Why Are You Here ?

"I don't care how long I live; I just want to be LIVING while I am living."
Jack Lalanne
RIP
Monday, Pradeep class.  First in a while and feeling very strong.  JB in back of me dying to stay up, she has the best shaped back; she'd probably taught for two hours and was gassed, been there.  Side plank crazy strong.
Tuesday.  In very early and go:
Presses
5+5 20, 5+5 24, 1+1x3 32
10 front squats, twin 16
10 reverse pullups off smith machine, slow slow coming down, very hard
5+5x2 sls, second with 16kg bu
3x, 32kg presses really good.
30/30 20 24kg swings x 10
planks, 60 sec front, 45 side
Wednesday
Mile in am, then fooling around with bu press; left 24 getting better.
evening yoga with MH.
Thursday
20/20 10 pushups x 8
10 front squats, twin 16
10+10 32kg rows
5+5x2 16kg single leg deads
3x

Spend Thursday and Friday packing up and shutting down a 70 year old law firm. to go join a 60 year old law firm.  Unhappy and po'd pretty much at everyone, including myself.
Today
In to unpack, gym first.  Need to do this.
Burpee to 3 pushups, to suitcase deads, twin 24kg x 5
10 front squats, twin 16kg
10+10 32kg rows
20 walking lunges, twin 35lb dumbbells
x3
15/15 10 32kg swings x 5
30/30 20 24kg swings to 1+1 24kg TGU, 32kg on last two x 5
20/20/10 32kg swings
TGUS really good.
Yeah, I am middle-aged, bald and stressed.  But strong.

The to lps to eat pizza, unpack and change my life; KO there and supportive,  Great support staff.  Stay tuned.

White Men Can't Chant

"I start in the middle of a sentence and move both directions at once." 

John Coltrane
 Rose did a good job staying "off" the egret.
Friday class with AE (subbing for Pradeep) was a total mixed bag.  Please stop being cute; it's annoying as hell.  Also, don't keep us on one foot for five minutes fifty minutes into the class on a Friday evening.  I am as gung ho as the next victim but give me a break; no one in the room was staying with.  But the extended warrior and triangle series were great as were the long stretch sessions at the end.  And anyone who will go hands on when sweating as much as I do gets credit.
But enough with the chanting at the end.  Pradeep is the real deal; you and the other white boy who chant sound silly.

Thursday
Excellent EH class.  Packed, she is developing quite the following and it's long overdue.  Sweet sweet woman with awesome mixes and a very strong practice.  Then 30+ minutes with ct, 10-1 1 arm swings, 20kg, to 5+5 burpees to kicks x 7.  Good sweatfest but tight hamstrings make my kicks rather pathetic.
Friday
Aforementioned 90 minute class.  Then to Yoshi's with SS for Roy Hargrove.
Saturday
To AMDA auditions with Ian.  It's old home week, see a bunch of folks we have not seen for a long time, including Ian's buddy from the second grade, Duane, who have not seen in five or six years.  Duane is a really good kid and they were quite happy to see one another.

Start a marsh walk Saturday afternoon, halfway through Rose turns up very gimpy after a tear around with a one year old yellow lab named Buddy.  We cut it short; she was moving better by this morning.
Football day today.  While all that was going on,
VO2 max, 15/15 16kg snatches, 7 rep pace x 60.  Uh huh.  Hands survived.

It's Ok to Be Weird

 "I'm not going to limit myself just because people won't accept the fact that I can do something else." 

Dolly Parton
Dolly, tearing "Seven Bridges Road" to pieces, Jerry Douglas on dobro . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFokKcXNwOE.  Happy Birthday, Beautiful.  It was a very nice day here.

My current favorite client has been fired by at least three prior lawyers.  The other three who did not fire her took advantage of her in the worst way.  Been the third and fourth before but never the seventh.  On only two occasions have there been others after me.  My partner wanted nothing to do with her, nor did the half dozen or so family law specialists she tried to hire.  I like her, psychiatric history and all.  Got her hooked up with one of the best family law lawyers in the state, who, like me, told her she will get nothing but a straight read, will not be a mouth piece, and if she doesn't like it, should go elsewhere.  This client said to me on the telephone, as I was slouched against the Grant street gate to Chinatown off of Bush, that she had written to a friend as follows: "What's great about my new lawyer also is his sense of humor and his ability to see the limits of justice through the eyes of compassion."
This is one of the nicest things any client has ever said to me.  Nearly started bawling on the sidewalk.

Saturday
Walk in am with number one dog.  Spend day cleaning; drop b and b off at annes. Workout like this watching football:
Presses
5+5 20kg, 5+5 24kg, 1-3 28kg ladder
10 24kg goblet squats
10+10 28kg rows
10+10 step back lunges, 20kg in rack
x3
30/30 20 28kg swings x 5
30/30 20 24kg swings x 5

Sunday, marsh walk
Monday, mlk day blowout, kettlebells + yoga double your fun
Presses
5+5 20, 4+4 24, 1+1 32x2
10 twin 16 front squats
10 reverse pullups off of smith machine, very slow coming down on ecentric portion
10+10 step back lunges, 45lb oly bar on shoulders
3x
Best 32kg presses ever.  Went up smooth both sides, no break.
Coach dos circuit 16kg
1+1 oly bar snatch, windmill, tgu
x3
90 minute break, then smoking eh class, next to trainers SR and SM, 20 years younger but they were as gassed as, or more than, me.

No matter how much other shit is going down, and it is coming down, choose strength.  And stop whining.

