Iron Dog Musings

Forward

2012-01-19T21:53:00.000-08:00

"I am a walking piece of art every day . . ."
Lady Gaga

Tuesday
In for bu fuckaround. Pretty good, then up to CT late for:

5 28kg jerks single arm r
5 front squats 28kg single arm left
5 28kg jerks single arm right
5 28kg squats single arm right
15+15 single arm swings 24kg
5 double 24kg jerks
15 double 16kg swings
x3
Tough little circuit, 28 front squats really good after double 24 front squats last few weeks.
Up all night coughing.

Wednesday
All day depo prep and depo, Feel like shit.

Thursday, to Fairfield for 8:45 call and back down for 11:30 depo, flying.
Bail for late EH, good, strong, easy class.

Friday
Pradeep late pm. 4:30 Friday is his easiest of the week; very very strong.

Saturday
Main event was watching the redemption of Alex Smith and @vernondavis85 unfold. VWC is a good simple workout for football watching so
15/15 16kg snatches 7 rep pace x 70, shoulda gone 80.

Sunday
Five hours drafting jury instructions. Brigid comes in, lunch and up to CT. Press ladder/box squat class, low volume high quality movement. Fives on the 32kg push press suck, particularly left.

Chocolate making class and home. Love the day with Brigid. On way up she says that was fun let's do it more often and we are going backpacking this year, right ? Slay me.

Monday
Six hours taking expert deposition. Do not finish. Break at 5:00 and sprint for 5:30 EH. Speed up so you can slow down. Very good, very strong class.

Tuesday
Must. Do. Heavy. Press.

10+10x5 16kg single arm swing warm-up.

Double 20 kg 5+5 long cycle c & p
Double 24 4+4
Double 28 3+3
single 32 1+1 x 2
Been awhile for heavy press work and did not feel dialed with the double 28's until last set. Double 28 cleans better than before. 32's very good.

Double 24 front squats x 8
10+10 32kg rows, 28's middle
5+5 sdl 24
x 3

30/30 10 32kg swing to 10 28kg
x 5
5-1+5-1 single arm 24 x 3
10 alternating 24 to get to 100.

Wednesday
Mid-day Pradeep, smoking strong.

Dropping weight and adding strength since no alcohol in 2012. Yoga practice markedly stronger, bells feel better.

Up to drive Shawn Colvin and catch chunk of her set 'till gotta get middle manchild from theater gig. Jane Siberry comes out and they do a duet on Calling All Angels; leaves me in tears. Finish my weak tea and out into the cold.

Thursday. Planned rest.

Don't dwell upon time spent less than wisely. There is nothing you can do. Look forward.

Beginnings

2012-01-09T22:32:00.000-08:00

"There is no such thing as discipline. There is only love. Love is the most powerful creative force in the universe. You are the result of what you love most."
Charles Poliquin

Squat Like A Lady had a blog post on Resolutionaries which will be clogging up the gym for a piece here. Message was be kind and wish them all well. She is spot on. Just be careful around flying iron.

Things to get back to:
Walking lunges and deadlifts

Things to buckle down on:
24kg snatches
Bu press
Compensation

Monday
Can't figure out gym schedule cause it's all screwed up. Finally get in the door; it's 90 minutes of Pradeep. Great start. 45 minutes of bu foolaround, double 24s cleaning nicely.

90 minutes stretches to 105. It is so good and I am so drenched; JB EH an EW all in there enjoying class, it's packed, hope no one was new, plank work in and of itself could have been really disheartening.

Tuesday

Late for this
5 burpees to three pushups to twin 32 suitcase deads
8 twin 24 front squats
10 inverted rows
10 20kg figure 8 to hold to 10 24kg figure 8 to hold
x3.
Launch in heavy snatches but crater at 49, should just have done that circuit x 5.

Wednesday
In early to pick up.
5-1+5-1 28kg single arm swing ladder to 1 tgu x 5. 28 is the heaviest I can go, with a single arm swing, back tolerates very little in the way of inward rotation.
Some band work which been meaning to incorporate.
Return for Pradeep.
Class is packed and at least a dozen new faces. People are confused and need to make room; he's directing traffic: "come on man give the gift.". Starts off "who is going to be here in three weeks."

Starts off with Stayin' Alive, yes the man from India and the Bee Gees. Warm-up series giggling to the Gibbs. Then the tablas start and fast bass and it's pedal to the metal for 20 minutes with the low end coming up through the feet before backing off ever so slightly.

The message is clear, if you are new don't start here. He is right. He teaches four classes a week and there are at least ten others that are less demanding. He closes warmly as usual, but a number of folks look like they are in shock as we leave. Welcome to your new world, stay here for 90 days and you'll never leave.

Thursday
Brigid sends me a JennaMarbles video at 8:10 as I'm getting on the boat. She is the rare 16 year old who has nothing to do with social media, but we can share this.
Rest day.

Friday
In early for court calls. Busy am, can't duck out to gym for lunch, kbells can wait until tomorrow. 4:30 Pradeep. Slower than usual which was welcome. Like three days in a week. Makes me better.

Saturday
Slammed by cold and flu. Get up and clean up, go out and shop, home by 2:00 and face plant to sofa; training is out of the question. What was looking like an ok week now not so much, but too sick to move.

Sunday
Slammed, pounding c and zinc 11:15 start to feel human again. Pretty sure tomorrow will be fine. Make it yoga then CT kbells on Tues.

Monday
Get on 7:10 boat so time for fuckaround which is working on as opposed to working out. Sticking 24 bu double cleans but the press feels distant.
Back for 5:30 yoga. Start coughing after 30 seconds of cat/cow and downward dog. Chest congestion does not want me inverted but want to train so:
100 16kg single arm swing warm-up

1-5+1-5 short cycle press ladders, 24kg
5+5 single leg deads, 24kg
10+10 renegade rows, 24kg
8 twin 24 front squats x 4
Wanted five but getting late. Pretty good considering how horrific felt 48 hours earlier.

The dog is 30 pounds over weight, but does not have heartworm. We will fix it together.

Year end

2012-01-01T22:23:00.000-08:00

“I considered the wonder of the things that befell me, convinced that my life was the best omelet you could make with a chainsaw.”
Thomas McGuane, Panama

Wednesday skimming across the Bay morning light perfect.
Very very good expert depo; witness pleased that I was pleased. Had me taking pictures of him on the street as we walked back from office so he could send to his wife, loving being here. Next week and the week after should go so well.

5:15 60 min mh class. Mh is a good man, first yoga teacher and always glad to return to his class. Patient guy, about to be besieged.

I can't wait for Pradeep next week, all those folks convinced they need to start in with yoga cause it's a way to ease into fitness are going to run into a buzz saw.

Newsflash: you don't ease into fitness. You jump in with both feet and commit, psychically and financially. You stick with it consistently for 90 days, it'll change your life. Anything else you're just fuckin' around. Get in or get out.

Thursday
Circuit was:
4-1+4-1 short cycle 28kg mp
8 double 24 front squats
10 inverted rows
5+5 sls to same with 16kg bu
X3
And that was it. Wanted second half to be alternating 24kg snatches to 28kg single arm swings, but no. Interrupted by email waaaay too much and never really hit a groove. Due a rest day, should have just taken it. The press ladders were a lot of heavy pressing and it may be that heavy presses ought not to be followed by heavy snatches and swings on the fifth straight workout day. Duh.

Friday
Run to catch noon yoga but don't make after dropping draw check in street. Nice job counselor. Closing office early but working on settlement until late.

Saturday
In for 75 minute MH class with B. B rocks it, hopping forward on his stubby little feet and MH welcomes him, calls him out on twists, fist bump at the end which Barry digs and a "come back."
Spend entire day working on settlement, finishing finally at 5:30, opposing counsel emailing: "go home now David. "
Quiet night watching Firefly, drinking way too much wine and champagne.

Sunday
Watch niners and make outstanding pasta salad. To park, get rid of this skull pain. Started with double 20kg swing, press squat snatch ladder but too much. Shift to easy standby:
5-1+5-1 single arm 24kg swings to 1 TGU x 10.

I have boat loads of work in a number of areas to do in 2012. Stay strong. Take care of yourself so you can take care of others. Breathe. Get better at everything.

Too Loud

2011-12-27T22:13:00.000-08:00

"I've always been afraid of twelve step crowds; they laugh too much and they talk too loud like they all know, how everyone should be . . ."
Todd Snider, Long Year . . .

Tuesday
Nothing, working dog.

Wednesday
In late for:

Five long cycle double 24kg clean & press
3 double 28
1+1x2 32

8 double 24kg front squats
5 plus 3 assisted pull ups, 16lb assist
20 tactical lunges, 24kg
x3

5-1 descending 1 arm swing ladder 24kg to 20 alternating
x4.

Thursday
Ericka at noon, great class.

Friday
Supposed day off, Hah !
Expert witness prep and client meet, quick workout
20 28 kg swings to 1 28kg tgu x5
20 28kg swings x 5
Berkeley shopping

Saturday
Clean up in anticipation of pork roast oh yes.

Sunday
To Mg for kettlebell/movement fun. Total blast felt like a kid.

Monday
75 min yoga with Evan; chaturanga city.

Tuesday
CT late:
5-1+ 5-1 snatch ladder 24kg, to mobility voo doo to 5 20kg GS
x6

In between, juggling the usual holiday dysfunction with year end client crises. Friday brought the expert witness prep in am in 5mm case headed on a rail line to trial, then on Telegraph, bailing to sit in Noah's and close out seven figure settlement deal which is first piece in chain which needs to be cleared out before year and while simultaneously structuring sale of world famous artisan business in fashion which satisfies creditors and leaves client reputation intact. Pretty much left alone Saturday and Sunday to think about prior week and plot for the next one; Monday more of the same. Tuesday brought five hours of witness prep with nationally known law professor nervous about being a paid expert which makes him perfect but he does not know it yet. I am his lifeline and he practically begs me to go to dinner but it is not necessary and we both have work to do. His is reviewing 573 pages of accounting documents and mine is snatching a 24kg bell 180 times, in between CT's outstanding fine motor work and goblet squats with no sagittal extension, maintain neutral spine, relax, move your eyes not your head.

I enjoy social media and reading all the young folks' plans and goals and determination; road maps of lives just starting and recent prs. The resume of the day; how you got all the shit done and more that you said you would and ate clean, worked out and are psyched to get up and do it again. I like seeing them so dedicated, so committed to what you think you want.

But what will really impress is to see recuperation with grace when something happens to that will leave all that in shambles. Can they broaden the map so it includes enough other people (outside of the gym) to guarantee disappointment, stir up bad juju one must ultimately forgive and dig deeper than ever thought possible to do so because its not about the individual or that bar with the weight on it but those who depend their survival and what you carry for them. Not something that happens to someone close, but to you. The birth of a child not perfect, the loss of a job, the cosmic blindside which tears your road map to shreds. Recuperate from that and stay strong. Recognize how little you really need, because what really matters takes up no space at all except in the center of your chest the capacity of which is infinite.

Yes, yoga will be good tomorrow. After the four hours of deposition, and before the three hours of settlement negotiations. Breathe.

Three More Then Two . . .

2011-12-19T22:49:00.000-08:00

"Top of the mat; pose of the Mountain . . ."
PT, often

That's where it starts. Feeling the weight in the feet, gonna do this . . .

Sunday
Yoga with B. Before class he is sitting in full lotus, backs of hands on knees with forefinger circled to thumb. Sonorous trance music, eyes shut; pretty sure he fell asleep. Home to football and make awesome roast pork dinner, Brigid whips up best Brussels sprouts ever.

Monday
In early for headstands, twin 40 farmers walk, bu fool around. Just gtg and practicing. Nada mas but rest day is ok.

Tuesday
In early again for bu fool around. Try out Saturday' complex with double 16s then 20s. Think we'll start with 16's and see if we can make it up in volume.
Back in pm for:

60 16kg warm up
5 double 16 swings
5 double clean and press
5 double front squats
5 double snatches
1 28kg tgu
x 10.
Blow through the desire to stop at five. Three more then two. Old man:

No. 7 on Kenneth Jay's ten days of kettlebell mistakes here, neck extension on downswing, move the eyes, not head.

Wednesday
Headed to mh 5:15; catch cjd heading to Marin. Can save ten bucks and head home instead and hang with Brigid.

Thursday
Hit gym by 6:00 after busy day.
4-1+4-1 short cycle 28kg press ladders; 4 is a pr, hit fours all three circuits, no breaks Np; overdue.
Front squats, 8, twin 24, very good
10+10 28kg renegade rows
10 figure 8 to hold 20 to 10 24
x3
Alternating single arm swing ladder 10 20, 24, 28 x 5. Could have gone 8-10 but need gas for Pradeep tomorrow.
Felt sooo good after that. Great presses and good ballistics, Rock n roll helps.

Friday
5:00 Pradeep. After brief (but not perfunctory) warm up he has us on one foot, knee bent, other leg up, opposite hand on down foot with downside hand on hip. "no, this is not a yoga pose, just hard." Then hinge up on one foot, knee to chest on raised side, breathe. Four lengthy slow reps each side, sweat pouring: "hey, we're 14 minutes in!"
You'd want to kill him if he was not having so much fun. Happy hour endorphin rush. Hamstrings loose again after Kbells day before and a day behind a desk.
Why would anyone want to skip this ?

Saturday
15/15 16kg snatches 7 rep pace x 70
At 35 tempted to call it a week; Clapton from 1970; Got To Get Better In A Little While, push through, you can do anything for 35 minutes.

Sunday
To John's for Brigids birthday Tri tip.
Outstanding, guy can cook. Rest day.
Up to bed at 10pm something pst and see @JasonIsbell has tweeted Warren Hellman has died. Sadness, have over a decade of photos of Brigid and Barry at HSB. My kids grew up at your picnic. Giant heart. No words.

Monday. Distracted. WH tears just below the surface. Lay it out for 60 with Pradeep. Opening with his Foot thing. Closing with bridge to wheel. Sweat fest.

Love you Warren, you gave me this, and much much more:

RIP.

Rock & Roll Doctor

2011-12-10T23:38:00.000-08:00

"If you like country with a boogie beat, he's the man to meet."
Lowell George

Sunday
Ten hours of work; at least games are on while I write a brief. No exercise. It's a damn good brief.

Monday
Sucking coffee listening to John Prine blowing the hell out of Mexican Home, skimming across the Bay.

Listen to more John Prine at Wolfgang's Vault.

That is so fucking good.

Late long conference call scheduled, get out at noon for:

60 16kg swing warm-up

1-3+1-3 28kg press
Kbell front squats, ten twin 20's
5 pullups,16lb assist
Sls 5+5 then 5+5 with 16kg bu.
X3
Mixed bu/snatch fuckaround

Tuesday
Sixty min yoga, good class mh.

Wednesday
To la for mediation and back. No workout. Judge liked the brief from Sunday's rest day; it's good when you get to set the tone and drive.

Thursday
Need to hit it
60 16kg swing warmup.

5+5 alternating 24kg op, straight to 5 doubles
1 min farmers walk, two 28
10 reverse pushups off of smith
5,4,4 trap bar deads, 245.
x3
5-1+5-1 24kg single arm swing ladder to
55lb oly bar tgu. X 5

Good. Hours later posterior from knees to neck humming.

Friday
Why is it I think my back is going to crater on deadlifts and swings. I wake up feeling awesome.
Felt like a very long day but it really wasn't. To Jon Isaacs 90 min class subbing for Pradeep. Slow. Is. Hard.
Stay away late to pick up Ian. Cruisin the Vault in Marin Brewing Co., find Rick Derringer from 1981 and cast of thousands benefit. Last two, Rick and Dr. John with RD just blowing it out on Right Place Wrong Time, then into Hang On Sloopy. Single beer.

Saturday
All day, plowing through bank docs, sending out what I hope are incisive emails to the rest of the team; feed back positive. It's getting later and later and it's cold outside and last email is sent in the dark.
Not feeling it, go upstairs, B is listening to Bowie on the bed. I curl up next to him, he puts his head on me knee and gets heavy. Force it up, stream Derringer all stars during @giryagirl simple six workout:
Right
5 one hand swing
5 clean and press, long cycle
5 squats, bell in rack
5 snatches
Left
repeat above
TGU
x 5 with 24kg.
hit stride during circuit 3; switch to Little Feat, heavy heavy slide to kick off Rock 'n Roll Dr. B bounces back in the door. He loves Lowell. Arms flailing wildly and heavy breathing he's overtaken, and bed dancing. Last three circuits just pound 'em out.
Yoga with B tomorrow.

"three degrees in be-bop, phd in swing he's a master of rythm, he's a rock n' roll king . . ."

One of the best damn shuffles ever . . .

Go

2011-12-03T23:53:00.000-08:00

"kicked by the wind,
dropped by the sleet. Got my head stove in but I'm still on my feet and I'm still, willin'"
Lowell George, Willin'

Sunday
Take B in for 90 min yoga. He rocks it and class is sweet.

Monday
Read @michaeltaylor tweets this morning and he is down on us sweaters in the class. Look, I like to sweat. It feels good and feels like the right thing to do; I don't feel out of touch with my breath or practice, quite the contrary. So it's perfect for me, problem Mr.Harvard strala yogi man ?

Long ass day. Appreciate all the fitness inspiration stuff; helps get me to the gym after all that work, stress and problems.
In and feeling strong. Gym is packed:

10+10 16kg single arm swing x 3

Forearms feel a bit baked and don't know where that's coming from. Move to first circuit

Short cycle press:
5+5 20
4+4 24
3+3 28
1+1 32x2

Front squats twin 20s
20 24kg renegade rows
Suitcase deads, twin 32x 10
x3.
Best 28 presses ever, could have had fours easy and maybe fives, revisit Saturday. 32's going up smooth, maybe doubles.

30/30 20 swings alternate 28/24 x 10, or that was the plan. At 8 knew I was in big trouble re grip and stopped last set of 28 at 11. Waited 30 seconds and picked up 24 for last 20 but grip was shot, done gone and dusted. Stop and live to come back another day. 30 short of 200 sucks but not as bad as hurting myself or someone else in the crowded gym.

Tuesday
Planned down day. Deja vu meeting in San Rafael; weird.

Wednesday
Force it up for 1:00 Pradeep. Extended side series from chair to prayer twist to side angle to warrior two to brief relief in triangle has quads screaming; breathe through it. Side plank with top leg up really strong, laid out at the end. Dinner, 9:35 boat, and in lot picking up Ian at 11:00. Thrashed.

Thursday
Start at 6:30. 2:00 meeting stretches to 7:30, unplanned down day. Tired. Six hours of sleep and 13 hours of work billing at 425 per. Not proud, just shows client expectation. You don't meet, you are toast. Fried.

Wind leaves stuff and outdoor furniture all over back yard. Bay is flat and smooth and opt for last three songs on Blood On The Tracks. I need to double down today and do some kettlebells at noon and follow up with Pradeep happy hour. Pulls at noon, swings and tgu, cause it'll be plank push city with Pradeep later.

Need good breakfast for all of that. Roll off boat and into Frog Hollow with packed lit bag and binder full of trouble. (lawyer joke) They're cranking Little Feat, Lowell George's raw slide echoing out over the concrete on Time Lives A Hero. Thanks, I'll eat the oatmeal here but ya'll really need to get bacon on the menu . . .

Bail at 12:30 for a tight 45 minutes

20 28kg swings to 1 tgu
x 10
Back for a productive two hours, then back to gym for 90 minute Pradeep.
When it starts out in Savahsana we know it's gonna be a drencher. Come put and up to happy baby he jokes and says we'll be coming back here in 90 minutes, but in between, Strong.
Complete blowout, three side plank progressions, bunch of time in tree, extended warrior triangle reverse side angle variation progressions, crow, lizard, etc. 70 minutes in in plank there is just a running stream from my shirt; it's not even dripping sweat.
It feels so good, could feel this way forever.

Saturday
Get up feeling awesome, sit down for five hours writing brief. Ian comes out and gets me up on Burdell with Rose, good walk with some good elevation gain.

Rockport Sunday

2011-11-19T23:40:00.000-08:00

"Thanks for the joy that you're given me
I want you to know I believe in your song
Your rythym and rhyme and harmony
You've helped me along
Makin' me strong.
Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul
I want to get lost in your rock and roll
And drift away . . ."
Mentor Williams, Drift Away

Monday AM, liked JR's Facebook page last night so, after scanning the awesome @girlsgoneSTRONG photos and reading CT's wry and gentle post re Stanford loss from a Marina bar, enjoyed a morning commute listening to Tom Rush and scanning JR's work, answering the intermittent email and sketching out the course of the day. Rush going from No Regrets to Rockport Sunday in 1972 from the Lenox lounge. Rush is still touring and sounds great and is funny as hell to boot. Will never forget concert in 1976 with the unbelievably beautiful DD; she'd asked me to go, Rush opened for Kenny Rankin. Sixteen and terrified but relaxed after a couple of Rush tunes, at least enough to steal sideways glances at DD's lovely profile before youth and nerves cost any other opportunities.

Thanks Tom, you did your part:

Listen to more Tom Rush at Wolfgang's Vault.

Monday included 30 minutes on elliptical in am,
Then Pradeep, killer. Sweating too much next to model buddy.

Tuesday
Scramble all day. Late meeting with opposing counsel on a dog case. Let's settle the dog so we can really work together. Late to CT, could have rolled north much easier, fuck that let's do this instead:
20 28kg swings to descending 10-1 squat ladder, 24. Sweatfest, voodoo sandwich between swings and squats. Very fond of CT, she just rocks in her completely odd way.

Wednesday. Boatload of work; planned rest, you did it, yay !

Thursday
Another boatload of work day. Bail at 3:15 for haircut and illusory client meeting after. The client was a 28kg bell. I'd feel bad, except practice has stayed fully intact and grown quite nicely since I started this drill after the dog was dumped on me seven years ago. Practice intact, body transformed, nothing wrong with this picture:

10+10 x 3 single arm 16 warm up

15 spider pushups
5+5 28kg squat to press
10 + 10 28kg rows
10 20kg double snatch
20 28kg swings
x5

Pretty good; about 32,000 pounds in all.

Find a recent Rush show on NPR. Sounds great and closes with a sweet version of Drift Away. check it at 18:36. Rush is a really fine guitar player and the harmonics tossed in on the second verse are perfectly pitched
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=105517273&m=105374327

60 min mh yoga. Slow is hard; always.

Saturday
Get up, sit down and don't move until 5:30. DOMS at shoulders and triceps posterior chain. Actually feels pretty good. Squat to press and pushups and double snatch lingering. Rest day, planned only in the back of the mind, but probably the right thing to do . . .

McMurtry Is A Genius

2011-11-13T20:08:00.000-08:00

"Strap them kids in
Give 'em a little bit of vodka in a cherry coke
We're going to Oklahoma to the family reunion for the first time in years
It's up at uncle Slayton's cause he's getting on in years
You know he no longer travels but he's still pretty spry
He's not much on talking and he's just too mean to die
And they'll be comin' down from Kansas
and from west Arkansas
It'll be one great big old party like you never saw."
James McMurtry, Choctaw Bingo

Really; he is. @jasonisbell is touring with him and tweets a lot; recently my favorite line from Hurricane Party: "I don't want another drink I only want the last one again." We are headed to the holidays. Need to place family gatherings in proper perspective and James can help with that.

Good sub for Pradeep Friday. 90 minutes of only the second class of the week, it's strong.

Saturday
Long dog walk with two teenagers. Should have done bells but back not good so lay back.

Sunday
B and I head in for Ericka's class. B is totally pumped and rocks it out in his barryness way. It's 90 minutes and a really good class; he loves the one foot stuff and I love the weight of him in assisting, working to get him square; dropping the hip, turning the shoulder. Doing the scrub and shave thing after, Barry strutting about the @equinox locker room in his towel, drying the hair, rockin' the gel.

Monday
I am so fucking busy. Spend the day scrambling to close, to keep up, to catch up.
Bail to gym. Want to try @giryagirl's double workout. Have not eaten well, push:

10+10x3 16kg swing warm up.

30 seconds double kettlebell swings, 30 seconds rest
30 seconds double kettlebell clean and press, 30 seconds rest
30 seconds push ups, 30 seconds rest
30 seconds renegade rows, 30 seconds rest
30 seconds double kettlebell front squats, 30 seconds rest
30 seconds double kettlebell snatches*, 30 seconds rest
30 seconds L-sit (using handles of kettlebells), 30 seconds rest

20's except for clean and press and rows, up to 24's. Want to do 4; front squats drop to 3. Planks. 45 rkc front, same sides x 2.

Home to dog farts and coconut curry.

Tuesday
Nothing but work

Wednesday
Bad back last two days. Head to mh 5:15 and realize my hamstrings are so tight it's nuts. We do an hour of hamstring work and walk out a new person.

Barry, Robert Plant and I are fan photo of the day on HSB. By end of it we have 100 likes and some nice comments. Robert is fucking awesome; Choctaw Bingo is epic and I roll off the boat while James sings and I fantasize about RuthAnn and Lynn. No one should know anything about the mind of a man wearing earbuds and listening to James McMurtry.

Thursday
Another off day. Hamstring releases helped but back still hinky. Day of rolling disappointments, no EH at noon, want to get to CT for like the first time in two months at 6:45 but no, work and conference calls until 7:00; fucking race to the ferry to listen to Just Us Kids and We Can't Make It Here and home where I go upstairs immediately because I don't want to watch Close Encounters for the 47th time. Rose hops on the bed and I curse fucking Vista cause the sound is dead and I can't stream Freeway View and it really sucks. The @girlsgoneSTRONG crew are together in Baltimore and looking forward to awesomeness on social media; those ladies are seriously bad ass.

Friday
Back much better. Rose looks hopeful as I pull on the jeans but her hopes are dashed as I gotta roll out and be special master starting at at 8:45; fortunately the folks who've hired me won't see me at 8:45 in old turtleneck and ragged levis. Listen to Memorial Day, and then Choctaw Bingo once again . . .
Write off lunch kbells just to give back a little more time and opt for 38 minutes on elliptical. There is no cell service in the dungeon gym and listen to to Europe 72, hitting 180 strides per minute for some time as Jerry streams molten silver on I Know You Rider and the gang flies along like that northbound train in the song.
100 minutes of Pradeep starting at 5:00, which is the best way ever to end the week. He runs us through a plank series, 30 seconds on forearms and then up and hold it. lift one leg, then the other, then one arm, other, and finishes it off with bird dog in plank. CT has helped here and I lock down the lats and delts, draw in the tricep and its rock solid. Yeah I'm old but . . .

