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Help me. Help you. Help me. Help you.

I am just waiting for “Glee” to start, so I am giddy as a school girl. I have sure enjoyed the TIME to train and lift and write. Gary (my brother) and I have been throwing quite a bit. It has been five years since I actually had the time to train. This is no joke, at best, all I did was hold on.

I enjoy the writing. I am working on my second and third books and while I was swimming, I thought about how valuable Questions and Answers are for me to muse about in my little head.

So, if you are interested and have questions regarding “The Art of Lifelong Fitness” and it relates to goal setting, posture, grace, stretching, eating, life in general or lifting long term, I would enjoy mulling over them and adding them to the work. Help me. Help you.

It’s been fun lately training. Fun. I’m sure I have lost a ton of fat this week as I just feel better and happier. I really enjoy this stuff. I miss training. I miss learning things. Oh, I wouldn’t trade coaching Kelly to All State and Lindsay to the State Championships for the world (well, maybe the world…), but it came at a high price. Anyone who ever said that I got my “dream job,” truly was making things up in their head. If you have a hobby that you truly love, LOVE I tell you, then have to teach a group of kids who were often sent in because of discipline issues in other classes this hobby, trust me, it will make you ache. Sure, absolutely most of the kids were gems, but life is all about Power Laws and one or two (or four) in a big class can make life miserable for everyone.

That’s why I love what I will be doing tomorrow. Each week, Dan Martin organizes a little gathering, for free, and people who want to learn kettlebells or mobility or whatever, just show up and train.

I can’t wait for tomorrow. Just after Glee, of course.

My little notebook…

As “EVERYthing” piled up on me the last two months, I started keeping a small leather notebook with me where I dump notes, addresses, to do lists, and writing ideas.

As you may know, I am writing something (Book Three) and the more I just let this notebook hold my random jottings, the clearer the writing is becoming for me. Dan Martin, for example, had a great insight that plugs right into the goals chapter.

One small thing I discussed with Tiff on the balcony tonight was my “Moo.” Every time I make money, I call Tiff and say “Moo,” because I am a cash cow. I also celebrate when I hear someone else do well in life, sport or whatever. I think it reminds me, at a simple level, that the work and effort were worth the work and effort.

I love having a few minutes to myself!

Only a few days away

Moving. An Olympic Sport?

All I have to say: there may be nothing more exhausting than moving. My hands hurt, my back hurts…all I have left is my good looks!

Boxes. Little Boxes. Little Boxes on a Hillside.

My time in Utah draws near. I eat on outdoor furniture and just threw away some things I thought I would be buried with in my cozy little urn. I was thinking about a Greek Urn.

“What’s a Greek Urn?” Oh about the same wage as everybody else.

It’s fun to train again. I get up and do my little Goblet Squats and Swings and try to figure out a way to loosen up more. I have added a proud amount of fat the past few weeks and I’m dealing with that now. Then, each day, I train. I am doing the Boost workouts from Viking Warrior Conditioning and more presses than I ever thought I could do. I feel good. I am going to have some time to write soon, too, not just some rambling and musings.

I’m proctoring the last and final exam of my career. It just slipped past me…the time, the years, the days. Others have said it better:

Poem at Thirty-Nine

How I miss my father.
I wish he had not been
so tired
when I was
born.

Writing deposit slips and checks
I think of him.
He taught me how.
This is the form,
he must have said:
the way it is done.
I learned to see
bits of paper
as a way
to escape
the life he knew
and even in high school
had a savings
account.

He taught me
that telling the truth
did not always mean
a beating;
though many of my truths
must have grieved him
before the end.

How I miss my father!
He cooked like a person
dancing
in a yoga meditation
and craved the voluptuous
sharing
of good food.

Now I look and cook just like him:
my brain light;
tossing this and that
into the pot;
seasoning none of my life
the same way twice; happy to feed
whoever strays my way.

He would have grown
to admire
the woman I’ve become:
cooking, writing, chopping wood,
staring into the fire.

Alice Walker

Workout Idea

Rainy Day Workout…we put together a relay of jumps, sprints, med ball work into a race. I can’t believe how hard the kids worked. I’m always amazed at how a simple idea can get the kids to work so hard. People LOVE games!!!

Breath. It goes in. It goes out.

If you follow my Q and A over at davedraper.com, you might know what I am talking about. My daughter, Lindsay, thinks I need a massive heart attack, so she waits until the last possible second to win the state championship.

I trained today.  A kbell VO2 Max workout for just 15 minutes, but the clarity is amazing. Maybe that is why we train: not for the body, but for the mind.

I’m jumping at the bit to finish my book for Laree. There are grades to do for both my college and high school classes, but I literally can’t wait to finish this book. It is my “truth.” I strive to never BS you all in my posts, but after a lot of discussions and give and take, I feel like this book will open up the “answer.” Of course, the answer is like a Celtic Knot, unwinding it is impossible and turns it into a nothing. (Ask Pangur Ban for details!)

What a few days. On Saturday, when Lindsay mounted the victory stand (and was STILL shorter than second and third place), I simply began to sob. My mind drifted back to 1977 when I asked Mom what she wanted for Mother’s Day. She said: “A state championship.” She got her gift.

This weekend, I understood.

We pass through this little boat called “life” so quickly and seem to always look towards “next” and “then” as if the answers are “out there” somewhere. In truth, to quote the Epic of Gilgamesh, “Look at the child that is holding your hand, these things alone are the concern of men.”