Tuesday, nothing.
Wednesday
Going to be a grind of a day with mediation in the afternoon.  Get in, do half a workout if you have to, don't skip.  35 minutes like:
5+5 x 2 pushups to renegade rows, 50lb dumbbells.  Go slow, don't drop anything early.
20+20 bulgarian split squats, body weight only, stay over hips, weight through heel, do not let quads take over.
10 squat to press, 90lb barbell.
Bridge, 1 foot up ten seconds, then other x 3
supermans, ten second hold x 3.
x3
fucking around with bu press, right 24 going up easy, left twice.
Upstairs to play with the 40kg, pressing that thing is a long way off.  just do some cleans to feel what it is like to move it around.
They use them to tie ropes to.
No one picks those things up.
I am going to because I am just weird like that.

Never mind, no do . . .

"And that has made all the difference."
The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost

I won't go back and edit or delete a post no matter how cringe worthy.  If I wrote it down it was hopefully an accurate, if perhaps unintelligible, description of the moment.  If not, then I really need the reminder.
Suffice it to say that I will not be blowing anything up.  My feelings about this move have not changed.  But having told others exactly how I feel and seen their fear were this to implode I cannot be the cause of wreckage.  It doesn't work, I'll be ok, others will have landed softly.  I am not a terrorist.  Gonna let my freak flag fly and be amused.  As to the fearful, get over yourself.  Get The Fuck Over Yourself.
Sunday.  In this post JL era I get to work a lot more on weekends and at nights.  It sucks but as brilliant as he is, the work product is better.  Into the gym before a delightful Sunday of trial prep and msa review:
Pushups, 20/20 10 reps, x8
10 24kg goblet squats
assisted pull-ups 5/28, 3/22
10+10 stepback lunges, twin 12 in rack.
3x, 10 pushups on 2/3 for 100 total.
15/15 32kg swings, x 5
20 24kg swings
1+1 tgu x5
15/15/20 32kg swings
Set me up real fine for the day's work.  Next time you are stressed and want to skip it, don't.
Monday, awesome fucking awesome Pradeep class.
Tuesday, nothing.
Wednesday, nothing.  These two in a row rest days are no good, but in office till late.
Thursday,
1.5 miles in am and some gtg, bu 24 right 3x, left once, bu 32 right can feel like moving it up.  No problem with 32 clean right anymore and 24 left much better.  Negatives on the pullup station, varied grip.
Leave early to trim the freak flag but I am late and AE looks at me really concerned.  I'd canceled the day before; I thought she said 2:30, but 2:00 and she looked so hurt.  There are not many people I have known consistently for 20 plus years and we have both been through shit together.
Back into gym where JH and company are laughing, you again ?
Burpees to three pushups to suit case deads twin 24 x 5
different lunge work, twin 12's, single 20, twin 16 squats
Press work
double 20x5
double 24x5
1+1 single 32kgx2
The doubles work is just enough different from the usual routine to make the single 32's that much more difficult and last sets on left were utter failure.  NTS: do more doubles.
3x
24kg swings, 50x4
 in between sets, woodchoppers, 42.5 and 35, TRX high low.
Finished in time for EH class, but she woulda killed me after that.
Home and and another three hours of work; just going to be this way.
Stumbling along the road much traveled  . . .

Follow Your Heart

"Why do I stay here can I find my way here . . ."
Freedom, Sons of Champlin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VkFOFF4xuk
Wow.
1/1/11.  Two hour MH class.  No heat in studio, but did not pull anything.
Sunday.  CT class.  Great 2011 swing class, drenched by the end; I don't usually care about sweat factor but only guy and feel like a troll.
Monday  Long day at LP and I don't like it.  A bit.  Asked twice prior where office is; mumbling responses.  Now, they lead me back to a closet, moved the office manager out to make room.  WTF, becomes very clear as I had suspected that this is not right for me.  Have no intention of bringing a book of business, giving up autonomy, bump up rates, fundamentally alter relationships and approach to same, for what ?  To work in an admin office and lose control ?  I don't think so.
Pradeep class is great, and things start to get very clear.  Go sit and watch Orange Bowl and weigh options.  Watch Luck shred and send out pissed off emails.
Get home, watch Buffy and stew.
Tuesday.  I know I can't do this, it is not the right move.  Tell C and she is surprised, but actually calls me to see how I am in the middle of the day, first time in years.
To gym late, needing to shove heavy shit overhead:
Press fest
5+5 20, 4+4 24, 1+1 32kgx2
10 front squats, 16kg
neutral grip pullups, 5 28lb assist, 3 22lb
5+5 sls to 5+5sls 16kg bu
3x, 32kg presses very good, no breaks.
30/30 24kg swings, 20 replace, x10
Leave to drive up, excellent dinner with 5; love the guy.
Nothing but work Wednesday/Thursday.  So fucking stressed workouts probably a bad idea; but feels good, better.  Thursday, good call with pw at Ghandi's feet.  I have had some pivotal calls here; one when left LOMJF, one when he left JMB, and today's is in the same vein.
Friday.  Five hours of grind, then to head mining, and Pradeep 90 minutes.  Have not eaten enough and tired.  Glance at clock 35 minutes in and wonder if I'm gonna make it.  Apparently I am not the only one; after 40 minutes of fast moves, he starts to dial it up different.  Bunch of lizard variation, then splits, and finish in pidgeon.  Probably 12-15 minutes each side.  Awesome hip openers.
Drenched and loose.
This morning.  Three mile walk; fried and busy day tomorrow.  Brigid Bball game; she does not play.  Want to swing bells but sleep instead.  Four workouts this week; don't slip.
Sons in late 90's, we can get better or just older.  They have gotten better, listen below.  Doing that too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvjAeyuLoxw&feature=related