Saturday
Long dog walk, back tight. Leave it at that. Take Ian to BATS 25th anniversary and giggle with him.

Sunday
Football and plotting for major clean up next weekend. Go out at half:

10+10 16kg one arm swings x 3

1-5+1-5 press ladder, 24kg
10 24kg goblet squats
5+5 36kg rows to same, 32
5-1+5-1 25kg single arm swing ladder
X 5

Nice circuit, 75 each side, more than 28k in volume in about 40 minutes.

"Bought a SKS rifle and a couple a full cases of that steel core ammo
With the berdan primers from some East bloc nation that no longer needs 'em
And a Desert Eagle that's one great big ol' pistol
I mean .50 caliber made by badass Hebrews
And some surplus tracers for that old BAR of Slayton's
Soon as it gets dark we're gonna have us a time "

I guess that's the way you write when Dad is a Pulitzer prize winner; Ian's pretty good anyway . . .

Play It As It Lays

2011-11-03T22:03:00.000-07:00

"You have to pick the places you don't walk away from."
Joan Didion

I have not always picked well; need to work on that . . .

Monday
Lunch with Lauren S who is smart and quick and starting out well. Busy busy busy from the minute I sit down at 8:30 and it's brutal. Not feeling it; feeling shitty in fact. Come within a hairs width of bagging it. Heading to gym-actually turned away and headed east, forced the turn around. You are strong, you are beautiful, give it a go.
And so goes like:
10+10 x 5 16kg warm-up
To:
10 alternating 24kg press to 5 doubles
15+15 Bulgarian split squats, body weight
10 reverse pullups off of Smith machine
Suitcase deads with bar, 170lbs
x5

That was a boatload of volume for feeling shitty; back did not feel like ballistics but the deads felt really good.
Was about 35,000 pounds moved in an hour which is quite a bit for an old guy. Felt the split squats for two days.

IST put up his pictures last night. Threw everything up there good or bad. He has far to go with his camera technique but got some awesome shots; technique kinda drops away when an African Elephant is filling the frame.

He has seen much in his 18 years. He has been on boats surrounded by hundreds of dolphins around. He has seen Rissos, northern right whale dolphins and Dahl's porpoises in numbers. He has seen bottle nose from the beach and from a boat. He has seen Orcas, Humpbacks and Blue Whales in large concentrations.

He often said he hated those trips but then chose to go halfway across the globe to count primates, see elephants, wildebeest, cape buffalo, zebra, impala, dik dik, ostrich, lion, baboons and what else I don't want to think about in the streets of Mombasa.

He is interested in travels and that he is fortunate to have family that will support him. Nothing about such interest strikes me as remarkable, but others seem to think it is.

Much better by Tuesday am but long day with loan docs and more office bullshit kills any thought of late yoga and it becomes an off day by default. I hate and resent those but I should probably grow up.

Wednesday
Wasted time dealing with client past. Leave late to blow off steam with @giryagirl Monday Mayhem circuit on Wednesday. Great ballistics and fun like this:
10+10 x 3 single arm swing 16kg warmup, then

15 double swings, 20kg's
5 clean and press, twin 24
5+5 renegade rows 24kg to 5 push ups
5 front squats, twin 20
3x

3 tgu, 24

10+10 tactical lunge, 20 kg
10 20kg slingshots
10 24kg figure 8 to hold
20 28 KG swings
x3

The 28 has been the tgu bell for a bit now and the 24 felt like a toy. I can remember when it was shaky. Pretty happy with the double 20 swings, felt good and yeah with the big sport bells the doubles look badass. But lost the grip on the 24 figure 8's last circuit and nearly crushed the phone. Good times, good sweat.

Walk in the door and house exploding with the smell of roast chicken and thyme. Brigid is home and on a mission and in addition to the roast bird and veggies and stuffing it's homemade apple pie (all organic). B sits down to his full plate and smiles; his eyebrows go up: "ok ! Yummy."
Could not love it more.

Thursday
Morning brings email streams starting at 6:50 with Gillian and Dave's Newport set streaming as we skim across the flat bay returning again to concrete, steel and problems. Back ok after last evenings 88lb swings.
Sit down at 8:30 after straight calls since walking off the boat and do not look up until 1:15 when it occurs to me that if I don't eat I'm toast. Grab spider roll and silk swathed korean beauty buddy slips freebees in the to go bag and smiles broadly. Whatever the impulse I'll take it and dash back.
Force it up and head to EH. Chatting beforehand she'd heard about Pradeep's stunning class Friday; her 5:00 is mostly middle aged men like me and it's dialed back appropriately.
Just breathe, can be the hardest part and without it the rest is shit. Oh yeah, whatever it is it's perfect. I forgot.

Friday
Deja Vu breakfast with mf.
In for multiple serial calls with one insane and one crazed client.
Split to 5:00 Pradeep; it's so so great, roll out toasted and drenched down market in vff past occupysf and skim back to suburbs.

Saturday
Walk the dog with Brigid and watch her chase lizards. Brigid, not dog.
I gotta get three and Cal sucks so out back for;
15/15 7 rep pace with 16kg x 60.
Boils down to 30 min of speed snatch work. Been pimping @girlsgoneStrong in cyberspace and the awesome @kathrynbudig replied; seven rep pace too comfortable, time to escalate.

Sunday
On phone by 6:00 with clients on Mumbai. My day is quickly fucked and I am fried by 12:00 pst. Rest day.

Monday
Halloween. Flying from 7:00 am to 4:00. Get up and leave. Hah. Steal into gym for 45 for this 28kg fest:
10+10x3 16 KG warmup

20 and 24 KG warmup press sets, to keep shoulder happy, then

3+3 28 short cycle c&p
10 28 GS
10+10 28 KG rows
5-1 28kg single arm swing ladder
28kg tgu
X5.
Tear two way too high callouses on left hand on first set of swings; get through.

Trick or Treat with b, love it so.

Tuesday. Wake up to 18 emails, fuck me.
MH at 5:00, good.

Wednesday
Spend the day bringing it. Plan on late pm blowout, the plan is set. Leave Oakland meeting at 3:45 and head to gym. Sitting on steps in the sun, productive calls and emails. But then incoming oh fuck.
My achilles heel is that I give a shit, I do. When someone deploys the nuclear option, I care about the fallout. So sitting there on the steps in the sun the oh fuck holds the narrative hostage. Its chemical, I wish it was not so. I would like to compartmentalize. But cortisol kicks in and I'm getting freaked out calls from another time zone. Bag it, cost of wearing heart on sleeve. Play it as it lays.

Thursday
Another nutso start. Break away at lunch:

10+10x 3 16kg single arm swing warm-up

Burpees to 3 push-up to twin 32 suitcase deads x 5
10+10 step back lunge, 24 in rack
10+10 32 kg rows
10 squat to press, 90lb barbell
x3

Smoked after 35 minutes, want to do snatch work

15 + 15 swing to snatch combo, 24kg
set off to do 25+25 with 20, but hit wall at 15. You're done dude, should have eaten at 10:00.

Sleeve is a good place to wear it. Wow.
http://jr-art.net/

Pure and Golden

2011-10-23T16:41:00.000-07:00

"Hard times ain't gonna rule my mind . . ."
Gillian Welch

Tuesday, nutty day. Grinding all day and spill out onto the sidewalk at 5:40, could so easily skip. But head north and west instead of north and east for gym time. It's packed and I don't want to miss 7:20 boat so this'll be short:

Double clean & press
5x20
4x24
3x28
1x32x2

20+20 step back lunges, bodyweight

10 20kg figure 8 to hold, to 10 24kg figure 8 to hold.

10 front squats, twin 20.
3x through, that's all. Heavy presses not very good.

Wednesday
More nutty but bail for noon Pradeep. Weighing in at four pounds heavier than usual but don't really feel it, who knows. Smoking class.
Joy gets sucked out of that very fast back in office and it's back to grinding well into the evening. The to do list is growing longer and longer while accounts shrink smaller and smaller and feel like a rat on a wheel. Cooking dinner and returning emails while the dog looks on longingly.

Thursday
Long long day
In late for:
10+10 x 3 16kg single arm swing warm up.
Burpees to 3 pushups to twin 32 suitcase deads x 5
10 double snatches, 16kg
5+5 slsx2, 16kgbu second round
20 renegade rows, 24kg
X3
Double snatches fun and 16 light so bump to 20 last set;

10 double 20 swing/snatch to 28kg tgu
X5
Fun.

Friday
Streaming Gillian and Dave on way in; feels like fall.
Long unproductive day; I do not do lunch well, particularly when gotta drive to walnut creek for it. Back just long enough to screw around, then to 5:00 Pradeep.
Toughest yoga class I've ever done. Boat load of plank variations and core work as well as one foot work, yes my favorite. He knows and gives me the big fist bump in hte locker room, smiling broadly.

Saturday
Planned rest day; walk with Ian in the Marsh, dinner at Anne's and watch him smile.

Sunday
Up at 6:30 to get Amy into sf. Drop her at ucsf and spend an hour before 9:30 class with feet up the wall. It's Alley and she is pretty good and its a fairly tough class for her which is fine; full blown sweatfest, then back up, another dog walk with Ian. That's all and was enough, iron tomorrow.

Back

2011-10-17T22:17:00.000-07:00

“Bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from God.”
Kurt Vonnegut

No more Interrupted, back to this
Saturday:
10+10 x 5 16kg single arm swing warm-up

short cycle 24kg press 1-5+1-5 press ladder
suitcase deads, 10 32/36
figure 8 to hold, 10 20kg to 10 24kg
clean and hold five count, 5+5 36kg
x5
Buckley training,
40+40 16kg snatch
15+15 swing/snatch drill, 24kg
2 16kg insertion drill

Sunday:
Dog walk. 10/9, her seventh birthday. We both are at least middle aged. Good. Brigid threw the old ball she'd found way out and it sank, leading to one very confused labrador.

Monday
3+3 x 10 16kg single arm swing
20 28kg swings to 1 28 kg TGU x 10

GS snatch, 50 + 50 16kg in five minutes. Pretty shaky. Supposed to do 22 insertion drill with the 24, but sapped due to the TGU's. Later.

Excellent texts from IST on safari seeing ostrich, lions, and elephants. Oh my. Really nice guy running the trip. Super responsive and IST is clearly having a ball.

Tuesday
Brutal day, followed by 60 min mh stiff guy. Run in late and kill it. Good class, all hips.

Wednesday
In late for not much
8+8 28kg floor press to 10 push-ups
10 double 20 kg front squats
10+10 28kg rows
10 steps ups on to low box, 24 in rack
3x. No time for more.

Thursday, EH class, good.

Friday, LPS retreat, nothing
Saturday
Run around planning for IST return. Rebuild his bed. Shop. No exercise.

We are late to airport but not very and he looks like himself except fitter and darker. Hair is longer and more of it, which I would have thought impossible. Fun to listen to him talk and go off on baboons. Brigid does an awesome job on dinner which is ready to go when we get home and he sits down and starts slamming ham.

Sunday
Up to watch football and reconnect. We go on a long dog walk and I toss up softballs and he spits it out. He has a very good eye and describes the intersection of wildlife, tourism, and poverty. He is funny and shy and worried about his future. He has made many friends and learned how to handle himself in foreign places. He is missed. I listen and am struck by how little I can do at this point. He needs to figure out what he wants to do and do it.
It's late, go out for:
10+10 x 3 16kg swing warmup

20 push-ups, one foot up, switch at 10.
10 suitcase deads, 32/36
Rows, 5+5 36 to 5+5 32. One way to make a 32kg feel light: pull a 36kg beforehand.
10 24kg Goblet Squats
3x
Want to do heavy swings but nasty tear at base of right hand little finger and cut on index figure screw up grip. It'd be ok on the 24 and probably the 32, but the 36 allows for no hinky grip stuff and I shut that down after 20.
50+50 16kg gs snatches, 4:45.
Do about half the insertion drills I'm supposed to with the 24, can't complete more than 12 on each side, though JWB wants 22

Monday
Pradeep class, really smoking. Have missed him and the drenching 60 minutes that ensues. Getting better, right hand firmly outside left foot in reverse triangle, other side better.

Gonna take me up to the Spirit In The Sky . . .

Training Interrupted . . .

2011-10-08T13:08:00.000-07:00

"Music can change the world because it can change people."
Bono

The best weekend of the year for the past decade has been the first weekend in October when Warren Hellman's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass takes over GGP, surrounding environs snd the aural narrative. We become gluttons, cannot get enough of the banquet though it's far too large to be consumed in its entirety.

This year it was full day Friday. Took day off, into SF at 4:14 a.m. Drop tarp at Banjo, looking forward to Seldom Scene et al. Parking spot at 26th and Fulton, curl up in van and sleep for three hours. Take the 5 Fulton downtown. Transfer to Civic Center underground. At Ferry Plaza by 8:40 to catch 9:10 boat back to Larkspur to pick up B.

Incoming text from IST 10,000 miles away needing cash. Cannot get on internet for 15 minutes for transfer cause Peets network is fucked up. Worried immediately, thoughts of middle manchild getting roughed up in an alley in Shimoni (which is all alleys) cause he can't pay his bar bill. This is silly, but not at the banquet yet.

Snarky useless telephone calls on way up. Collect B and head back. He is all smiles as he will be all weekend. This is his favorite thing ever, and his face is pressed up against glass, watching the bay slide by.

Back to FP and now had too much coffee. We are back by 10:15, but need to get Ian his dollars and deal with client needs. Spend the next two hours messing with a completely fucked up Bank website and protecting my staff from a mentally disturbed client. We miss Seldom Scene completely, but catch most of Bromberg.

In the Fall of 1977 I started what would devolve into a three year stint at Humboldt State University before transferring to the University of California at Berkeley, the finest public education institution in the country; superior to many many private institutions but particulalry the one in Palo Alto. I am pretty proud of the academic success that would eventually unfold, but in 1977 the ability to sneak into the scorekeeper's box in the HSU gym was the extent of my academic prowess. From there I saw what remains one of the best shows I have ever seen, the David Bromberg Band blowing it out. From rags to reels to pure art pieces like Lower Left Hand Corner of The Night, Bromberg blew it out that night like nothing I'd heard.
Lower Left Hand remains one of the best Telecaster ballads ever.

David was on stage when B and I arrived by 1 plus. David has lost chops over the years, he just has. But B went apeshit over Will Not Be Your Fool, and far be it from me to deny the young man the angry man influence or at least amusement.

From there it was John Prine which means an hour of bawling; he does not tug at the hearstings, he moves in slow from the side puts up a mirror sets up a narrative and pretty you feel it in your spine. Hello in there, ya'll look Pretty Good. There is no finer American songwriter and he killed it.

John gave way to Robert Plant and Band of Joy. Elder statesman rock gods are frequently not what they once were, Robert is better. Don't know if he can scream all night like he used to (he let loose a few, glancing over at Patty Griffin and rolling his eyes), but he doesn't need to. His material is superior and the re-worked zep tunes awesome. Darryl Scott can play anything with strings and they roll in to Ramble On with Darryl pounding out the acoustic rythym and it's just nuts.

Saturday Anne and Brigid are coming and it's blue placard section. Only way can talk Anne into it; we set up for an all day stint at Rooster. Wronglers are great and then its british cult guy Robyn Hitchcock. The only very slight downer this day is that we gotta choose between Gillian Welch and Punch Brothers. We'd already decided on Punch after not missing Gillian ever. So Robyn calls out Abigail Washburn to play on his second tune and Gillian and Dave saunter in from stage left and hang out the rest of the set as the band. It's great.

From there its Guy Clark who cant remember the words to maybe a quarter of his tunes, which is amusing, but . . .

Patty Griffin comes out with Buddy Miller. They slam into her material and Lorraine just kills. I see Robert hanging out back stage and he sidles out and stands right in back of us. I collar B and approach, at first he shakes his head; sees B, kneels down and shakes his hand. His assistant offers to take a picture and we get it. Very nice of him, considering he must be beseiged.

They give way to Punch Brothers and it's all young men and pyrotechnics. There is no more progressive string ensemble in the folk/americana/bluegrass universe. Asked Anne what she thought: "a group of extraordinarily talented well-educated young men who have found their way in the world." Works.

We hang for half of Robert Earl Keen, Barry getting up and getting down to Dreadful Selfish Crime.

Sunday
That's two days with no exercise so B and I get in for 60 min youga with Alley Ramon at 9:30 to kick it off; good to sweat. Head back up for half of Laurie Lewis, then to Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussein and Edger Meyer. We are in the blue placard section in from of Banjo, eight feet from the stage. Bela et al are great but subtle and B's guys are gently dancing.

Subtle goes out the window with the Blind Boys of Alabama. Tight tight set:

Norman Greenbaum never sounded like this.

Have not hung at Banjo on a Sunday in four years. In recent times it's been Gandalf Murphy, OCMS, and the Avett's at either Rooster or Arrow, Arrow in particular has been great. But Emmylou's current band The Red Dirt Boy's is full of young and not quite so young gunslingers and their set from Newport has been streaming on NPR and it is something else. Was not going to miss it. So Ralph Stanley was before. Straight up bluegrass, had to get some in over the weekend. Not into the evangelical elvis grandson, but the band was good and it got B going.

Emmylou comes on. She'd be beautiful standing on a sidewalk in the pouring rain. She sings Kern River, she talks about stray dogs, writes loves songs to them and leads her band with a look; yeah, guys can't hang with her. So we listen in rapt adoration eight feet away while she sings those sad songs and makes skin crawl.

Big final number with the world on stage: Jim Lauderdale, Gillian and Dave, Steve Earle, Buddy, and the Band, et al. Warren Hellman in the middle where he belongs.

This is the best weekend of the year. We keep it with us, as with the blowouts on the mat, the walks with the dog, the iron in the hand. It makes us better all year just knowing it'll come around, and if it stopped tomorrow, we'd still be better for it forever. It's what art does.

Oh yeah, got two yoga classes and two good kettlebell workouts. Four days: training interrupted.

Monday. Glow gone immediately upon arising and see that client has once again in hospital with more bad bad stuff. Gotta build a buffer here, I know walking away from her would be devastating to her but this is becoming unhealthy. Get in Monday late for this:
short cycle clean and press:

5+5 20kg
4+4 24
3+3 28
1+1 x 2 32
10+10 step back lunge, 24kg in rack.
5+3 assisted pullups, 16lbs
5+5 sls x 2m 16kg in rack second through
x3

Nothing at end, no time.

Tuesday Wednesday. Brutal, difficult stuff. Training interrupted.
Thursday:
In late:
5 manmakers, three pushups, twin 32 on suitcase deads
10 + 10 stepback lunges, 60lb dumbells
10+10 rows, no bench, 65lb dumbbell
5+5 single leg dead GTG practice, 24kg
x3
GS Buckley training
5+5 16kg insertion drill
3 min snatches, 10+10 no breaks, 16
10+1- swing/snatch combo, 24 kg, no breaks
Insertion drill repeat.

I need to do some get ups.

Friday:
Text comes in from Ian at 5:46 am. Announcing he is making his way from city center in Mombasa to hostel. Another text at 8:30, he still has not gotten there, they have been lost for three hours. Ok, its four miles from City Center to the hostel. Immediately convinced he is about to be sold into white slavery. At 9:10, he announces he has arrived and Backpackers Nirvana Hostel. Pheww. He posts on facebook how awesome the place is great.
At noon receive an email from Backpackers Nirvana; he has not shown up. Shit. He is at some hostel, but quick google search reveals wide range of safety, one we are pretty sure is in has good reviews but multiple reports of robberies at knife point in from of it. Really bad for the head. I send him text and he gets on Facebook at 3 am his time. He still thinks he is where he is supposed to be. He figures it out and we figure it out, and by midday following he is where he should be after 20 hours: "enjoying it tremendously." That not resolved until really late and that plus full day of bad bad client drama has cortisol levels off the charts. Two kbell workouts and ONE yoga class, worst week for yoga in probably a year.

But over all that, hangs this:

He was an artist. Art can changes the world because it can change people. He made the world an better place not by spreading money around but by empowering people. So make art.

Bonfires . . .

2011-09-26T23:27:00.000-07:00

"Each little snail here
Know how to wail here
That’s why it’s hotter under the water
Ya' we in luck here
Down in the muck here under the sea"
Ashman/Menken, Under The Sea

Monday long good day and in for gentle EH at 5:30. Good class.

Tuesday
Email comes in from client 4:50 am; it is a six page suicide note in which I figure prominently as the savior. Estranged family members have already called pd. Get in car not knowing where to go. Pull over at ferry terminal numb, should not be driving. Have an opposition due Wednesday but will be in mediation all that day and I need to focus. Learn at 10:00 she is still alive and in hospital. Try to squeeze one week continuance. No dice. Day spent spinning, but got opposition out and and started to get mischief managed. Training out of the question. There are some really evil people in the world.

Wednesday
Good result at long mediation. Tired and fried but gotta go do something. It's late, so quick snatches
15/15 16kg seven rep pace x 60. It is hot, humid and sticky which leads to bad callous rip on right hand, very late in the training so can finish. Calls re family snarling as I'm pulling in, Brigid almost in tears. Do not take sides; just take care and do not really settle in until 9:15.

Thursday
Working from home cause B is sick which means dog gets good early morning walk. Busy, almost frantic day that does not calm down until, after 5:00, collect Brigid at 6:45 from cross-country meet, she'd done very well, fourth on her team, quite good for someone who has been doing this for three weeks. Ongoing re distressed client. Talk to family law counsel who confirms serious evil. Back myself off the ledge and start getting focused; plan starts to emerge and this can start to be dealt with. Nothing but the dog walk.

Friday
Calls starting up early but break for good but ridiculously expensive breakfast. Pretty light day which is fine. I need it. 4:30 Pradeep and stay for additional 50 min of 5:30 class. He is running it slow but really hard and drenched at end. Leave to catch 7:20 to pick Brigid up from parkour.
She is not there. Texts and voicemails reveal a very distressed Brigid fighting with her mom, pretty ,uch constant from Tuesday. She is at friend's house, post yoga glow evaporates. Go home, collect her, and take her down to grandma's. C explains how she feels and she is right in a few respects but way off imho on others. Rose senses unhappiness and tries to curl up in my lap, 80 pounds of Labrador love.

Saturday
Up early to pick up Brigid and get her to school for tech. Pick her up from tech at 1:00 and try to glue her together. She is very clear, not interested in gray areas. Shop: costco, blockbuster (for Bridesmaids), wf, and TJ's. Four stops in 150 minutes, get home and jam in dog walk. Emotionally spent, do not skip.
Find @giryagirl double complex for inspiration:

60 16 kg swing warmup
10 double 20kg swings
5 double 20kg clean to press
5 double 20 front squats
5+5 20kg snatch
x4. Gotta rest between presses and squats, sorry Adrienne.

3+3-1+1 sls, 16 kg. Cause I can't do a pistol.

5 renegade rows, 1 pushup 20kg
10 36kg swings/10 32kg
x5
Watch Bridesmaids, tense.

Sunday
Yoga with B squared, 90 min. EH rocks.
Good Thai and office for 90 min. Up for kbells with CT, Brigid and Barry thick as thieves.

Peel off for Sing along Little Mermaid. Best fun ever. Folsom Street fair has dumped into Castro. Disney on the inside and leather out. Big big fun; Barry and Brigid ecstatic and there so am moi.

Monday. Rest day. Just do it. Pounding Pradeep Friday, doubles workout Sat, yoga and kettlebells Sunday. Yeah, just do it. Just figure out how you'll testify at the competency hearing tomorrow for your client who tried to off herself a week ago, with all the rest of it in tow.

Down in the muck here, but it's my muck.

Out In the Woods

2011-09-18T22:42:00.000-07:00

"Can't tell the bad from the good, I'm out in the woods."
Leon Russell, from Carney

Monday. Planned rest day and frankly needed after heavy work sat and 90 min with B Sunday.

Tuesday
Up and there are a bunch of shots from Ian's group and he looks good, a bit off to the side and aloof but good.
Up to CT for late goodness and it's a boatload of push press work topped off with 60 swings straight at end and gassed. Ooze out into the night and pick up Patxi's for the masses.

Wednesday
Busier and busier as the day goes on and just can't get to it.

Thursday
Noon yoga, client meeting and 60 min with JWB. He has me swinging the 32 for warm up and I should have called foul. I need at least 60 with the 16 to get it going, 100 is better. After a couple of rounds of full wheel earlier and then sitting for three hours and up again; it ain't good. I stop bell work after 40 and watch and listen to John talk finer points which is quite good.

Friday
Sit down at 9:16 and do not stop talking on the phone until 12:35. Constant barrage but staying up. Bolt to Sushi It's Ok. Comment on the morning to the beautiful Korean woman who smiles a lot and she brings me salad, miso and smiles and a warm press gratis. She is dressed in silk, smells awesome and disappears with a faint rustle. Finish out the day pretty damn well. I'll be working all weekend anyway so bolt to 4:30 Pradeep. He starts off real slow. It stays slow but gets harder and harder JB is in back of me and can't help but notice those shoulders in downward canine. She looks like she weighs nothing standing up but in that position she looks like a linebacker.
Gonna be a long, hard, busy weekend.

Take the 7:20 and pick up Brigid who is at Parkour. She is having a ball. At least two of my kids are exactly where they should be, and those are two very different places.

Saturday
Short dog walk, and four hours of shopping with Brigid. Long day, want to get bells in but no way.

Sunday
Client meeting at 2:00 that I know will be rough. Too late for yoga but it needs to be iron anyway.

60 16kg swing warmup
Long cycle double press
5 20
4 24
3 28
1+1 32x2
10 front squats, double 20
8 assisted pull-ups, 16 lb
20 tactical lunges 20kg
x3
20 28 kg swings to oly bar tgu
x5
100 24 kg swings

Brutal client meeting.

Hustler's all around me.

Listen to more Leon Russell at Wolfgang's Vault.