We have killed millions since then, destroyed much, lost more, and I can’t say it better. I watch my daughters walk on into life and begin to pack my life into smaller and smaller boxes and wonder where the time has gone.

Gilgamesh, whither are you wondering?

Life which you look for you shall not find.

I am already playing and replaying the videos from this weekend and wishing I could “feel” that feeling again of elation and surprise. But, it is gone. Lindsay wants to head off to graduation parties and dinners and celebrations and I desperately want to grab her shoulders and tell her to love and embrace every moment.

Bur, like breath, it goes in and it goes out. Like life.

And so, tomorrow, I will get up, drink coffee, do the this and thats of life, train a little and keep on keeping on. Like breath.

Moving, Regionals, Life

Today, I am moving furniture. It is the only Saturday I have had off in months, so I am donating and giving a bunch of stuff away. It was very sad to give away (to a very nice person) our downstairs furniture. It was made of jean material which was perfect for a pizza and movie party for the girls. It’s gone.

Lindsay won the Regionals in the shot and took second in the discus. She is the shortest thrower by far, but she is so consistent that it puts a lot of pressure on the others. Her high school career is down to 12 throws, if she makes the finals. It happens so fast.

I’m sure there is a lesson here. There is an old old Irish bit of wisdom about asking the Creator of All to just stretch time a bit more to enjoy these beautiful moments. For those of you with young ones, I can remember always being in a rush to make sure of this and that and I let those seconds and minutes fly past me. I would like to breath out and smile a bit at the state meet this week and just enjoy the opportunity to watch my daughter throw. But, I’m sure someone is going to need a key or a pass or a baton or a drink and pull me away from this moment that never will happen again.

It’s gone.

My favorite “quick” workout…

I’m in the whirlwind, so workouts have to be fast. I like this little workout, and you can do variations of this all you want: pick a weight and get to 100 reps as fast as you can. Don’t do 100 singles, just do 100 reps. I did it today with the Double KBell Press with 24s (53 pounds). First set was 14, then you start counting right there…at 14 on your next set. I’m good for mid-teens all the way up. Rest period is enough time to pick a dandelion, do some Goblet Squat stretches and hang out.

In just a few minutes, you will close in on the 100 reps. Clean up and go. The heart and lungs take a hit here as the rest periods are not much. Moreover, if you had to pick “one,” Double KB Military Press is a pretty good choice.

On my nonlifting days, I am really working hard on the hip flexors and basic mobility. You can go far with simply lifting three days a week and doing everything else three days a week and watching the Kentucky Derby another day.

Big Double Win Today

My Boys and Girls Track and Field Teams beat a major rival today. It’s one of those odd things where we didn’t really want to make up this meet (snowed out last week) and they insisted. So, without as much as a “how do you do” from the other head coach, my little team went out and did great. Lindsay, my daughter, sent a new Personal Record in the discus as did most of my other athletes.

You know, it got me to thinking: just as I finally figured out how to be a Head Coach, my tenure is over. This was a well run meet with my assistant coaches doing a simply brilliant job keeping the whole thing moving forward. Just as I figure it out…over.

I’m thinking that this is a truism for most of life. I have been teaching Buddhism the last weeks and also using Dan Millman’s “Peaceful Warrior” materials for discussion. Buddha talks about suffering and Dan has some great insights on it, too. “Throw out the garbage” is certainly a nice way to look at things. The great ones all get to this point, as Joseph Campbell commented: “Follow your Bliss.” Just as head coaching is actually, well not exactly…but let me run with the point, blissful, I head off to another life.

I’m just guessing here, but I really think that when Dan Martin and the gang meet up with me on the beach in California to work Kettlebells, I think I might be blissful without five years of hard work. I’m not complaining, I’m just saying…

To be honest, I have a dreamlike vision of my future. I have come so far with my injuries that they are not even injuries any more. My career is exploding. So, I walk on. Sadly, I walk on just as I figure out what I’m doing in this career.

I’m sure there is an answer here, maybe a point. I have had this one of a kind adventure for five years teaching and coaching my daughters and their friends and having so many opportunities to meet and wander around with wonderful people. So, like I told my students today:

What time is it? Now.

Where am I? Here.

Enjoy it while you got it…

Trying to stay afloat

I’m not sure what is the most stressful thing in my life:

Moving.

Selling house.

Daughters (both!) are graduating.

Track Season.

I would say Track Season. I think after five years of being head coach that a few things make sense. It’s all Power Laws, first and foremost. I can bring 100 kids to a meet, but only a few score. And, those are also the kids that never miss practice, meetings, due dates and all the rest. Having  a dozen kids in the track program would be as invigorating as a hundred. And, easier on the mind. The more I coach, the more respect I have for myself as an athlete. It is amazing to think that years ago I was “in the dumps” from throwing in the 160s. I would every meet that I coach at now with my worst days “back in the day.” Not trying to go all Bruce Springsteen “Glory Days” on you all, but it is funny to think that mediocre stresses me out! I get a lot of joy out of watching a kid develop himself over a four year span. Practically every kid I know can make all-state in track in Utah in something. Seriously. It just takes the effort.

Ah, I’m just rambling. I think the point is important: success is an inside job. I can only do so much for you and you can only do so much for me. You gotta spend the hours alone mastering the craft. And then…people will tell you how “easy” you make it look.