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NFL Combine Diary: Pemberton ready for trip to Indy
Feb. 23, 2010 NAPLES, Fla. -- Hey Rams fans. I’m writing today from Naples, Fla., where I’ve been the last three months training for this week’s NFL combine. I’m down here at a camp called Velocity Sports Performance. We’ve been working really hard to improve our speed and strength before we head to Indy tomorrow morning. I’ve trimmed down by about 10 pounds, just by eating better food and working out twice a day, Monday through Saturday. I’m in a group with three other guys, including Riar Geer from CU. Our group also has Lee Campbell, a linebacker from Minnesota, and Jared Odrick, a defensive tackle from Penn State who I think was an All-American last year. It’s a good group of guys and I’ve enjoyed getting to know them. We’re just trying to get better and faster for the combine. Our trainer is a guy named Derek Touchette. He used to be in Denver with Velocity, but moved out here a couple years ago. He’s trained something like 20 first-round draft picks. When he was in Denver, he trained Braylon Edwards before the draft and down here he worked with Joe Thomas and Winston Justice, who’s now with the Eagles. Riar and I leave first thing in the morning tomorrow. We’re on the same 7:30 flight out of Naples. We get into Indy about 10 or so. I’m really just hoping that I can sleep tonight. It’s really an exciting feeling, knowing that something you’ve trained the last three months for is finally here. My goal is to as much as possible to try and treat the combine like just another day of training, even though it’s obviously not. But we’ve been training for this week for three months, with the exception of just a couple days. We’ve been doing all of the drills and tests we’ll do in Indianapolis, so if I can just keep the mentality that’s it’s just another few days of training, hopefully, that’ll get me through in good shape.
It’ll be good to see Shelley Smith when we get there tomorrow. He’s been working with another trainer, actually the trainer that trained my trainer, and I haven’t seen him in a while. We’ve been texting each other here and there, just making sure our mindset is healthy, and we’re doing our thing getting ready for the combine. We saw each other at the East-West game last month, and I know we’ll be in the same group at the combine because of our last names. Tomorrow, we’ll get our schedules when we arrive but it sounds like we’ll be going to the hospital, getting our X-rays, MRIs and things like that. There’s no running or lifting tomorrow. I know that I fly back to Naples on Saturday night, and I’ll be here for another day and then head back up to Fort Collins to start getting ready for Pro Day. It’s crazy to think that it’s finally here. You sit down and think about all the times you followed the combine and draft growing up, and watched the combine workouts on NFL Network the last few years, watching Gartrell (Johnson) and Kory (Sperry) last year, and wondering if you’d ever make it. It’s definitely a big honor and I’m really excited. I’ll try to write when I can from Indianapolis. For more information on the combine:
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