9/11

2011-09-11T17:59:00.000-07:00

"It's beefsteak when I'm working, whiskey when I'm dry, and sweet heaven when I die."
Gillian Welch, Tennessee

Yeah, it's a great shot, Brigid and IST in the foreground, big sand in back . . . they were smaller then but'd make no difference now . . .

Sunday
Up late texting IST. Morning arrives with screwdriver through the skull type headache. Snooze and burn away most of the day. Force it in for Sunday with ct. Its just two of us so she has us on reformer and some good reverse pushups on the tables. Not too much kettlebell work which is great given my state. There are times at my advanced age when I do not need that compressed sphere of iron fighting me; they don't last long.

Monday
Into office and up for 90 minutes with Pradeep. Drenching hard hard class leaves me feeling seriously strong, just focus on breath, what it feels like, and bring it. As usual, 90 stretches to 105, but there is nothing better for you to do. Very hard, very strong, all good.

Tuesday
In early for Buckley type work. Run through multiple-level swings, insertion drills, cleans, 9/9 swing snatch combo with 24kg, 30/30 snatch drills three minute straight. 40 minutes of focused work.
Pm. MH stiff guy class, 60 minutes on hamstrings. Yup, there they are.

Wednesday
Working from home cause B's iep is at 2.
Leave at 7:30 for marsh walk, dog cannot believe her good fortune. It's as beautiful in the marsh as a place can be; deer in that cattails and birds everywhere; geese, ducks, multiple species of egrets and herons, white pelicans. Whole scene just unfolds it is quiet and could stay here for a long time.
There is mischief to be managed though. Work and then go for B's iep where receive the incredible good news that he has two years left rather than 1. Joy. That is it.

Thursday
Good billing day and in for training late. Goes like:
10+10 x 3 16kg swing warm up
10 spider pushups
10+10 24kg snatches
2 24kg tgu
24, 28, 32 swing hill, ten reps each.
x5
Good training.

Friday
Rare noon mh class. Good, hard, lay it down.

Saturday
Wake up to IST texts from the jungle. He is himself, what did you expect ? Busy day but not gonna skip and late head out for this:

100 16kg swing warm up
Presses
5+5 20-1+1 x 2 32. Hard, better as it went by, but hard.
3+3 36kg push press. Not too bad but that is one heavy fucking bell.
10 deads, 32/36 doubles
8+8 32kg rows
10 24kg gs
x3
thinking swings, but Buckley series seems more civilized and its hot, so 9 + 9 swing to snatch 24kg,
then 30/30 16kg snatch, 60 in 2:45 x 2.

Sunday, 90 minutes EH class with B. Yes.

Gray areas

2011-09-03T22:22:00.000-07:00

"There ain't no time, for lengthy speeches . . . "
Rodney Crowell, Leaving Louisiana

"Are we strangers now, like the Ziegfield gals, and the vaudville shows, are we strangers now, like rock n' roll, and radio . . . "
Ray LaMontagne, Rock n' Roll and Radio.

And there ain't nothing like morning sun on peaches . . .

8/29, turn 52. Go for nothing less than 52 workout
After swing warm up.
52 pushups
52 24kg gs
156 24kg military press
52 swings each, 24, 28, 32
Smoked, delightfully so.

Older folk can still do work. Make it so; make it so . . .

pm, good easy class with Alley Ramon. Taught me to shoot to plank from crow, good day for an old dog to learn a new trick.

8/30
Up to CT for dense 40 minutes
5-1 swing ladder, single snatch each rung, 28 first two then 24.
8 deck squats
6 double snatches, 16's.
6x

8/31
Good hard slow MH class

9/1
JWB session. Good work. 32kg swings. insertion drills. cleans. swing/snatch drill with 24, and then 30x2 twice with 16. Good workout.

9/2
100 minutes of Pradeep late. Very very very hard. Pretty damn strong.

9/3 get around, run around. Barbque ribs and dinner at Anne's, sitting on the deck. IST text comes in.

Thank you for being there; thank you for writing home . . .

Thank you for being here; thank you for coming home

2011-08-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

"Who do you do it for ?"
PT

Launch IST into the jet stream. Long haired blonde off to points way off the beaten track.

Sunday

Rockin 90 minutes with B. EH stops and assists him, she is wading in. Very lucky to have her. Equinox is the best gym; I love those people. We get the big smiles and waved in each Sunday, never a charge for B. All levels of management are stoked to have him there. Nothing but good.

Into the office the up to CT. Dense 60 minutes and more ab work and I'm smoked.

IST planning Monday. In to pick up currency, 1:00 Pradeep class.

Best yoga class I've ever taken. Felt beastly strong, perfect pace (hard) and music rocked it. He knew it too, out later he clasps my hand, we were both sooo pumped. Uplifting energizing experience.
Tuesday, prepping Ian.
Drop him off at airport. He is snarly and terrified. Hands are shaking at checkout and starts the wrong way up people mover. Monitor his gate changes throughout night. He is on his 13 hour flight to Addis Ababa by 7:45am pst.
Wednesday, go in to work and workout, thrashed from little sleep. Decent billing day, but never get to train. Too busy and honestly too fried. I try to not look at IST's flight on FlightTrack every five minutes, not much luck there.

Texts from IST at 10:00. He is in Ethiopia. Can't believe he is so far away. Texts at 3:40 am, problem at Kenya customs, needs hard copy of itinerary. Hah. Offer to email to whoever, hear nothing for 20 min, during which I am convinced it's Midnight Express.
He texts that he is on his way, meets driver and at Reef Hotel in Mombasa. A few incoherent messages, and he sleeps for 16 hours.

Thursday
Into office. Tired, fried and cranky. No training for two days and bizarre partner meeting. I really want to sleep, but can't go three days.
Knock out 15/15 16kg 7rep pace x 60.

Friday
Better. Incoming from IST, he is back among the living, high spirits and excited and posting on fb. Oh to be 18 again.
Running around, good client lunch, in for work late, race out to catch 90 min Pradeep. Beautiful class. So hard. At 80 minutes in we are winding down in seated spinal twist and it feels like time has stopped. There is nothing but his voice, low thrum of music and breath. Class stretches to 100 minutes and roll out drenched, shower and down market reborn.
Saturday, early firm picnic, nothing.
Sunday
Long slow dog walk. Want to throw metal, no time, it's Steve's 70th, Chuck and Steve's 40th year of being together, and third anniversary, they caught the window. Steve runs through his bio, the room is full of academics, politicos, judges, musicians. As eclectic group as one would find. Great event:

Pretty crappy week for training, two kettlebell classes, three yoga classes, and a do walk. S'ok. Few other things going on, make it up over next couple . . .

Launch Party

2011-08-20T23:59:00.000-07:00

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."

Mark Twain

I hope he is right. IST does not suffer from bigotry or prejudice. His narrow-mindedness is not borne of character flaws but lack of experience. He is about to get that in spades. He is about to get his mind blown. He flies off in four days to spend six weeks in a village in Kenya and trying not to come unglued. Dinner on Sunday and he is rude and unappreciative. Get that he is freaked out and nervous, but grow up. Come down on him hard all week and by Thursday he is getting it.

Sunday
Good class with EH and B, B rocking it. He shows no fear in launching into one-legged poses; I have to scoot over and assist before he craters. He has started hopping up from downward dog - he scoots his stubby feet up a foot or so. He was not done by the end of class and while everyone was rolling up and out, he was back in the corner practicing triangle. EH was cracking up - he is a heart breaker.

Fairly spectacular success Monday to settle RA's two year nightmare. Spent two years setting the table. Countless hours on the phone and six figures in fees all culminating in a meeting on the 48th floor of a LA office tower. Three on our side, three on theirs and in three hours we are done. Feels so good to be me. 90 miles an hour to Santa Ana and holding on for dear life, slam the first Big Mac in five years standing up in the John Wayne Airport, can't get out of So Cal fast enough. Back by 5:00, get into the gym and do this:
Short cycle clean and press:
5+5 20
4+4 24
3+3 28
1+1 x 2 32
Step back lunges 10+10, 50lb barbell
Renegade row 10+10 24kg
Suitcase deads, twin 32
3x through

Am baked from early start and long day, shut it down there.

Tuesday
Spend chunk of day making IST arrangements. Thinking too fried for anything, but force up to CT for tight hard ladder circuits:

1+1 to 3+3 press, 28
1-3 goblet squat
6+6 snatches 20kg
8+8 single arm swings, 20k
x3
5-1 descending snatch ladder, 20kg

A lot of work in 30 minutes; pleased that the presses went up easy, less so that the snatch swings left me so gassed. Running low on time and cutting out elliptical has hurt conditioning.

Wednesday
Insane telephone calls leave me exasperated with client whose fat I'd just pulled out of the fire. Some people just can't stay out of it. Leave to go to rare mid-day class with Pradeep and deal with currency exchange. It's 1:00 on Wednesday and class is packed and he brings the hammer down. Hang with though come up a bit short on full wheel at the end, his five breath holds are more like fifteen and drop down early which almost never happens, but oh well. GREAT class

Thursday
Still coming down down down from Monday. Get stuff out long overdue. Felt good and did not need to be rest day. Get out and do this:
100 single arm swing 16kg warm up
10 alternating 24kg press to 5 24 doubles
10 twin 20 front squats
12 120lb lat pulls, to 5 140; I can really isolate so its not a waste of time, arms are secondary.
10 20kg figure 8 to hold to 10 24
3x
5-1 single arm 24kg swing ladder to 28kg tgu x 5
Followed by awesome dinner with awesome company.

Friday
Can't get enough of Ferry Plaza and stop for Frog Hollow breakfast.
Skip out for 4:30 Pradeep, kill it.

Saturday
Final shopping for IST. Drop the last 300.00 and lay it out on the floor. He is traveling very light; that is good. Anti-malarials and a good water supply. Binoculars, camera, and VFF. Mosquito netting and a good hat. Money belt, and extra copies. Bug juice and sunscreen. Rock & Roll, and Radio.

Be Loving You Long Time

2011-08-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

"We can share what we've got of yours 'cause we done shared all of mine."
Jack Straw, Robert Hunter

Hunter's Notes, love the internet

Or as we have said fondly of more than one client: "what's mine is mine and what's your's is negotiable . . ."
Scrap the bulk of last week. Too much stress borne of being angry at people not pulling their weight. Under-performers who take a week off and not think about the bottom line. Could not walk into the woods with darling daughter without knowing we are going to be ok. Worry over disappointing her and draws and work creates a noxious chemical stew resulting in completely fucked up the yoga practice, some of the worst classes in years. MH looks a bit shocked when I can barely stand on one foot. Nothing good about this. I tried, kept up the gym routine but cortisol means crappy like Christmas means carnage. That's a Babe reference, duck to the pig you know.

STFU. You think you got something to complain about ? Read Mo Tancharoen's blog and get a grip. http://itssonotsexy.tumblr.com/post/8760928353/four#notes You are 51 (very soon 52), and pretty beastly healthy. Just stop it.

Friday
Pradeep sub, slow easy class and that's fine.

Saturday
Running all over with all three, Brigid buys BMX bike of her dreams and we shop and walk the dog who comes up very gimpy.
About 6:00 go out for this:
10+10x5, 16kg single arm swings
20 total alternating press, 20 KG, to 3 doubles
3+3 24kg
1+1 32
cleans and hold 36 for 10

10 suitcase deads, 32/36
8+8 32kg rows
10 front squats, twin 20's
x3. Fail on the 32 press right second set, both sides third. Worst 32 press sessions in a very long time, and I don't know if the high reps with the 20's just had me laggard or if I am in a downward spiral or what. Pressing the 36 feels far far away.
30/30 24kg swings, 20 rep pace x 10.

Sunday. In to pick up work and 90 min EH. Lazy ass do not bring B and its a big mistake. Miss him terribly. Drenched. Home to five hours of work. C is listening to Dr. Horrible, The Commentary, and there is Mo's clear voice singing Nobody's Asian In The Movies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNmzegQUtFA and then to Joss' brilliant number. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VffJKKp2BrU Makes me grin and reflect on what matters, what Mo is putting out there and stop feeling angry and sorry for myself.

Monday. Have told myself its 3 on and 1 off to keep from getting too jacked up so this is off day.

Tuesday. Late throwdown for 60 with Buckley, his training is catching up with his writing ("I thought, if I could write a tight sonnet and bench press a Buick, some day some girl just might take her top off for me.") We do an hour of drills. This is not a workout. This is Zen and The Art of Kettlebells. Between this, CT's fine micro movement instruction, yoga, and my own beast sessions, I may have stumbled upon the perfect combo for this time. Walking out from the studio to the ferry, some really beautiful woman stopped me, called me sweetie, asked for directions and started chatting me up. Maybe it was the gun show and the VFF; at my age and status we take what we can get and still with adolescent delight. 52 going on 12.

Wednesday

Its late and fried from seven hours with interruptions every ten minutes from one client. He chops up my day like a seventh grader dissecting an earth worm and slowly becoming so fucked. Get one of the four agreements backed up on out after sending an email instructing him that he has to leave me alone for an hour. By 6:30 it's either me or him and I choose me and get into the gym to see if my press really has deteriorated as far as it seemed to have last Sat. Goes like:

10+10 16kg one arm swings x 3
Long cycle double C & P
5 20
4 24
3 28
1+1 x 2 32 singles
10 24kg Goblet squats
8 pull ups, 16 lb assist
10 front squats, twin 20's
3x
30/30 24kg swings, 20 reps x 10.
Presses just fine, very good in fact.

Thursday
Just nuts. Get in really early for some fooling around work. GS insertion drill, snatch motion practice, upstairs for inversions. Dan John two minute plank drill. There's a 25' rope tied to a 40kg bell and do quick Tabata circuit, 20 sec on 10 sec off x 8 with rope and high step drills. Very good 24kg bu presses and double clean and hold. Disneyland.

Late EH yoga, more than usual planks, good good class.

Friday
Looking forward to Pradeep all day, no sign of sub online but walk in and it is my least favorite can't chant white boy sub. No. Impromptu circuit training session:

100 16kg single arm swing warm-up
20 decline push-ups, one foot up, switch at 10.
20 20kg tactical lunges
10+10 28kg rows
5+5 sls x 2, 16kg bu second time through
x3. Worst sls since I can remember. My balance is all fucked up and I can't hold the 16kg bu on the left at all third circuit. Shake it out and go to Coach Dos complex, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rs0zxwX9HM but lose the handle on the figure 8's, and cleans feel bad and just shut it down and hope to be better tomorrow.

Pariah Dogs

2011-08-01T23:36:00.000-07:00

"You can't have both feet on the ground and kick ass at the same time."
Bronco, street art

Wednesday
Slowish Week. Take 8:20 boat and it's full of Giant's fans getting an early start. Cheerful group; jealous. Leave for mh 5:15. Weeks since an mh class and I'd forgotten what a good teacher he is. He has us in boat about two minutes in and it's slow and hard from there.

Thursday
Get in late and do this:
10+10 x 2 16kg swing warm up
Press
10 alternating 24kg to 5 doubles
6+6 24kg sls
10+10 rows, 60lb dumbell
5+5sls to same with 16kg bu
3x
5-1 24kg single arm swing ladder to 1 28kg tgu x 7

Uh huh.

Friday
Pradeep. It's 12 minutes of slow to start which means the hammer will come down later and it does for 40 minutes. It does, smoked, done, dusted and gloriously wrung out. Come home to outstanding BBQ by darling daughter.

Saturday
Wracked up with three Kbell (really 4) workouts and three yoga classes in the week. Have heart set on pushing to 4 with ct on Marina green. I have all three kids and the dog and scatter them along the North waterfront to Marina Green. Its pretty cold and windy which is disorienting. The class is ok but double swings are rough. Body feels jacked up and weird and I know I've pushed it.

Sunday: This is going to be a back it way off week. Body is jacked up and I am stressed out.
Late short dog walk, nada mas

Monday
Molly Class, its not real hard but very informative as usual. She IS the best pure teacher, very specific as to how to get into and out of a pose and learn a lot.

Tuesday
In early for JWB throw down. These are not workouts but lessons and JWB's candor and humor are very very refreshing and he is a guy who can make me better. Appreciate it much.

Wednesday
@giryagirl Monday Mayhem circuit like this

15 double 16kg swings
5 double 24 clean and press
Renegade rows, 5 left, 5 pushups, 5 right, 24 kg
10 double 16 kg front squats
x3

24kg TGU x 3

10+10 tactical lunges, 20kg
5+5 around the world slingshots, 16 kg
5+5 figure eights, 24 kg
20 swings, 24kg
x3

Good and different, lighter (meaning fewer) on the swings than usual.

Thursday, nothing. Seething and furious after draw hold email. I've been pulling my weight. Others have not, and I am pissed. Its a familiar refrain.

Friday
In early for bu/headstand/GS snatch practice, back late for Pradeep, does not disappoint, hard class.

Saturday.
Nothing, take Brigid to parkour, throw the ball for goofy dog. All good.

Sunday
With the light week week before really strong 90 min with EH. Bring B and he rocks it out. Scaring the crap out of me with his reverse triangle. My side plank is just crazy strong and glide through three legged vinyasa even with right foot up which sometimes can be shaky. Not today.

Taken delivery of 36kg and I need to watch it. A few sets of push-presses and negatives, this is a fucking heavy bell. I can feel that this can be pressed, just take your time old man.

Monday
Receipts reports more annoying than expected. You are killing it. So why ?

There are times when the writing on the wall is so cool, so awesome. I am going to choose this.

And then the words:

And there are times when it is exactly as you saw it, before it went up. Being right does not mean you are smart. Thanks to Jabari and Amy P. for visuals. You make your world. Not cliche, directive. Make the wall your own, like that guy.

Monday, pissed blowout:

10+10 16kg single arm swings x 5 warm up

1-5+1-5 press ladder, 24kg, no breaks between rungs
5 burpees to double 32kg suitcase deads, to 5 double 32kg suitcase deads
10+10 28kg rows
10 24 kg goblet squats
x3

5-1 24 kg single arm swing ladder to 28kg get-up x 7

31,000 plus angry pounds in 75 min.

Ray and the Pariah Dogs at the Greek soon . . . http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129261520

I would like to turn feral. Small places with minimal baggage. Strong body and no yard. Tiny houses (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/07/25/110725fa_fact_wilkinson) connected by well worn paths to a large outdoor center, with kitchen, fire pit, places to sit. Kettlebells, yoga mats and wireless access. Decent speakers. Good conversation, or not. Lovely shapes and eyes.

Big wall to write on; make it so.

Counting Curtain Calls

2011-07-20T00:10:00.000-07:00

It's Not Fitness. It's Life.
Equinox PR Flack.

Good rap nonetheless.

Wednesday
Nothing. Work from home to deal with appliance delivery while I try to get out overdue discovery. By 4:00 chest is tight from juggling, not good. Kids spend too much time alone and they are howling for attention. Brigid gone by 6:30, off for a week, maybe. Turns out not so, thank god.

Thursday. Digging out. Run to catch late afternoon EH class. Pretty easy class feels good. One legged stuff crap; really not good at all and it feels chemical. Sigh; you can control how you react. Right.

Friday
In early to throw iron around:
10+10x5 16kg single arm swings
10 see-saw press 24s to 5 double press
10+10 step back lunge, 20 in rack
10 24kg crush curls
10 figure 8 to hold 20, to 10 24
X3

30/30 20 24kg swings x 10

Long day, good work. Arms smoked from press work and crush curls till noon. Pradeep late, hammer down. Long one foot series MUCH better.

Saturday.
Installing dishwasher + lawyer = at least potential code violations; functional fitness notwithstanding.

Sunday.
Rockin' 90 minute EH class with B. Grocery shopping; walk the dog, dive bombed by angry terns. If they only knew her, she is such a good dog. Aimed at moi ? Understood. I'd yell at me too.

Monday.
In early for iron,
10+10 single arm 16kg swings x 5
double mp
20k x 5
24 x 4
28 x 3
32 singles x 2
10 suitcase deads, twin 32
assisted pull-up, 5 then 3, 16lbs assist
10+10 step back lunges, 16kg vipr overhead
x3
No more time. Ok, snatch test.
10+10 x 5, 20kg, 4:48. Okay dokey. Done smoked and dusted.

Tuesday
Hang for an hour with JWB. Wears his heart on his sleeve; good place for it. I used to think he talked too much for training. Now he talks less and says more when he speaks. We should all aspire to same.
Good day; up to CT. Great 40 min, evil slow burpees to 15 +15 x 5 snatches, 7 rep 16kg to bu presses x 3. The 15 minutes of snatch work should be a walk in the park but after the snatch test day before and JWB not the cake walk one would think at 51, go easy on thyself. BU press have worked on; I don't want to be a show dog but also want work, so alternate between twin 16's and 20's. Feels really good. Fro yo with rene and ct; don't get out much, do you ? I love San Francisco.
Late Weeds with Brigid, smack.

Hurt me Ray:

Hot Fun In The Summer Time

2011-07-12T23:14:00.000-07:00

"End of the spring and here she comes back
Hi Hi Hi Hi there
Them summer days, those summer days
That's when I had most of my fun, back
high high high high there
Them summer days, those summer days."
Sly Stone, Hot Fun In The Summer Time,

Sing it:

Gotta let that one roll . . .

Sunday
Dog walk.
Monday
7/4. To fair with Amy Sara, Brigid, pat and B. B gets a henna spider and web on his arm and makes a beeline for the rides. Ball, all joy.

Tuesday
In early and headstands, frog stands and bu. Pretty good.
Evening, bail to run to buy the bitch her nutritionally optimized made from never-frozen boar, heirloom pork, venison dog food; Regional Red from Orijen. Ought to eat this shit for breakfast. She is worth every penny.
Meet ct and Matt and the black kettle bells look really cool scattered over the freshly cut green grass. Quick workout, nothing heavy.
It's so damn beautiful in Bay Area right now can hardly believe it.

Wednesday
Go in for headstands/bu, fuck this I want to move, so:
15/15 16kg seven rep pace, x 60. Sport bell handle good.

Late yoga. Really hard. Really good. Yah, let's hang out in high lunge and plank variations. Let's do that, just don't ask my big tight shoulders to cooperate on any binds. No ? Ok, now I suck. You're right, it is absolutely perfect. Roger, spot on.

Thursday
Yeah you might have sucked but felt better leaner and meaner Thursday am than in weeks.
Juggling three matters by 7:30 am, two of them new. Financial reports good for moi yesterday: keep it going. Push. Delegate. Don't piss anyone off.
Bust ass and leave for Yoga. Its a sub, and had iron on the mind anyway. Something not body-ripping but just move.
10+10x 3 16kg swings
Double 20kg press, ten alternating to 5 doubles
10 24kg goblet squats
10 24kg crush curls
10 20kg figure 8 to hold, 10 24kg
3x, except 24kg on last set of presses. Uh huh, know better now, with right warm up could have done all 3 with 24.
5-1 24kg single arm swings, to tgu x 5, last two set 28 on the tgu.
Probably the best single arm sets ever, thanks to ct's bone rhythm instruction a week earlier when it felt weird just to stand up. That plus Keira Newton videos, so clear no need to listen, just watch. Ferry back to cook for B, juggling two different matters, yes. Keep going. Pradeep tomorrow. Om Om Om.

Friday
Slow last week was not the harbinger of doom I have been firmly convinced is around the corner for the last 22 years. Good week for new stuff and end the week with more new good work in the door.
Run out as threatened at 4:15 for Pradeep. Great class with uber-core work in locust variations. He is so good at bringing the hammer down and backing off ever so slow. Hot fun.

Saturday
Six hours of housework. Remove old dishwasher. Shampoo carpets. Finally rejoining the living. Rose bored:

Sunday
With B in for yoga. We get spots in back corner; sub is JD who I like quite a bit. B puts in good practice flirting with two young women in front of us. Cute guy.

Monday
Long day with longer and calls as it progressed. Sucking the joy right outta me was last one where client was inebriated, finally dump the call on the gym steps. Feeling bronchial again and not great. But really want to push heavy shit overhead:
single arm 16 10+10 x 3
Double long cycle c & p
20x5
24x4
28x3
Single 32x2
Front squats double 20x10
Renegade rows
20 24kg
5+5 slsx2, second with 16kg bu
x3
5-1 24kg single arm swings to 28kg tgu
x5
Pretty good workout.

Tuesday
Very long day, run into jwb in courtyard and gab about kbells. He looks like a mountain.
Run off for seven hours of grind. Up to ct, newly re-certed RKC II, it's a brief warm up then:
5 double 20kg jerks, 3+3 20kg windmills, 10 double 20kg swings x 5, with very little rest.
She mixed that up a bit, and it was all fun until the double swings. No voodoo which does at least give a breather. 30 minutes and after the day before, fried.

Set lists starting to go up on HSB. OCMS this year. Hot Fun:

Loving all of it.

Pride

2011-07-03T16:56:00.000-07:00

"You know what they say: You can't teach a gay dog straight tricks."
Trey Parker & Matt Stone

Sunday Pride. Needed to do yoga am and kettlebell pm blowout, but could not stand thought of leaving B alone. Email EH about whether it's ok if he comes and being the sweetheart she is it's of course so we pack up and hit Equinox for an 11:00 start. Thinking light crowd with pride but hah ! It's packed by 10:50; drop two mats in the back row, B looks baffled. There is an empty mat next to B and I am a little worried. JB comes in at the last second, cheers "alright !" and drops down next to B and gives him a big smile. He grins back and we are off to it.
He rocked it. EH described him later as sweet and fearless, spot on. He was oved it. After that, an hour of Pride parade (best float PETA, buxom ladies in skimpy lettuce leaf bikinis carrying sign that say "eat me !") Up to ct for hour class. She is in a z health state of mind and we do a lot of visual drills and simple movement training and it's just about perfect. B getting restless toward end, load him up and head up to Anne's and watch Jeremy Affelt pitch to six batters, striking out five. Breaking ball untouchable and Cleveland hitters screwing themselves into the dirt. Threat response in the major leagues, you could see it in the way they walked to the plate.

