man i’ve been negligent with this. quick update, book is doing fine, between NW and SW regionals won three Golds and three Silvers with Ashland RC and San Diego RC. Rafting like a mad man whenever I get the chance. will run the Pit River Oct 1st, then on to a BIG adventure.mid October Steve and I are planning something truly big and stupid. stay tuned for this one, it’s gonna be a duzy!!!
FINALLY, the sun is out! Rowing Rafting and Riding are in full effect. Memorial day weekend rafting the Klamath, last saturday rafting the Rogue, then sunday rowing on Emigrant lake. My latest two wheeled creation is almost finished; can’t wait to crank on another Fixie – Happy spring, all!
nice dusting overnight (about four inches at my house). The southern oregon valley floor is a uniform white. while Steve and I, and so many others, are training for the Crew Classic in April, other adventures beckon. we are putting together a four man raft team to race competitively, beginning April 17th on the upper Klamath. As my legendary uber-guide river buddy John said to me and Steve last night over Ashland Amber and pizza, “What could possibly go wrong?” 
As you may know, Racing Yesterday includes seemingly Olympic challenges of all shapes and sizes. Here’s yet another glorious case in point – George Elliot. when George first came to me, with the help of his daughter and son, he was confined to a wheelchair. we turned a UBE around and removed the seat so we could wheel him onto it, potentially to get him moving. His “kids” were skeptical. So was I. I think we got 20 seconds of movement out of him and called it a day. I doubted I would ever see him again. His daughter Catherine never let up; patient but persistent they continued to show up, and that is what it is all about – showing up. Days turned to weeks, weeks to months… and here we are. George now WALKS into the gym under his own power, does 15 minutes of aerobic work on the bike, the stepper, and the upper body ergometer, calf raises, seated rows and curls, and today is his birthday. Happy 90th George!!!
as a writer i owe you a descriptive and complete experience in recounting my adventures at Boston’s Head of the Charles last weekend. as a writer I would paint the famous Fall foliage, the bitter morning wind daring me to take my shoes off and step onto the icy dock for our friday workout, the sea of boats on slings and in four story boat trailers en mass. I would spend great literary energy coloring in for you the pain and delirium of racing at this level; and the disappointment, only a little in the grand scheme, of placing 14th out of 40 boats. But with Twitter and Facebook i have gotton lazy. those vehicles are so immediate, so integrated into the worldwide web of the World Wide Web that they partially eclipse the sometimes romantic isolation of writing just for the sake of writing as a craft. Hmmm, glad to be back at the blog, reminding through doing, awakening through practicing,
When my friend George got out World War II alive he asked the army chaplain, “how am I going to move forward after all that I have seen and done?” The chaplain patted him on the shoulder and said, “you go home and talk to your wife. everything will be fine.” As George would later tell me, “Well, everything was not fine.” I tell you this because it reminds me of yet another Exercise Is Medicine moment; that in addition to his exercise program getting him off his diabetes meds George, now a widower, finds that exercise alleviates depression. For the Concept 2 Fall Team Challenge George led the Baxter Fitness Solutions team with just over 401,000 meters rowed. George is 88. Yep. that is just friggin cool
back from seven days at Seattle’s JL racing (www.jlracing.com and thanks again Sean!), salt lake city training Dynatronics on the new equipment line, then tulsa for tulsa rowing club and rep training for Scifit. so obviously the crosscountry part makes sense, cross training in that this is part Racing Yesterday and part Scifit function Line, ahhh but the third C? In tulsa i stay with my friend of 13 years, we will call him, oh i dunno, how bout VP of BIG ASS fitness company? he trains diligently bright and early every morning at his local gym. I am training for the Head of the Charles Oct 23 so this is a big benefit when I am traveling. Bottom line is this – i’ve worked out at every type of gym under the sun in the last 20 plus years. whether a basement iron pit full of bruisers or a high end boutique outfit, nobody likes bad form and obtrusive manners/ediquette. so to go to a high end big box gym it is shocking to see the kind of behavior that i saw last week. at the gyms i own and operate we have one basic rule; that is that we won’t bug you as long as you are not doing something wrong. if you are doing something wrong it is our responsibility to to teach you how to do it right! after all, bad form is a precursor to injury, and obnoxious behavior is disruptive to other members. left unattended to, the unsuspecting gym member might assume that such practice is implicately endorsed by the club, right? So what the heck is the deal with CrossFit??? does the revenue from such a venture outweigh the less tangible feeling of ill will and discomfort of the surrounding 95% of the gym membership? All the whoos in whooville wanna know!
had to post this, read from the bottom up, email style
HA! been sufferin for years, brother. been sufferin for years
On Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:09:33 -0700, Berkeley Johnson wrote:
Sure! Although you will suffer the slings and arrows of those that decline to laugh at irreverenceJ
Fatwa: A decision made by an Islamic jurist based upon Islamic law. Though often associated in the West with an order for the execution of somebody on Islamic grounds, the term more generally refers to any decision issued by a faqih about any matter of Islamic law.
