From the day I decided to enter the NFL Draft, the knock on me has been that I'm too skinny. Well, I've been training in Atlanta for the combine for a little over a month now and already I've put on 15 pounds of muscle.

I've gone from 186 to 201 pounds and best of all, haven't lost an ounce of speed. In fact, I feel exactly the same as when I showed up here in January. Sometimes, I think it's the scale, like the scale is off or something.

	Making the Leap
	Over the next two months, ESPN.com will follow wide receiver Ashley Lelie on his journey from the University of Hawaii to the NFL. Lelie will write a weekly diary, and we will file regular reports on the steps a prospect takes in preparation for the NFL Draft (April 20). Also, if you have a question for Lelie, send it in and he'll answer a few every week.

I didn't lift a lot of weight in high school or college, so this is really the first intensive body training I've ever gone through. And even though I don't feel any different, I can tell I'm stronger. We don't lift for numbers or anything, but I can tell that certain weights are a lot easier than they used to be.

I'm working in Atlanta with renowned strength and speed coach Chip Smith. His job is to bulk me up a bit, while maintaining my 4.3 speed. So far, it's worked. Not only have I put on weight, but last week, I ran a 4.26 40-yard dash in one of our workouts.

We train five days a week. The foundation of our routine stays the same, though the actual activities change. On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, my morning starts with about an hour and a half on the football field, running routes and catching balls.

At Hawaii, I didn't run a lot of post corners, double cuts and stuff, so we work a little bit on that. I catch balls from the quarterbacks that are also working out down here, like Woody Dantzler of Clemson, Antwaan Randle El of Indiana, David Priestley of Pittsburgh and Dusty Bonner, who went to Valdosta State.

It's funny trying to get everybody on the same page. The quarterback might call one play from his college playbook that means something entirely different to me. One day, Woody or somebody called a dig, which to him was a deep curl pattern. To me, it was a pattern that crossed the entire field. We had a little mix-up. So now we just clarify: ‘You mean 15 yards and in, right?'

While the quarterbacks work on arm strength and passing accuracy, we work on our route running. Sometimes, we do it with rubber bands, or what they call shackles, around our ankles.

It's kind of hard to explain, but if you think of somebody going to jail with chains around their ankles, it's kind of like that, only with rubber bands. It doesn't keep you from moving your leg; it just provides some resistance, which tightens the fibers in your leg, making you quicker. It's difficult to get used to, but nobody has actually fallen over yet. A little kid, like a 9-year-old might fall but to an adult, it's just the feeling of tension.

After the on-field work, we work with Chip on more resistance-type workouts. He has probably 100 different drills we do each day for an hour and a half. It's the stuff that you see a lot of baseball players do, where they run across the outfield grass with a rubber band around their waist pulling them back.

After that, it's off to the weight room for about two hours. We lift upper body on Monday and Thursday, lower body on Tuesday and Friday.

Wednesday is the dreaded pool workout. It's the hardest part of the week. Real hard. It's the same principals with resistance training, but you're in the water. In the deep end, you put a vest on and try to swim across the pool with the breaststroke and freestyle for three 45-second intervals. You get a 30-second break in between.

On the other end of the pool, Chip orchestrates more of his rubber workouts. The idea is that the pool work flushes the lactic acid out of your muscles and yet you still get a strong aerobic workout. We do the pool for about an hour or so and then we're finished for the day.

At that point, it's around 5 p.m. and everyone is beat. After getting some dinner, it's time to relax, watch TV and fall asleep. This week, I have some other work to do, as my agent is sending me 2,500 football cards to sign. I'm getting paid $5,000 for the work and there are bonuses depending on where I'm drafted. I can't believe it. It's the first time I've been paid for my autograph and probably the biggest check I've seen.

I'm also going to have one other distraction this week, as my girlfriend, who is still in Hawaii, is coming to visit for Valentines' Day. She's staying for a long weekend and I'm really looking forward to it. I haven't seen here since I came out here.

My parents live in South Carolina now and they visited earlier this week. It was cool. Little visits like that, little breaks in the routine are what keep you going, what keep your mind occupied.

And right now, that's what I need. The combine is less than two weeks away and I can barely sit still in anticipation. I wish it were today.

Wayne Drehs is a staff writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at wayne.drehs@espn.com.