Monday
Back in for EH late, good though one foot on right still a little weak re heel.
Tuesday
Crippling head cold feel like shit. Nothing except five hours of CEB.
Wednesday
Four miles on elliptical listening to CEB, that's it. There is is reason I stopped this, it's fucking boring. Night and almost finished with 12 hour course. Good stuff. But feeling like shit by end of the day, not a little bit like shit, but major bronchial event requiring powerful anti-biotics fuck up the training wipe out your body kind of shit. Up late to finish off CEB, sigh.
Thursday
Go back for more elliptical CEB fun; forgot shoes. Sigh. Quiet morning but its not gonna last, still feeling like shit. Gotta get through 5.75 hours of MCLE and bill, FML.
5:00, b is at Anne's. Plaintive email to ct; parked in front of her studio listening to MCLE programs, calls it to Marina Green. Great. Show up. Combination of cold it's all really not very good except the alphabet catch and tennis ball. Training has hit a very poor stretch the last three weeks and the ball drills were a really good change-up.
Friday
AM
But for ball drills last night feel as disconnected from body as have in a long time. Way too stressed with fuck-up (now fixed) last week and belated CEB finished night before with 89 min to spare. In for headstands, crap. Frogstands ok. Bu stuff, crap. Resist urge to curl up in fetal position and give up.
Just slow down and get on hands and knees. Better. Bird dog in plank. Rock solid. One side bird dog, focus Lat and tricep. Good. Single arm planks. Excellent. More bird dog in plank. Feeling human again, back to bu. Double 24 bu cleans good. Single 24 bu presses both sides strong. A couple of real slow double 16 alternating bu press sets, 10 reps total. Ready to rejoin the living.

Really light day which for once is a relief.
In for 4:30 Pradeep. Been awhile and first ten minutes not great. Finish really strong and smoking class, not fast but hard hard hard, all plank variations and high lunge, laying it out triangle at end is blessed relief and in reverse get right hand outside of left foot for the first time. He is the best.

Saturday
Into sf, dropping money and children all the way down 101. Into Equinox for first good kettlebell blowout in a week.
10016kg swing warm-up
Press ladders, usual long cycle twin 20 up to 32
10 front squats twin 20's
20 24kg renegade rows
10 24kg bootstrap squats
3x
5-1 24kg single arm swing descending ladder to TGU, x 5.
All that pretty good considering how fucking spaced out the days before.
Go collect ct and head to Purisima with the rest of banana slugs. Three hour 1000 foot gain, six plus miles and by the end of it felt re-grounded, rewired and rejuvinated, after two weeks of sucking.

Pretty much like that.

Fat lady in New Leaf looks at the VFF: "Don't you need arch support ? I sure would and lots of it."
That's cause you're killing yourself with 150 extra pounds lady. It's not your feet, it's what you are shoveling into your mouth. This is why our health care system is broken.
Sunday
Feel great after yesterday. Walk, bathe dog. Make ribs.

Enjoy one of the greatest queers ever . . . way early on, wow . . .

Listen to more Elton John at Wolfgang's Vault.

Tell Me Lies, I Love to Believe . . .

2011-06-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

"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

2011-06-14T22:19:00.000-07:00

"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

2011-06-04T22:07:00.000-07:00

"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.

Gil

2011-05-30T19:52:00.000-07:00

"All the dreams you show up in are not your own."
Gil Scott-Heron

Don't day dream looking forward to the next hit endorphin junkie. Be present and worthy of 425/hour. Go.
Thursday
To EH. She was gentle with us, easiest class I've taken with her. She said after she could feel everyone tired; Thursday energy.
Friday
Scramble. Do get to Pradeep for 5:30 - 7 class. Bring it; simply dripping sweat. Lengthy lengthy side series, double dose of ab work and then other side; by the time we hit lizard/then into pidgeon I am rocked. Looks and feels like I went swimming.

Home alone which is weird. See that Gil Scott-Heron has died at 62. Saw him in '77, he was incredible. Could have seen him last year but elected not to. YouTube recent videos show a guy who burned up decades and phenomenal talent on crack. Folks said he played his old hits at his recent shows which disappointed. Where was Gil's commentary on Rodney King, Michael Jackson, New Orleans post-Katrina, or Obama ?
As far as I know nowhere, lost his voice and words to a small pipe, world shrunk down to a tiny little opening. RIP. Glad to remember him sounding like this:

Listen to more Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson at Wolfgang's Vault.

Saturday
Long work calls, pick up Yoshis run,
Duck into Equinox for VO2 max snatch work. 15/15 16kg 7 rep pace, x60. Guy comes up, telling me I will fuck up my back with that exercise. No, I have rehabbed my back with this exercise and others like it. He walks off muttering going back to his cable machine circuit. Look douchebag, I see people doing shit I know they should not do all the time, i.e. going into flexion on a dead lift. I say nothing, its none of my business. Maintain a neutral spine keep your core engaged and load posterior chain and you will get better. It's your ass going back and forth, not bending over going up and down. Whatever. Pouring rain, Rose gets ball play.
Sunday
Long walk with good dog ecstatic to be out in it.
Get call from Brigid, wants to be picked up. Had enough gaming. Its fine by me, need the company. Pick-up Nicholas Payton, drop him at airport, should have caught his set Saturday. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIrE7tdac5I&feature=related.
Pick up Brigid.
We stop for CT. Good class, descending swing ladder and then 15/15 circuits with push-presses. I don't train push presses. Have always been a way to get a heavy weight overhead and do negatives until I can strict mp. Struggle with mechanics first few circuits but think I get it and body feels like a fucking piston last set with 24kg; crank out 10 reps in 15 seconds. Will do more of this.
Stop for dinner with Amy Anne and B, up to watch 127 hours with Brigid.
Monday. Read New Yorker article re Gil. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/09/100809fa_fact_wilkinson. Sad sad sad. All that talent and his world became a crappy apartment and a crack pipe.

Don't be a junkie. Mat and iron should expand the world, not shrink it. Pour your soul into the iron ball, the mat; everything you do. But it ain't all that you do.
Rest day. Bridesmaids with Brigid and Barry. LMFAO, big time. One of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Orange Cats

2011-05-25T22:47:00.000-07:00

"How hard would it have been to say some kinder words instead . . ."
Patty Griffin, Long Black Limousine

Patty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6hpwl9rTL0

Samantha Stollenwerck: http://www.archive.org/details/SamanthaStollenwerck2006-08-23.sbd

I love Patty. But Samantha owns this tune. Brigid still sleeps in the Tshirt Sam autographed for her six years ago at the Fillmore. How hard would it have been indeed.

There are two large orange cats in the house and one elderly moth eaten chihuahua. Part of the revolving door of foster animals whose food dishes Rose grazes on frequently. She has gotten so damn fat . . . walked in relatively early Monday to Brigid with red-rimmed eyes cause c and i were teasing her about something and i had been left in charge of the now fragrant pork roast. I do not understand the reflexive cutting remark or the incredible burden of it all. Redirect the response; walk with Brigid and the recently well-fatted Labrador through Pioneer park. In and around the old graveyard, headstones from the 1800's in the middle of the suburbs. Emails come in for mediator work while standing amidst graves of settlers. They hire me to settle the case, marketing company suing publishers of gay porn for multiple six figures of unpaid invoices. That will be a really fun day. Really.
Saturday
Walk with dog and off with Ian to REI to buy backpack for Kenya trip. Memorial Day sale feels like hand to hand combat. Spend three hours of retail warfare with Marin County white people over high tech gear. Then go buy on-line. Smirk at all the green gear being loaded into Land Rover 4x4's after an hour wait in the cashier's line.
Sunday
In for EH 90 minute mass; try not bawl at the end. Then office for snarky letter and depo prep; up to ct for hour class where it's Brett Jones' swing and descending squat circuit. Then a bunch of mobility work including some very good shoulder /rotator cuff figure eights with bent elbow and light weight. Beats the hell out of the stock up down up down lying on the side rehab exercise I have done and see people doing all the time, little sheets of white paper in hand. That alone worth price of admission.
Monday
San Jose for waste of time depositions. Leave and do earlier Molly Fox class rather than EH. Molly is closer to my age than the usual, except MH. She really teaches rather than just calling out poses and practice improves for it. I can hang out in plank all day but prayer twist from high lunge can be a bitch for me and the way she sets up the twist is really good. "Build the pose from the ground up." Words to live/breathe by.

Tuesday
Complete total grind and pissed at wayward client. Stick with the program. Get in or get out. Yes I will talk to your shrink; don't expect me to validate your actions. Look her up. Harvard Med, fit, betting she is a yogi.
But I am fucking stressed by the time I hit the gym. Cortisol levels elevated and l/4-5 making presence known loudly. Start it up and hoping it gets better:
10+10x5 16kg swings
20 alternating 28kg chest press from floor, flip to 10 pushups
5+5 single leg deads, twin 16
20 renegade rows, 24kg
10 deck squats, 4kg counterweight.
3x
Feel no better after that. Do a couple of swings set and shut it down. Was the deck squats that killed it. Resolve to finish in am.
Wednesday
Good call the day before. MUCH better. In by 7:30, go:
20 swings to TGU x 10. First 5, 24 kg TGU, last 5 28.
Stand on head. Handstand prep crow. Stick double 24 bu cleans and hold for ten count.
Good all the way around.
Nutso day. By 5:00 on unnecessarily long conference call with client 1. Thinking about upcoming call with client 2. Revising letter for client 3. Ignoring drunk dialing calls from client 4. C texting me about insurance problems for B.
FML.
Leave at 6:00; hoping to catch 6:20. Client 3 emails, letter has math errors. Can I kill fed ex ? No problem, on it. Back to office, scramble for numbers. Race to catch 7:20. Thank god for morning workout.
Great sky on way up. Look and breathe. Treasure the transition.

It will be more of the same tomorrow. Enjoy all of it. Consider your good fortune. Take nothing for granted. Go to EH class tomorrow, do not fail in that, or anything else.
Orange cats are great.

Running Blues

2011-05-21T09:50:00.000-07:00

"Left my billfold at the airport, suitcase on the train, now I can't find my umbrella, and it sure looks like rain."
Boz Scaggs Running Blues

Wednesday am started out like crap. 9:00 am sf appearance should have been easy but boat running on three engines is ten late an slow and I am fucked by 7:45. All dressed up but will deal with osc for late appearance.
Scroll through Vault Radio and they have the Sons at Winterland NYE 1974. Was at that show and remember it well. They were behind the opener Frank Biner & the Night Shift. Followed by Tower of Power. Booker T. closed it out. 15 years old and third concert ever. But not even a 35 year old version of Lookout could reduce stress of a blown court date, no matter how inconsequential.

First show was 18 months earlier, March 1973, Berkeley Community Theater. Boz Scaggs and The Sons. Boz with Les Dudek playing lead. Running Blues which had no appreciation for until way later. A year later Boz would do a run at the Paramount where he went from Texas blues guy to slick Silk Degrees string section schlock. We were so disappointed at the time. Runnin' Blues still sounds great though.

Sunday

Into sf with Brigid, Anne and Barry. Barry is going to get to see Cats which will make him very very happy. Brigid is going to get to shop for herself which will make her very very happy, and I am going to get to have an extended, un-rushed blow-out which will make me very very happy. Drop them at Cats, Brigid to Union Square, me into gym:

10+10 16kg single arm swings x 5

15 feet on box hands on 3lb medicine balls pushups, 1 foot up. These rockin strong, had been a long time

20 tactical lunges, 20kg bell

20 24kg renegade rows

10 front squats, twin 20's

3x

5-1 single arm swing ladder 24kg to tgu/20 28kg two handed swings to 28kg tgu

x5.

Boatload of work, took a bit that.

Brigid comes down, feed her. Pick up others.

Monday

Ass and hamstrings sore but not unpleasantly so. EH class late. Good class as usual; very strong notwithstanding, Walk out drenched and humming.

Tuesday

Grinding all day. Ct at 6:45:

Arm extension to step back to high lunge to one arm down dog to pump stretch/up dog x 3 and switch. Good little series, will use this again only up it to 5.

15+15 single arm swings, 20kg
10+10 spider planks
8+8 snap it up rows, slow on the down.

x6. Crisp little workout.
Stops on the way up leave getting home at 9:00.

Wednesday
Busier and busier and busier. Late yoga, possibly best Warrior Three ever.
Thursday
Good depo prep meeting and grinding all day. Hit gym at 6:45 after mandatory appearance at BASF function. Goes like
10+10x5 16kg warm-up
Alternating press ladders 3+3 20, 24, 28, 1+1x2 32
sls 5+5 12kg Vipr overhead to 5+5 16kg bu
8 neutral grip pull-ups, 16lbs assist
10 28kg goblet squats
x3
30/30 swings, 20 each alternating 24/28
About 28,000 pounds; quite a bit considering no dead lifts.

Friday
Good day setting up next week. Fucking busy.
Bail for late Pradeep. First in some time, very very good.
Down Market in jeans and vff. Enjoy Sons and Boz on way up.
Runnin' Blues done for a little bit.

Listen to more Boz Scaggs at Wolfgang's Vault.

Love This Town

2011-05-14T19:04:00.000-07:00

"You look back and see how hard you worked and how poor you were, and how desperately anxious you were to succeed, and all you can remember is how happy you were."

Jack London, on living in San Francisco

Sunday. Hallmark holiday, no workout, just four hours of cleaning before mixed grill of Tri tip; sausages, lamb. Uh huh.
Brigid sore from parkour still.

Monday, feeling thick. Head in late evening and go as follows:
10+10 16kg x 5 single are swing warm up
5 double 20 kg c&p
4 double 24
3 double 28
1+1 32 x 2
Very good on the 32
5 burpees to suitcase deeds twin 32
10+10 28 kg rows
10 deck squats, 8 then 4kg counter balance
X3

30/30 20 swings x 6 alternate 28/24

Shut it down after 6, grip going and back talking, bad combo.

Tuesday.
Shitstorm 18 months in making hits with ex parte noticed for following morning. Client freaking and drinking by noon; by 6 cops are at the house and their already strained marriage is in shambles. Alternating between them until 6:30, parked at Gough and Grove.
Finally back out entirely. This is not my job. You, chill. You, into rehab. Me, into ct for 45 like this bitchin' little circuit
20 16kg hot potato
8+8 around world slings
10+10 spider planks
5 24kg jerks to 10 single arm swings then other side.
x5.

Wednesday
Prevailed at ex parte now real fun begins. Grind of a day; get in late for mh, first class in a week goes crazy strong.

Thursday
I have so much work to do it's nuts. Beautiful morning. Open house cocktail party at 5 to trumpet arrival of jmb 3. What ev. Bail at noon to throw iron for a little.
Press circuits
1-3 ladders 20, 24, 28, 1+1 32x2
2 jesus get ups, 16kg vipr overhead
5x2 slow crush curls, 24kg
10 double 20kg squats
x3.
That's it. Gotta go be social.

Very good open house. Build construct to hate this shit; outside comfort zone after all.
Wrong. Much much synergy between clients and good showing from my group "oh we had to come to support dbt."
Gratifying; why the surprise ? Been there for them for years-through bet the business deals and through crushing conflict. So they show up and support, why does this mean more ?
Because it shows the thank you at the end meant something. For all of the turmoil and ineptitude in your personal life, you deliver the service in a way that hits people deep; that they will pay hourly rates you could not afford yourself, and still feel desire to support.
Loyalty. I salute the spirit within you.
Spend much time talking to CG about SF, her current favorite buildings.
Friday
Calls are not going to start until 9:30. In by 8:00 to work on standing on head. Spend 25 on headstands, slowly getting better. Then downstairs to grease the groove on BU.
Fuck around working on 16's and single 24's. Can't get the 24 doubles, left always slipping down.
Pick up 28, boom, no problem right. Expected that. Boom, no problem left. Surprise PR. Do that a few more times cleanly. Pick up the double 24's again. Careful not to over-accelerate on hip snap. Stick it cleanly, and hold for 10. Again, and again. Goody.
In by 9:30, do not put down the phone until 12:55. Escape for brief walk and check out lobby of 560 Mission about which CG raving the night before. It is beautiful:

Busy day but in jeans and bailing for 5:30 class and then to meet Brigid for blues guitar extraordinaire Roy Rogers at Yoshi's. Pradeep was advertised this morning, and been looking forward to all day.Instead its a very young, precious, fey sub who is completely full of himself. No music, just him talking. Hate this class; whole practice is supposed be about absence of ego but this guy's is huge. There are many in class who are not in shape, but he is calling up backbends and sequences that only one person in class other than he can pull off. What a douche. Never again.
But he does provide fodder for fun with Brigid and she is giggling loudly as I mimic him headed west on Pine.

We watch Roy and Carlos Reyes tear it up. Slide guitar and harp ? Oh yes, I think so . . .
Saturday
Business calls in am. Walk patient dog for 75 min in marsh, feeling it get colder. Wash dishes. Wash and shave Barry. Drop off Barry. Feed Ian. Shop for groceries. Shop for wireless adapter. Shop for hand tools. Nap. Nada mas.

Bits and Pieces

2011-05-07T19:27:00.000-07:00

"Please no more therapy
Mother take care of me
Piece me together, with a needle and thread."
Polaroids, Shawn Colvin

Labrador keeps feet warm through the vff.

I want to hate Twitter more than I do. These folks tweeting 140 character bits of themselves into the ether. Egotistical and at the same time mundane. But I kind of like it, piecing together a picture from these bits. I think I need to start watching more reality tv. I may really be missing something.

Saturday
Pretty much laid out after Pradeep Friday. Walk Rose with Ian, feed him. Shop. Spend all day cleaning up the carnage in the kitchen. Mundane.
Sunday. Boatload of work to do and want to blow it out physically. Dog ecstatic but gimpy so 25 minute leash walk. Into sf for 11:00 EH class. Read an article someplace the other day about people turning to yoga instead of religion and there is something to it. 90 minutes very very hard JB in back of me mixing incredible competence with being completely gassed and I so know how she feels. EH calls us into side plank series four times in 90 minutes and last I am dripping but raise up top foot rock solid and get arm flat overhead she comes by and just says "go for it, David." Last set best set.
Office two hours then up to CT from Friday fest. Pretty smoked from EH but it gets better as it goes on and ends up just fine.
Monday
Late EH class. Another drencher goes really well.
Tuesday
Rest day, just gotta.
Wednesday
In early, they now have twin 28kg sport bells so double mp must be on the agenda. Happy to see those bright orange 62lb ornaments and looking froward to upping the reps. Goes like:
10+10 16kg single arm swings x 5
Long cycle clean and press, 5 double 20kg, 5 double 24kg, clean and press doubles 28kg x 3, 1+1 32kg x2
10 24kg front squats
5+3 neutral grip pull-ups, 16lb assist
2+2 jesus get ups with 10kg vipr overhead
x3
That's it.

Thursday, third EH class this week. Strongest yet.
Friday
Busy busy day gonna be late boat back so go blow it out
20 alternating floor press, 28kg, flip to ten push-ups
10 kbell front squats, twin 20's
20 renegade rows, 24 kg
10 16kg bootstrap squats
3x
5+5-1+1 one arm swing ladder, 24kg to 24kg TGU x 4
20 28kg swings to 28kg TGU x 4

Good way to end the week. Roll down Market to boat feeling really good.
Bartender buddy on boat pours me VERY stiff scotch. Whoa. Checkpoint; hand cop who looks old enough to be a junior ranger the license. "Had any alcohol tonight sir ?" "Nope." "Have a good night." Phew . . .
Saturday.
Throw ball for dog into Corte Madera creek while Brigid does Parkour. All afternoon cleaning up the backyard with her, to the dump and shopping. She is gassed and quiet and I get worried about the fog descending. Bits of precious, bunch of bits of precious. Nothing for me, feeling the work the day before, that's two rest days this week but won't make a habit of it.

Four Dollar Water

2011-04-30T00:27:00.000-07:00

"Dear Mr. Fantasy play us a tune, something to make us all happy . . ."
Traffic, Dear Mr. Fantasy

IST came out of his hole last night and announced that he had the inside track on an open call to audition for a Berkeley Rep production this summer. It was the first time I'd seen him for more than 30 seconds since he turned 18 48 hours previously. Brigid had been baking since 3:00 for her SCA event this weekend and tossed me half an apple fritter and a whole butter chocolate sandwich cookie both of which were exquisite. I'd just run through 40 minutes of Fun With Iron at CT's refuge and Barry was excited to dress up. Rose at the feet hoping for fritter bits. Going over IST's Kenya lists and fantasizing about a summer Berkeley Rep gig for ending 24 hours before he flies off to Mombasa. Hey it could happen . . .
I liked manual labor when I was his age. Seeing what you did all day at the end of it. This is why the iron appeals. Tangible results. Its up to you; input=output. More or less. Pretty much. The external factors; the crappy judge (guy was an idiot yesterday, you burn half my day to continue a hearing ?) the impatient teacher, the shitty coach, the fickle girl - all back burner.
Which is great if you can stand to be alone but that ain't the path you picked and are on or is now even desirable. So go ahead and indulge in the fantasy.
Easter Sunday
Resurrection circuit, 5+5-1+1 24kg one arm swings to 1+1 24kg get-up x 10.
Good meal at Anne's after, Ian charming.
Monday
Late pm great EH class
Tuesday
100 16kg single arm swings warm-up
long cycle 5+5 double 20kg, double 24kg, to short cycle 3+3 single 28, to 1+1 32x2
10 twin 20kg front squats
10+10 65lb rows
5+5 slsx2, second with 16kg bu
3x
10 20kg figure 8 to hold, 10 24kg figure 8 to hold;
28kg tgu
x3
Wednesday
late MH class. Hard, he usually backs off, this brutal.
Thursday
Hit ct's studio at 6:45 and she has 32 cued up. Goes
10 32kg swings to 10 alternating 16kg snatches
x 15. Her swinging the 24 and snatching 12. On a percentage of body weight basis she is crushing me but hey she does this for a living, and I am an old hack. It is nice training with just her as we can push pretty hard and not feel like we are running away with it.
Friday, very strong in am. Fucking grind of a week in fact but receivables starting to come in, better.
5:30 happy hour which is 90 minutes of om om om. First Pradeep class in a long time. Lead up to that was 160 minute call that should have taken 45, multi-tasking with the Seattle spa clients. They are all very very bright women and the Controller is a world class big wall climber. I am apologizing for short emails due to unnecessarily protracted call and they are sending me smiley faces and making me giggle. Roll out just in time to catch Pradeep for 90.
It is a really really really good class. Serious oomph with the right amount of om at the right places. He has us in crazy extended side series about 20 minutes per. 90 stretches to 120. At about 105 after about eight minutes of plank variations, he drops the: "thank you for being here" in his sing song accent. At 110 we are in seated spinal twist, I drift to Ian at home and he busts all of us. "Don't start making plans. I can feel you all doing that. It's Friday, you want to go out. All your friends, they are going to say you all look so beautiful. And you are, but stay here, if you are going to leave then leave." Thank you, and I miss 7:20 boat by a mile.
Walk down Market ending the week in jeans and vff's and t shirt feeling about as good as a 51 year old body can feel. Hips are open, shoulders as open as they get, thighs and hamstrings just rock hard and humming and can feel every bump up through the feet just how I like it.

Stop at Ferry Plaza Wine Market for a bottle of Malbec. I left three pounds of water on the studio floor; ask the guy what he's got. "Still or Sparkling ?" That's a question I still giggle at. I just want a fucking bottle of water. We walk over to the case. The bottles, they are gorgeous. I just need the biggest one. $4.59 for fucking water.
It did taste good. Seeing that bottle empty, and feeling everything that hard, I knew exactly what I'd done this week.

Get Yourself A Powder Charge

2011-04-23T21:29:00.000-07:00

"only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in."
John Muir

"Hello Baby; I'm gone, goodbye . . ."
Mississippi Half Step, Robert Hunter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFtAwxNxLrQ

Earth day thoughts turn to wild places. Anthony Milne is three days from nowhere in a deep canyon in the Marble Mountains. http://www.satelliteviews.net/cgi-bin/g.cgi?fid=256290&state=CA&ftype=locale. Wooley Creek runs cold and fast and the canyon bottom is scoured on the sides and huge trees are tossed everywhere like some stone giants' game of pick-up sticks. The forces required to create the landscape are powerful, and it's unlikely anyone has ever come down here in the in the winter. It's too far and too remote and too obscure. It's just a flat spot at the confluence of two good sized creeks. There are no spectacular vistas or lakes. And it's a downright dangerous place to get to; a misstep and a turned ankle down there and you are fucked. 5 punctured an eardrum there in '87; slipped on a rock and had a red alder twig slide perfectly into his ear canal and boom, agony for hours and then again jumping into Wild lake three days later after forgetting about the whole ear thing. The little bit of pressure had him coming up screaming.
By mid-summer Wooley Creek slows enough for deep pools and impossibly clear swimming holes. There once, summer of '75, and again in summer of '87 with 5 just before starting law school. Summer of '75 was an 11 day school backpacking trip with 26 teenagers and two fairly clueless young adults. Rumor had it we were the first to get down there in two or three years. It's a 4000+ foot descent from the Marbles in seven and a bit miles, which is pretty ok, but once down there its either back out the same way or a three to four day traverse up Bear Wallow pass to Forks of Salmon. We trained for about three weeks carrying loaded backpacks on five mile hikes in the hills of central Marin. I can see the trails we trained on from Anne's porch; close by, sipping a scotch.
In '75 there was to be one layover day at AM but we ended up taking three cause it was so damn beautiful and took a long time to get there. A lot of shenanigans went down in those three days.
We stayed one day more than we should, the way it goes with layover days. If time makes a difference, and it usually does, every day you stay and play means adding the mileage to later, and that last day is one you probably know you should not have and is therefore dampened.
But the two before that were awesome. It was, at 15, the first time I ever felt beastly. Standing on the trail crowing about feeling so good and TF laughing: "Hey Dave just found out he is in shape !"
He was right. There are a handful of other highlights that still resonate; sitting on a rock in the middle of Wooley Creek I'd swum out to holding my flute case over my head. Sat and played the refrain from Mississippi Half Step, riffing on it gently, and having WP come out of the water in her black bathing suit and smile and hang. It was a private moment she chose to share and I was too shy and scared to do anything but fuck up the melody. She was not a beauty but I'll never forget the way she looked, with her wet hair and big smile coming out of the water and up on that rock to join me. She was a mean oboe player to boot.
Maudlin now because IST is about to graduate and I hope he has had such moments, but I fear he has been given less opportunity. He showed no interest in such adventures until very recently and will now soon fly halfway round the world in an effort to lose himself and figure out just who he is. You can't do this for them. Feed, money, drop-off, wait. Me, there have been some long gaps in between, but sitting here now feel, again and still, totally beastly.

