Definately a great week
June 09 2000

This past week was definitely a great week. I did everything I wanted to do and more. I was on the mat from Tuesday to Saturday, weight trained on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, and had my cardio workouts on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. My massage therapist who had an injury to his right wrist a week before was back at it again and gave me the treatment necessary to recover from the heavy week of training. I had treatment on Tuesday and Friday.

My Trainer and I had decided this past week to add ten more pounds to my cleans, but we came up a little short. I almost made it, but my technique wasn't as good as it need to be to get the lift. Having rested myself this weekend, I feel like I will confident that I'll be able to get it next time. My training regimen has come to the point where I don't have any room for failure. If I fail it one week, I make a point to get it the next time. It's as simple as that. Other than my disappointment with my personal best at the cleans, I did everything else very well. As usual, I was great in the scrimmage sessions. If there is anything I am working hard at, it is the ability to show reckless abandon when I smell blood. I have to go after my opponent and finish him off before they get a fighting chance. I know I'm capable of it; I just have to work on perfecting that part of my wrestling.

On Saturday, July 8th I made an appearance at an IGA grocery store in Vancouver on behalf of General Mills (the producers of Cheerios and one of my sponsors). There wasn't as much traffic as anticipated, but I had great company in four of my little wrestling friends from Washington, Mike, Jared, Andrew and Kyle. These four kids happen to like the Dynamite's style and came out all the way from Washington to hang out with me. From their enthusiasm I can tell they have a great future in the sport. They are future Olympians.

Next week promises to be another hard week. After I lift my personal best during the week, we leave to Korea for two weeks of intense training. The trip should be a fun one since they have a great training center and awesome training partners. If their training is like anything we saw while training with them at the Canada Cup in 1997, it promises to be a very tough training camp. It's just what I need right now. Health is wealth. I am very healthy right now and I feel very wealthy. I have a feeling that in my next diary, which I will be writing from Korea, I'll be complaining about stiff nerves. Please join me in praying for my fish who is a little sick right now.

Keep sweating... Daniel (Dynamite) Igali.