Tell Me Lies, I Love to Believe . . .

"Keep me on your mind a while, I'm coming home, I coming home."
Loretta, Townes Van Zandt

5 came over 6/14. Brigid cooked us Portabello and gruyere ravioli. Excellent. We did not make plans to go backpacking as he is off to Hawaii for the week and moi is trying not to completely overwhelmed with work. But, REI is 25 percent off all bags next three days and daughter has needs. So this is time and in looking at temp ratings mind goes to places; last year huddled sleepless on the bank of Stuart Fork in mid-August, already more than a fallish nip. We will get there again and soon.

Foot needs to heal and I need to not push.
Headstands and other inversion practice Wednesday. Have exactly as much fun as I thought, meaning quite a bit, settling gay porn case. Sophisticated parties are very happy with the deal and got lots of kudos. It feels so good to be me.
Get home, her summer began today and Brigid is doing marinated pork, pineapple veggie skewers while I throw ball for dog. Nearly dark when start to eat outside and it's really nice, listening to get chatter about what she wants to do and how she will eventually break my heart.  Another three years and when she goes she will not return; known this since she was very young.
Thursday
Fucking grind of a day banging on people. Secure payment of 30k receivable which had been source of serious stress and once again can look partners in eye.
Into gym for first organized class in a week. Easy yoga with JB as sub. She is not a great teacher but she is really easy on the eyes and gives a lot of attention so it's a pleasant hour.
Friday
Nutso stuff.
Escape practically running away from client and into gym for first real workout in a week.
Usual press fest ladder
5+5 20
4+4 24
3+3 28
1+1 32 x2

10 24kg Goblet squats
10+10 28kg rows
20+20 step back lunges, body weight only, focus on shoulders and hips square.
x3
Presses right are impacted by heel, particularly last 28, and both 32's. Get through it but whoa, do not become more jacked up.
30/30 20 24kg swings x 10.
Been a couple of weeks due to hand then heel but this was actually pretty good.
Will be lonely this weekend, will enjoy it for not very long.
Saturday
Mh yoga, watch golf and take Rose late for swim at Bucks Launching; time stops down there.
Sunday
Marsh walk. Too hot, inside 5+5-1+1 to TGU, 24kg x 10.
Monday
4:30 Yoga with Molly Fox and back to office, meet mc for 7:20 boat. We'd never met but like her instantly. She rides with me to Larkspur and send her back. Nice interlude.
It's hot hot hot which means sf cannot be a nicer place to be.
Tuesday
In to SF and gym for some vo2
Max, 15/15 16kg seven rep pace x 60. All good, heel is well.
Wednesday
In for bu stuff, gets later and later and that is all.
Thursday
Calls until 6:50. Gotta get back to B who has been alone since 6. That is not good. Fried and stressed. Do not force a workout. Walk the dog before afternoon court appearance in sacramento tomorrow and then keep it together for Kbell later; maybe on the road down the dirt trail where you've seen Golden Eagles and Osprey, bobcat shit and pissed red-wing blackbirds.
Friday
Walk dog in am.  Very nice, but as 8:30 approaches phone starts up.  Hit the road for sacto, get there with 20 to spare.  Judge is great and back on the road by 3:30.  Immediate calls and miss 80 and I'm on my way to Stockton on I-5.  Turn it back and end up spending 45 minutes in am pm mini mart parking lot sending emails to be turned into letters and non-stop calls.  Take 60 seconds to strip off suit and put on shorts and tank, if I'm gonna grind do it in comfort.  There is no road workout here, 37 stacked up due to race traffic and will only get worse.  Go down to Anne's; she's recovering from knee replacement and spend time with daughter and sister and laugh at stupid dog who can't walk on the tile floor.
Today
Functional fitness in action as load up recumbent bike and haul it up a flight of stairs for Anne's rehab.
Essentially three days off which is the longest stretch I've gone in a couple of years.
Out back by 4:30 for this
10+10 16kgx3 warmup
1-5+1-5 long cycle 24kg press ladders
10 24kg goblet squats
10 24kg crush curls
10+10 step back lunges 20kg in rack
x3
Taking me 9 minutes to get through each circuit, 3.30 on the long cycle ladders, no breaks there, keep it moving.
100 20 kg snatches, first 60 in 2:45, but hit a wall and skip the timing to finish.
Felt pretty fucking strong.



It is a song that can take over the head for days . . .