Sunday
Walk with Brigid and Rose. Into office after for TRO prep and to CT 4:30. 240 24kg swings and a BUNCH of work as well; her clever 1040 day, 40 slow push-up, 40 dolphin to dolphin plank, 40 burpees and that was the easy part. Just slowing down and finding an ankle joint can be so hard.
Monday, grind all day and into Alameda county superior by 4 for TRO hearing. We'd done our job and the reward was to see Plaintiff's counsel burst into flame under the judge's withering inquiries. We won, not close. We are out by 4:55. Have to chortle and share credit with UC counsel though we all know who did this. Duties done, can you get to late Yoga with EH's gentle self. Fly across the bridge ripping off tie, change and roll out the mat with about 30 secs to spare. 60 minutes, so wound up from four days of grind was not sure could wind down. But 50 minutes and shuttling it slowly down in pidgeon everything let go and just gone, gone, gone.
Home and Brigid has made awesome dinner.
Tuesday. Nothing. That was five kbell workouts in the preceding seven days and time to chill.
Wednesday. Kids get to sleep late and start school at 9:00 which means time to get up early and do work:
That would go like
Long cycle clean and press
Double 20x5
Double 24x5
Single 28x3
Single 32 1x1x2
Single 28's. breezy.
10 24kg Goblet Squats
Assisted pullup, 5+3 14lbs assist
Deck squats, 5 8kg counterbalance to 4kg counterbalance
3x and that's it. No time for ballistics.
Shitty dinner Wednesday
Thursday
Digging out slowly . . .
Up to ct late, nifty series
Snatches 10+9 alternating descending ladder
In between, alternate three clean and double mp or three front squats.
Snatches, go from 16 to 20 at 8/7 to 24 at 6/5 to a lame attempt at 28 3/2, sweat blown grip gonna hurt someone.
Front squats first 3 with 24's, seriously brutal. Drop back to 20's
Mps first with 24's the to 28's for 4. Back to 24's up to 28's for last. Last set best set.
Yee hah.
Friday
A damp and foggy Earth Day. To Pradeep late for 60 minutes of om, om, om.
Get in, they cancelled early class. DISAPPOINTED. 25 minutes of headstand and handstand progression practice and done.
Saturday
Early walk. Get back and Brigid has cooked breakfast. We have not talked about Easter and suggest we skip the baskets 'cause they are older and not really still into it. She looks like I'd punched her. Oops. Gotta get into office, but gotta do this. Spend 90 minutes and a hundred bucks at Cost Plus making baskets with a cheerful sales lady. Got'em done, but that was the workout time.

Happy Easter

Green

2011-04-16T23:48:00.000-07:00

"The sun came up today and it burned my blues away."
Mojave 3, Got My Sunshine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6nKbDzLEgg&feature=player_embedded

Much thanks to Amy P for this insidious nugget. Shared with eh, good for savasnha.

The growth along the marsh levees is getting high and its cover now for wrens, flycatchers, goldfinches, bushtits and swallows. There are flocks of red-winged blackbirds in the cattails and broken duck eggs on the levees. The white pelicans are sporting the beak knobs that show up during nesting season. There are black-crowned night herons and green herons in the willows. It's noisy. It's a really really nice place to walk the dog; she is a good dog, she leaves the birds alone, though she'll chase a deer. But not for long.
Friday
MH Yoga at noon. Sweatfest.
Saturday
Too much wine Friday night, in Sat. for a solid four hours billable and hit the gym at 3:00. No, you do not get to skip this:
10+10x5 single arm 16kg warm-up, straight, no chaser.
Long cycle clean and press, 5 double 20, five double 24, 1+1x2 32
Front squats, double 16 x 10
Figure 8 to hold, 10 20 to 10 24
5+5 single leg deads 24kg, twin 24kg last set.
3x. Very good sets on the 32, hangover and all.
30/30 24kg swings x 10. I really really wanted to stop at 7. NO.
Sunday.
Really nice dog walk.
Monday
10+10x3 16kg 1 arm swing warm-up
5 burpees to 3 pushups to twin 32 suitcase deads
10 front squats, twin 20's
5 then 3 neutral grip pullups, 16lbs assist, shitty
10 bootstrap squats, 16kg
3x
Coach Dos circuit x 3
Tuesday
MH Stiff Guy class, then to CT late for quick hit, circuits 5x through
5 suitcase deads, twin 28
5 clean and press, three second hold, to whatever presses you got left in you 1st circuit twin 24, 2-5 twin 28. PR on the double 28 presses, would have been shocked if I couldn't, holds had me fried for press, guessing maybe 3 reps without holds, maybe better. I remember how shaky the double 24's were, less than a year ago. Now that's child's play. Totally. Fuck entropy.
Burpees, sets 1,3,5 evil evil slow burpees with push-ups 8 really hard. 10 fast circuits 2,4.
5+5-1+1 24kg single arm swing descending ladders
Great workout, a lot of volume in a short period of time; great mix.

Serious serious client needs to be met. Do that; also do this.

Wednesday
Client needs now exploding; great piece of work comes in late. Set up the outline, we have four days to get there and a good path. Rock n' roll. So do the late pm MH class.
60 min, sleep during savasnha.
Thursday
Buried until late, was gonna skip it until call came in that Ian needs to be picked up late.
Hit gym at 7:30:
100 swing 16kg warm-up
5 burpees to 3x push-ups to twin 32 suitcase deads, Had to do this more.
Twin 20 front squats, 10
10+10 65lb dumbbell rows
5+5 sls x 2, 16kg bu second 5's
3x
3 TGU and shut down. Fried, dead, done tired. 9:35 boat.
Late in downtown SR. Ian having geek fun. Me, a single glass of Gnarly head zin and wing appetizer. Oh yum.
Friday
Insanely busy; ugly busy late. All thoughts of yoga before Says You pretty much evaporate before noon.
Race out at 6:00. Meet CT for 2.5 hours of wit; fun. Good dinner at Beautifull. Really good food. By 11:00 pm face is hurting from laughing so much. NTS: train face.
Saturday
Contemplated yoga but talked way into marsh walk describing spring scene to CT night before. Morning fucking gorgeous, dog joy and avian heaven. In office by noon, 150 minute hard edit leaves TRO brief tight as a fucking snare drum. Going to kick some ass.
Save as new file at 2:38 to send to client. Go to attach to email, gone. Fucking worldocs nightmare bullshit. Suck it up, re do. FML. Fucking FML.
Gym at 4:40 instead of 3:00. Client email comes in going in, thrilled with brief. Feels so good to be me all over. I got 60 minutes, tops:
10+10 16kg swings x 3
Press fest
1-3 ladders, 20, 24, 28, then 1+1 32 x 2
Deadlifts, 195x7 to 215x3
5+5-1+1 24kg swings
2 TGU, 24
x3
That was it before close. Pretty good, shit load of press work.
No yoga before office tomorrow, daughter wants her time with dad and dog in marsh. She gets to pick it.
Feed, money, drop-off, return. Great time of year.

"The wind rose up today and it blew my blues blues away
Go ahead if you have to leave me
You ain't coming back this time, I hope that's fine."

If The Thunder Don't Get You

2011-04-07T22:15:00.000-07:00

"Won't you try just a little bit harder, couldn't you try just a little bit more . . ."
The Wheel, Robert Hunter

Well we know where this is going . . .

I don't know if it possible to train for a handstand in middle age. There is a pretty good progression here: http://www.mymadmethods.com/articles/strength-power-articles/645-jenny-farber-how-to-do-handstands
But for me anyway it's not like if you do a, then b, you will get to c. It's more like do a, then b, wow that feels better, and eventually may stumble upon c, or maybe d, I seem to need to yaw around for a bit. With everything. The handstand is a good long term goal but I'm gonna have some fun getting there.

Saturday, three miles with daughter and dog. Then get B from grandma's and go to lunch. It is his 20th birthday; there are plays so celebration will need to wait. Waiter approaches Brigid from the rear and asks: "and what would the young man like ?" She pretends not to notice, but I could feel her tense. Her shoulders are so broad she looks like a linebacker sitting down. I should make time for workout to make it three for the week, but it was four last and gonna be four next so fuck it. Be good to yourself and just stop old man.
I'd forgotten about archive.org and the Barton Hall shows in May of 1977, 'bout four weeks before I graduated from high school, and about four weeks from where Ian is now. It's good to have a marker. Spend Saturday alternately vacuuming with BK's Miele canister from last week's soul ripper and digging up old Dead shows.
Sunday. The call times are noon and 12:30. Ian and I go out with the Rose. A walk with him is a measure of teenage testosterone. How fast can we grind Dad into the dirt, given that Ian has about three inches, at least, on me in leg length. Keep up, feed him, give him money, and drop him off. That is it with teenagers. They deign to spend time with you, you feed them, give them money, and then drop them off. And wait for their return.
That afternoon, take B in with to CT session. Good class as usual. Part of the menu is double cleans and she pushes twin 24's which is fine and leaves me feeling beastly in a minor way.
Sprint to leave and get to Brazen Head to use up Groupon. It its packed and an hour wait. B looks baffled and hungry. So I wasted 25.00 and we head to LL for bar burgers to drop another 40.00.
Get home and look for Barton Hall on Youtube. Ex-pat Chris Chase in Southern Japan has posted a bunch of stuff. DM and we become internet buds immediately. Middle aged men finding common ground in Jerry's liquid metal. http://www.youtube.com/user/chasefukuoka61#p/u/19/jVjySFYM9jw

Monday.

EH late. Pradeep is gone Mondays so its EH in prime time. She gives a big smile and hello and I can tell she is a little nervous and is glad to see loyal follower and then grinds me into the mat for 60 min just like I wanted her to. Very. Strong. Class.

Get home. I'd asked Brigid to do a flank steak stir fry, she has run with that to an awesome meal. Flank steak, noodles, salad, and pecan shortbread desert. Don't know what I did to deserve her, she cooked, I clean up, that's the deal; heartbreaker. Get DM's from new youtube buddy and download a bunch of Dead shows I went to slightly less than 34 years ago. God did I have it good growing up.

Tuesday.

Gonna be a 30 min ct fest in eve, so in early to work on shit. Tripod headstands, wall handstands, yogi headstands for 20 min. No goal other than get better, and the yogi headstands are getting much stronger. Walk over and work on double bu cleans with the 24's until sticking consistently. It's a stupid human trick but looks totally badass.
30 minutes ct before group Patxi's feed. The circuit is 8+8 snatches, 10 swing to squat, eight dolphin to dolphin plank x 5. Mobility voodoo between circuits. Its a good quick hit and after go eat, spilling onto the sidewalk in the great neighborhood of Hayes Valley armed with 60.00 worth of Chicago deep dish to feed the masses upon arrival home. Every one has eaten; ok, pizza feed tomorrow.
Wednesday. Its been a grind of a week since a client got a writ of execution on a 667k judgment served just before their first round of re-cap dollars. The timing was too good, this a death to the company deal.
Thinking about MH late Wednesday, but fuck it. I have all this great pizza at home and want a family dinner. I'll skip class and take an early boat; they'll all drop what they are doing and spend time with Dad. Right; announce my early arrival, no one could give a shit, except of course the dog. It dawns on me, slowly as usual, that they have moved on, and it is a waste of time to try to recreate those good provider/cook Dad dinners. They've gotten over it, so don't feel all pissy; you get over it too.

Feed, give money, drop off, leave, wait for return. That's your job. Don't try to do more, unless they instigate. You do, they look at you like you are from outer space. Should have gone to class.

Late emails confirm business will live through recap and feeling pretty damn good about it, even if spaceman.
That glow lasts less than 12 hours 'cause by 7:30 am major shit blowing up. Fucking blown four months of resolution mode and we are now looking at seven figure litigation. Grist for the mill. Hit gym really late because I don't skip two days in a row, goes like:
5+5 pushups to renegade rows x 2, 50lb dumbells
8, 10, 12 squat to press, 90lb barbell
5+5x2 sls, 16kg bu second
10 20kg figure 8 to hold, 10 24kg same
3x
5 TGU, 10 24kg single are swings each side before coming back down. They've completely rearranged gym and I am total show dog which sucks. Not prepared for proprioceptive switch looking up at 40 foot ceiling as opposed to eight foot. So look at the bell in your hand, that's what you ought to be doing anyway.
30/30 24kg swings, 20 rep pace x 5.

That was a goodin'

The wheel is turning
and you can't slow down
You can't let go
and you can't hold on
You can't go back
and you can't stand still
If the thunder don't get you
then the lightning will.
http://www.youtube.com/user/chasefukuoka61#p/search/3/30n7Rl19l_w

The Grass Ain't Greener . . .

2011-04-02T00:11:00.000-07:00

"I'm gonna sing you, a hundred verses in ragtime;
I know this song it ain't, never gonna end"
Ramble On Rose, Robert Hunter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqFHX-pzeh0
Somewhere recently I found a blog devoted to Winterland. Kinda sad, lots of shots of it being torn down to make way for the condos that now sit at Post & Steiner. Fuck progress. There was a time '74 to '77 where that was a pure comfort zone, notwithstanding the loose chunks of concrete that threatened the committed. Under the mirror ball, triangulate, take stock of the then unreachable hippie girls. Easy to get to if you did not get off at the Presidio like we did that night in the Alioto Suburban and ended up driving around for an hour, getting pulled over by MP's and led out. Lombard to Steiner, over the hill to Post. In and out, could not be easier. Saw many many bands, but nothing like the Dead shows from 76 on until 12/29/78. 12/29/77 will rock your socks off. Listen to it now, yes it was that good. I've probably dropped 20 pounds two different times listening to that version of Sugaree alone. Dicks Picks 10, check it out. Jerry blowing up his Travis Beane. The Energy is Listening.

Friday. Pradeep. Feeling coldish and pounded. If can get it together for Saturday, it will be three (all Pradeep=smoking) yoga classes and four kbell workouts in the week which sounds good but face it dude you are old and just may need to chill.

Saturday. Wreck of a day with site visit for moving client's last belongings out of the home (long since sold to another) she had lived in for 23 years with her husband of 40 years, after he had left her to marry another woman, seen to her hospitalization/incarceration, electroshock therapy, and then left her to deal with thirty boxes of shit he did not want with her seventh (and last, if I can help it) lawyer on a cold wet street in one of the best neighborhoods in Berkeley. She sends out a plaintive email a day earlier to a bunch of people who she is convinced have shunned her, inviting them to her "funeral of sorts, really." I am with her at the appointed hour, she is shaky and in tears. Friendly faces start to come down the wet street, lined with old trees and beautiful homes. At least seven old friends come down to help her, she is thrilled, alternately laughing and crying. She cannot believe anyone showed up. They take control. Bitch that owns the house will not let her on to property, so she is forced to go through boxes of garbage, looking for the few items of her parents' belongings to segregate. Friends help, show her each item, and ask if its a keep or toss. There is no pattern to which is which. It takes us two hours, them pulling me aside, hugging me: "you have done it. We don't know what you did but you got done what should have been done years ago." Well, it feels so good to be me and I could not have handled it without them. I have told the judge I'd get it done. If I don't I am just the seventh hack; if I do I just did my job, low bar that it is. Have to pull her off to the side and glue her back together repeatedly. I have handled some ugly cases. Rotting homes, retirements destroyed. Businesses lost, careers broken. This is as rough as it gets. We finish sorting through the shards of her life, and everyone leaves and she breaks down completely. They don't teach you how to deal with this in law school and $400.00 per hour does not cover it. I get her pieced back together though I know its temporary, get the release and dismissal signed, deal with the bitch drinking tea in her former home and bitch's lawyer who is a pretty good guy and escape fast to the gym. Gotta get that fourth workout in though I am completely spent. Go:
5 long cycle squat to bress, twin 20kg, to 5 long cycle clean to military press, twin 24 kg
5+5 sls, 12kg vipr overhead
10+10 65lb rows
10 deck squats, 8 then 4 counterbalance. Best deck squat sets ever.
5+5 24kg TGU to 10 swing combo each side.
30/30 24kg swings, 20 rep pace x 5.
Sit in the steam and stare at the wall for god knows how long and contemplate my own garage.
Home, late there is a pbs show with Booker T and Drive By Truckers. Bettye Lavette comes out and blows up the stage and my head for a good bit. Holy shit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeIGo1rAIMU&feature=related
Sunday
Dog walk and dog bath, then shopping. Feeling spent and crappy.
Monday, spent and crappy is because of cold. Airborne all day, Dayquil at the end and get in to Pradeep. Its his last Monday class and a smoker. One foot series which he almost never does. Goes pretty damn well considering.
Tuesday
Early am like this:
5 twin 20kg long cycle c&p, to 5 twin 24kg long cycle c&p, to 32kg singles x 2
12+12 Bulgarian split squats, 12kg vipr overhead
5/3 neutral grip pull-ups, 16lbs assist
5+5 slsx2, second with 16kg Bu
x3, no time for round 2, but beating back cold any way.
Wednesday
Early evening mh, have not done in a while and it is the anti-thesis of Pradeep. Practice has gotten significantly stronger, hand solidly on foot in reverse triangle, only a matter of time before it goes outside. Strong legs and paying attention works.
Thursday.
It hit 82 in sf; knew it would be a smoker and load up the kbells in the van for fun on the way home.
MG goes like:
long cycle ladders; 1-3+1-3, 20, 24, 28
10 24kg GS
10+10 28kg rows
10 20kg bootstrap squats.
3x
Swings, 30/30 24kg 20 rep x 10
Uh-huh, nice out there.
Friday,
Grind of day. Take KO to lunch at Chaya. Hit Pradeep at 5:30 for 90 minute sweatfest; insanely good and strong. Race down for 7:20 boat, wearing workout gear, vff. Totally fucking drenched, look like Dr. Suess character.
"Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMyaTJF_pLg&feature=related
Oh yeah.

Alice In Space

2011-03-24T22:30:00.000-07:00

"Millions of people and one little lie
Zillions of children whose spirits have all flown away
They're long gone

And its a long way out to Alice in Space
And its a long way out to Alice in Space
Its a long way out"
Alice In Space, Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams

Nice druggie reference counselor. We missed the big moon Saturday, no chance. In that storm
and all that ugly shit. Above tweeted by Jeri Ryan, the uber-beautiful seven of nine, who overcame a sleazy scene to build her home. Only second photo I've used that I did not take; it's a goodin'
Monday
Good work grind to distract from Saturday's B adventure. Very raw and very tired. In for Pradeep sixty minute sweatfest. One of the can't chant white boys had the class before and had the room at about 90. Pradeep's classes are so athletic it's about the last thing anyone needs. But we get through and well. At the end rolling onto the side and he goes into the think of the one you love in your life rap it's all I can do keep from breaking into tears. Then he breaks it to us that he will no longer be teaching Monday nights. Bummer. DO NOT replace with chanting white boy.
Tuesday
In early for kbells:
100 16kg swing warm up, 5 squat to pushpress, twin 20kg, 5 long cycle clean and press, twin 24, 1+1 32 clean & press x 2
10+10 sls with 10kg vipr overhead, arms straight and back
5/3 neutral grip pull ups 16lb assist
10+10 figure 8 to hold, 20 then 24.
3x. Figure 8s fun, flashy move and had been a while.
Stop after 45 cause start feeling jacked up. Realize that's three Kbell workouts in 4 days, thought about coming back for tgu swing fest, but just give it a rest old man. No more until iron until Thursday; eat well and yoga between now and then.
It's Stephen Sondheim's birthday. He is 81, sharp as ever.
It's Amy's birthday too, we won't talk about how many.
Wednesday
Pradeep mid-day. Starts out slow which means bring it later. He did. So we did, all good. Very very good.
Today
Long day. Horizontal rain on way to ferry leaves soaked. Trying to dry.
Tired and still spent from Saturday; can break into tears at the drop of a hat. Leave at 5:30.

Walked out the west side of the building; if I'd gone out the east I woulda headed straight for the boat and 5:45. No, go do something for some time so you can do yoga friday and kbells Saturday before that ugly site visit at 1:00.
Throw it down for 30 min.
15/15 seven rep pace with 16kg sport bell, x 60.
Very good snatch session, sport bell handles way easier on middle aged mitts that the RKC bells that have been thrashed by ignorant gym use.
Trainer SR right in back of me with client ten years younger (than me), pointing out benefits of kbell work on posterior chain as my white ass moves back an forth. Client says, "we aren't going to do that are we ?" SR looks a little chagrined, "not yet."
Lady it's a choice. You can choose strength or weakness. But you gotta choose it. Once you do, she can help you, big time. You don't choose strength, then it's entropy. Weakness. You chose it, it won't be her fault.

Somethings you don't get to choose, they just happen. So when you get to pick, choose wisely.

It's a long way out . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKTJpEujVHo

We Hide and Seek

2011-03-20T21:20:00.000-07:00

"Having a family is like having a bowling alley installed in your brain."
Martin Mull

Sunday
Up "late."
It's gonna rain, looks like hard. Get the dog walk in by 11:30. That's gonna be it. Clean up and make outstanding fish tacos.
Monday, back to getting teenagers up in the dark. Plotting trajectory of the day; office is going to be busy, yoga or iron this pm ? Get in early enough to choose. Pradeep is still traveling and its one of the white boys who try to chant subbing, so iron it is:
100 16kg swing warm up
long cycle clean & press
5 double 20, 5 double 24, 1+1 32x2
10 front squats, double 16kg
10 reverse pull ups off of Smith Machine to 5 neutral grip pull-ups, 16lbs assist
Deck squats 5 10lb plate to 5 4kg, better and better
3x
Long cycle presses just crazy strong
Swings, 15/15 32kg ten reps x 5
30/30, 20 rep pace 24kg x 7
Tuesday
CT, get up to swings, ten reps to get downs, next side. 16 3x, 20 4x, 24 3x
Good mix and will use it again.
Wednesday, MH class late. Meet ct for good lunch and back for meeting with MF, who hires me to help clean up one of the biggest cluster fucks I've seen which is saying something.
Thursday, gets busier and busier as day goes on, end up nothing.
Another Friday suit day. Hayward court appearance that should take ten minutes stretches to two hours for no reason except that opposing counsel is long winded and the judge had a light calendar and did not seem to want to attend to the backlog on his desk. I won but FML.
Go in for Pradeep, which is awesome as usual, start weekend with what would be a very temporary inner calm.
Brigid texts me as I'm driving up. She's ordered 127 Hours and CANNOT WAIT to watch it. We curl up to take Aron's ride. Its is a great movie and at the scene where Aron's dad pulls him out of the car as a two year old and sits with him looking at the desert, she blurts out: "that's the best thing ever you can do with your kid." Now how would she know:

That just slays me.

Saturday, its dumping, seriously dumping rain.
Go out, load up and unload firewood which is a pretty good little early bit of exercise. Run around in the pounding rain.
At about 4:30 Brigid starts cooking ham. She also wants to bake scones but baking soda is out of date. I want to get the workout I have been procrastinating all day done, we can put the baking soda run off.
Home workouts always suck to start; I think it's chemical. In the gym there is anticipation and juice and it is a place to be beastly. Home is a place to curl up with book or laptop, watch the fire and procrastinate with the dog sleeping at feet, think about Aron Ralston and look forward to the Punch Brothers show with 5 at McNear's Mystic. Been looking forward to this for months, no one can play like those guys. In anticipation of that, find a Allison Krauss & Union Station Soundstage show, put it on, and start it up.
Its pretty fucking clod like, particularly first two rounds of presses:
5+5 20kg, 4+4 24kg, 3+3 28kg
10 20kg goblet squats
10+10 28kg rows
10 20kg bootstrap squats
3x
Allison Krauss has an angel's voice and the harmonies below her are magic. They are not a fast-playing (though they can) bluegrass pyrotechnic band. At presses circuit 3 they drop into Jerry Douglas' We Hide & Seek which always makes the skin crawl. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0eLq90iqtk. Simple melodies for complicated people, apologies to WH. That kicks in and so does the juice, third circuit is awesome.
Steal ct's tgu swing alternating progression, 5+5, 10 swings between up and down, much much better.
Eat excellent ham dinner and up for Punch Brothers.
It is raining so fucking hard. Pick up 5. We hear first two tunes from opener and phone rings.
It's Brigid. C took her to pick up baking soda at WF. Barry went with them. They ran in, he stayed in the car, but he didn't. He has been gone since 8:00. They have been looking for an hour, no sign.
Get 5, gotta leave. Get to wf, start showing cops pictures on my phone, one says he is pretty sure he saw Barry running down Delong. I am freaking. Tell the cops I am going to start making rounds of haunts, they just say: go, you will know better than we do. 5 pulls up in new 4wd CRV, he's my wheel man. We drive all over town in the pouring rain and howling wind. Downtown is blanketed with Sheriff's Dept. I am running around in parks, checking public restrooms. I go into every open business and cruise every shopping center. It is raining so hard and is so windy its fucking unbelievable. It is freezing as well and at 11:45 I go home for foul weather gear soaked to the bone. The dog team from search and rescue has driven down from Vacaville, 55 miles away during one of the worst storms in years. They are at the house. I spend a few minutes downloading where we have been, and tell them where we are going next and leave, lead guy looks at me and says "thanks for not stopping" Are you fucking kidding me ? They have almost fifty people out looking for my kid in a hammering storm, I don't stop till he's found. Back to WF, I go around the perimeter of the complex, just cannot believe Barry, who hates the dark and the rain would leave the garage. I lose it a little bit in the street running back to the car. We keep looking. Flooded playing fields, deep puddles everywhere.
12:55. He's been gone for five hours. 5 has been driving me around for four. Text comes in, they have him. He is fine. Lose it on the way to the police station.
Walk in and hug the hell out of him,. He is dry, warm, looking a bit baffled. Search and rescue had been through the garage three times and not found him, then there he was sitting on the mat at the store entrance after being missing for five hours. I can't talk. Big cop comes up: "here he is, now you can take him home."
I should not have trusted the most logical place to be searched by others, but the running down DeLong factoid spun me. Those people are awesome and the next time some right wing dickwad starts knocking public employees I'm gonna tell him a story. But he may have come out for me much sooner.
Bed by about 3:00 am.

