Time for Review

It's time to review those 2010 Goals. I'll get to this in the next week. We set goals to stretch us, we set goals to focus us and we set them to keep life as fresh as possible. Sometimes they come together with ease, sometimes they are really hard and sometimes they just don't go as planned. The great thing about this week is it will allow me to put down 2010 and get ready for 2011. If you know how my life as a product person goes, I've already started planning product for 2012. So half my battle is knowing what year it really is. More on that later.

An update on the back and stuff. The folks at Wolf Studio have been working hard to get me back to health. It's amazing sometimes what we consider health. For many that means true illness. For me it means running the 10 miles I ran yesterday comfortably. Right now I'm not so comfortable and it's not fitness it's body health. So anyway two sessions a week with them are doing wonders. Session #1 is always strength work. It's not your typical big weight stuff. It's 100% balance and form that then leads to strength. It's amazingly hard and that's because it geared towards my weak points. The other day is soft tissue massage. Today was spent mostly on my left shoulder that is ultra tight thanks, to cars, swimming and life. There was also some work done on my psoas muscles. If you ever want to feel pain have those muscles worked on. There's a fairly good chance yours are tight.

It's a good life....

Dave

Spring 2012 Already

Last night after 6 months of planning and a week of confirming I finished the Spring 2012 product briefs. That's right folks it's August 2010 and we and the rest of the shoe industry have planned out what we are doing in Spring 2012. So last night I sent the briefs off to our ultra talented designer. I expected a response sometime this morning with a plan for a conference call to clear up any questions. What I got instead was this:

"Dave, I'm bubbling up with excitement to start the new season's designs. I just read through everything you sent me and all is well understood. My Pencil is good to go"

I can't tell you how much fun it is to work with someone with that kind of passion.

It's a good life...

Dave

PS. That's the very cool Zoot Ovwa above. Spring 2011

Chasing the Sunrise

By now most people who know me, know that morning is my time. I think I inherited this from my father. He was totally on to something. I get a great deal more done before 10am than I do from 4 to 10pm that's for dang sure. Yesterday found me on my bike at 6am. After a late night for me anyway with some late night frantic text messages to Mary, the morning was here. I could sleep through my plan or just go out there and get it done. It's a good thing I didn't look outside before I got dressed to go. 95% of my ride was done in fog. There was no sun, no sky just a thick blanket of fog. I say 95% because that 5% of sun that I got made up for all the 95% I didn't. As I started the climb up Double Peak I noticed the fog getting thicker. Into San Elijo hills it was about as twice as thick as it was at the bottom. Leaving the village and continuing up it just got worse. By the time I got to the turn off to Double Peak Road the visibility was maybe 100 feet. And then it got real thick. Heading up the first steep part of the road and it looked bleak. I thought to myself, this is one thick band of Fog, even DP is covered. There is a gate that's half way up the DP road. From the Gate to the top it might be a mile but I think less. But I think the average gradient after the gate is 17% so it doesn't really matter how long it is. At the gate it was still foggy and dim. Forty yards past the gate and all of the sudden rays of light began piercing through. 100 yards from the gate and I was in bright clear sunlight. Morning sun light that is warm and inviting. It was simply a beautiful site. I had sun. From the top of DP the view is always spectacular. Looking west you can see the big blue ocean. Looking north you can usually see the San Bernadino Mountains north east of LA. Looking east are just the beautiful valleys of the San Diego coastal range. But yesterday there was none of that. Yesterday everything was covered in Fog except, the big green water tank that marks the "you're almost there" point of the climb. It looked like a space ship hovering in the fog. The the west nothing but white. To the north the peaks of the Mountains were showing through, nothing else. To the east just one peak was showing. At the top of that peak is a house. Wow I know they paid dearly for that house on that space but man do they have the sunrise views.

Two things that will never get old:

Double Peak

The Sunrise.

When they are together it's simply outstanding.

It's a good life...

Dave

If

Rudyard Kipling
If

If If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on"; If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run - Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son! It's a good life.... Dave

They've Been Used

The best youth sports t-shirts have got to be cross country shirts. They always have a bit of attitude and a bit of fun on them. Two that were prevalent and the recent cross country camp:

You May Beat Me, But you'll have to Bleed to Do it! - Pre

Our Workouts are Your Sports Punishment

Then there were these two quotes directed at me. They sure have a way of creating some motivation:

They Felt Used - referring to my legs - Corina the Sports Performance Practitioner

You've aged in the last two years - My Wife. She did finish with I can't wait until you get back to your young self.

It's a good life....

Dave

The American Dream

Pictured above is the start of yet another great American Story. One of chance, hard work and a bit of belief in yourself. It's a wine story from Sonoma, California and it goes like this. Senior Guerrero started his wine career loading boxes of wine on trucks. Not hard to put things together but he's of Latin decent and probably didn't come from money as you imagine people in the wine business do. He was either a migrant worker or maybe the son of a migrant worker or maybe the grandson of a migrant worker. 25 years ago, he got a job. One that would pay his rent and buy him food. It was just a job. Loading boxes on trucks. Today with passion, class in a rather romantic setting, Senior Guerrero pedals his wine. Not the wine of the rich farmer he works for. No, it's his. His winery, his creation, his beliefs on how wine should be made, his sweat and his life. All from loading boxes on a truck.

You can only by it in Sonoma or on his website. It's well worth the $28.

It's a good life....

Dave

Crooked Back

I went to the Performance Sports Injury Clinic today (http://beachwalkwolf.com/) for a soft tissue massage and analysis from my previous visit. As I walked in the two practitioners looked at me with worried faces. They said after pleasantries, come in and sit down. We want to talk to you for a bit. They showed me pictures of myself with my shirt off (some people don't like to see pictures of themselves they explained). From the front I look a bit dumpy and a bit unbalanced. Remember there is 18% body fat there and it should be closer to 10%. From the side you can see my protruding belly. Not one to be proud of but kind of odd on the skinny frame. Then came the back picture. Oh what a sight. Right hip higher then the left. Left Scapula lifted and protruding out. Shorts sitting at an angle because well, that's the way the hips are set.

The next thing out of his mouth was "I don't know how you do it?" "If you were to come in here with this back and say something like I want to do an Ironman, I'd tell you there is no way you'll be able to run" "yet here you are just off 5 days of twice a day running". And then he said, the only sign I think you are showing is that of someone with a ruptured disc. So my hips are not in alignment, my back looks like the picture above and now I may have a ruptured disc. Yet I just ran quite a bit, relatively pain free.

Then I had my Massage and came out feeling worked. Alain says to Corina, "how did his legs feel, anything tight" She says, "his legs feel like they've been used, I mean they were rock hard but after just a bit they relaxed and went soft". "Other than some tightness in the neck everything felt great"I guess thank goodness for strong legs.

More to come on this here problem.

It's a good life...

Dave