Stomp And Buck Dance

"Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance"
Anonymous

For a long time it was all acoustic guitars in the morning. Not so much these days. Crusaders show from Avery Fisher hall, 1974, went up a couple of weeks ago and can't get enough. Pretty much given up extended cardio sessions, no time. So no gym playlists, never plug in training kettlebells. Way too dangerous.
So it's Crusaders during morning commute. Hell of a way to start the day. Stix Hooper, Larry Carlton, Max Bennett pushing that groove, waste no time after the head into Wilton's tenor solo with Larry fucking with your spine in the background chills; sounds better than I remember. Beats caffeine.

Sunday.
Sore after learning to fall. Office for five hours then CT. Sitting all day and back unhappy. Bunch of swings, drop it to 20kg just to be safe. Kind of a get through it type deal. Heel is bugging me and will have me crippled by Saturday.

Monday
Late yoga, sub for EH, pretty good. Strong up in wheel.

Tuesday
In early for inversion and bu fuckaround. Phone calls starting at 7:40 break it up. Frog stands getting stronger and stronger. Bu stuff starts out crappy but gets better with focus. Left presses getting more consistent. Double cleans tight at the end.
Long ass day and planned k bell workout does not materialize. People just being shitty to each other; power for the sake of power. Roll out at 6:40 and though have dispensation for blowout it ain't in me. Rest day is due anyway.
Need to be smarter about this: rest days should be a function of programming, not driven by fatigue borne of the last four telephone calls.
Easy on it white boy; save the dance for tomorrow.

Wednesday
right hand is still fucked up from last week, so
swings are not really in picture
Long cycle C&P, doubles
5 20kg
4 24kg
3 28kg
1+1 32kg x 2
10 twin 20 kg front squats
8/3 pullups, 16lb assist
10 bootstrap squats, 24kg
x3
Hands are fucked, no ballistics
2 Jesus get-ups
Figure 8 to hold 10 20 to 10 24
x2
'tis it.
Thursday
Long long day never get there.  Insanity starting at 7:40 am blows out even a little BU practice.  Sit on the benches at the Ferry terminal going back and forth for 70 minutes.  Mischief managed for now, and gee wasn't that a nice place to do it.
Friday
Morning,
10+10x5 16kg swings
8 burpees to 2 pushups to suitcase deads, twin 32
15+15 bodyweight step back lunges, slow and stay square
10+10 renegade rows
Figure 8 to hold 10 20 to 10 24
3x
Afternoon
Pradeep, one foot really strong
Saturday
Parkour
He tells me to run half a mile and I do and I'm fucked. Lingering light pain in right heel erupts to serious hurt, attributable to unexpected long concrete run in VFF. I shut it down, drag my way through Costco run and head home to feel sorry for myself. Late pm, decide to call this an opportunity to blow out of the training rut these words reveal, better.
Sunday
Come in for gym/work. Really crippled, excruciating pain in right heel.
Two miles on recumbent bike, ok
30 alternating floor press twin 24, flip to 10 pushups, fine
Planks,
I minute front
45 sec side ok
Lat pulls, 10 120. Y
To 5 140 closegrip bicep pull down
10+10 28 KG rows
3x
Up for inversion frog stands which goes shitty.
Into office. Get through the long calls and client turns me on to Dr. Blake. He has one of the most useful blogs ever.
http://www.drblakeshealingsole.com/

Convince myself that it's plantar fasciitis. Ok, we have a name; must be a solution now.
Dinner at Sara's with b&b and I get to sit with foot up for two hours not surrounded by squalor which is awesome.  But I can barely walk.

Monday
Foot six times better. But very hard negotiations followed by spectacular client implosion. It gets personal and rude voicemail messages and incoherent emails by 4:00.  At that point refuse to talk more; clients with needs run straight to 6:50, I have to get up and limp to Ferry.  Client implosion results in a sleepless night, very much so due to large receivable. The problem with technology is that once you empower the rabid you've no refuge, they slobber on you when they please.

Tuesday
Get on early boat, foot better but still not great and no time. Force it in for ten minutes on concept rower, 100 pushups in sets of ten, and one plank circuit, some sideways lunges. That's it.  I don't do this right I'm fucked, cannot handle a 30k fuckup.  Take the last incoherent email from the night before and respond in italics below each "point" send it off to co-counsel who is quickly becoming my bestest lawyer friend. We tweak it, flip it to client and get the contrite call back in five minutes. Two hours later hit'em with bill reminder and close the day with confirmation the large check is in the mail. Timing, in the rain dance, love and war and most other matters, is everything.
Mediator duty tomorrow in gay porn case and should be good for mh at 5:15. Cannot recall when needed a yoga class more, but say that a lot and seem to have a short memory.  I'd dance if it would not freak out daughter and dog and hurt my fucked up foot.  Mischief managed, an entirely temporary state of affairs.