Sunday
Brigid makes her scones, and her brother an omelet. One for me too.

Bathe and shave him. Into the office and draft trial use section for an end user license agreement while Barry listens to Blood On The Tracks in back of me. Delightfully ordinary.
Up to ct for hour long blast which is just great, B watching and breathing heavy on a box. We take him for ice cream, drop her off and recount the whole episode to grandma on way home. So raw and tired, but the daughter wants to hang to which one should never say no . . .

Pieces

2011-03-12T21:32:00.000-08:00

"I feel like whenever I go on an adventure and I meet you, we make a little trade. I give you a little piece of me, you give me a little piece of you. Now we are different, better. We can never go back."
JWB

A good thief always tips his hat. http://www.slambovia.com/
I wish Gandalf Murphy and The Slambovia Circus of Dreams would come back to the Left Coast.

Friday, smoking 5:30 with Pradeep. Not quite crippled to start and extremely better after: "You're in the pose, if not get out, what are you doing here ?"

Saturday
I get to work six days a week now. It's ok.
Gym before:
100 swing warm-up 10+10x5 16kg
5 burpees, to push-ups (3) to twin 24kg suitcase deads
15+15 step back lunges off of box
10+10 32 kg rows
10 deck squats, 8kg to 4kg
x3
30/30 24kg swings, 20 rep pace to 1+1 tgu x 5
another 100 swings x 5 without TGU.
Sunday, nothing.
Monday
I am digging the long cycle double press work
100 16kg swing warm-up
5 double 20, 5 double 24 long cycle press, to single 32kg C&P
15+15 sls off of 12 inch platform
10 reverse pull-ups off of smith, to 5 neutral grip pull-ups, 16lb assist
10 deck squats, 8, then 4 counterbalance.
Going slow on the deck squats and thinking somersault to stand up far more effective that trying to bull my way to feet. Slow down old man.
x3
30/30 24kg swings (20 reps) x 10.
Tuesday
Three miles am then quick hit CT class. 30 second swings, 5 different weight bells each, one of 32, 28, 20, 24, 16 and even 12 for one. That to squats. 4x, 400 swings in 20.
Wednesday
Really tough Pradeep class
Thursday
Nothing
Friday
Up at 6:30 and C comes up the stairs in tears. I think her rabbits must have died or something, but no, go downstairs to see Japan has been torn apart into pieces. They are showing the tsunami hitting the Sendai airport over and over and talking about how prepared Japan is for large earthquakes. The scope is so awfully crushing; there cannot be any way to prepare for this.
They are talking about a Tsunami hitting west coast and check to see if ferry is running. It is, the inconvenience to me will be minimal as we will experience a best a mild surge.
The bouncy folk tunes that have been below the internal dialogue of late disappear and I am overwhelmed with sadness. I don't even like people that much, but this is so big and shocking and could so easily be us. Put on the rare friday suit as special mastering and must look special. The bay is flat and the morning is beautiful, just the odd tsunami warning sign at Lincoln.

Its going to be a really busy day but head in early for some gym work:
60 swing warm-up
Long cycle clean and press ladders 1-5+1-5 24kg
10+10 sls off 18 inch box;
5 then 3 assisted pull-ups, 16lbs assist
10 deck squats, usual counterbalance.
x3
30/30 20 24kg swings x 10.
Busy busy day; every time I sit down for a second of rest start to tear up. Pretty clear no one has any idea yet what the scope of this is.
Get home and the tension is so thick its palpable. C has the TV turned up way too loud and its all death and destruction in japanese. Ian is flipping out because he got rejected from yet another school, which was utterly predictable but grinds on him nonetheless, he is angry won't talk and in tears. I turn the fucking tv way back down and make Joe's Special. Ian will not come out and eat.
Watch Date Night with Brigid which is funny.
This morning. Japanese nuke plant has exploded. Two trains are missing. I got work to do and want to go to yoga first. Shelve it Dad, you have work here to do. Rose sees the blue jeans and gets frisky. Get Ian up and out into marsh. Start talking to him about taking a year off. I realize that was effectively what I did, given my abysmal first semester of college; did not get better until the Spring. Talk to him about Peace Corps, other NGO possibilities, he is warming to that. It is abundantly clear he needs to get out of the Bay Area, on his own, but not alone, and grow up as his adult role models have been less than stellar examples and it is equally clear I need to get him hooked into that. We talk and talk, take him to brunch after, he seems better.
Sigh. Into office. Three hours later, into gym for quick hit:
15/15 7 rep 16kg snatches x 60.
There are pieces of me everywhere; that ain't nothing compared to the pieces of you streaming into my den. The sadness may be overwhelming but it cannot be crippling. No one gets better then.

Radio Is Dead

2011-03-03T23:07:00.000-08:00

"Jenny said when she was just five years old
My parents are gonna be the death of us all
Two TV sets and two Cadillac cars--
Ain't gonna help us at all
Then one fine mornin' she puts on a New York station
She don't believe what she heard at all
She started dancin' to that fine fine music
You know her life was saved by Rock 'n' Roll
Despite all the amputations
You could just dance to a rock 'n ' roll station
and it was alright."
Lou Reed, Rock and Roll

Don't cry (unless you were a kdfc listener, RIP.) There is a lot of cool shit out there to take its place. www.wolfgangsvault.com. Just look at this big ol' stack of Lou Reed shows from 1973.

You know, the tour that Rock 'n Roll Animal was recorded from, with Steve Hunter. The tour where legend has it that Lou shot up on stage in Madison Square Garden during Heroin. The tour that had us teenaged kids in the mid-70's going ape shit at weekend parties, the boys playing air guitar while all the hot girls looked bored ? Yeah, that one. Youth wasted on the young. Yes, there is some folklore you do not share with the teenage son.

Lou's birthday was 3/2. He shares with Theodor Geisel aka Dr. Seuss.
For both: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ88oTITMoM&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=MLGxdCwVVULXe3joATJM-NR3b-FoWergui

The Cat In The Hat was the result of a publisher's challenge to Geisel to write a children's book using only three hundred words. He used 220. I learned that stuck in a traffic jam for two hours on 3/2, listening to NPR, on the RADIO. Fuck Clear Channel.

Tuesday. Hands still jacked up from last week. Cannot swing anything heavy or snatch, so I get to do what I really like to do, which is press heavy shit over head. I have no idea why this holds such appeal:
16 kg single arm swings 10+10 x 5 warm up

Long cycle clean and press, 5 double 20, 5 double 24, 1+1 x 2 single 32;
15+15 sls off of 12 inch box
10 reverse pull-ups off to Smith Machine, last set assisted pull ups, usual mishegas
Front squats, 10 double 16kg
x 3
That was it. Planned to get back in evening to finish off but hands ragged and bleeding, wimpering at the keyboard all day. Pathetic.
Wednesday. Left early to get to gym early, but semi dumped load of wood at civic center and I an fucked for hours. Unintended rest day. FML.
Thursday
Client meeting at 3:15.
Gym time, time to play with toys, as illustrated above:
Usual 100 rep 16kg single arm swing warm up, 10+10 x 5
Long cycle clean & press
Double 20 x 5 to double 24 x 5, x 2
sls off of box, 10+10, passive leg in front
10 + 10 32kg rows
10 deck squats, 5 8kg, then 5 4kg, be at body weight soon.
x3
Trainer Kristen (who is really good) with soft client gives the big shout out on the first set with the 20's. Honey that's the warm up set to the 24's, which are easy but I am a piece away from twin 32's. What I really want are some twin 28's so I can get to the twin 32's at my advanced age: doesn't anyone read the suggestion box ?
Fuck the fucked hands,
20 24kg swings, 1+1 tgu x 5
Last sets, do the tgu with the 20kg VIPR. The VIPR is a large rubber cylinder with an assortment of handles allowing for a variety of full body ballistic moves. It is pretty cool to look at, but really folks, they are pretty fucking light. The 20kg looks big, but the middle handle is too flimsy to actually press it, like a bu press. So the TGU's look cool, but fuckin oly bar is far better. It's kinda sad really . . .
Chill flunky. Feel the groove and breathe deep; it's Lou's song, but their groove is right on . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHRFZFmEq9o&feature=related
Pradeep tomorrow for happy hour, gonna breathe deep.

Led Zepagain

2011-02-28T23:11:00.000-08:00

"There was a feeling of no judgment, and as I glanced around the warehouse, I saw each person as an individual to be appreciated for just being himself or herself, dancing to the music."

Tony Hsieh, Delivering Happiness

Sing-A-Long type experience Thursday night. With Brigid to see Led Zep cover band, Led Zepagain at Yoshi's. Thought it a joke; kind of county fair Spinal Tap. And it was, in many respects. A very well executed, highly polished joke. Lead guitarist Steve Sukowski peeling off incendiary riffs with every guitar god pose in the book, these guys were players with a passion for the music. Add to that a camp loving audience spanning the spectrum from craggy gray-haired ex (or perhaps current) acid heads to suburban types with teenagers in tow to beer and cocktail guzzling twenty somethings who'd journeyed from Sacramento, from Stockton, Modesto and Oakdale to a rock n' roll sing a long. Guys and crowd committed to the music and it felt like a revival. Close of Stairway: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlq52mZ_zmo. Big fun.

Sunday

Marsh walk with Rose, off day. Spotted a funny looking duck from about 75 yards away heading straight toward us. At about 50 yards saw it was an otter, a very very large one. It was not shy as it swam past and popped up chattering at us. Body still felt jacked up but by Monday am, better.

Early Monday, it's Presidents' day but need to get shit done, all kinds of shit, so:

10+10x5 16kg single arm swing warm up

Presses, 5+5 20kg, then 24kg to 1+1 32kgx2

10 twin 16kg front squats

5, then 3 neutral grip pull ups, 22lbs assist

5+5 sls x 2, body weight, then 16kg bu

3x

20x5 double swings, 12/16kg alternating sides

That's it, shut it down a little short 'cause Pradeep awaits later.

Four solid hours of billables.

Pradeep at 5:30. Yee hah.

Tuesday, three miles elliptical. Site inspection at mp house gets put off for a day which fucks up the schedule, end up at the Claremont until 6:40 playing Voice of Reason.

Wednesday. Busy all day, sneak in early for:

15/15 snatches, seven rep pace x 60. Chipped bell handle completely thrashes hands, will pay for this for a while.

Thursday

Work, but bail by 4:30 to do 60 min EH, then up to Yoshi's for Led Zepagain and feed Brigid.

Friday. AM, hands are fucked from Wednesday and don't think ballistics are gonna work, but Rif has been writing about long cycle press work and that sounds ok, so:

1-5+1-5 long cycle press ladders, 24 kg

10 + 10 single leg squats off this groovy new platform

10+10 65lb dumbbell rows

Deck squats, 10; 5 8, then 5 4.

3x.

Last time I did long cycle press ladders was August 2009. My clean and press form sucked and I fucked up shoulders and elbows for a month. That little wake up call is much of the reason why I sought out ct. Better now, much. Those ladders felt awesome and no fucked up joints from poor form.
Brigid texts me in the office from the two trough loop on Burdell. She has Rose out in it per above for which I cannot be more grateful. It's very simple: you are working. You will sweat. The dog is joyful. Planned to return for round two late pm, meetings get canceled late and I can make it to Pradeep at 4:30, favorite happy hour. 60 minutes of om om om over 20 minutes of swings any day; sorry Pavel, but not really.
Saturday, walk with Rose and Ian, trying to pull him back from the edge.
Sunday
90 minute EH class. At 60 minutes slow roll of Trapeze Swinger comes through, that's gonna go for about nine minutes and then it's into Alexi Murdock which slays. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfJAh6hrCzw&feature=related. There are about 30 people, I am betting most showed up cause it was her in front. She is a very very good teacher. It's better than church.
Three hours billable, then up to ct for hour class. Knock out 200 swings fast then a good mix of press, jerk and body weight work. Brave of her focusing on jerks in class setting, new sport bells at Equinox had got me doing some practice; long cycle with 28 felt really good and floor presses with that weight felt beastly, 32 for sure next time. She busted me fast on the right knee caving in on the jerks. I can fix this with practice. As usual her form is perfect, she has no flexibility or mobility issues and it looks like she has been working hard.

Tonight. Biggest crowd for Pradeep class ever. May have been trying to prune for next week but brutal. Extended series on both sides followed by relentless plank work at end. Very very happily drenched. Om om om indeed.

Buckley has been sharing his experiences in Siberia. He put up this blog post, which resonates for many reasons. http://orangekettlebellclub.net/2011/02/23/beans-and-bologna/. Being passionate about one thing spills over into everything. I get the pleasure in simple things; taking transport to the airport, the work, the reward. The anticipation of moving iron or sweating it out on the mat improves everything up to and after; be it commute, work, or the sink full of dishes when you get home. Make no apologies for being slow on the uptake and therefore old; I have had shit I needed to do and responsibilities to meet, and will for the rest of my time. The others working hard in spite of their own bundle of constraints become the tribe; we don't know each other but we come together to breath and sweat or walk our dogs out in it. We are all working in our different ways, toward the same thing: be better. It's up to you. That's the dance.
To quote John: "You are strong, you are beautiful."
Rock on.

Blood On The Tracks

2011-02-20T11:39:00.000-08:00

"I had a job in the great north woods
Working as a cook for a spell
But I never did like it all that much
And one day the ax just fell.
So I drifted down to New Orleans
Where I happened to be employed
Workin' for a while on a fishin' boat
Right outside of Delacroix.
But all the while I was alone
The past was close behind,
I seen a lot of women
But she never escaped my mind, and I just grew
Tangled up in blue."
Bob Dylan

Can't let folksingers run internal soundtrack for long without getting 'round to Bob. Owned Blood On The Tracks on vinyl, cd and now downloaded after 80 minute blowout on Thursday, during warm down in a pool of sweat, then into yoga studio, plug into sound system, swing feet up the wall, push through heels and breathe. The last three: If You See Her, Say Hello; Shelter From The Storm; Buckets Of Rain awesome songs. Spare, timeless.
Thursday
pushups, 20/20 10 x 8, the more careful you are the harder these get. Last set (90-100) was brutal.
10 front squats, twin 16
10+10 65lb rows
5+5 sls, last 5 16kg bu
3x, 10 pu last two for a total of 100.
30 24kg swings to 1+1 TGU x 5, last 32, pretty solid.
40 then 10 swings

Picking up c and b late, suggestions to take an earlier flight ignored. Roll out of gym by 9 after great Dylan infused cool-down, Perbacco awaits. Excellent Barbera, roasted beet salad, Tortelli; can't say it enough, god I love this town. Sweet bartender full of knowing smiles as I drink my way through about two quarts of water and one glass of wine. Glow dims quickly sitting in the Millbrae BART lot for 70 minutes waiting for a late plane.
Friday
60 min yoga at noon, little rocky, very late night and triceps feeling smoked.
Saturday
Cold, pouring rain. "Quick" drive to pick up Ronnie Law's band takes all day; but great people. Vernell Brown, Jr. an absolute hoot, had never been to sf and was like a kid. Can play too . . . here he is with Kenny Garrett . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHIiBewagOQ

Sitting in car all day not conducive to good bio-mechanics. I feel like shit but force it into gym any way for 4th circuit training session of the week. Questionable decision goes like:
16kg swing warm-up, 10+10 x 5, straight.
Burpees to two push-ups to suitcase deads, twin 24 x 8
12 step back lunges, 18 lb. medicine ball press opposite active leg
5, 3 neutral grip pull-ups 22 lbs assist
6+6 single leg deads, 16kg
3x
none of that feels good, nervous system feels fried and body jacked up. DOMS at triceps; swings or snatches would be a mistake;
10 TRX rows
10 80lb bicep curls
10 delt flys, feet up, 30lbs
20 35lb skier plate swings.
3x
Delt flys feel awkward and weird over a year since I have done and it shows. Even curls feel like crap, so much for four a week. Feel like roadkill; rest day tomorrow.
Buckets of moonbeams in my hands.

Fractious

2011-02-16T21:50:00.000-08:00

"1. Easily irritated; bad-tempered: "they fight and squabble like fractious children."
Some internet dictionary.

I've always liked that word.

Friday 2/11. Arm and shoulder hammering early am workout:
100 16kg swing warm up, 10+10 x 5;
20 decline pushups, feet up on bench
10 90lb barbell squat to press
10+10 65lb rows
10 deck squats , 8kg then 4kg counterbalance
3x
Coach Dos circuit, 16kg
x3

Mid thoracic spine feels mildly hinky after the 100 swing warm-up and sitting at desk all day not helping. Head to Pradeep for pm, but it does not feel there; bail after five minutes, leave it for another day. He comes up concerned; so'k, my friend.
Saturday, plan on MH 90 minutes after driving b and c to airport. But c reminds me of Ian's rehearsal sched and we did not wake him up and he has his phone off, so he will sleep right through it; have to race back. Sure enough he is still out. Roust and he gets there on time, or 25 minutes late, which seems to be the same thing. Walk ecstatic dog instead, not really instead, would have been in addition to.
Sunday
Dogwalk and watch in amazement as Ian consumed 1200 calorie breakfast. Run around, into sf for ct class. Good heavy double cleans and deck squats better still.

Monday
Back to Pradeep and this goes great; but tired, not sleeping well at all.
Tuesday
Long ass day after little sleep. Wake up stressed at 1:15 am and it's no good toss and turn. Up at 6:20, dropping Ian in the dark.
Long day and bail to gym.
10+10 x 3 16kg warm up.
Press gets 5+5 20, 24, 1+1x2 32
5+5 sls, second round 16kg bu
10 reverse pull ups off of smith
10 deck squats
3x
60 swings and shut it down, too tired
Dinner at Kokkari w ct for her bday. Good food and company; she left the fish head.

I am not fractious by nature; it is an arrow in the quiver. The only time I get there is if you are a dick. We could have been business buds, chatted about the kids, gotten shit done.
But no. You had to be a dick. I'm gonna go get a good lunch, and bury you in a few days, when I get back around to this matter.

Looking forward to MH 5:15 all day, but phone late kills it. Gonna be a rest day. Catch the 6:25, pick up B at grandma's. She feeds us, and we head back up.
Pull into wf to buy juice for am. B wants to stay in car: "music."

Slip in GD, "I Know You Rider."

"I wish I was a headlight, on a northbound train." B in full music mode, heavy breathing, arms wide, rocking back and forth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebWm_76riIc

I love this shit; rather love you all. Sap that way.

You're Shining; I Can See You . . .

2011-02-10T20:52:00.000-08:00

"You're smiling, that's enough"
Shawn Colvin, Diamond in The Rough

Sing it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdvRcFd-tGg

Shawn coopted internal dialogue this week. Used to having a song "stuck in the head." But for a few days after Friday she set up shop in the temporal lobes. Rolled out the carpet, pulled up a chair, there she was in the living room between my ears. That place is reserved for a handful on an extended basis: Townes, Guy Clark, Gillian Welch, the Roche Sisters, Tom Rush, Steve Earle, Dave Frishberg, Pete Seeger. And now Shawn. Come on in; welcome, and thank you for making my skin crawl.

Sunday was a walk in the marsh, a Costco run and a dog bath. Nada mas, but the stupid bowl had to be watched. Crap food had to be eaten. Two beers had to be consumed. Go Pack. The 49er's passed on Aaron Rogers in favor of Alex Smith ? You must be fucking kidding me.

Chill, sportstalk flunky. Monday, 90 minutes of Pradeep. Had planned all day for kettlebells, but after 9 hours, (6.2 billable) could not resist the opportunity to be guided by someone who will make me better. Always a sweatfest; this no exception. Smoking combinations for 45, then dial it back, and ramp up the core work at the end. Folks with very very strong practices laid out quivering on the mat at the end; me in a puddle. His classes are art.
Tuesday. Reply brief with supporting declarations in. Done, gone, and dusted. Gym late, still sore from Pradeep and it showed:
warmup, 100 single arm swings, 10+10x5 16kg, no breaks.
Pressfest:
5+5 20kg, 5+5 alternating 24, to 1+1x2 32.
The 32's go but are dicey.
10 twin 16kg front squats
5+3 neutral grip pullups, 22lbs assist
10 deck squats, 8, then 4kg counterbalance. These getting much better.
3x
Swings, 20 24kg to 1+1 24 kg tgu x 5
'cept last tgu was 32. Left side an adventure in epic fail. Coming up shoulder clearly not sucked down and arm too far out. 70lbs comes down fast and slams into the mat; trainers had the courtesy not to look up. Try again and fly up. Got lucky, learned something without injury.
after 50/30/20 24kg swings, one arm work now with 24 pretty damn strong.
Today weird lunch with weird new partner. Bail to 5:15 mh. Waiting in line, very cute very young chinese gal starts chatting. Model buddy next to her rolls her eyes at "oh what do you do for your upper body strength." I am old, not stupid. I tell her kettlebells and she looks blank. Go breathe deep and come back in ten years. MH class is good, just the right amount of juice after Monday and Tuesday.

7:05 boat, scotch. Get to car and Terri Gross is interviewing Rodney Crowell. He talks about hanging with Townes and Guy Clark. Liked him since being turned on in New Mexico, 1983 by That Woman. Doubly so after HSB in 2006, when one of his two lead guitarists, young gunslinger Jedd Hughes, blew up the stage with black Telecaster pyrotechnics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8euVaHyIOc&feature=related. They did this, like Shawn, Rodney takes a cover and makes it original. It occurs to me, late as usual perhaps 30 years or so, that there is no need to limit the talents that set up shop in your head. The capacity to enjoy art is as limitless as the capacity to love your children (or your dog.) It is as limitless as your ability to do things well and make yourself stronger, healthier. It is as limitless as the universe itself, whether above you, or just part below the foot pressing hard into earth,, feeling all of it and missing nothing.

Go To The Late Show . . .

2011-02-05T13:56:00.000-08:00

"But I had a dream last night
Of lovers who walked the plank
Out on the edge of time
Amidst ridicule
They laughed as they rocked and reeled
Over the mining fields
Coming to rest on this ship of fools
But he just took polaroids
Of her smile in the light
Of the dawn of the menacing sky
And before they went overboard
She turned and held up a card
And it said Valentine."
Polaroids, Shawn Colvin

From: http://www.musicbabylon.com

The above looks like a decapitated At-At Walker . . . Back in SF, SOMA not NOMA but it makes no difference. SOMA by office is blown up due to Transbay Terminal construction but it's really cool. Road Warrior meets Class A office, glass height and no operable windows. High speed elevators and lots of good food. Walking around at lunch yesterday over-joyed at being here. Three blocks from the bay. KO so happy; this is much much better.
More office time is required which means the physical part is harder than ever. Do nothing on Sunday, not even a dog walk. But frankly pretty fucking sore from Saturday's blowout, which is unusual.
Monday
Pradeep's 6:30 which is 90 minutes of focused work. We have a signing ceremony at 5:00, opt for Pellagrino not champagne. New partner JA is there in his Stanford workout shorts and Tai Kwon Do sweatshirt, which makes me feel even better about the whole thing. Completely drenched after Pradeep.
Tuesday
Lots of office time and then up to ct for 6:45 small group:

5 clean and press 5+5 alternating MP, 20kg, 24 for last
6+6 snatches
10+10 one arm swings 16kg
x 8
Last set up to to twins 24's and 20 on snatched and swings, should have been there the whole time
Wednesday
Two miles in am and then late MH class.
Thursday, nothing.
Friday
In early. Week has been stressful and diet not so good, not feeling real strong. Start with 10+10 16g one arm swings x 5.
on to main event . . .
Presses, clean 20kg, 24kg doubles and do alternating mp 5+5
1+1 32kgx2
10 front squats, twin 16kg
10 reverse pull-ups, slow slow down
10 deck squats, 8, then 4 kg for counterbalance.
3x
32kg swings 15/15, 10 reps x 5
24kg swings, fifty straight
32 kg swings, 20/10/20
24kg swings, 30/20

Better. Long day . . .
Leave at 5:30 to go drive Shawn Colvin to her gig. She says nothing save hello and her tour manager is a loud cheerful sort who shields Shawn through force of her own personality. Sitting in the designated high chair, first set is a pleasant heartstabbing.
Susan S meets for second, and we are guided to seats close front off to the right. Shawn comes out; she is in profile and we can see down the neck of her guitar. Her hands on the strings, her lovely profile and the mike make a perfect triangle. Set list is completely different than first set; doubling up only for a Tom Waits tune I can't remember the name of. She is warming up and after 15 minutes she looks at the set list, makes a little face and asks folks what they want to hear. From there on out its magic. She picks up Tennessee http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XyuzyvvyUM&feature=related, Polaroids, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TumnvSZsuTA&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL Shotgun Down The Avalanche, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1PlP6_9siM&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL covers of You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go and Talking Heads This Must be The Place http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5ChC_n5JZY&feature=related. She leans back, closes her eyes, and the songs pour out. The audience is dead silent until a song finishes, then it erupts. She is laying back and feeding off it, and the second set stretches to 90 minutes plus, completely different musical experience. She finishes her three song encore on a duet with Mary Anne ? doing James Taylor's You Can Close Your Eyes. She does not play Sunny Came Home again, for which we are appreciative.

Today, drive around all day picking up and dropping off the spawn. Go out at dusk, for 30 minutes
15/15 16kg snatches, seven rep pace, x 60.

Late, feed Brigid and the friend. It's 9:50 and Ian needs collection, drive down, he hops in radiant from a day of Halo and teenage conversation. I have Shawn tripping on Polaroids, still glowing. He listens thoughtfully for a moment: "You mind if I put on Whipping Post" Uh, no son. I don't mind a bit listening to Duane and Dicky rip it up. From there it falls to Iron & Wine and Trapeze Swinger and as usual I try to downplay the tears.
Oh, the late show.

I don't know no love songs, but I can't sing the blues anymore . . .

Why Are You Here ?

2011-01-29T20:57:00.000-08:00

"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

2011-01-23T20:48:00.000-08:00

"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

2011-01-19T23:42:00.000-08:00

"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 . . .

