In Las Vegas, my typical bed time is 4 or 5am. I'm a night owl, but I'm also a day person as well. So I may go to be at 5am, but I am usually up by 7 or 8am. I can't help it; there's never enough time in the day to get everything done. And I'm also one of those people that once i'm awake, I don't go back to sleep. I tell you all this to preface my blog about yesterday.

I slowly woke up. I don't know what woke me, or why I was opening my eyes, but I knew it was still early as it was still dark outside. I looked over to my phone and it read 7am. My typical time to wake up were I in Las Vegas but it was 3 hours earlier here, so yes I woke up at 4am. Unable to fall back to sleep, I grabbed my laptop off the bed beside me and started to write my blog for monday. I also worked on scheduling the Napkinnights girls for the week. Somewhere around 6:30 am I heard someone walking around and went out of the room to find BJ on the front porch.

We started chatting about what he thought of Joe's upcoming fight; BJ feels that Joe has a very good chance of winning his fight against Kenny Florian for Ultimate Fight Night in Broomfield, CO. "If Joe does win, and I win the belt, there's a good chance that we may have to fight each other." I quickly responded, "But you guys wouldn't do that, would you?" BJ said, "He would have to fight me if he wants to be the champion. I want him to realize his dreams; I would make him fight me."

At this point, Danny from On the Mat woke and joined our early morning party on the porch. We adjourned to the kitchen where BJ made himself a protein shake. I watched as he ground up his oats dry in the blender and then added different supplements and whey protein. It was just before 8am and BJ's friend Ben picked us all up to take Joe to run sprints on the bay.

It was beautiful, sunny day in Hilo as we arrived bayside. Junior came and grabbed Urijah and BJ; Ben and I stayed with Joe as he ran 8 quarter mile sprints next to the canoes on the water. He cruised through them easily and after a quick stop by the gym, we headed over to meet the rest of the crew at the soccer fields.

What we found when we got there was a strength and conditioning session with the guys pulling tires, running sprints with a parachute behind them, throwing dumbells, pulling each other, and hitting tires with sledgehammers. They were doing 5 minutes on each station and with the warm sun beating down and the slight humidity it was within minutes that the guys were dripping with sweat. I found myself running around the field trying to accurately capture the training session. By the time that Scotty and Lief showed up, the guys were off on a run, and we were comparing our dirty feet.

After the session, we all piled into Hoyt's truck to go get food. After a discussion on where we wanted to eat, we found ourselves walking into Island Naturals to satisfy our cravings. This was a natural food store with a prepared food bar, much like you would find at Whole Foods, but much smaller. All of the foods were organic or vegan, and fit into the dietary needs of some of the guys. We all ordered smoothies, paid for our selections, and sat in the outside area to eat and socialize. We were soon piling back into the truck and on our way to the house.

I spent the afternoon getting some work done and was soon distracted by some incredible smells coming from the kitchen. I walked in to find Leroy in the kitchen cooking BJ's afternoon snack of ground beef and green beans and the local island dessert of poi. BJ and his girlfriend ate it with a mix of white and brown rice.

Rudy was going to teach Urijah to surf and I of course wanted to tag along. They picked me up at 2:30 and we took off to Honoli'i beach park. Rudy waxed Urijah's foam long board as he gave him instructions. With no hesitation, they walked into the water and started to paddle out. The swell was small that day; perfect for him to learn on although the waves did pick up a bit as their time in the water went by. Urijah waited patiently for his first wave and I swear to god, he caught and stood up on the very first one that he attempted. I guess this guy's just a natural athlete and can probably excel at any sport that he attempts. They stayed at it for about an hour, then came in. Rudy started telling us history of the area; The kings and queens of Hawaii used to surf there. He also explained about two tsunami's that had hit the island in the 40's and 60's, as well as talked about the foilage that lined the beach.

It was time to get back to the house and get ready for training. We got to the gym right at 5 and Joe went straight into the cage to train with Rudy and BJ, while Urijah joined the class that JD was teaching. I had a chance to meet and chat Mr Penn (BJ's dad) for a minute. I guess I had forgotten BJ's ethnic background and was surprise because his dad is caucasian. He was friendly in our short conversation, and I then excused myself to shoot the guys training session.

I stepped into the cage as Joe was donning full pads. He and rudy sparred for a 10 minute session and when they were done, I looked over to the class that JD had been teaching to see that Urijah had taken over. After 20 minutes I headed back to the cage to see BJ and Joe rolling; Urijah joined us soon thereafter. The rolling sessions went five minutes each; BJ and Joe, Joe and Urijah, Urijah and BJ, BJ and Joe, BJ and Urijah. It was an intense session, although Urijah had to be careful not to aggravate stitches he had gotten in his chin from training last weekend. After they were done training, it seemed that there was always a discussion in the cage (never planned of course) about how each trained and what each needed to do to improve.

We all jumped in vehicles to get back to the house. I have started to lose track of who took me where and when because of how many different vehicles I have been in. I somehow got back to the house and the thoughts of us going to see the lava flow (the volcano is active again) were tossed out the window because it was so late. BJ's dinner was waiting there for him, and we were hungry as hell. JD and Jody grabbed a group of us and we all went to dinner at Kuhio Grille.

Kuhio Grille seemed to be a favorite of this crew and served local fare. We were about 10 deep for this meal. Leif went as far as to order both the hawaiian plate with kalua pork, and poi as well as the chicken adoba. Urijah got a double order of chicken katsu that he proceeded to peel off the layers of breading. Joe copied Hoyt's order of a pork and beef lau lau, with a side of gravy for the fried rice. For those of you who don't know what lau lau is, it's butterfish and a meat (chicken, pork or beef) wrapped in a Taro leaf and then steamed. I chose the teriyaki pork (for some reason there was no teri chicken on the menu). Leif then ordered 2 desserts that I helped him finish. I think I'm 10 lbs heavier because of this trip! I fell asleep in the truck on the short ride home. I thought I would write my blog when I got back, but I had a long day and passed out the minute I stepped into the house.