Listen to more The Crusaders at Wolfgang's Vault.

Learning To Fall

"Andre Dawson has a bruised knee and is listed as day-to-day.  Aren't we all?"
 Vin Scully

Fucked up hands and it's my own damn fault. Callouses develop a shallow end and a deep end and varying depths in between if one is not constantly on top of the hand care, and being a guy I always slip, every few months one tears and fucked for a couple of days.
Tuesday
In early for headstands/crow/bu practice. Yogi headstands getting better and bu much better. Consistently sticking double 24 cleans and very close to double press. 28 solid right, press will be there soon. Left intermittently ok.
Tuesday night. Go:
10+10 x 5 16kg warmup
5+5 double 20 long cycle
4+4 24
3+3 28
1+1 32x2
20 tactical lunges, 20kg
10 reverse pushups off of smith, slooowww down
5+5 slsx2, 16kg bu 2nd set
3x through

30/30 24kg swings, 20 rep pace x 10.
Tear big callous below fuck you finger on right hand at re 186, two rest days now.

Wednesday
In by 7:30 for more inversion/crow. Still recovering from night before and crow dicey. Yogi headstands best ever, but still not very good. Just keep practicing.
Wednesday pm
MH class. Packed; after what for me is a blowout with 4 classes last week (2 90 min) and then four days off yoga class was really strong even with hard bell workout day before. Could get foot in the hand easily for Dancers pose which has never happened. Warrior three good too, chest up shoulders back and legs strong. Hour went by fast.
Home to Brigid cooked meal and gingerbread. C watching Twilight, kitchen in pieces. Do not blow a cork, do not drink too much. Redirect. Daughter is, quite simply, the best.

Frantic Thursday; catch up to close deal.
5:30 with EH, very strong, good class. Three older guys in a row, I am oldest by a good eight years. Kill it.
Walk out, newly reappeared KGW circuit training with another trainer. They are moving strong and fast and well, GS snatches, double 16 swings, renegade rows. You go. Nothing better than women being absolutely beastly.
Get home, to Brigid's concert.  Take all three to dinner after.  First time in years.    

Friday
Long day. Gym for swing tgu fest.
5-1 single arm swing ladders 24kg to tgu x 10.  Last 8, 28kg on the tgu.
Get to SMH at 8:30 to pick up Brigid who is running lights at concert.  Intermission, can't be too much longer, wait.  Whole senior thing, finally over at 10:00.  She is tired but full of chatter and she makes popcorn for B and we watch It's Complicated until she falls asleep.

Saturday, dumping rain.
It's Parkour day.
Spend 15 minutes reading Will Williams blog.  Guy can write, still a young punk but he can lay it down.  Writing about life in fitness (at early 30's, hah) and totally worth quoting:
 "Ahhh yes, we have left the Dagobah system and entered Tatooine, where things are bright and clear."  More fitness blogs should read like this.  Will and Buckley, both an inch wide and a mile deep in their unique ways.

They won't let me take another Parkour class at Crossfit Marin until I learn to fall.  Being a lawyer I get it, so meet with Roger, good guy who watches me roll and we run through front and back falls, while Brigid takes the class.  That all goes good and move on to primal movements.  Bear crawls, Rabbit hops, and Gorilla crawls.  These are fun and I can see long stretches in the main studio while working on inversions.
We go to vaults; right is good, left weak, I know.  Have one mishap and roll and he is good.  He closes our session with a warm warning:  "you are my nightmare client.  Most of the people who start, they can't get themselves in a position to hurt themselves.  You can.  If I put you on a trampoline, you could get high enough to lose it.  Be careful, take your time with the progressions.  And really nice job."  Whee, look forward to next week.


After, long dog walk in a loud marsh full of fledgling birds.  Full day with Brigid.  I do not have a complete understanding of what impulse drove me six years ago to change the me in me but I'll take it.  I can hang with her, and not be a clod or embarrass her.
Genius. 
We'd talked all day about watching Two Towers.  But its late, she picks Bend It Like Beckam.  Last week it was Mulan.  She rocks.  Daughters extending the middle finger to the family; she is warming up to it.  I'll take that fall, she'll do it gently.