2011-01-14T22:25:00.000-08:00

"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

2011-01-08T22:42:00.000-08:00

"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

Wrapping It Up

2010-12-31T22:03:00.000-08:00

"Don't you love farce, my fault I fear"
Send In The Clowns, Stephen Sondheim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-VXXZLh2a0&feature=related

Stewart and Sondheim leave me floored. http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-december-16-2010/9-11-first-responders-react-to-the-senate-filibuster.
It is that time of year. Time for lists. Wrap ups; body counts. Who did what well, and who not so much.
Good Stuff:

Carolina Chocolate Drops at HSB
Stanley Jordan
Roy Hargrove
Betty Buckley
Leo Kottke
Kitaro
Pradeep
Ericka
ct
Rose in the Marsh with Ian
Any time spent with Brigid
Up In The Air
Kettlebells

Yoga
Barry's weight loss and progress in taking over his showers

Your good sense in seeking professional help when required

Not so good
That shitty yoga sub recently
Shuttering JMB
Lot of really good and one big really not so good; except change is. Its gonna happen; you can drive it or have it forced upon you. Don't forget that.
Goals at the beginning: (1) be amused often; (2) don't use I and me so much. Met the former, latter less so.
Goals now:
Do whatever you need to make this work, but don't compromise what you know is right
Drink more water, less wine
32kg bu press before end of year
36kg press
walk the dog more
get Ian transitioned
Spend all the time you can with Brigid and B, will be less though it needs to be more and don't beat yourself up about that.
get better at everything you do

Sunday
CT class, starts with minute of swings to 30 sec rest x 10. Pounded and good mobility work after.
Monday, nothing, except feet up the wall. Then headstands.
Tuesday
Presses
5+5 20, 4+4 24, 1+1x2 32
10 front squats, twin 16 in rack
Pullups, 5 28lbs assist, to 3 22
20 tactical lunge, 16kg
x3
20 24kg swings to 1+1 TGU
x5
50 24kg swings x 2
Nothing Wednesday except a shitload of work
Thursday, good, no great, ct class, doing a bunch of stuff would otherwise not.
Today, marsh walk and running around most of the day with Ian. So fucking cold.
Tomorrow, 120 minute MH ny class. Start it off right with sweat and heavy breathing; in your dreams.
HNY. This promises to be very interesting.

Urban Nomad

2010-12-25T22:20:00.000-08:00

"Commuter: one who spends his life In riding to and from his wife; A man who shaves and takes a train, And then rides back to shave again."
E.B. White

Self-described as in title for past 30 months. Determined adherence to public transport resulted in one long ass commute for a big chunk of time.
In three working days (or at least office days; they are all working days) gonna lop at least 30 minutes off that sucker each way, an hour a day.

What will you do with that hour ?

Tuesday. MH stiff guy late. Been a long time since MH class and we are gonna spend an hour on hamstrings. It is slow and anyone who has done this for any time knows slow is much harder if one is paying attention. No cheating with momentum or swift changes. Has us in high lunge, weight on front and straight liftoff to warrior three, arms back along body, elevated leg straight back, toes to the back wall and weight bearing straight, rooting down through the heel; this is a hamstring class folks. That all goes awesome and he mutters "nice dt" as he goes by but turns shaky coming out straight up with foot now out front. It is one of the best things about yoga, moments of complete mastery followed seconds later by moments of complete clodhood. Hey, that's like a lot of life "duh;" all in all really good class.
Wednesday. Insanely busy this week which is right how I like it. Going to 6:00 and could easily bail but not gonna happen. Go in like this
Burpee to three pushups to suitcase deads, twin 24, x5
10 front squats, twin 16 in rack
10+10 rows, 65lb dumbbell
30 forward lunges, body weight
x3
2+2TGU x 2 24kg
Coach Dos circuit, 16kg
x2
Going really slow on the TGU. Kid a bit more than half my age comes up; digs the TGU. He is very fit but no Kbell experience. He picks up the TGU quick and I've heard it taught so manner times can fall into the patter fast. Trainers and clients stop to watch, bridge, leg swipe, ankle knee hand in line, swipe back from there its a lunge, up, keep shoulder sucked down and back down. He is pretty happy and I give him ct's name to google and fix whatever I've done to him; it feels good to be old and have young guy coming up for pointers.
Thursday, home but working. Pact with Ian and Rose is 7:45 walk and it is just butt ass cold in the marsh, phone says 38 degrees. Starts going off at 7:50 and I am one of those assholes on the phone out in nature but I gotta do this. Walk takes over two hours stopping for calls and emails and Ian is fit to be tied. Tough shit kid; I explain to him why it is important and he chills a bit. We head to 4th street for Christmas shopping but I am working all the time. Brigid can't stand the folkart craft type stuff but lights up when I buy her an eight pound shot to practice with and she lobbies hard for a heavy bag; that's my girl. Get home, spend three hours getting tree up, 48 hours to spare. They are older now and say they don't care anymore - I know better.
Friday. Haul everyone over to Berkeley and Telegraph ave for shopping. Fuck the malls, let's do this. They have a ball. In and out of record stores and macabre t shirt stalls, C having fun with the artists. Barry wowed. Back at 3:00 and pass out for 40 minute, after picking up one more round of guest animals, a terrified cat and a meek chihuahua puppy for Brigid to bond with.
An hour later, contemplating a scotch. Don't do it: do something else first:
warm up with ten dolphin to dolphin plank, 10+10 16kg one arm swings x 3
Presses
5+5 24kg to 1-3 28kg ladders
10 16kg bootstrap squats
10+10 28kg rows
10 24kg goblet squats
First circuit sucks, really bad. I fail on the first 28kg single. If you are not gonna pay attention, go sit on the couch and drink scotch; you can't skate your way through 28kg press ladders at age 51 so be mindful. Drill it down through the ball of the foot. Pay attention to your eyes. Better and by the third circuit MUCH better.
Fry my ass swing session, 45/35, 30 rep pace, 24kg x 10.
Good roast chicken dinner and wrapping.
This morning. Unwrapping joy.
Into marsh early pm. Ian and I with Rose. It is dumping hard. We are huddled under the massive umbrella, wet and walking. I am reminded of last year on the 24th, when I pulled out of the parking lot at Target to see otters rocketing out of the western edge. Where is my peak experience ? Yes, how will you wow me now ? But no real expectation.
We are on the last leg. We are soaked with the dog ecstatic. On the eastern edge of the Rowland cinema parking lot there is a sweet little ecotome. In 100 feet we go from Cattails to Willows to Alder. Beyond that are railroad tracks, blackberries, asphalt, and 13 mediocre movies. It is Christmas, the parking lot is full, but we have not seen another soul, save MMWD guy making double over time checking the stability of the levees in this deluge.
We are 200 yards from the asphalt when Ian points out the flash of wings from a pair of Green Herons. We look closer and it slowly dawns on us we are seeing something awesome. Stacked in that thin band between water and popcorn are at least two dozen Green and Black Crowned Night Herons. They are hunkered down against the weather, in this most meager of shelter. Ian starts the count out. He stops at 15 but that is just what we see easy. He asks, "where is your good camera." For years he has chastised me about the time it takes to stalk the shot and here we are, in the rain, with only a fucking Iphone 4 and what is nothing less than the Serenghetti on a good day. And he wants to know, despite the wet, mud and discomfort, where is the long lens. Thank you my son, my thoughts exactly. We walk the track though we can't wait for shelter. We flush half the flock and catch some shitty video. I go home and roast awesome pork and feed the fam. I am going to remember this day forever; the day Brigid gave me a Grateful Dead T-Shirt and B wore his mask and Ian and I got cold and wet.
I love all of you.
I mean it, so here is this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uUHjfamdFo
Merry whatever you choose this time to be.

Teenagers

2010-12-20T23:36:00.000-08:00

"What's so Funny 'bout Peace, Love and Understanding ?"
Nick Lowe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7txCdLCP9U&feature=related

In the thick of it, surrounded. They are big, but still kids. Funny as hell. Someone said to me this week, it's awesome they are engaged in critical thinking. Why should they not be; their parents are educated. Many educated parents I was told, they just don't care.
Don't care ? Why did you wipe their asses, pick them up, drop them off, hug them when they were screaming in the night, sing to them, read with them and now watch for the sly cue. Teenagers are not a hassle, they are a joy. They are the culmination of whatever you did before so if you got a problem look in the mirror. Can't enjoy it, your loss.

Brigid turned 15 yesterday, sigh.

Tuesday, 15/15 16kg snatches, seven rep pace x 50.

Wednesday, three miles and a bunch of gtg stuff on single/twin 20kg jerks
Thursday, do this, do it now
10 front squats, twin 16's in rack
MP, 5+5 20, 4+4 24, 1+1x2 32
5+5x2 sls, 16kg bu on second fives
5+3 assisted pull-ups, 28 then 22
3x
Swings
15/15 10 32 x 5x2
alternate with 50 24kg
Friday, nothing. Head mining and gotta get back to carpool the freshman girls to lousy ass local college basketball game. Its fun, I'd take those kids anywhere. I am the only adult to stay save the coach. Local team getting killed. Girls mildly interested.
Saturday
Marsh walk with Ian and the dog in the spitting rain. Pull in to coffee shop to take warmth with, flat tire. Changing in the mall parking lot, beats the hell out of having it go the night before in the pouring rain on the freeway with a car full of teenaged girls.
Brigid B ball, she sits until 2 minutes left, comes on, scores four, they win by four. Wake up.
Later, bring it:
10 24kg goblet squats
1-5 24kg press ladders, both sides
20 16kg tactical lunges
10+10 28 kg rows
3x
20 24kg swings
1+1 tgu
x5
30 28 kg swings x 2
20 28kg swings x 2
Listening to Choctow Bingo
Sunday
Brigid's Bday at John's. He cooks mean prime rib and we eat way too much red meat and drink too much red wine.

She is 15 now. Hold on, we are going for a ride.
Today.
Teenagers are out of school which means I can get in early.
Two miles in am, then to gtg bu practice.
Maybe it's the red meat night before, but throw up a clean 24kg bu mp left. New and big PR. JH working with a client nearby mutters nice after it was real close a minute earlier. Practice 32kg bu cleans on the right, they are sticking, it is only a matter of time before 70lbs goes upside down over the head.
Fucking grind of a day. There is no going out slow; barely time to breathe and fly out late. Missed Pradeep class, ok, circuit sessions, go
20/20 10 pushups x 8
10 twin 16 front squats
Pullups, 5 28lb assist , 3 22lb
20 16kg tactical lunges
x3
15/15 10 rep 32kg swings
25x4 24 kg swings
15x2 32kg swings
One set 20's
Halfway through all that, Costello comes on in the gym, doing Nick Lowe's tune above. I never plug in anymore, too dangerous. So good music is a fluke, great is a gift.
Get home. Upstairs to watch Buffy Season 4 with Brigid. Barry slides in and we are curled up comfy.
I'll take it. Yeah, they are a real pain.
Nick when he was young; feeling it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBzL6_jagmA

Quality Movement

2010-12-14T00:02:00.000-08:00

"Ain't no power in the 'Verse can stop me . . ."
River Tam, Firefly, War Stories

Saturday afternoon pull up to the Hotel Tomo. A dozen cheerful Cubans are milling about on the sidewalk, members of the wildly popular charanga group, Los Van Van. Supposed to drive leader, JF, across the bay to KPFA. Band members seem to be living on Sutter street, 'cause they all smoke and can't do it in their hotel rooms.
Fifteen minutes in the white zone, no sign of JF. A tall young man sticks his head in the window and says he is the manager. He knows nothing about any interview; he and two others are going to lunch. He stalks off authoritatively down Sutter; they are done with any interview.
Two much older men with two women come up and smile politely. The men are shabbily dressed. The women look bored. They speak no english. After a good-natured round of sidewalk charades I figure out they want to go to Walmart to buy pants. The nearest Walmart is miles away. Since we are not going to KPFA, I can run them up to Jeff's Jeans at 16th and Geary. This is purely selfish; that store is run by a rapacious russian grandmother and the prospect of her and these Cuban gentlemen together is too much to resist. I tell 'em I know a place; they clap appreciatively and we are off.
We pull away from the curb; call comes in from transpo coordinator. I explain about no notice no interview, and the shopping trip. He says no side trips. Right, no side trips. Fuck it, we are on our way. My passengers get this and stay quiet giggling and murmering "special driver, special driver." The phone rings again two minutes later and I am told to haul it back to Tomo to talk to the manager, Hugo, about the interview. We abort the unauthorized shopping excursion but the warm hand on my shoulder confirms no hard feelings.
White zone for another ten minutes until manager Hugo comes out. Hugo is not the guy lunching on Fillmore. Hugo tells me to sit tight, JF is up in his room. They are trying to convince him to come down for the interview. I sit in the white zone trying to figure out if 7% is usurious, may as well bill some time.
Hugo reappears after ten minutes. Interview is supposed to start in five. He advises no interview, JF is not feeling well. Thank you very much. Let transpo guy know. Sit in white zone a bit longer, doing email.
Hugo comes racing back out, JF is eating, he will be down in five minutes.
Ten minutes later, five Cubans pile into the van. Young short guy says he is the manager, Javier. They will go now to the interview. I call transpo guy: "we are off to KPFA." "You have JF ?" "Maybe, I have five, three guys and two women but I have no idea if any are JF. I do have the third guy who claims to be manager in the last hour, Javier." 45 seconds later, get the call. Too late for KPFA. Ok. I have been at this for 90 minutes. I have driven about ten blocks. I have met three guys who claim to be manager, and two guys who want to buy pants. I may or may not have met JF.
I drop them off, they smile and waive appreciatively.
Time for some research. I google JF. I get pictures, I have not met him today. I read an NYT review of the Los Van Van show on Tuesday night in NY. JF was not there. JF may not be here either.

I am wondering if JF even made it on the flight from Cuba.

Come back around 7:00 to get them to the gig. They pile in. Walmart pants guy is looking very very sharp. Leather jacket, silk slacks and carrying a guitar case like he was borne attached to it. His jeans run pal is in a white linen suit. White linen nods that it is ok and hands me his trombone case to put in back while he helps the turned out ladies with their spike heels into the van. He has the sort of grace only older Latin Gentlemen can pull off. There is a guy off to the side in white jeans and a windbreaker who looks at me and waves quickly; it's JF.
We get to the club. Hand trombone guy his case after he makes sure the ladies are safely out. Guitar/Walmart pants guy clasps my forearm and puts his arm around my shoulder: "if no see you again, very nice to meet."
It's late and I can't stay for the set. Catch first few tunes, they pop.
Get home and watch TV with Brigid. Ian comes out around 11:00 and asks me what I think of Assange. I say Assange is a total dick; but you ought to hear Los Van Van. He grins and we talk about the First Amendment, the role of government, expectations, naivete and danger. Then we watch Bored to Death. Not.
Wednesday, nothing save meet with new partners.
Thursday
20 incline pushups. 10+10, one foot up and switch.
10+10 Bulgarian split squats,
5 + 3 neutral grip pull-ups, 28/22 lbs assist
20 Skier plate swings, 45lb plate. Had not done for at least a year, 35 way too light.
3x
Coach Dos circuit
10+10 woodchoppers, 35, slow, deliberate, and hard. Watch angle of arms, shoulders locked down, extend fully and way out, no cheat.
3x.
Great workout.
Friday
Work, then head mining, exhausting.
Gonna go do this anyway, 60 minutes Pradeep. It's a pretty easy class but I am rung out and psychically spent. I can only hold Crow for three long breaths, and Pradeep comes over runs his hand down my back and chants softly. That and "you have all you need, do this" gets me through but it is rough. Head to Japantown to meet the Cubans; delightful people, single scotch and home.
Saturday
Good walk with Ian early, and Brigid B-ball. Her coach does not realize her talent; he is mired in small town bullshit politics that dribble all the way down to frosh girls basketball. She is at the 105th percentile in PE. She has killed the district competition in field events at the District level three years running and been at the top in County for two. She can't wait for her PE final tomorrow, she says school records will fall. But he has her on the bench cause he has known the parents of the starters all his life. I am going to straighten him out, gently. It will not involve heavy iron, I think, maybe. It might if necessary.
Sunday
Marsh walk with 5 and Dina and the dogs. Dina is tripping over her dog baby; 5 is telling her to breathe deep and I am trying not to laugh. Office for four hours, then into CT at 6:30.
Now this is good. She has been in a z seminar for four days. We focus on micro movements, yeah I am strong but I cannot even find my fucking ankle joint for two minutes. We do press work and eye position and I am pumped. G pays attention to me and I am grateful. He points out swing problems, I am froggy at the knees due to turned out ankles, and its worse with the lighter swings and he is a real help.
CT has us doing what the z folks call ball of the foot circles. Very similar to MH instruction on one foot stuff in yoga. But screwing the foot into the floor coupled with oppositional eye movement applied to heavy presses really works. At the end of class I throw up the 32 right, and that is better but still muscled through. But 32 left goes up like helium, even though I feel farther out and further back than I would have thought comfortable. Pop. Wow.
Today.
Long long office day filled with transition drama. I adore ko, her competence and sincere desire to save me from myself. She has helped me for so long, and she has been through so much. That we have not communicated clearly (or at all) gives me a fair amount of pain. Recurrent theme.
Pradeep late. Just bring it. It is hard, stay strong. Extended plank stuff (he really digs that), screwing arms into the floor, he is saying "push the floor away." I am doing the same thing with my arms we were doing with feet the day before. Drill it down and push up; you sink into nothing. Crazy strong and gloriously wrung out at the end.

You have this body, you have this head. The body feels so simple; head, not so much. And that is simply a function of training. It's the same thing; figure it out. You have all you need. Do this.

Unsquare Dance

2010-12-07T22:24:00.000-08:00

"We don't know the power that's within our bodies"
Dave Brubeck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwNrmYRiX

Dave turned 90 yesterday. Still playing; just finished three nights at the Blue Note.
Jay had Time Further Out when we were growing up. As a kid in elementary school I'd spend evenings curled up with the cat listening to that one and Monk's Dream. Take Five is not on Time Further Out but could not find a complete video of Unsquare Dance, my favorite from that album. Happy B-Day Dave, very glad you are still with us.

Tuesday, nothing. Grinding.
Wednesday, more grinding then gym late like:
10 twin 16kg front squats
MP 5+5x20, 4+4x24, 1+1x2 32
sls 5+5bw, 5+5 16kg in rack bu
10+10 65lb dumbbell rows
Front squats loaded were great, had stumbled upon mc's blog post with (now former RKC) ww demoing http://www.begin2dig.com/2008/08/kettlebell-front-squat-micro-master.html and have shied away since aggravated disc injury three years ago last March with cute little12kgs. Twin 16's are now fine, stay tight and no hint of a problem. Rack position beats Goblet squats every time; much more natural to keep chest up and shoulders down, particularly with my stiff shoulders;
3x
15/15 10 32kg swings, 1+1 24kg tgu x 5
50 24 kg swings
15/15 10 32kg swings x5
50 24kg swings
Need longer swing sets, and the 50's good.

Thursday, two miles
Friday, ramped up work/head fest and Pradeep is teaching in Hawaii, nothing.
Grinding all weekend for arb Monday. Sitting at table all day, force up for Saturday snatch fest
15/15 seven rep pace, 16kgx52
Take Ian in for 10:00 Mike Stern show. Anthony Jackson, Randy Brecker. Wow. Ninety minutes of non-stop blow it out. Yeah guys, we are gonna take you for a ride, and they did. I'd heard Stern compared to Jeff Beck, but that does Stern a huge disservice. No way Jeff plays like that; have not heard anyone play like that, turns Miles' Jean Pierre from a slow grind to a blow out romp. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICZHgTh5pi8&feature=related. I like it both ways; Miles with a young Marcus Miller. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSKow6i0qiY&feature=related
Ian and Mike look like soulmates . . .

Scary ya ?
More Mike.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7IOqS4nxnQ
Nothing Sunday but work and rain, plan 5 walk by 4 but its raining and only half through prep so Rose gets screwed and I stay dry.
Monday, up very early after little sleep. Out to Walnut Creek for arb. NPR piece on stress reduction and breathing, nothing new but good to be spoon fed. http://www.npr.org/2010/12/06/131734718/just-breathe-body-has-a-built-in-stress-reliever.
Seven hours of arb. Garrulous witness on direct, but crosses really tight and hopefully effective, won't know until February but it was fun.
Fried walking out but head in for workout. Not a good idea. I start with a few cleans but the kettlebells don't seem like a good idea; cortisol and adrenaline is a bad cocktail. Head into what would be Pradeep's class but he is doing retreat work in Hawaii so there is a sub I don't like the looks of. Class one of the worst exercise experiences of my life. Music too loud, guy talking way too fast and too soft. Half the time he was talking to the floor and the other half to the walls. Trying to keep up with disembodied hyper-mumbling overlain by synthesized middle-eastern music. In corpse pose white boy starts chanting, skip it dude. I want to throw sweaty towels at him; I did not think it was possible to leave a class more stressed at the end than the beginning, but he achieved it.
Get home late and bark at Ian, not good. I am unhappy cause spent 16 hours working in family room all weekend and no one even looks up when I walk in. C finally asks how it went at about 11:30. What the fuck did you expect David? Flowers and a parade ? No, but some interest would have been nice.
Get up very early and cook Ian's potluck contribution to try to make myself feel better.
Today. Pick up all the shit I have not done for four days or longer.
Gym. I want this to be good, was, after a bit:
10 front squats, twin 16
5+5 20kg, 4+4 24kg, 1+1 32kgx2
10+10 step back lunges, twin 12kg
pull-up, 5, 28lbs assist, 3 22lbs
Presses, bad to start. As bad as they were good the week before, at least the 32, can always get through the lead up, 32 is where rubber hits road. But I know its not strength but form. Cracks me up when left is easier, that's a lesson. Get serious and by third circuit its going up much better both sides.
Assist on pullups programming in movement; basically gtg circuit.
15/15 32kg swings, ten reps x 5;
50 24kg swing
x2.
Uh-huh. 7:20 boat. Watching John Stewart re-runs while dog snores and Brigid works. Bliss; we don't know the power, but it sure is nice nice to find it. Don't take it for granted.

Awesome

2010-11-30T21:38:00.000-08:00

"Nothing to tell now, let the words be yours, I am done with mine."
Cassidy, John Perry Barlow

The Dead playing it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH8aPu-W_ZM
Barlow on it. http://www.litkicks.com/BarlowOnNeal

Awesome are all the people who post good covers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdckin2EnEI; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w_Y6xgzN2E; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RycKSb1mxsw
Awesome is good writing from people who I'd otherwise have no access to. http://authenticstrengthtrainer.blogspot.com/2010_08_04_archive.html
Awesome is all the easily accessible nostalgic shit that reminds me I grew up in a great time. See Cassidy above.
Awesome are smart people use social media well. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=100000035362998#!/OfficialElizaDushku
Awesome is being able to respond to a post, and meet world class artists as a result. http://www.yoshis.com/sanfrancisco
Awesome is watching folks just stretch out and serve up good info, unpacking their heads in public. http://www.begin2dig.com/

Awesome is the random connection. Like AP's blog. http://amypagnotta.blogspot.com/ I found it about eight months ago, trolling. It was late; I was kinda drunk. I liked her photos and layout and the way she put things. AP seems to do many things, all of them quite well, but I think her day job is journalist/producer. We exchange some comments back and forth and become casual virtual acquaintances. I send her stuff like Guy Clark video and Richard Brautigan readings and she has not blocked me yet. (And as cool as the below is, read AP's post from 11/26: " in sickness, figure it out yourself. in health, we may chat" gasp, hard left to the gut . . .)
Last week she throws out on her comments: hey, I'm interviewing Salman Rushdie, what do I ask him ? I suggest a couple of softballs to get him talking, like "what makes you optimistic ?" So she uses it and gets a thoughtful response which resonates with moi, deeply. To quote her post:

"i got to chat with him for 45 minutes in a closed room with just my camera guy. it was awesome. we talked about all kinds of things including my favourite subject- whether or not an objective reality actually exists... fellow lion david barry wanted to know what rushdie's optimisitc and pessimistic about and he gave the following answer:

I studied history and one of the things you learn as a historian is that the future is never what you think it's gonna be. You can be optimistic about the future and a calamity is around the corner. You can be pessimistic about the future and things turn out much better than you expect. The truth is, the only thing you don't know is what's going to happen because what really happens is always an amazement. If you think about the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, I would guarantee that twelve months before that, nobody could've forecast it would've happened. There was this thing which looked like a solid tyranny standing there with a whole apparatus of repression and gulags and the KGB and this and that, you know, and then suddenly one day poof, it blows away like wind. I mean the surprise of the collapse of the Soviet Union is sort of what I'm talking about. History surprises you. Right now I think, for instance, it's quite easy to look at the future and think that the world is a bit bleak right now, and that things are not going very well. It's a world of great conflict and disagreement and argument, dissention, it's a world of intolerance and bigotry and so on. It's easy to see all that corruption and easy therefore to think that things'll just get worse. But actually, they may get much worse than we fear [he laughs]. Or they may get much better. In a way, it's an optimistic thing: you cannot foresee the future. There's a famous old, in the days that Marxism was fashionable, there was this woderful phrase where what you were supposed to have was pessmimism of the itellect and optimism of the will. And I think that's a perfectly reasonable position. You can be gloomy about how you think things are going but you should be optimistic about your ability to affect them.

So how fucking awesome is that ? A bit drunk late one night I stumble on a smart person's blog and get to, as a result, in effect, ask Salman Rushdie a question ? And his answer, including: "The truth is, the only thing you don't know is what's going to happen because what really happens is always an amazement" is pretty much what I live on these days; I don't walk around spinning in circles but I have been absolutely amazed at some of the events of the past few years and am completely optimistic, in the face of some damning evidence to the contrary, that I can effect positive change. Why should it be otherwise ? As Barlow says above: "Some things don't change. People die. Others get born to take their place. Storms cover the land with trouble. And then, always, the sun breaks through again."
Can we "like" this any more ? I think not.

Saturday, still at Dillon beach and its a rainy day. Up in the sun room napping and watching Barry work on a puzzle. It's a lazy day, but force it out to the garage in the cold dark for:
15/15 16kg seven rep pace x 50, snatches. 25 minutes of straight snatch work that goes really really well.
Sunday, two hours of clean-up out the door, Stationhouse cafe for lunch. Hit home by 2:00, tired but need to get away from all other humans, so Rose and I go out into marsh where it is freezing cold, need socks for the vff. Got the 300mm working again but no opportunities.
Monday, fuckin a its back to the work world. Leave suburbs early, hit gym in am like:
Burpees to three pushups to suitcase dead with twin 24s x 5
10 24kg Goblet squats
5+3 neutral grip pull ups, 22lbs assist
30 walking lunges, bodyweight.
3x

15/15 32kg swings, ten reps x 5
5+5 20kg windmills
10+10 37.5lb woodchoppers
3x, save last set of swings were 30/30 24kg at 20 reps

PM, Pradeep sweatfest. Tough class and about 40 minutes in he has us in Dolphin plank for ten count, up to plank for ten count, descending ladder back and forth like that down to 1. That was close to two minutes in plank after some extended series prior and entire class was thoroughly smoked.

God I felt great this morning though. Long work day, rough mediation and grind.

Day off, to pick up again tomorrow.

White Haired People Dancing

2010-11-27T12:53:00.000-08:00

"It seems the simple things, the hardest to explain . . ."
Dave Mason, Shouldn't of Took More Than You Gave
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj2h0LSTY3U
Sunday, three mile marsh walk. Want to hit ct before Yoshi's with 5, but he bails and end up making no one happy. Familiar territory. 5 and I go see Dave. It's hit or miss with the more senior rock star contingent, but not Dave. Voice has lost nothing, powerful as ever. Guitar chops unscathed by time. There are older guys with much younger women, by like 30 years. Dude, are you nuts ? Neither look happy. But there are also the older folk, hippie dancing to Dear Mr. Fantasy. Fit women well-dressed with white hair, a good ten years older than moi, moving beautifully to all those familiar songs.
Monday, long day in one of the most emotionally wrenching depos in memory. Creep into Pradeep at the end for a good blow out. Not sure i am gonna handle it but it goes good; will probably be it for yoga for the week, so throw it down hard.
Tuesday, another long day. Into ct at 7:30. 30 min scheduled but it goes longer and all for good. It's 200 20kg one hand swings, 100 28kg two hand swings, plus 78 push presses, 20kg, save last 14 with 24. Some hard row work, then hot chocolate and good company.
Wednesday, work scramble and off to Dillon Beach to visit dysfunction junction for four days.
Thursday, beautiful if cold in West Marin. We hit the beach with Rose in am and give her much surf play. I escape with kettlebells mid afternoon. Find a flat spot road side, goes like:
20/20 10 incline pushups off of marine terrace rock formation, heckled by cows x 8.
10+10 28kg rows
Think I am going to press but it's no good. Form is just fucked, all shoulder and no lat. Even 20kg feels shitty, don't even try. Go to meathead 28/32 deads.
60 sec mtn climbers.
x3
Add a bunch more incline pushup sets to bring to 120, then go to swings.
It's 20 swings to rows to bring those to 100, then Tgus.
Have not done Tgus for over a week, know I'm gonna pay and do for four sets. Then 30/30 with the 28x4 to close it out.
Go and feed excessively; Brigid seizing control from a bunch of culinary control freaks to roast the best turkey in memory. Get out of her way people.
Friday. Work most of morning to mid-afternoon; email polite but firm letters out and then hit the soft west marin coastal trails. Ian and I walk Rose past the gate where the Nazis stickered my car the day before. We take Rose off leash and pad toward the isolated beach 45 minutes away. If there is a better substrate for vff than this dense undulating coast I'd like to find it. We spend two hours walking and throwing a stick for the ecstatic Labrador. Work calls on the way back up; playing pro from Dover while perched on the western edge, send Ian and Rose ahead; they don't need to hear it. Come back to Sara and Pats huge crab feed.

Satellite tv sucks.

WTF

2010-11-20T22:06:00.000-08:00

"They call it Pork . . ."
Evil Cat to the Pig, Babe

The National Park Service wildflower chart has poppies blooming January through August. Never seen them before February in the Bay Area, but through August sounds right. Before Sunday I had never seen poppies blooming in November as above. Nor had I ever seen a king snake this late as Brigid and I did on Saturday, basking in the very warm sun on the south levee. Nor have I ever experienced a November evening as warm as Monday's in downtown SF.

Parkour soreness left nothing but gimping around with Ian on Sunday.
Monday, start very early
20/20 10 push ups x 8, really strong until last set of eight
10+10 standing rows, 65lb dumbbell
8 squat to press, 90lb barbell
12 step back lunges, 40lb on shoulders
3x, ten push-ups 2, 3
30/30 20 24kg swings x 10

evening, hour long Pradeep class
Felt great after double session, missed that lately, felt leaner almost instantly
Tuesday, nothing after seven hours of depositions and head fried
Wednesday, early am
8 burpees to push-ups (x 2), to twin 24kg suitcase deads
10 24kg goblet squates, slooow and hang out down there for awhile
Strict mp presses, 5+5 20kg, 4+4 24kg, 1+1x2 32kg
5+5x2 sls, second round 12kg bu
3x, 32 kg press failed second reps both sides third circuit

Coach Dos circuit which is
5+5 figure 8 to bu hold
5+5 cleans
5+5 press
5+5 windmills
10+10 snatches
10+10 swings
16kg, it is almost five minutes of straight work with a pretty light weight and it's fun.
10 reverse pull-ups off of smith machine
3x
Done by 8:50, in for outstanding BASF seminar on law and motion tips where all three panelists (including Busch) reaffirmed observations in STFU.

PM, back for late MH yoga, very slooww hard class; 7:20 boat north rung out and strong.

Thursday, 30 minutes with CT and Renee A., 25 minutes no break like:
5-1 swings to 1-5 GS descending swings/ascending GS
10 wall push-ups
x3
10 swings to 2 20kg gs x5
10 push-ups
x3
adds up to something like 65 goblet squats and I hate those things. This was really fun though and I like working out with those two, otherwise so solitary.
Friday, meetings most of day, no sweat.
Today marsh walk and running around, talking to Ian about stuff like this . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbDzob84Tok

Brigid playing with phone:

Rose rolls

Now the game is almost over and Cal is getting stomped as expected. So whatcha gonna do ? Gonna get off your ass or just stare at the fire ?
It is raining hard out and lightening and thunder sounds like it is pounding Burdell just to the north, shove the hot toddy weather thoughts back, haul bells into the den, amazing how fucking heavy; just do this:
10+10 28kg rows
10 24kg goblet squats
1-3 24kg, 1-3 28kg press ladder
10 deads with 32/28
3x
30/30 20 swings x 10, alternate 28/24

Cooking this to take to Anne's while doing that:

Roast rack of pork with butternut squash, apples, potatoes, roasted peppers and onions. Absolutely outstanding; yup, Martha Fucking Stewart, that's me . . .

Small Price to Pay For Beauty

2010-11-13T19:16:00.000-08:00

"I can't help you Sundance . . ."
Butch to the Kid, early on . . .

Did not exercise Wednesday. Too busy early and way fried late. Arrived home Wednesday round 7:30 after round two of interviews with mid-size law firms trying to fill excess space. Ugh.
Darling daughter bounces in shortly after, plunks her beautiful self on the bed and spends two solid hours talking. She is so bright and locked into her strengths; spinning about grades, school, what she wants. I was sooo clueless at her age and she is such an old soul. Never wanted to not disappoint someone so much. She tells me all her friends' parents are so old, even those younger than me by a decade, but she sees that I can still move well. "Will you come to do parkour with me on Saturday ?" Could I not ? What do you do it for anyway, if not for this ?
Three miles Thursday and long day full of work and necessary drama.
Friday, in early throwing down the gauntlet we all knew damn well would be picked up by the afternoon, just needed to work hours well into Thursday night at 350.00 per to get people thinking about what a real shitstorm would look like; with some people you don't get to skip the playground part. Opposing counsel backpedaling by 11:00 am, flip it back to the transactional types by 1:00, my role as horse head in the bed finished. Clean up other stuff all day then into therapist session and then gym. Cortisol levels last three weeks are off the fucking charts and that does not make for strength. Spent after an hour exploring my inner me; worthwhile, but gym after no good. Start it though like this:
10+10 24kg floor press flip to ten pushups
10+10 TRX step back lunges
Presses, 5+5 20, 4+4 24, 1+1x2 32, actually had failed reps on right side third set
20 walking lunges, twin 35db
3x
30/30 24kg swings, 20 x10
That is a good but not blowout workout. Heading north after stuck in nasty traffic, barely getting Brigid to B Ball by 8; could have done 2.5 of Pradeep and been better off.

Some thoughts after a difficult week:

-If you have spent some time on a road and are at cross-roads, you damn well owe it to those who you have brought with you, to those you have met, and those you will meet, to come to a clear understanding of why you are where you are before choosing a direction. You can't do this alone, and are kidding yourself to think you can. To do anything else is to be a terrorist; unexploded ordnance with feet.
-Corollary: acting on impulse is for teenagers.
-Have the balls to look in the mirror and admit your shortcomings.
-Don't hurt innocent people.
-Don't tell people what their priorities should be. You have no fucking clue unless you have lived their lives. Your decisions give you no license to think you can inform others.
-If necessary, acknowledge that you misjudged people. Don't beat yourself up about it.

Yeah, should have gone to yoga . . .

Saturday; parkour with Brigid. A blast; jumping off of vaults to hang off window ledges, up walls to hang off 4X4's, fun fun fun. Could do much fine and improvement by end of class on weak points namely vaults on left side. Then to three miles marsh walk, Brigid and I movingly gingerly.

The White pelicans left at last for the Winter. They were here a week ago; Ian and I commenting that it seemed late. Gone now for Mexico. Much will be better by the time they return.

STFU

2010-11-09T22:34:00.000-08:00

“Don't play what's there, play what's not there.”
Miles Davis

Phil Weinacht turned me on to that quote in the Fall of 1977. Meaningless at barely 18, but it's gained traction. Phil directed the HSU jazz ensemble and was a good guy. Got us to the Reno Jazz Festival where we did ok.

More recent takeaway is to know when to shut up, which in my profession is easier said than done.

This Buddha landed in Civic Center plaza last June, to stay through 2011. Work is by a Shanghai sculptor Zhang Huan. Doubt he intended to elevate the quality of oral argument in S.F. Superior and will have to ask Judge Busch sometime if it has.

I love standing under this piece and looking up before court appearances. It makes me better, reminds me to be quiet. Any decent lawyer knows that the best argument is the one you never have to make, the judge got it from your papers and you just say something like: "unless the court has specific questions, I will submit."

Course, its not always that easy. Some folks (almost always men) will blather on about every point, real or imagined, and ya just gotta listen and watch. See if the judge bites, or looks like he or she is biting, then tailor accordingly. Busch never bites. I will never forget just starting out and winning motion after motion in front of then Judge (now Justice) Lamden then having my ego maniac boss at the time come in on the fifth motion to show me how its done, and have an exasperated judge practically scream: "sit down counsel, you won." Less is almost always more, you don't need to rub the audience's face in it.

Now, try to find that balance in your workouts.

Nothing on Thursday, except some more shopping ourselves.

Friday, into sf , workout late like;

8 burpees pushups (2) to double24 suitcase deads

1+1-5+5 24 kg press ladder

5+5x2 sls w35lb plate

10 120lb lat pulls, isolate and focus. Yes a machine, sometimes can be useful.

10 32kg swings to 1+1 24kg TGU x 10

15/15 10 32kg swingsx10

200 heavy swings, feel it.

Saturday, MH class, surprisingly fried from prior day and weak on left side plank.

Sunday, dog walk with Ian started out in heavy rain, clear later.

PM, want to hit ct class, but not gonna happen Grow more lethargic as watch Raiders win and fold laundry. Check twitter and ct has a tweet planning kettlebell blood bath. Good visual, get your ass up, and go heavy.

10+10 32kg rows

10 24kg goblet squats

1+1-3+3 24 kg presses, to 1+1-3+3 28kg strict mp presses

5+5 single leg deads, 24kg

Plan on 200 28 kg swings. Hah. Heavy rows and presses plus heavy swings on Fri and bells are slippery and grip is fried. Shut it down after 100.

Monday, Great Pradeep class at 5:30, very happily drenched.

Tuesday, mind numbing stress and not enough food. Wet beautiful night in Hayes Valley 30 minute ct class at 7:30; very happy to be back in studio with tiny powerhouse, its a 15/15 25 minute blast

ten minutes swings

ten minutes push press

five minute swings

Turn on radio heading north just in time to hear Roy Eisenhardt describe Michael Lewis' Blind Side as jazz improvisation on City Arts & Lectures. Leaving space for the reader. Don't feel you need to connect all the dots. Respect audience intelligence. Lewis self-deprecating, says style is a function of indolence and laziness. Right, stop it.

Busy, stressful times; stay quiet and set up tomorrow.

Bandwagon

2010-11-03T22:03:00.000-07:00

“The fans sitting up there are helpless, they can’t pick up a bat and come down and do something. Their only involvement is in how well you do. If you strike out or mess up out there, they feel they’ve done something wrong. You’re all they’ve got. The professional athlete knows there’s always another game or another year coming up. If he loses he swallows that bitter pill and comes back. It’s much harder for the fans.”

Willie McCovey to Roger Angell, 1978

I never thought Stretch was the most articulate of folk, but he nailed it there, I think, it sounds right. It's largely lost on me. The closest thing to sacrifice I made for the Giants was choosing to go to a game at Candlestick in 1977 instead of going to hear Jean Pierre Rampal. It was my 18th birthday and I'd spent all summer weeding the yards of the Tiburon wealthy listening to the Giants play. Those were the days of Bill Madlock, Larry Herndon, Johnnie LeMaster and Bob Knepper. I have regretted missing Rampal for years, but Jay let me drink beer for the first time supervised and I still remember the skunk taste of Heinekin, which I thought was actually good. I have no idea who the Giants played or if they won.

I have been the worst sort of bandwagon fan. All over downtown for the past month people have been dressed in Orange and Black. T-Shirts and jerseys have been snapped up and green has exchanged hands. I have contributed nothing, not even the "Let Timmy Smoke" T-Shirt given fleeting consideration. The only dollars I spent that I would not have otherwise is the four bucks today on the 38 Geary; parking at Fillmore and taking Muni downtown after getting completely skunked on the Larkspur ferry early this morning. It occurred to me as I watched the crowd resplendent that I have never purchased a team jersey or t-shirt of any sort. Not for myself, nor as a gift. I have owned Grateful Dead wear, Bob Marley, and Steve Earle. I have had Guy Clark's Homegrown Tomatoes emblazoned on my chest, as well as Gillian Welch's sly lyrics. I have bought Pink Floyd, Hendrix and Led Zep for the kids, perhaps even Slayer, and certainly the Beatles. I have bought Monterey Bay Aquarium T-shirts ad nauseum, but not a single damn sports jersey. The closest I can recall is the RKC sleeveless T I own that I bought along with my 32kg bell last February to show off my skeevy middle aged delts. At least I can press that fucker now.

So there I was today at California and Montgomery in black Italian wool doubled pleated slacks and a pink dress shirt waiting for a parade. I caught some shit for the pink shirt, but I do love this town and that alone was reason to turn out:

Cody Ross

Brian Wilson, Lunatic

Buster Posey, don't know his politics but he looks like a young republican.

Pat Burrell

Andres Torres

It was a raucous crowd and it has been a wonderful time to be in this town. I am no big baseball fan but people turning out, coming together, and forgeting the shit for awhile is a good thing. Anything to postpone the pain of election day.

Sunday

Walk in the marsh with second son and first Labrador.

Tired and almost let it slip, but no, out back in pm for:

10+10 28kg rows

10 24kg Goblet squats

Presses, 5+5 20kg, 4+4 24kg, 3+3 28kg, 1+1x2 32kg. All went well, no failed reps.

10 double bell deads, 28/32 132 lb deadlift is just too fucking easy and not sure why I even bothered except its an easy way to jack up the pounds moved.

30/30 28kg swings, 20 x 6, had to drop to 24 gor 7-9 cause losing grip and back to 28 on last. Ten total.

To Grandma's for Game 4.

Monday

Four miles, nada mas.

Tuesday

VO2 max, fast cause no time

16kg, 15/15 seven rep pace, x 52

plank work, sixty second front, 30 second sides, 3x, 25 sec rest between front and side.

Today

60 min Pradeep power class. Smoking.

Parking lot calls and emails, buncha work, get home and immediate attention demanded. This is the orange and black that sticks with:

It's been a blast, here is to next year; I will go to more games.

Vaseline Machine Gun

2010-10-31T14:35:00.000-07:00

"Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing."
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Thursday

Long day and drop in with EH at the end. They’ve settled LEW at 1:00 am, talked the client into a shitty deal but the lawyers are making out fine. A cynical settlement and both JL and I comment that the judge should perhaps not approve. EH starts it off slow, new trainer C plunks down beside me, she is a talkative sort and hope she can make it. She is probably 30, big blue eyes and tattoos all over her back which I try not to notice as she wobbles in side plank next to me.

Friday

Long day, trolling downtown sf, feel like I should be in a short skirt and eight inch heels; a strange place to be.

Done by 4:00, and head in for late yoga. Pradeep has two classes, 4:30 to 5:30, then 5:30 till 6:45. It used to be 5:30 to 7:00 but hey, cut backs are everywhere. The 4:30 to 5:30 is hard; very hard. Bunch of core and push-up work and after 60 minutes drenched and fried. Take a long drink and seriously consider stopping there, but don’t. Class two comes in and he puts the hammer down for 60 minutes, then 40 minutes of release. The 75 minute class stretches to 100, I don’t think he ever thought about the clock. Thoroughly rung out; my towel and mat are soaked after 155 minutes.

Go in Saturday am to drive Leo Kottke to the airport. Leo is affable and we talk about his gigs, kids, skateboarding, scooters, emergency rooms, photo shoots in old porn studios, visiting prisons and being stuck. He asks about why I am doing this; I tell him-he is impressed or at least amused saying simply: “that’s smart.” He shares his own stories of recharge and oh to be in one of those bars or hotel lobbies and have Leo come set up in a corner. We keep talking at the white curb, he closes out with a story about being on a submarine driven into a pier twice and the noise it made. It is clear he had fun too for 25 minutes and both of us left grinning.

Get home, Brigid planning for her teenage sleep over. I stroll through a crowded Costo, multi-tasking in trying to download Vaseline Machine Gun to my phone. ITunes has changed its licensing agreement. Fifty five pages on an iphone screen, I press ok after the first and will hope for the best. My credit card has expired and I am pissing off old folks who are buying Depends in volume, so I pull over in from of an Everest sized display of Honey Bunches of Oats so I can update my credit card info to download a tune I have not heard in twenty years. I get Rose on a marsh walk late and watch White Tailed Kites hover over the mud listening to a makeshift play list of Leo, McMurtry, Gillian Welch and Steve Earle. We get home and I help Brigid clean up.

Its 6:00 and I am warming pizzas for the masses thinking a VO2 max session, 25 minutes of snatches may happen. Then I see the size of the teenaged boys coming in and quickly decide they are not leaving my sight. Way too many hormones and way too much biomass. There will be adult supervision; at least I will stay awake as long as I can.

Leo put Vaseline Machine Gun on Six and Twelve String Guitar which came out in the early 70’s. I remember listening to it driving up Mt. Tamalpais when we should have been in school. We rarely drove drunk, we were responsible truants if you look past the psychedelics. I remember the cassettes I recorded from Nick Gill’s record collection in Berkeley 1982, staying up way too late with Leo and Lowell George (Thanks, I’ll Eat it Here). I remember vividly plugging Leo into the walkman (they stopped making them last week) and skiing deep powder in the tight trees in the upper reaches of Taos Ski Valley in the early Spring of ’84, which is the last time I felt as beastly fit as I do now, though I would not last twenty feet in those trees today. They are bigger and I am slower.

Truth is though, as clear as I remember it, as Leo says here: I don’t know that guy any more. The music still sounds really good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF3kbVp23kk

Travels with Brigid

2010-10-28T00:03:00.000-07:00

"I had seen so many begin to pack their lives in cotton wool, smother their impulses, hood their passions, and gradually retire from their manhood into a kind of spiritual and physical semi-invalidism. In this they are encouraged by wives and relatives, and it's such a sweet trap."
John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley

Indeed. I watched Weeds last night with Brigid. Then we watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the episode where Dracula gets eurotrashed. We shut that down and start talking, she is reading Of Mice and Men and loving it, then we move on to East of Eden. We watched the movie a few years ago, and she was riveted and picked up the book. First literature ever saw her read. Not like Ian, who goes nowhere without a big book in his pocket. I would have put that down to James Dean, but that did not seem to be it. So an old copy of Travels With Charley has been floating around the mess that is the family room for about a year and she picks it up. She reads about it and sees it won the Pulitzer prize for literature; her eyebrows go up. "I'd like to drive around the country in a camper with a dog and you," she says. I can't think of anything I would love to do more. I ask her to read me the first paragraph which these days is my favorite. She does, stumbling over "senility;" I say yeah, as in senile. She lights up: "oh, that's funny then." Uh-huh. We chat a bit longer, and it's nearly midnight so I shut it down, she says "goodnight, love you Dad," starts to scamper up the stairs. She stops, reverses course and scampers back down to snatch Steinbeck of the shelf like Barry moving in fast to snag the last cookie. Slays me.

Thursday
Flying all day and race in fast for V02 max, 15/15 x 52 with 16kg at 7 rep pace.
Friday
Also a busy day, hour long MH class. Right shoulder mildly hinkey from prior snatchfest. He starts of with a rap about a class at another studio, guessing full of Castro beefcake, where all the guys were doing multiple multiples on their chaturanga's which MH says wears down the shoulders; at 55 he knows and at 51 I believe him. So he had them taking their five breath rest in plank instead of downward dog. Folks groaned but he said (no Castro pun intended) "no, you can cruise in plank, really." And you can. If you are going out at 100%, dropping back to 80% works to reinvigorate - just enough extra oomph over the lunch hour.
Saturday, shuffling kids, working in the pouring rain. Giants improbable run to the Show continues; this town is gonna be a blast this week. No sweat.
Sunday, more rain and looking forward to ct at 4:30. Ian advises that he is going on a hike with his friend, she shows up with nervous mother: "you will be here, right, you are not going anywhere ?" Guess not. Settle for late walk in marsh with appreciative Labrador.

Monday. In really early, hit gym by 7:00:
5+5 x 2 pushups to renegade rows, 55lb dumbbells
5+5x2 sls, bodyweight first, then 35lb plate
Presses, 5+5 20, 4+4 24, 1+1x2 32
10 squat to press, 90lb barbell
3x, shit load of press work which I felt today
30/30 20 24kg swings x 10, few sets of assisted pull-ups at break
Horrible, sad dinner.
Tuesday
early evening, four miles elliptical, bunch of bu press work.
Wednesday
hit gym during the early part of the first game of the 2010 Series, goes like
20/20 10 push ups x 8
10 24kg gs
5 pull ups, 22lb assist
5+5 double 20kg squat to press, the 5+5 singles
3x, ten slow push ups circuits 2/3
5+5 20kg windmills, 12kg low
2+2, 1+1 24kg tgu
Coach Dos circuit, 16kg bottoms up on cleans and presses, save last on left, no mas. Five minutes straight work each circuit.
3x
Brigid comes in on ferry, we head up to Yoshi's to watch game and listen to Leo Kottke. Giants score 6 in fifth and win 11-7. Kottke is a genius, and toward the end of the set plays Corinne Corinna, and Little Martha, which Leo notes came to Duane Allman in a dream. Brigid is into Leo, but she is tired and worn down. Face plant upon arrival.
Getting away would be a very good thing; we did for a bit after short-changing her this summer.

Night Owls

2010-10-20T22:27:00.000-07:00

"And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon."
Edward Lear

I am not speaking figuratively here. I am not talking about my rotten teenagers, who stay up until all hours on the weekends, wallowing in the wasteland that is premium cable. I am not talking about those clients who email me at 3:35 a.m. (I am told, by marketing consultant, this is a good thing: "they are up, can't sleep, and reach out to you.." Yes they do, but better to reach over to the other side of the bed and maybe get laid instead of billed . . .)
I am not even talking about Edward Lear, though B loves this ditty. I am talking about Bubo Virginianis. I am talking stereo Great Horned owls under a good sized moon. I am talking the bird the size of a twenty pound cat that flew off the telephone pole, just as I got the flash up, just as I dialed up the shutter speed and maxed out the ISO to a tolerable grainy effect while Rose gazed over the deserted movie theater parking lot and had to be called "off" of the popcorn bag holding the promise of a few stray kernels. The "off" cost me the shot, but it's a good memory.

That was Tuesday night. Everyone off at a dress rehearsal; I get in at 7:50 with Rose looking hopeful. I am tired and cooked from a long day and a 100's workout, (see below) but cave to her brown eyes by 8:50 and take her out alone in the dark in VFF with a 22 ounce Sapporo left over from the bluegrass festival. Marsh is a noisy place at night. Pockets of ducks are mumbling and the perpetually pissed geese are hissing. Rose is chasing up Black Crowned Night herons which fly off croaking and and Killdeer shriek as we approach. VFF make this walk an entirely different experience. I can feel every rock pebble or twig; not in an uncomfortable way, just connected. Am also MUCH quieter and when walking over the matted dead grass of the south side straight shot back hardly make a sound. Our sudden appearance scares up few small rabbits but Rose stays off, night time is dangerous enough for these critters without having to flee from a good-natured tail wagging Labrador. Coming back the owls start up in stereo and get a long look at the bird on the left; bird on the right is invisible, just low soft sound coming out of the black. The place smells good too.
Nothing Sunday. Raining and lazy.
Monday. Pradeep class late. His Monday class is a killer and I love it. It is just the mat and sweat in a packed studio but the vibe he creates is remarkable. The whole class is jazzed before and after.
Tuesday, 60 minute volume workout, totals like this:
100 push ups
100 body weight box squats
100 24kg strict mp
100 walking lunges with twin 35lb dumbbells
200 24kg swings.
That took an hour and was, conservatively, 38,000 pounds, weighted lunges talking to me today. Hello ass, it is sore.
Rubber hitting the road with lending institutions all day and get in for MH late. Sore but he makes me bring it. Oh yeah, and the Giants won.