So this past weekend I was up in Harrisburg PA for a baseball tournament. For those of you who do not know Harrisburg, it is about as Blue Collar as you can get. An awesome downtown along a great river, and it is completely surrounded by industrial everything! Beyond that is a mix of of totally rural and some smaller suburbs, but for the most part, I would say that while it's a pretty decently sized city, the majority of the area is very rural. The other coach I was with is an extremely insightful guy, very in touch with the goings-on of the world and so on, and one thing he is always very intrigued by is food and how he, and we as people eat. Having not really spent all that much time outside of the city, he made a quick and very poignant observation upon walking into a local Target in an industrial suburb of Harrisburg. They had awesome food choices.
Not only did they have impressive selections of eggs, fruits, veggies, meats and nits, but the more noticeable point to be made was that the "good for you foods" were all at eye level. For those of you aware in the typical grocery store (even Whole Foods does this too) you will find the more processed "sugary" foods always the most easy to grab, while the healthier options are just a hair out of reach. It was actually pretty interesting to see, the natural, no-sugar-added peanut butters and such were right there in front of you, while the Jiffs and other crazy inventions (combined peanut butter and jelly in a jar...), well, you actually had to search a little to get to those.
From a completely simplistic standpoint, I understand that if a community has no good food options, it's probably pretty safe to say that the people in that community will tend to be a little more unhealthy. But even if there are decent options, if they are not easily accessible it will still be difficult for people to make the proper choices when shopping. But, when you can walk into a discount superstore like Target or Walmart and have legitimately good options staring you directly in the face, well, I have way less sympathy for unhealthy people in that situation.
So, that's just a little rant for you all, I'm sure I could go into much more detail on this if anyone wants to! On to the workout for today! I hit week three strong, still slightly annoyed that my 5x5 back squat was only at 305#, but it was a great workout that left me feeling like I got stronger! But it was the evening meet up with Big Dan that realy topped the day off. We headed down to the woods and got this little burner:
100 meters out and back KB throw 35#
10 brings climb-overs
50 axe chops
1 250 meter down and up hill run
This was just about the perfect end of the day. The weather had cooled off a bit, the woods and field were completely abandoned (all the regular dog walkers were back at home eating their dinners!) and as always, Dan pushed me to go that much harder! I was able to pant in at 11:10 and felt very good with the time overall. Really looking forward to tomorrow's adventures!
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
Yesterday I rested. I stretched, I rolled, I cleaned up a good deal of the mess I made by moving back, AND, I set up my new bed! Ever since I've been back I've been having some seriously major issues with my low back. Very quickly I was able to find the cause of this, and it's my damn bed, it's too soft. So, I layered a comforter or two on the floor in the basement and that will be my bed from now until Lindsey moves to town and we can settle down! As strange as it may seem to some, the firmness of the floor is extremely comfortable to me, and I tend to sleep like a baby when I find my way down there. So, that took care of that issue.
A bit earlier in the day I noticed that the CrossFit Games Regionals workouts were announced, and what jumped out at me immediately was the handstand push ups and muscle ups mixed into the six workouts (I'll break them down and how they effect my training some time next week). So, when I brought a couple of my athletes out for an outdoor workout, I strung up the rings to get a handful of reps in. Felt...pretty good. But tt was today's insanity that really took me in the right direction (everything i did was geared towards Regionals prep, and the.
I woke up a little after sunrise and hit the pavement for an easy 5-mile run. Then, a little after 12 I got ready for the barbell work:
6x3 thrusters
4x4 deadlifts
1xmax deadlift 315#
3x30 hollow rocks
3x10 seated DB strict press
3x5 controlled roll outs
3x10 weighted hip thrusts
I programmed thrusters to feel out the movement and chose 3RM to work on profficiency. I felt very comfortable at 195#, then at 215# I got all messed up with breathing and was only able to get 2 reps out of 3 attempts. All good though, I felt pretty strong. The craziest part of the workout was the max out a 315# on the deadlifts. My goal was 20 and I got it, with an epic battle between me and the final three reps! It was awesome! Then, a couple hours later Big Dan came over and we got after a seemingly decent metcon:
3 rounds (timed separately):
50 m shuttle run with tire
30 pull ups
60 double unders
20 OH squats 115#
I went first, then rested while he went and so on. This. Was. HARD. The tire running was just enough to get you breathing hard enough to make the pull ups that much more challenging. The double unders were exhausting, and the overhead squats at the end were the beautiful combination of muscularly crushing, and mentally, well, brutal! I was able to get 3:05, 3:55 and 4:00 respectively, Dan got 3:40, 4:24 and very low 5's (he was hypoglycemic going into this metcon, so I'm sure he was suffering a bit more than me throughout. Either way, this combo of movements, at those reps were just about the sneakiest I have come across and it was so much fun to run ourselves into the ground! Having Dan to work out with is such a privilege, and I plan to take advantage of it a lot before Regionals hits us in a couple weeks.
Tomorrow I am going to an Oly lifting class at Balance Gym, then back to The Garage for the Grand RE-Opening and a fun chipper before firing up the grill and having a feast!
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage