A baby boy!!! On September 28th 2011 at 2:24pm, Ryker Thomas Conwell was born. Kate is an absolute rock star and managed to have an all-natural 9.48oz, 23inch long baby boy. Ryker is the first Conwell boy in his generation and we could not be happier. Thank you to everyone who came to visit or sent encouragement, cards, gifts, texts, emails, dinners, and love to our new family. We will be in Portland, Oregon December 16th-24th and Kent/Seattle December 24th-January 1st. We look forward showing you Gods new creation, the best thing we have ever done….until we have another .

Training has been going better than ever. My weight room lifts are at an all-time high and my throwing is on the same path. Although success in the weight room does not directly translate to the discus ring, there are correlations and statistics that encourage me to continue working hard and setting new personal records (PR’s).

Currently we (Aretha Thurmond, Cory Martin, and I) are on a Tuesday/Friday lifting schedule. By lifting twice a week we are able to focus our lifting days on strength training and still have 4 days to practice throwing and functional strength movements. This is not a common training schedule but it is working very, very well. On our Strength training days we do variations of the following; Olympic lifts (snatch or power clean), a push lift (squat or bench), dumbbell lifts (incline bench, over head press, bicep curl, etc), back work (rows, TRX pull ups, etc), and an assortment of core stability and strength work. We always end with partner stretching which has proven to be very effective in limiting injury and encouraging recovery for the next training day. My new PR’s have come in the power clean, the snatch, and the bench press. We are in the foundational building cycle of our season so we are doing 5-8 repetitions for 6 sets of each exercise. I power cleaned 330lbs for 5 reps, snatched 231lbs for 5 reps, and bench pressed 315lbs for 7 reps.

In the discus ring we are spending the majority of our time on three cues. Stay tall, stay long, stay smooth. I know, it sounds so simple. And it is. In fact, it’s almost too simple. For the majority of my athletic career I have tried hard. I tried so hard I actually took myself out of position instead of moving through the position I was already in. If I “try too hard” I become inefficient in my movement and spend the same or more energy in the wrong direction. I can try and explain. When I enter the middle of the ring I have a choice. I can use the rotation I already created at the start of my throw and allow my body to turn together in a smooth, long, efficient, balanced rotation OR I can try and “do more” by quickly pulling my right leg to the middle of the circle in an effort to create more speed and rotation. The latter always results in a disjointed, hitchy…yes it’s a word created by my coach to explain my old technique, shortened throw that requires constant adjustments through the movement. The result of the “faster right leg” is inconsistency and wasted energy in the wrong direction. That being said, we are fixing it! I am very excited about this change and can’t wait for my next throwing practice.

Thank you to everyone on my team who has helped us continue to chase the dream of the 2012 Olympic Team. We currently have 22 monthly donors and several of you have chosen to give a onetime donation which we split up to help us each month. Thank you everyone for your generosity. Honestly, this pursuit would be impossible without your help. If you have not yet chosen to join my support team and have thought about it in the past….now would be a great time . I am very diligent and frugal with these donations and they will all go to help pay for my training these next 10 months. They are 100% tax deductable. Visit http://www.willconwell.com/donate/and choose a monthly auto donation on the left side of the page, or a onetime donation on the right. Thank you for your help!

Believing,
William Conwell

Aretha Thurmond and I work out together in the weight room. On Monday we challenged ourselves in the squats, incline bench, snatches, and several auxiliary lifts. At the end of each weight room day we end with core strength training and a post-workout recovery protein shake. Here is a Video of Aretha doing heavy safety squats.

And some pictures of us doing our triceps exercise and corner bar core strength exercise.

They weather people though it would snow today….but I had serious doubts.  I left for work at 3:45am (Starbucks) on my motorcycle and everything seemed fine.  Yes, it was cold but it is February.  The morning was going just fine.  I was heating up spinach wraps, marking cups, taking orders, brewing Verona Coffee….when suddenly the snow began.  At 9am a few flakes began to fall.  By 9:45 the snow was pretty heavy and I was getting a little nervous.  I got off work at 10am and decided to make a run for it.  Good thing the ground was still warm and the snow wasn’t sticking yet.  I had to wipe my visor off ever 5 seconds but I made it home alive!

Day 6 was full of stories.  Where to start.  We woke up around 9am in the Best Western Hotel and ate an amazing continental breakfast.  If you consider old hard boiled eggs, dry bread, and cereal with luke warm milk :O

I took a walk around the car and trailer and noticed two things. 1) Oil on the hitch of the trailer??? 2) The drivers front tire was low on air pressure.  I filled the tire with air at the gas station and looked around under the back of the car.  Sure enough, the rear end differential was leaking a little.  I picked up some gear oil, tightened up the differential cover and replaced the little bit that leaked out.  Then, off to Arkansas to visit Warren and Michelle Fyfe

On the way I checked the tires again and noticed the same front tire was low again!  I took a close look and noticed a nail in the tire.  A quick change and the full size spare was on the car, the flat tire was in the U-HAUL, and we were back on the freeway.

We stopped in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and visited the Oklahoma City Memorial and gave our respect to the people killed in the 1995 bombing.

After we met up with Wes Barnhart and ate at a famous BBQ place in Oklahoma City.  Then several more hours on the road and we finally reached Fayetteville, Arkansas at 2 am (thank you Michelle for staying up to greet us!)

Day 5, Grand Canyon!  So awesome and beautiful.  We loved the park and highly recomend a visit.  After running into Tom Greene ( a producer and hat maker) we visited hermitts road and viewed the canyon from several different angles.  The weather was perfect, the park was almost empty and we were in awe.  As we were about to leave we encountered several deer and 2 elk.  They walked right in front of us and we scrambled to roll the windows down and take as many pictures as possible.

From the Canyon we drove East on I-40 to Alberquerque  where we had dinner at the Frontier Restaraunt (a famous diner).  Then onward as far as we could drive.  Our night ended in Santa Rosa.

Another day of exciting adventures. Today kate and I woke up around 9am, packed up and left Andrew and Lacy Schnell’s house in Palo Alto, California. Lacy had an early day so she didn’t make it into the picture. We drove down hwy 101 and stopped in Santa Cruz.

In Santa Cruz we ate breakfast at a small, bright colored Brazilian restaurant fittingly called “Brasil”. The food was amazing and we agree with everyone who told us to try that place.

After breakfast we drove along cliff drive and stopped to watch several surfers catching some nar nar rip curls (surf talk for big waves). We sat on these huge rocks right near the water, took a couple pictures, enjoyed Gods creation and continued onward to the monarch butterfly migration spot. The Monarch butterfly park costs $10……..and that is when I realized between breakfast and the park I LOST MY WALLET!!! We prayed, and hoped, and stressed. We called the restaraunt, no luck. Then we drove back to the surf spot and kate searched the rocks while I searched the parking lot. SHE FOUND IT! my wallet was laying between several of the huge rocks where we were sitting. Thank God!

After Santa Cruz we drove south to Hollywood, California and have spent the evening visiting with Kates older sister Mica and her boyfriend Sal. Tomorrow we will finally head East. Our first stop will be Flagstaff, Arizona to stay with our friend Wiley King and his family. Wiley is the sprint coach at Northern Arizion University.

This first section of our trip is close to an end. We are still on the West Coast and tomorrow we will be driving to LA to visit Kate’s sister Mica and her Boyfriend Sal. The first day we drove through Portland, then Eugene and eventually turned West at Grants Pass Oregon. We drove out to the Oregon Coast and continued south on Highway 101 (which is beautiful by the way) until we reached our first stop. Trinidad California. Our good friend Sarah Joy March contacted a friend who was hospitable and gave us tea and a bed to sleep in.

The next morning (day #2) we woke to sunshine and and excitement. We drove down to the waterfront and ordered egg and avacado sandwiches from a very earthy (may I say hippie) coffee shop.  Inside was a sign!  An encouraging statement painted on the wall telling us to follow our dream!  From there we with our breakfast down to the crashing waves and had a romantic breakfast.

After breakfast at what is possibly the most beautiful place on Earth, we continued south on hwy 101 on our way to the Avenue of the Giants, better known as the Red Wood Forest. The trees were HUGE to say the least. Check out the picture of us standing near 15 foot diameter trees that have been growing for the past 900 years.

After the Red Wood Forest we journeyed south and met up with Toby Stevenson (the 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist in the Pole Vault) and had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant called Italian? in Palo Alto, California. He gave me good advice and was a true encouragement and supporter of our trip and my dream.

Now we are staying at another “friend of a friends” house. 2 swimmers who graduated from Stanford University. The saved us a great parking space and provided us with a California King Bed. We are tired and looking forward to a full nights rest.

This whole week has been wild but the last couple days were especially crazy. Kate and I began packing the small things and the out of season clothes early this week. We listed most of our furniture and many other items on craigslist in an attempt to fit everything we own into one U HAUL trailer. WE DID IT! After 2 going away parties, and a crazy weekend of help from family and friends (mom, dad, kevin, amy, stephen, amy k, adriana, nick, and phill) it is done. Our apartment is empty, our U HAUL is full and our journey begins. We will leave seattle at 9:30am tomorrow (Monday the 11th of January) on our way through Portland to our fist stop, Redwood National Park. Keep a close eye on the Home page and watch it change as we update our location and add pictures.

Kate and I had the pleasure of dinner with a friend this evening. Leila Ben-Youssef took us out to an excellent Mexican restaurant in Ballard Seattle. Leila competed for Tunisia in the 2008 Olympics. She is an excellent pole vaulter, currently training at the University of Washington while taking over 50 credits in Med School!

Kate and I have had a great weekend in Portland. Meals with the family, and sammies (breakfast sandwiches) in the morning. We worked with SarahJoy Marsh at Amrita yoga studio the past two days leading a stabilityball/yoga class.

The participants worked hard and appeared to be learning a great deal about control and balance while gaining strength. Tonight we have a going away party at our friends, the Flemmings, house in North East Portland. I will post pictures of the event soon.