From: andy@bfitsolutions.com [mailto:andy@bfitsolutions.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 6:54 PM
To: Berkeley Johnson
Subject: RE: HOCR Erg Work
what in the sam t hell is a Fatwa? this is hilarious, can I post this on my blog?On Tue, 14 Sep 2010 18:43:59 -0700, Berkeley Johnson wrote:
September 11th, I was prepping for a speech for the American Bankers Association in Washington (State) I walked into a room that was supposed to have 300 bankers in it only to find it completely empty. I had one of those incredibly horrible panic moments (like the nightmare when you find out that you went through your entire work day unclothed) that I had gotten the wrong hotel or missed the time for the speech. Alas, everyone was in their rooms watching the twin towers.
I was lucky that I kept my shitty Isuzu rental as all the airports were closed (and I could see all the nuclear subs slipping out of the Puget Sound) as I motored toward California. That Isuzu had a high speed, dental drill like whine and accompanying shimmy emanating from its tranny that started at about 65 mph and got to biblical proportions at 70MPH. Drove 12 hours straight through to Santa Barbara with my teeth clenched and an absolute commitment to Fatwa against the engineer that designed that rolling abortion.
The only thing more heinous is the “Wheel….OF….Fortune!!!” slot machine riff in the Las Vegas departure lounge. To this day, I want to lunge at salesmen that carry the Isuzu line of cars. I’ll take a Yugo any day! Thanks again and looking forward to October! Aug
From: andy@bfitsolutions.com [mailto:andy@bfitsolutions.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 6:32 PM
To: Berkeley Johnson
Subject: RE: HOCR Erg Work
i had to reread that, freakin hilarious in a demented and scary way. the year of the terrorist attacks one of the guys in the yale bulldog boat backed out at the last minute because he thought the flight risk was too great. Steve was already in boston when he phoned me and said “get over here, you’re rowing port!” but the funny part of the story was the turn around flight was so close that we lined up replacement rowers to take the boat back. we crossed the line, rolled on to the dock and hopped in the rental car and hauled ass to the airport. paramilitaries with m16′s everywhere, dogs, the works, and i’m standing in the security line barefoot, dripping with sweat and river water. great stuffOn Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:48:53 -0700, Berkeley Johnson wrote:
Four out of the last six years, I just slept in the trailer…but two years ago, it got so cold that I literally froze and by the morning I was in atrial fibulation and couldn’t row…let down my teammates. I have a friend that lives about half an hour from the course but I was thinking that I would just sleep on somebody’s floor…unless it is warm outside and then it is the trailer for me!:) Sorry I am not much help in this department…(one year I told my wife I had to see a client in LA, flew red eye, rowed in the early am, got back on the mid day flight and was back home by late that evening and she never knew I rowed…sigh. The things we do to row. Aug
From: andy@bfitsolutions.com [mailto:andy@bfitsolutions.com]
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 8:29 PM
To: Berkeley Johnson
Subject: RE: HOCR Erg Work
Hi Augie,
where are you guys sleeping? i am planning to fly in thursday about 6:30 pm. i think i have a place to crash friday night but thursday and saturday nights are up in the air. two years ago when i rowed for Rocky Mountain i slept on the floor of one of the hotel rooms. not much has changed since college! any thoughts?
andy
I had a great workout this morning, a series of six minute pieces throwing some decent power at the erg, busting through a recent ceiling; the concept2 version of Mr Wonka’s hyper shwanky chocolate crib elevator. This sunday will head race a four with Steve, Don Daman and Eric Glatte. first primer before the Head of the Charles, but that’s a different rant. The epiphanies are these – good writing has no expiration date and Row/Life parallels abound. for further proof check out
from one warrior monk to another,
Andy – teaming mass of one
on marrying your cousin -
ahhh, it always goes like this. the Head of the Charles is fast approaching, and when lineups are being evaluated, nothing is certain, not even taxes – death, our version of it over 5,000 meters, still certain. started as a Yale Bulldog 4+, then commited to a San Diego 8+. then Steve calls and says the 1980 Olympic team has a reunion 8+ but they are short on starboards, would I like to join them. DAMN!!! we haven’t even gotten plane tickets yet, hoping I can sleep on the Northeastern boathouse floor cause I don’t have a place to stay, and alliances and lineups are already being tested!
perspective -
Louie Plummer has fastidious attention to detail, drives a mini cooper for his emotional and spiritual well being, and LOVES to row. Louis latches on to the nuances of the stroke with the tenacity of a pit bull on crack trying to make a living as a real estate agent (the dog, not Louie). when he is not on the water he comes to my gym and trains with me and takes whatever i throw at him with prep school glee. he is handsome, charming, succesful with a loving family (as far as i can tell, or Sydney is a really good faker), and passionate about whatever he chooses to be passionate about; in this case rowing.
on a wednesday during our morning erg workout he tells me he is going up to Portland for a procedure to remove a benign tumor at the base of his brain. hmmm. ok. he says it is fairly innocuous and he’ll be back in a couple of days. the tumor is innocuous. the procedure not so. the procedure is botched. days in intensive care clinging to life turn to weeks. paralysis, blindess, ventilator, inability to regulate blood pressure which is potentially fatal at any given minute, etc.
now back at home with 24 hour care, catheter, iv, ventiltor, big harsh hospital bed in his living room, knowing as we all do that at any moment his heart could stop and he will die, Louie craves one thing – to row. I will not show you the photo out of respect to the Plummer family, but Ashland Rowing Club got an erg on his porch and, with the help of Sydney and two caregivers, he sat his ass down and took some strokes.
so why didn’t you want to do that third piece today?