroom). She dressed the wound, and I tried to sleep an hour before my workout. Amazingly, because the knot was on the middle outside of my foot, it doesn't hurt that much and I could do my workout! It hurts more now, but I hope it's fine come Monday.

Week 41.1

THE FINAL CHAPTER BEGINS
Well, with a final push from Adam, one of my internet supporters, I contacted theVertical Jump Bible guru: Kelly Baggett . I've hired him to cater a specific workout for me. I've plateaued for about 6 months now, and i'm sick of it. So it's now or never. I had done Kelly's 12 week "novice" training program 2 times already, so this is it!

Allow me to summarize my quest thus far:
1. Mickey, "the black guy", is really just my friend. He's not really my trainer. Don't blame him for my lack of ability. Yes, he can dunk.
2. In highschool, i got rim just above my wrist. If i had better mechanics, I'd probably already have dunked and I wouldn't be here. I thought I could get my high school vert back in a few months....I was wrong.
3. My dunk quest summary: first couple of months i got in shape. I actually got rim on the palm of my hand. Then I started various workouts including the VJB. My vert fluctuated between tip of my fingers to my palm. I never got higher than my 2nd month, which is highly frustrating.
4. To all you haters, I'm doing my best. The ability to dunk is not something everyone can do, or something gained in 5 months. Shut your pieholes.

I'm gonna find out from Kelly how much I can show of my workouts. Since he might consider it proprietary, I may not be much...