Temple, originally uploaded by jbar2008.

My wife Sarah and I were sealed in the Salt Lake temple on March 13, just a couple of weeks ago. Here is a picture of us with her family on the steps of the temple after the sealing. It was such an awesome day.

I am starting to just blog from my phone because I can send pictures right to the blog. There may not be as much writing as in some of my other entries but as the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

I am so excited about life right now. I feel like I am on track to accomplish my wrestling goals and I am accomplishing many of my other goals in life as well. There is nothing like setting a goal and reaching it that will keep you motivated to just keep going. After going to the convention that I just went to in vegas I am more excited than ever about the American dream and living it.

Toughest Man I’ve Met, originally uploaded by jbar2008.

This man’s name is Markus Lattrel. I think that he is the toughest man that I have ever met. He was a navy seal and he fought his way out of the mountains in Afghanistan. I don’t even think that I can entirely give justice to his story, but he was shot, blown up, captured, tortured, and his entire team was killed in the mission. He spoke at the 2008 Medassets healthcare summit in las vegas. I have been here since Wednesday and I fly home today. The convention has been amazing! I’m so glad that I was able to come out for this. I will write about the trip in more detail when I get home.

Hi everyone, it has been too long since I have last posted on the blog. I have been pretty busy lately with a lot of different things. I wrestled in the pan am championships and got the weight qualified last month, after that I headed to Slovenia for a tournament and was successful there. After I returned from the tournament in Slovenia, I headed to Utah for a week. My wife and I were sealed in the Salt Lake temple on March 13th. We were both so excited to be able to do that. It has been a huge goal of ours, and I am so glad that we were able to accomplish that goal. I don’t think that there has been a time in our marriage when we have been happier.

So this week has been a great one as far as training goes. This morning we had a great sprint workout that was a little different than we have done before. We went to the Bear Creek Trail, a cross country trail with plenty of hills, to run some sprints. The sprints were all uphill, and then we reached the top of the hill we had other exercises that we did like pummeling or doing lifts or executing technique. It was a great workout, and my legs were hurting this afternoon! I made sure that I got in a good ice bath after our afternoon practice so that I can get some of the soreness out. We have a recovery center here on complex that has some different modalities for recovery. I like to alternate between the steam and the cold bath to recover. It really does wonders, especially when you are hitting a hard training cycle.

Tomorrow the world team is heading out to Las Vegas to go to a convention for Medassets. I am pretty excited about the convention because I have heard that it is a pretty good time. I don’t know exactly what we are going to do, but TC told me that he went last year and that it was awesome. We are going to be doing some training while we are out there too. I am not crazy about everything that goes on in Vegas, but I am a big fan of the restaurants and buffets that they have there. I don’t know if any of you know this, but I am a pretty big eater, in fact I am going to have to be pretty careful after I am finished wrestling so that I don’t swell up like the good year blimp! I will make sure that I pace myself while I am out there so that I don’t make myself sick. I will fill you in on how the trip goes. Good luck to everyone. I hope that you are making great progress with all of your goals!

Great seat!, originally uploaded by jbar2008.

I have a great seat in the plane. I even have enough room to cross my legs and relax. I’m off to Slovenia.

Yesterday I wrestled in and won the Pan Am Championships that were held in Colorado Springs. I won four matches en route to winning the tournament and in doing so I was able to qualify the weight class for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. I am really excited about this win. To be honest with you I feel like there is a huge amount of pressure that has been  let off with this tournament. Now that the weight is qualified I can focus on winning the Olympic Trials later this June. I wrestled four matches. I wrestled a guy from el salvador, canada, brazil, and cuba. My toughest match was with the cuban. He is a pretty talented kid, and he won the first period by virtue of the coin toss. In the second period there was some confusion because I turned him in a front headlock, but they scored the move 2-2. With this he would have won the period and the match because they said that he scored last, however, I had scored a point earlier that they had forgotten to put up on the scoreboard so I was really ahead 3-2. Then in the third period I took him down and turned him and won the match. The tournament was actually really fun. There were a lot of friends and family that showed up to support me at the tournament. It would have been nice to catch up with some of them a little bit more, but during tournament time I usually separate myself from everyone so that I can focus better. I think that it is sometimes harder watching a wrestling tournament than actually wrestling in one. The reason for that is because when you are competing you at least have control of what you are doing in a match. When you are up in the stands watching all that you can do is hope and pray for the best.

I felt like I was well prepared for the tournament and that I wrestled well. There are still situations that I want to improve upon, but that is the name of the game. I have to get ready to compete with and beat the best at the Olympic Games. I have been involved with the sport of wrestling for quite some time now, and it is interesting to see how the intensity picks up during an olympic year. All of the years in between are tough and grueling as well, but there is just something about the Olympics that has everyone elevating their game. Now is the time that you have to make that extra push to outwork and stay ahead of the people that are coming after you. It is a challenge, but it is fun. There is nothing like overcoming obstacles. The pressure and the resulting nervousness that comes with pressure is uncomfortable, but when you are victorious there is nothing else like it in the world. It doesn’t just relate to wrestling either. Everyone faces challenges all of the time, and I love it when people stare at an obstacle and are determined to overcome it. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but as long as you keep attacking the obstacle and improving there is success.